Journey with Jesus

For the second year in a row, our church offered a Trick-or-Treat alternative called Journey with Jesus.  Basically, the kids travel around the church, knock on doors and get candy (just like trick-or-treating), but the difference is that each room is a different location where Jesus went at some point in his life.  Someone is there to tell about what Jesus did in that place.  After listening to the story, the kids got candy and traveled on.  It was a super fun night, and my kids loved it--as did the Hubs and I.

B wanted to go as David from the Bible, and C went as a duck/chick.  I would call their costumes this year "Halloween on a budget" as I did not spend a dime on their costumes.  Everything was stuff I already had on hand from other projects or hand-me-downs.  More on that here.  They posed for a picture in front on my fall display by the kitchen door.  Please ignore the mostly dead mums and the bag of potting soil.

  

We arrived at the church and headed straight for the room where my mom and dad (aka Pop and JuJu) were sharing about how Jesus was tempted in the desert.  Then we went on to the rest of the rooms.

Jesus's first miracle--turning water into wine

Learning about Jesus from Uncle Jay

 

 Learning about Jesus's baptism in the Jordan River

Since B was dressed at David and conveniently had his "sling" tucked into his belt, he decided to slay Goliath (one of our youth boys) between room visits.

 I really loved this event at church, but there was one thing in particular that made it really great for me.  Typically, something like this is all about the kids.  But this event easily involved the entire church.  We had youth kids, college students, singles, married, young couples, grandparents, and everyone in between involved and actually sharing the gospel with the kids of the church.  It just doesn't get much better than that as far as I am concerned.

And P.S.  Happy Reformation Day!

Teacher Treats

Since B is homeschooled, I don't really get the opportunity to make all the cute little treats for his teachers like I would if we were sending him to school.  So, I decided that I should take some time to appreciate all of the great people who work with the kids at church.  I took yet another page from the book of Amanda at Dixie Delights and used both her recipe and free printable for Scarecrow Crunch.  It is quite yummy and made a super cute little gift for some very under-appreciated people.

If you decide to make this, there are a few things you may want to know.  This makes A LOT!  One cookie sheet was not enough--it easily made two full pans.  Because I had to split the honey and oil between the two pans, one pan had more honey and kinda burned a little bit.  Not to point of necessarily tasting bad, but it was still a bit darker than I would have liked.  I should have switched my pans around in the oven sooner than I did.  I also should have taken them out of the oven altogether.  But, it was still fine.

Here it is all dumped out on my counter with the candy pumpkins added in.  Like I said--there was a lot of it!  It made 12 of these little treat bags that were really the perfect size for treating the special people in your life or your kids lives.

Thanks, Amanda at Dixie Delights for the adorable idea and recipe.  And a special thank you to all of the wonderful people who work with my kiddos every time we are at church.

Fall Whoopie Pies

I attempted home made whoopie pies for the first time, and they were pretty good.  I found a quite yummy recipe for the whoopie pies, and they were pretty easy.  I had snagged the last can of fall frosting/sprinkles from our local Wal-Mart and decided to use them with the whoopie pies.  They were very cute, the kids loved making them, and we all enjoyed eating them!

Honestly, I wish there had been more sprinkles with the frosting set that I got, but they looked super cute on the pies.

And of course part of the fun is making a huge mess eating the goodies you've just made!

I love these sweet messy faces so much!!!

Candy Corn Supper

With all the sickness we struggled with this month, I did not get around to all the fun things I wanted to do this month to celebrate fall.  Hopefully, we will be able to get to some of it next month.  But, once everyone was feeling better, we could start up the fun again.

Tonight I planned a candy corn supper for my family.  And you guessed it--it was all about candy corn.  I was FINALLY able to use up the last of the cupcakes that I had in the freezer left over from Disney Friday Family Movie Night.  I just slathered on some vanilla frosting and had the kids stick candy corns on them however they wanted.

Then I started on the actual dinner.  I saw on another blog where a mom had made (or attempted to make) a pizza that resembled candy corn.  I did the best and could, and it came out alright.  I used cheddar cheese to represent the yellow part of the candy corn, and pepperoni is serving as the orange section.  Honestly, it looks more like candy corn before it is cooked, but it came out of the oven looking candy corn-esque enough for me.  And of course, I served corn with it.

I kept the table setting pretty simple.  I had the yellow napkins left over from a birthday party.  The candy corn dish was a gift from a friend, and I honestly haven't used it much since.  I was pretty excited to pull it out and put it on display.  And as usual, I pulled out my trusty chalkboard which I LOVE!!!

It was a fun night, and the kids enjoyed the cupcakes and pizza!

Fall Fever

So apparently the trip to the pumpkin patch left all of us with some major allergy attacks.  The kids have been running fevers and coughing and have just basically been miserable.  And now the Hubs and I are feeling pretty icky.  So, I am hoping that everyone will be feeling like themselves again very soon.  But with that said, the sickness has made for some pretty funny sleeping positions for the kids.  For instance, C fell asleep standing up at the recliner while I was another room.

And B got a little crazy during his nap a few days later.

So hopefully in a few days everyone will be back to their happy, healthy, normal selves.  And back to sleeping laying down in their own beds under the covers like normal people.

What's On the Tank {Divergent}

After reading a post by Amanda at Dixie Delights (a blog that I love and read daily), I figured these books were for me.   

                                      

Divergent by Veronica Roth is the first of a trilogy of books that follows sixteen-year-old Tris Prior.  If you read and enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy as much as I did, then you will LOVE Divergent and its sequel Insurgent.  The third book in the series Allegiant comes out October 22, and I am itching to get my hands on it.  I was able to get the first two books through my local library, and I am having to strongly fight the urge to buy Allegiant as opposed to waiting for it to become available at the library!

Pumpkin Patch 2013

Our family spent about an hour this morning visiting one of our fall favorites--Mark's Melon Patch.  Now in the summer (and even today) it is actually a 'melon' patch with watermelons.  But in September and October, it is a gorgeous pumpkin patch with lots of fun things for the kiddos and plenty of opportunities for fall-lovers like myself to spend way too much money!  But I digress . . .

Every year, I get a picture of the kids by the growth chart.  I love looking back at pictures from previous years to see how much they have grown.

  

There are jumping castles, a corn cannon, a "haunted walk," a hay ride through the actually pumpkin patch, and much more for the kiddos to enjoy.  There is also a market for buying all kinds of local produce and items like honey, jams, and preserves as well as baked goods like the mini pecan pie and chocolate pecan pie that the Hubs and I enjoyed on the ride home.  Yummo!

I love getting the kids picture and a family picture among the pumpkins.  It was hard enough getting a good picture when B was little, but with two now, it is practically impossible.  This is the best shot I got.

The Hubs snagged a cup of boiled peanuts that we enjoyed while B jumped in one of the bouncy castles.  Then B and I picked out our pumpkins and were ready to go.  (C would not stop eating 'boiled me-nuts' as she calls them to pick out a pumpkin with us.)

It was a lovely morning, and I could have spent WAY more time and money there, but the kids got hungry and were ready to go.  I can't wait to get my bale of hay, so I can finish my outdoor decor--which of course includes the two pumpkins we brought home from the patch today!

Pre-K Update 1

We are six weeks into school and having a blast.  Both kids love doing school everyday, and I so enjoy spending that special time with them.  Watching B and C learn is one of the greatest joys of my life.  So before I get too sappy, I will move on with the update.

Week 1 was an intro to school and letters in general.  We read Green Eggs and Ham and talked about rhyming words.  Weeks 2-5 introduced the letters A, D, C, and F and the numbers 1-5.  B was already pretty familiar with all of these letters and numbers, but doing the actual pencil to paper work has been new for him and he gets better and better with it every day.  Week 6 reviewed the four letters previously learned and added the number 6.

He has learned four Bible verses and is quite fluent with them.  He is learning number words and color words and having no trouble at all reading them.  We have also worked on just some basic fact memorization like how many letters are in the alphabet and the five senses.  B and C both love doing the crafts that go with each letter and book.  I could not be happier with our fabulous curriculum Memoria Press Jr. Kindergarten.

After reading The House That Jack Built, we used basic shapes to make a house.  And then we made a large apple for the letter A.

We read Ten Little Rubber Ducks and made the duck pond fingerprint pages and made the dog puppets since d is for dog.  The kids made the ears of corn during C week, and the fish were made during our week about F.  During our review week we ready the book My Shadow, and B made the black shadow that week.

He is doing so well (and so is C) and I am SO proud of him.  I can't wait watching him learn more!

Birthday Party Rewind: Sugar and Spice Party

When C was having her first birthday, the sweet shop parties were all the rage.  However, I wanted to take that same theme and change it just a bit.  So I based the theme on the rhyme about little girls being made of sugar and spice and everything nice.  Hence, a birthday party was born.  I will start with a couple of shots of the birthday girl waiting for her party to start.

I did the food myself and it was kinda hit and miss.  Of course to stick with the theme it was mostly sweet stuff like Oreo balls and marshmallow pops (both of which came out mildly disastrous looking), but I also had Red Hot candies out for the 'spice' part of the soiree.  I did Country Time pink lemonade in my beverage dispenser.

Fortunately, the cake turned out beautifully, and I could not have been happier with it.  It was so girly and adorable and everyone loved it.  Including the birthday girl as you can see.

 She wasn't sure what to think about everyone singing "Happy Birthday."

As far as decorations go, I kept it pretty simple.  I made the bunting with paper and ribbon from Hobby Lobby.  I also made the tissue paper pom poms which were a total pain and did not want to stay hung on the ceiling.

 

 After a quick bath (because she was covered in frosting!!), it was time to open presents with some help from big brother B of course. 

 

Each guest left with a pink Rice Crispy treat with a sweet note attached from C.

  

We are beyond blessed to have this sweet baby girl, and it was just a joy to celebrate her first birthday with family and friends.  I love her so much!