Halloween Fun How To!

So I had a few of you fess up that you read the blog! THANK YOU for reading! I just today installed a new widget that makes commenting SO MUCH EASIER! You no long have to create an account or log in to leave a message about a post! YAY! Anyway, I had a few questions about the crafts and treats from my Halloween Fun post....

Puppy Chow

9 cups Corn Chex Cereal

1c semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 c peanut butter

1/4c butter

1t vanilla

2c powdered sugar

Measure cereal out into a large bowl and set aside

In a microwave safe bowl combine choc chips, peanut butter and butter. Microwave on high for 1 minute or until melted, stirring occasionally. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal and stir until evenly coated. Pour into a 2 gallon plastic bag.

Add powdered sugar. Seal bag and shake until evenly coated. Spread onto waxed paper to cool. 

Chilling Jack-O-Lantern Smoothies

1T semisweet chocolate chips

4 clear plastic cups

6oz frozen orange juice

1c milk 

1c water

1/4c sugar

1/4c powdered sugar

1t vanilla

8-9 ice cubes

Microwave choc chips in a small bowl until melted. With the tip of a knife, spread choc on inside of the cups to make pumpkin faces. Refrigerate 5 min to set. Place remaining ingredients in blender and bled until smooth. Pour into decorated cups and serve with a green straw for the stem!

Creepy Halloween Masks

These are by no means perfect! But they are a great project for younger children who dont have much of an attention span! You will need...

Paper plates

Orange, green or whatever color you choose paint

Black construction paper

Scissors

Glue stick

Hot glue gun (optional)

Wooden sticks for handles (or popsicle sticks)

Let the little ones paint the plate and allow to dry. Then cut out the pieces for the face and glue them on. I attached the wooden sticks with a hot glue gun so it would have better staying power! These have been beaten up already tonight!

We are going to attempt so Tricks and Treats popcorn snacks tomorrow and probably another craft! Ill keep you posted! Thanks again for reading! I hope you try some of these! They are super easy...dont make much of a mess and very inexpensive! I found everything I didnt already have at Walmart for less than $10!

Halloween Fun!

I put together some simple crafts and treat recipes and decided Mason and I would do some fun things this week to celebrate Halloween. I figured we would burn out fast if we did the whole week so we started today instead of on monday! Today we made "Puppy Chow', Spooky Pumkpin Face smoothies and some halloween masks. Mason has been so excited all morning he is now passed out for nap time!

Deep Concentration!

Taking shaking the bag of puppy chow in powdered sugar VERY SERIOUSLY!

THIEF!!

Spooky cups with Orange Julius in them! Since Im pretty sure no one reads this blog anyway...I wont bother with the recipe...if you do read and want it Id be glad to share :)

No time to cook??

As Im sure you know by now...I love to cook and bake! I HATE cleaning up! So Ive been trying to simplify things so Im not spending another 30 min to an hour cleaning up after dinner every night. Whats the best kept secret of all? USE YOUR CROCK POT! Ive been making a ton of different recipes in my crock pot lately and havent come across one that has failed me....yet. So between my freezer meals and my crock pot meals...things are looking up! I also had an ah ha! moment this week and decided instead of dragging out all of my baking stuff to make cookies once or twice a week..why not double or triple the recipes and freeze the dough!?? DUH LINDSAY! So I doubled my chocolate chip cookie recipe and then dropped by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet, froze them for about 3-4 hours and then dumped them into a freezer bag! Like I said, DUH!

So what am I making tonight you ask?

Apple-Spice Pork and Rosemary Red Potatoes

2-3 lbs pork loin

3 apples, cored and cut into wedges

2 cups of apple cider

1 onion, sliced thin

2T cinnamon

2T allspice

salt and pepper

Place all ingredients into slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours.

My whole house smells pretty amazing right now!

Red Potatoes Recipe click here :)


Warm Spice Cookies
2 1/2 cups flour
2t baking soda
1/2t cloves
1/2t allspice
1/2t cinnamon
1/4t ground ginger
3/4 c butter
1c sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/4c molasses
powdered sugar to garnish



Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Beat butter, sugar and egg at medium speed until fluffy. Alternate adding flour mixture and molasses until all incorporated into butter mixture. Refridg. 1 hour to overnight. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 min. Cool on cooling rack. Garnish with powdered sugar.

SEE??? Freeze your dough people!!!! :)

Pumpkin Farm!

In October of 2009 Mason was 6 months old. We went out to the pumpkin farm near our house to pick out our Halloween pumpkins for the season. My little baby boy could barley sit up on his own. It took both of my parents and Jake on standby for me to snap a quick picture of him sitting on the pumpkin wagon. Its definitely something Im going to try to do every year until he A. doesnt fit on the wagon anymore or B. wont let me within 16 miles of him with a camera. I just cannot believe how much he's grown and how fast time goes by!

October 2009 (6 months old)

October 2010 (18 months old)

October 2011 (2.5 years old!)

October Playdate!

Tuesday we had our October playdate with Easy E and Miss Averie Shay! We've decided to do something new each month with the kiddos and this month was a trip to Young's dairy for ice cream and farm fun! We had lunch and the boys had a blast running around burning off all of their energy! It was tad too windy but overall the weather was perfect! Now Mason is completely passed out for nap time! So I get to post this! Thanks to Bk and her adorable munchkins for spending the afternoon with us!

Well...we tried! LOL

The diva :)

Its really hard to believe that Mason is 8 months YOUNGER than Ethen! 

Milkshake buddies!

Ethen and his baby sis

Family Pictures! Fall 2011

SOOO the most frustrating thing about being a photographer is that you can create gorgeous memories for everyone but yourself! Every year I attempt to take our own pictures and every year its an epic fail! BUT this year I HAD to make it work! I absolutely cannot afford to hire a photographer to take the kind of images I want and since I always over do it and want to do pictures twice a year....you get the picture (haha)...I will say that this last attempt went 100% better than most. Mason is old enough now to understand the whole tripod, self timer thing and Jake has learned a thing or two about my camera over the years. So here is what we got....

Stay tuned! We are doing family pictures with my family this weekend AND my sisters engagement pictures....should.be.interesting! I am totally packing up my red love seat for the occasion!

Halloween at Foxfire!!

Some awesome friends of ours run a family owned campground called "Foxfire". For the past 2 years we have gone up for Halloween weekend and the weather is ALWAYS perfect! They have trick or treating and pumpkin painting for the kids...and the "scary barn" at night! Its always a blast to get to dressed up and scare the pants off of people in the barn. Of course there are always lots of marshmallows, campfires and we all have a great time catching up....the kids and the adults! The pictures pretty much speak for themselves so Ill quit with the narration now... Thanks Jake and Joni for an awesomely fun weekend! We love you guys!

Coloring with Ryan!

The biggest marshmallows we have EVER seen in our lives!

Time to paint pumpkins!

Picasso :)

The finished product!

Sean, Ryan and Mason ready to TRICK OR TREAT!!!

What a difference of year makes! Halloween 2010!

High five a monster? Don't mind if I do!!

Soooo many choices...

 

And then came time for the scary barn! All of the adults got dressed up to help "haunt" the scary barn the year! It was a blast!

Joni looking fabulous...with her new hair we renamed her "Connie"

I always feel like....somebody's watchin me........

Liquid courage before all of the screaming and chasing took place...

This is Tina...commonly referred to as..."Giggles.."

and if you havent figured it out...this.is.me :) LOL

the hottest biatches on the block...Giggles, Wanda and Connie

Me in my "room" of the barn...my job was to throw toilet water on people...it worked like a charm :)

Giggles being her normal cheery self

The love birds

This needs no caption

Me and Jake

Mason sittin by the fire

Ryan passed out!

Mason chowin down on a hot dog bun! yum!