Happy Halloween

Halloween was filled with costumes and trick or treating with our favorite family.

Costumes are never in any short order in our house, so we ended up with Ariel, Bumble Bee, Ladybug, Minnie Mouse and an 80's Flashdance Dancer. It was good times.

M's costume for school - super cute.




The girls ON Halloween






And here's the little treat that Delanie took for her class - Halloween Smores. If you haven't had a Peep Smore, you must. So.So.Good.

Cozy Coupe Baby

Haylie got a Cozy Coupe for her birthday, and boy does she LOVE it.





And here's the little sweetheart being fancy. :)

6 year old funnies

Delanie brought this home the other day. Now, that's some matter of fact - funny stuff.



For those you can't read 6-year old: "Dad you have to clean out your car please. I {heart} you. You are the best."

Fall Flowers

Every time I walk through the front gate I'm a little disappointed in the lack of flowers and greenery in the yard. It seems like every time we get things going we get a big idea and then rip up half of the yard - which result in all flowers and plants going too.

So now that the yard is starting to be put back together after the big pool project I though it was time to add a little color to the yard. The easiest spot to work with first is the front walk. I have a couple of planters that haven't had anything in them for...oh...about 5 years. No, I'm not kidding. So I thought those would be perfect to plant with the seasons.

I headed to Home Depot and picked up some fall colored flowers and potting soil. They also had some pre-potted jumbo pots of mums, so I picked up a couple of those too in purple, since they were gorgeously huge.

After the pots were done, I lined the front walk with the pre-potted mums and one of the planters, as well as some of the yard art that we have. Then I put the other planter in a corner near the front of the yard to add a pop of color. All in all, I think it works perfectly! I am sure the hubby will be pleasantly surprised that I finished it all up and he doesn't have to clean anything up when he gets home. ;)



These are so full and pretty - well worth the $16.98 ea. They also had some yellow and red/orange - I might just go back and get some more.



These will be easy to change in the spring/summer to put some bright pink and purple flowers. But for now it is perfectly fall.

Rainbow Crayon Art

I bought a pack of canvases awhile back and have slowly been coming up with projects to use them. The project this weekend was to do some crayon art.

Here's what you need.
Stretched Canvas - size of your choice. I used a 16x20
Crayons
Hot Glue Gun
Hair Dryer

Sort out your crayons to include the colors that you want.



Assemble your crayons on your canvas to ensure that you have enough.





Hot Glue your crayons in the order you want - pointed end DOWN towards where you want the wax to fall. I did mine one by one so I could have the Crayola facing up.

Now you can do the next part outside or inside. But you will drip wax a bit, so make sure you have some paper down or you are outside.

Turn your hair dryer to HIGH heat and blow it on the crayons. I recommend starting on one end and then working your way to the other - that was part of my problem getting started.

The wax will start to get shiny - this is GOOD. This will mean that it is melting and starting to drip. Let the wax run and drip down the canvas as far as you want it to go. Continue across all the colors.

At the end you'll come up with something a little like this.

Command Center

This year I have 3 kids in school. At 3 different schools. With 3 different start times. With 3 different pick up times. Except Wednesday's - then 2 of them get out at the same time, with schools on opposite sides of town.

When it was just McKenzie is school (and the little girls in preschool), the paperwork was easy to handle. Then Delanie started Kinder and I could still keep things straight. But this year I knew it was going to be getting worse, the amount of paper that comes home that it. So I needed a command center. A place of papers, mail, pens/pencils and the like. A place where the kids could put papers that needed to be signed and where I could get them back to them and nobody risked going to school with the wrong papers.

So after school got under way Operation Command Center got commenced. I was looking for a cute table at Home Goods, TJ Maxx and even the thrift stores, but could not find anything that was just perfect. And things that I did like were $150 - no thanks.

So I headed to the old faithful - Target. I found a bookcase like this, but mine was only $19.99.

Then I knew I wanted some bins for mail and papers. So I got a couple of these small ones for mail. I also got 3 larger ones for school work, magazines and other odds and ends.

Then I headed to Staples and I got a small white board with cork board strip along the bottom to put special notes and reminders. It looks like this, but it's a lot smaller and was only about $15. I also got a wall bin and some cute folders.

I found folders that had a few different colors, so that the kids could easily recognize their folder - they are also labeled with their name. This is so when then need something signed or it's for me to look at, it goes in their folder. I look at it and sign it/file. Then if they need it back, I put it back in the folder and they can get it later to take back to school. This helps to make sure that they get the right stuff back and don't take another sisters blue paper.

After a few other additions our command center was done. It's having a central spot now to keep things organized. And it looks much nicer than all of the piles of paper and mail I used to have on the counter. :)

Butterfly Snacks

Our elementary school asks that parents/students bring in healthy treats for the class on special occasions. So that means for Delanie's birthday super, duper and delicious cupcakes were out. I sort of flaked out last year an only took Gogurt and Crackers. But in my defense and I had *just* had a baby (as in 3 days before) and had only been home for 2 days. So hey, at least I took something.

So this year I racked my brain and remembered some cute butterfly snacks that I saw in a magazine a few years ago.

What you need:
Wooden Clothespins
Small Googly Eyes
Paint
Pipe Cleaners
Pencil (for curling the butterfly attenas)
Glitter is optional
Snack Size Zippered bags

Snack Mix
Kix
Banana Chips
Raisins/Craisins
Dried Blueberries
M&M's (yep, I sneaked in something extra sweet. It IS a birthday treat for goodness sake!)

Paint the clothespin - sprinkle with glitter if you want. Wait for them to dry. Then glue on googly eyes.

Cut pipe cleaners in half. Fold pipe cleaners in half, this will make the antenna. Curl each end of the antenna - I used a pencil.

Mix up your snack mix. Fill bags - don't make them TOO full, or it will be difficult to split it in half and put the clothespin on.

Separate the snack mix in the bag in half. Put clothespin. Put antenna and close clothsepin.

Voila! Now you have a super cute and healthy snack for your next class party. :)