Halloweeny Stuff

Oh my goodness, it seems like forever since I've written something on my little blog and I've missed it!  My world seems to be so crazy lately.  Work is crazy.  Home is crazy.  My little ladies are crazy.  But we've had fun the last couple of weeks doing Halloweeny things.

I wanted to give the girls the opportunity to wear their costumes more than once.  Over the weekend we dressed the girls up and took them over to Briarcliff Village for their trunk-or-treat event.

Miss Emma was a "cat" this year.  I found her costume at Cracker Barrel.  They have adorable infant outfits.  Em had a growth spurt though and I had to stuff her in the outfit.  Oh well, she still pulled off the cute look pretty easy.

 

Group shot of my three little ladies. 

 

Abby has always been and will probably always be Minnie Mouse.  Not a red Minnie though.  Has to be pink.

 

Grace's second year as Cinderella.  Thankfully the dress MeMe made her still fits.  She beams with pride when she tells people her MeMe made it for her.

 

Bean bag toss. 

 

A view from Emma's spot.

 

Enjoying popcorn. 

 

Fantastic face painting. 

 

After trunk-or-treating and a quick dinner at Red Robin we came home to carve pumpkins.  Grace LOVES to carve pumpkins.

 

Abby is not as crazy about it.  She's fine until it gets on her hands. 

 

The inside of Abby's pumpkin.  It was too "dangly" so she gave the pumpkin back to Daddy. 

 

After watching Grace play in the pumpkin Abby finally decided it was ok and let it touch her.

 

Typically on Halloween we have a party.  I seem to be running out of time for everything right now so I didn't get a party planned.  Our family that doesn't have neighbors came over and trick-or-treated in our neighborhood, but it felt like something was missing with the absence of my party.  I will be more on the ball next year.

 

Halloween day finally arrived so I let the girls fill up the treat pumpkin. 

 

I think my Dad had almost fallen asleep when I snapped this.  Poor Dad. 

 

Me and my "big" girls. 

 

Abby and MeMe. 

 

Grace was fully aware that this was MeMe dressed as a witch but she still was pretty unsure of her.

 

Daddy and his "big" girls. 

 

My little kitty fell asleep before any trick-or-treat action happened. 

 

Grace and her jack-o-lantern. Picture Perfect Princess.

 

Abby and her jack-o-lantern.  

 

C'mon Dad, one more picture with us. 

 

All our pumpkins lined up. 

 

Action shot.  Tonight I heard proof that my girls listen to me.  I proudly observed as they said "trick-or-treat" loud enough for everyone to hear, followed by a "thank you" that could be heard two doors down.  Just when you think they aren't listening..... 

 

Came home to find Emma ready for bed! 

 

The candy sort. 

 

I think Abby had been eyeing this yellow sucker since it first hit her bag. 

 

Everyone jumped in bed when the evening was over.  They were worn out.  Don't let Grace fool you.  That's her pretend princess sleep. 

 

Hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween.  We're ready to move on to Thanksgiving in our house.  The decoration swap will begin tomorrow, and we are sooo excited.  (Let me clarify that last we, as in Grace.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it!!)

Halloween Arrangements

Several years ago I bought these entertaining buckets with stands from Southern Living at Home.  This was before they became Willow House.  I luuuvvved Southern Living at Home, but that was before three kids.  Now my decorating has to be much more kid proof.  I still love my entertaining buckets and stands, but I am falling out of love with them being by my front door.  I think it's about time to find another home for them within the house, but until I can decide what I will replace them with and where their new home will be I will continue to switch out the arrangements.  I change the arrangements as the seasons and holidays change.  The buckets are huge.  The first time I bought flowers for them to create an arrangement, it cost a small fortune.  My Halloween arrangements were much more economical. 

The easiest, cheapest arrangement yet started by cutting some limbs out of trees.  Cheap.  Love cheap.

Then I had to start forking over some cash.  About $5 worth. . . . . . .black spray paint.  It didn't break the bank.  I spray painted my tree limbs black.  Piece of cake.

Next up, some spiders, spider webs, and two purple glittery pumpkins from WalMart.  About $7.  Still not going over board.  The spiders happened to be on a string like garland so the webs and spiders were easy to wrap around my tree limbs.

Two purple spiders from the dollar store, $2.  These are hanging off my buckets.

Then I needed two birds.  Another $5.  One clipped to each arrangement.

I had some leftover shredded (purple and black) paper from something.  I can't remember what, but it worked good around the base of each tree limb.

That's it. . . . . . .Two arrangements in two huge buckets, $20.

Arrangement one sits on one side of the front door.  The trick-or-treat sign is not part of the arrangement it hangs on the wall.  It was a hand me down.  Love those!

Close up of the bird.  Each arrangement has one bird.

Close up of the spiders and spider webs.

A wider shot of the entry way showing both arrangements. 

The best part is, if one of the kids pulls it over it didn't cost much and is easily replaced!!  One of these days I'll do something fancier, my favorite is the vintage Halloween look, but for now it's kid friendly.  And the most important part is, my kids love it.  Even better.  

Homemade Applesauce

My Grandma has been fighting leukemia for about three years now.  Recently, she finished one solid week of chemo.  Anyone who has been through cancer or is a supporter of someone who has knows that one solid week is hard on a body.  To help keep her energy up my mom makes several meals a week and delivers them to my grandparents.  Last week I contributed some of my homemade applesauce and my Grandma has asked for it twice since then.  As long as she eats it, I keep making it because some food (even if it's just applesauce) is better than no food.  If you would like to try out my recipe for homemade applesauce, here's how the story goes:

I started with some apples.  These are tiny little guys.  About two of these makes up one normal sized apple.  I had about 24 of these little guys.  If I was using normal sized apples I would use about 12.

I peel and sliced them, and then threw them in the crock pot.

I added 1 1/2 cups of water.

1 1/4 cups of brown sugar.

3 Tablespoons of sugar.

1 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice.

Stirred them all together.

Sealed up the crock pot and let it go for about 4 hours.

Here they are, all nice and cooked.

Throw them in the food processor.

And you've got applesauce.  Yum!