Falling For Fun All Weekend Long!!!

What a busy weekend! Saturday started off with a friends birthday party, lunch with Craig at his new store, lots of errands, and then finally having a Hocus Pocus Party.

The Hocus Pocus Party only had 3 guests: me, Kaitlyn, and Preston. We always watch that movie when it comes on around Halloween time. Last year, we had a Wizard of Oz party on Halloween so this year we had a party around Hocus Pocus. I planned it at the last minute, but thought it would be something fun for us to do.

We started with a Jack-O-Lantern pizza from our local pizza place.


I also bought a foam haunted house kit from Michael's for $3.

Kaitlyn read the instructions and they did a great job putting together the house.

Here's the finished product. Now, be warned. It's inexpensive and looks so pretty, but it doesn't say glitter will be everywhere!

Time for the movie! I'm actually a huge Bette Midler fan so that's another reason I like this movie. Plus, she sings "I Put A Spell On You" in the movie. Looovvveee her voice!

While the kids were making the haunted house, I got some Pillsbury Sugar Cookie squares and stuck them in the oven to bake. They were cooled by the time the movie started so the kids could decorate them. Notice Kaitlyn is watching the movie while spreading on the icing?

Here are the edible masterpieces. Can you guess who used the orange icing?

While that was going on, I also had to get ready for the next day. Our church was having a big tailgate party after service. This is the 4th year doing it and it's a great time of fun, food, and fellowship. We have a big piece of land next to our building so we use that for all our activities. I was part of a large tailgate group so I made 2 batches of Rice Krispy Treats. Look at those marshmallows melting away!

This picture is to show how wide the field is with tents lined up on the far side.

This is just one of the tables of food at our tailgate.

There's always a Pass, Punt, Kick competition in the different age groups. Craig loves participating. Yes, he's in his Longhorn shirt and cap.

Afterwards, we helped set up for the Fall Fest that was happening the next night (I said it was a busy weekend). Halloween day was a super busy day for us too. The kids had school, then came home and put on costumes, took Kaitlyn to her art lesson, then went straight to the Fall Fest at our church. Batgirl and Batman came along with me.

There were tons of fun games like this giant bowling set.

This was a fun fishing game. The "fish" actually scared a couple kids. It was pretty funny though.

Here is ALC's version of Angry Birds.

Even the Chick-Fil-A cow made an appearance! His helper passed out lots of coupons.

Kaitlyn won the game of Clue in a scavenger hunt game they played. There was also a chili cook-off, concessions, a Harley Bike Riders group, photo booth, bounce house, and hay ride. Our Children's Pastor, preschool director, and their team always does an awesome job of putting it together.

Batman and Batgirl wanted to show us that superheroes can be serious too.

It was a great, tiring weekend. We have a super busy November ahead of us next. Can't wait!

Pumpkin Time!

On our trip to the pumpkin patch, we picked up some pumpkins to decorate. The kids picked pie pumpkins. They were very eager to come home and paint them.

Kaitlyn picked a pretty metallic rose color and painted on a face with black paint.

Preston's favorite color in the whole world is orange. Can you guess what he painted his orange pumpkin? That's right, ORANGE! He also added a few streaks of other colors, but the rest of the pumpkin is orange paint.

This is Preston's orange pumpkin.

Here's Kaitlyn's pretty pumpkin.

I placed the pumpkins on our mantle by our family portrait.

I also got 3 mini pumpkins and knew exactly what I was going to do with them. I painted all 3 pumpkins white. It took several coats to cover all of the orange. Next time, I'll remember to just buy white spray paint.

This is the table in my Family Room. I wanted to add a little more fall decor besides the floral arrangement. I decided to replace the 3 red candles with the white pumpkins.

I really like the look of the white on the black candlestick holders. Plus, the wall is painted a light gray so it really shows up well.

Here's a further look at the table. I love it!

Then, it was time to carve our big pumpkin. Preston and Kaitlyn helped take the guts out.

Don't mess with him!

Here's the finished look. You can see our template on the counter behind the pumpkin. We just searched for a template we liked and printed it.

Here's our pumpkin with the lights off. It turned out great!

We have big plans for the Halloween weekend. Can't wait to share it with you!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

It's time for our annual visit to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. As soon as the kids came home from school, we headed out to see the pumpkins.

There were some pretty big pumpkins out there. But they were also pretty expensive ($30-$40 for some). So, we just looked at the pretty pumpkins and decided to buy a big one at Kroger for $5.99 (and it benefits our family!).

The kids always love running through the long rows of pumpkins.

In fact, here's a pic of Kaitlyn doing the same thing in 2007!

The horses liked eating the pumpkins too.

The kids always like posing in the wooden cutouts.

Craig likes to pretend he's 'driving' a tractor.

Here he is in 2007 'driving' a tractor too. Such a country boy at heart! Yes, that's Preston when he was 1 yr old with lots of curly, blond hair.

Here are my 2 favorite kids!

Kaitlyn took this picture of Craig and I. It turned out pretty good!

Then it was time for a hayride. Like I said before, I enjoy going on hayrides.

Here is our view from the hayride.

The kids loved the mazes too. This is the smaller maze.

There goes Kaitlyn into the bigger maze.

Kaitlyn and Preston walking around the maze.

The only way to get out, is to come down the slide. We should do this in our backyard!

Ever since the State Fair, I've been looking out for unusual things to share with everyone. As we were waiting for the kids to come out of the maze, I saw a mom holding this bag of snacks. They looked like pretzel rods and are called 'Matdongs'. The bag says it's a 'lactic-acid fermented snack'. Don't even know what that means, but it doesn't sound appetizing. However, her kids seemed to enjoy it.

We always let the kids go in the big house made of pumpkins to pick what they want. Preston had a hard time deciding at first.

They each chose a pumpkin and I picked out 3 minis to use as decor in my house. Stay tuned to see how our pumpkins turn out!

The pumpkin patch is a fun tradition that we look forward to every year. I hope we have many more memories to come!

Vintage Photo: This picture was taken in 2008. Kaitlyn was almost 5 yrs old and Preston was 2 yrs old.