Disgustingly delicious

 This year I just could not get motivated enough to plan the Halloween dinner party I have had for the last couple years. Total bummer.

I don't know, I think I was tired, too many darn things at night with football practice and games and then the lovely place called work kept beckoning to me. Really, can't a money tree just up and grow in my backyard?

So tonight I cooked a delightful dinner for my family complete with Halloween fare. And if I do say so myself, it was muy delicioso.

I am not the best at taking food pictures, but I will post some anyway.

The dinner menu:

Ghost soup (Cauliflower Soup)

Witches broomsticks (breadsticks snipped at the ends before baking to look like broomsticks)

Fungus salad with toenails, scabs, dandruff, and used bandaids (A delicious salad recipe my mother in law gave me)

Putrid punch (This is what it is really called)

And for dessert we had:

Dirt cake

and

Candy Corn jello

The picture that I took was too dark... but I promise it was super cute. It was a yellow layer on the bottom, a white layer in the middle, and an orange layer on the top. I could eat jello all day everyday. I love it.

No, there was no kitty litter cake this year. Although I could probably eat that every day as well.

Yay for Halloween and all of the fun food ideas!

Thank goodness for digital cameras

Just in case you were wondering what the back of our entertainment center looks like--there are 41 pictures just like this one so I don't forget either. I think Liam is telling me I need to dust more often.

Boo at the Zoo!

After Nick's football game on Saturday, Justin and his dad took the two older boys out on a quick hunting trip. While they were having their fun, my mom and I took the younger two to the zoo.

Upon entering the zoo, I noticed many little ones dressed up in their costumes and then it hit me. It was Boo at the Zoo! I felt a little bad that I wasn't on top of things and didn't have the boys dressed up, but they didn't seem to mind and they were just thrilled that they got candy even without their costumes. I was also very pleasantly surprised because Justin said he was going to take my camera hunting but it was still in my purse--yay! Luke and Liam were being absolutely darling and cute to each other so I am glad that I was able to capture it in pictures.

This wasn't even posed!

For how full the parking lot was, I was scared that it was going to be a mad house inside the zoo. I was delighted that it was not too crowded...we were able to get a view of the baby elephant-still so stinking cute by the way-, got right on the merry go round, only had to wait one round to get on the train, and all of the animals were awake and entertaining. Our train ride was quite exciting as well-the train stopped right before the tunnel and we had to be pushed for a while. Luckily we were done after our train ride because the rain started pouring as we were walking to our car. Perfect timing.

A little side note...Luke now has a superpower.

At the football game, Andrew, my two nephews, and my niece were at the park playing. After the game, we told Luke to run over to the park and get them. He said no but just then I noticed that they were all walking over to us anyway. I told him that they must have read his mind and come over. Luke said "Yep, that is why I didn't go over there!" Later at the zoo, he and Liam were running around the giraffe house, going up and down the stairs. Luke came down and we were ready to go and so I told him to run upstairs really fast and get Liam. He said no, but at the same time, Liam was on his way down the stairs. Luke said "See, I just used my heat vision again!"

Activities...

On Thursday night, the older two boys had a violin recital. Justin and I were commenting on how they grumble so much about practicing and say they want to quit every other day but when it comes to recital day and they tear it up, they are so proud and beam from ear to ear. Nicholas received a trophy from Suzuki because he has received three superior ratings at Federation. Yay, Nick!



Liam and I went to the Scarecrow Festival on Friday. He had a free admission ticket for him in his backpack when he got home from school the other day so why not? He loved it. We got his hand painted, went on the train, there were a million blow up slides and obstacle courses, a fishing pond, games, and a haunted house that we took about 5 steps into and then he stopped short and it was a no go. It was such a beautiful day and we got a treat and sat on the lawn to enjoy what would most likely be one of the last warm days of the season. Although I am home with Liam all day, it was nice to have a lazy day to spend with him just laughing and running around in the fresh air and not running around doing errands.









Saturday night Justin and I went on a date to see Thriller. Seriously, if you haven't seen this amazing production by the Odyssey Dance Theater...you MUST go. It was incredible. It even received Justin's stamp of approval. Dancing is one talent I wish I had--I am quite uncoordinated so the only ones that get to see my pirouettes in my pjs on my kitchen floor are my boys. Sorry to disappoint.



To wrap up the weekend we headed out to the Alpine Loop on Sunday to view the fall foliage. And of course, it was beautiful.







And here are a couple pictures of bugs outside our house...

Andrew just finished another successful flag football season last Thursday. One of the best things about this team is that they had no concept of score. One game they were getting smoked 28 to 0 and when they finally made a touchdown, the conversation on the field went like this:

Boy 1: "We are winning now!"
Andrew: "No, we are still losing but the score is like 19-21!"

It was a fun season and Andrew played his best every game. Great job sweetie!

Taking one for the team

Andrew came into the kitchen this morning with a small box of nerds and asked if he could have them. I asked him where he found them and he said he had been playing in my closet and found them. Weird.

I then had to look for something in my closet and noticed one of my huge bags of Halloween candy I had stashed on the very top shelf down on the floor, open, with a couple open wrappers next to it. Weird.

I then asked the boys who did it...even though I had a pretty good idea who had done it. I got multiple "not me's" and finally I said I would withhold treats from their lunches until someone told me the truth. Because really, nothing bothers me more than a big, fat liar. (In this case, it was a skinny boy with a hollow leg).

After a little while of more "not me's", Luke piped up and said: "Mom. I am doing this for Andrew. I didn't get the candy down but I am just saying I did."

I kissed Luke on his cute pudgy lips and told him thank you. And then Andrew finally confessed and we had a good ol' talk about honesty.

What a way to start the morning.

At least there was lots and lots of corn

When Andrew asked what we were doing when he arrived home from school, I told him that we were going to the corn maze down at Thanksgiving Point. He sat there for a minute and then asked, "Is it the one that has the big picture of Martin Luther King or something like that?" I said, "It is actually Larry H. Miller, but yes, that is the one." He looked really nervous and said he didn't want to go. I asked him why and he said that it was too big and what if we got lost? I told him that we would just have to sleep there and we'd be in a corn field so we wouldn't get hungry.

That was probably the wrong thing to tell him.

We did have a TON of fun. There is so much to do there...jumping pillows, slides, you can practice your lasso skills, a mechanical bull, go carts, greased pig races...the list goes on and on.

We hung out and enjoyed the activities for a while and then decided to try our abilities in the maze. On the way to the entrance, my dad told Andrew that he knew a guy that went into a corn maze and didn't come out for two days...but he was okay in the end. Thanks dad.

There were two entrances...one leading to an easier one and one leading to PHASE 2. Justin went straight for that one and I questioned him but he said this was going to be a piece of cake. The girl manning the booth said it would take 35 minutes to go through the maze and Justin gave me the all knowing look of "See, I'm right, it won't be that bad" and we headed in. And further in. And further in.

I was an anxious wreck at the beginning because I don't like being lost and the boys were running all over the place and I didn't want them getting lost while I was lost because how do you find someone while you are lost yourself? Andrew was holding my hand asking me what happens if the maze closes and we are still in there...I told him that they wouldn't let that happen and that they make sure everyone is out before it closes and they won't make us sleep here. That calmed him down but after we were in the maze for a while he kept commenting that he can't believe that we are going to be in here until Tuesday and he doesn't want to miss school.

Luckily we figured out where the exit was before it closed and had plenty of time to enjoy more of the festivities. I am not sure how far we were into the maze, but I think we made it to Larry's eyebrows.

The boys shot pumpkins out of a cannon, we saw a huge pumpkin tower, sat by a fire...it was such a fun, fun night.











This is me telling Justin to smile...he said he was

Sweet nothings

Today, Liam looked into my eyes with his beautiful brown ones and whispered:

"You're beautiful."

It was so sweet and tender and out of the blue that I almost cried.

He said it two more times.

Man, I love that kid.

Apparently...

...I am not very observant when I am in the car.