Halloween Photos

Well despite Felicia's tummy ache, she wanted to get her costume on for Halloween, so here they are, Dorothy and the "Wicked" witch. Dorothy looks pretty good for a little girl who vomited about a dozen times today and Madelyn really worked her witch costume too. Nana's coming to take Mady and Aaron to the church "Light the Night" gathering and Felicia is going to stay home with me to hand out candy.


This scary dude is Aaron as Jason. They just get to that age when you can no longer dress them in cute kiddie costumes and then you get this. Oh well, it's all about fun for them.

Happy Halloween

We are taking a break for the day because Felicia is not feeling so good. She woke up with a bit of a stomach virus. Today I think we will stay in our jammies and watch some Halloween movies. I hope you all have a happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat Night

Well, we had a great time out trick or treating last night. Though we were a bit chilly (Madelyn did not stop shivering for an hour after we got home) We still had a blast. Again this year I took the kids out with a friend who has 4 boys. So with our 7 combined trick or treaters we scurried around town searching for houses who were handing out the treats. The kids did pretty good. Only 2 falls this year with no injuries. That's pretty good for our group. As usual I was having camera troubles and have no pics. That's okay, maybe it will work for tonight. We will be going to trick or treat at Nana and Poppy's and Grammy and Pappy Lynn's. Also, our church is having Light The Night for the kids. There are lots of activities and food for everyone. It should be fun, if..........the vomiting stops before then. Yes, it's now Felicia's turn to be sick and of course it all started at 5 am in my bed. The poor thing. Mady had it a few days ago and it was gone by the afternoon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn't have to miss the fun tonight.

Wordless Wednesday

Sibling love.

For more Wordless Wednesday check out Momdot.

Wordless Wednesday

Lollipops and bad hair days!
For more Wordless Wednesday check out Momdot!

Near Death By Chair

It's so windy out that when I went to take our dear sweet Lucy out, a chair flew across the porch and almost hit us. No wonder Lucy didn't want to go. She feared for her life. Could you imagine, death by a lawn chair......

Toddler Theme Day-Orange

This week's Toddler Theme Challenge is orange. How perfect! When I look out my window orange is the color I see the most, from the leaves and the vast amounts of pumpkins that we grew this year!

Here are a few of our pumpkins and the beginning of our lesson in orange. The kids have been learning about pumpkins since they first saw the vines growing in our garden. They checked the progress daily and I will never forget the squeals of delight when Felicia discovered the change. She sprinted around the house screaming "they're orange, they're orange!". It was a very exciting day. Yesterday we reviewed how the pumpkins grew from seeds. How they needed water and sun light to grow big and beautiful. We planned to have a pumpkin hunt today (with the smaller pumpkins), but it's raining so we will have to postpone it for later in the week.

Our next orange activity was carrot printing. I cut a carrot in half and the girls made prints by dipping the ends in paint and stamping them on paper.
Our last activity was in the kitchen. My girls love to cook, so we made some pumpkin muffins. This is a great activity to do with your kids. My girls love the whole process of baking and seeing what comes out of all the measuring and mixing. It was a lot of fun and most importantly they were orange (and yummy).

You too can participate in the Toddler Theme Challenge by visiting Teaching Tiny Tots at Toddler School. The themes start on Sundays. Give it a try. We really enjoy it!

It's Gettin' Chilly

I have found myself digging through the closets today to find all things warm. We went out this morning and the weather was not to bad, not sunny, but not too cold either. Well, I just took our dear princess Lucy out to do her business and, lo and behold, she did not want her teeny, tiny feet to touch the ground. I fear our warm days may be behind us now. Sigh. I love fall and I don't want it to end too quickly. It's not that I hate the "s" word, but I am just not ready for it. Oh well, I'll just have to prepare myself by curling up on the couch with a cup of hot tea and a cozy blanket to warm my chilly feet. Maybe I'll warm up the house by making some pumpkin muffins....

Rise and Shine: It's Muffin Tin Monday

It's Muffin Tin Monday again, but starting this week, MTM has a new home. Michelle at Her Cup Overfloweth is our new host and we are so excited to be able to continue to participate.

So here is our tin for this week. Breakfast!

Top row: orange juice, toast, cheerios, more toast
Row two: apple wedges, scrambled eggs, bacon, bananas
Bottom row: peanut butter for apple dipping, ketchup for the eggs(I know that's weird)

The Big Halloween Parade

Yay! The parade was held after all! It was raining so hard and we were sure they would cancel, but they did not. The parade started at 7:30 and it stopped raining at about 7:25. The kids had a blast and got a ton of candy because there were not many people on our street. For the first time ever, Felicia stayed for the whole parade and loved it. Usually someone has to walk home with her because she gets scared of one thing or another. I'm so glad they we got to go!

Here is all the yummy loot that the kids collected at the parade!

So Much For Quiet

Aaron has now come downstairs and the silence is gone. I miss it already.

A Lazy, Rainy Day

Well, it's rainy here and tonight is our town's Halloween parade. I think it will be cancelled, which is so disappointing for the kids. They have been so looking forward to seeing all the floats, costumes, bands, and most of all collecting candy. Today has been kind of calm, we did go to Wal-Mart (not a good idea on a rainy day) but other than that, we have just been hanging out here at home. The girls are playing house. I love just listening to their conversation as they pretend to be "grown ups". It's so cute! Aaron is off playing playstation by himself. I thought he would want to watch a scary movie with me, but no go. Brandon went to the flea market with his Poppy and Michael is spending the day with friends. Mike is sleeping because he worked last night and will work again tonight. So... here I am, bored out of my mind. Oh well, I guess that this is what quiet is. I am definitely not used to that!

Toddler Theme Thursday

We are thrilled to be participating in Toddler Theme Thursday hosted by Teaching Tiny Tots At Mommy School once again. This week's theme is stars and moon. So to start things off, Felicia and I got up extra early to carve a stars and moon pumpkin. She had preschool today and did not want to miss out on the fun. So this was something special that she and I could do alone together. The pumpkin turned out great! When we lit it , it cast a glow of stars all around. Very pretty!


When Mady woke up we read a book that we usually read before bed, "Ten Wishing Stars". It's a countdown to bedtime book and as you can see by its condition, my girls love it.

After that, Mady painted a starry painting with the star cookie cutter.

Good job Mady! It looks great!

Later today when Felicia comes home from preschool, we are planning to make some moon and star cookies. Yummy! I can't wait to see what everyone else does and if you haven't checked it out go over to Teaching Tiny Tots at Mommy School for some great, fun, ideas.

What to Choose From the Pleated Poppy

Well, last night I sat down to check out the pleated poppy, this is where the prize I won from the flipflops and applesauce giveaway was from. Let me tell you, it was a hard choice. I was able to choose a zippered pouch and a set of posy hair clips. There are so many great items and I will definitely be going back to shop for Christmas. Check it out everyone!

I Won! I Won!

Chrissie at Flipflops and Applesauce was having a giveaway and I am the winner! I never win anything and I am so excited. Thanks a bunch!

These Trees Have "Sole"

When I worked in daycare/ preschool, a favorite book with all the children was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. This is a very cute coconut tree to make after reading the book. Have fun!



First, I painted the trunk of the tree.

Next, the fun begins when you start painting little toes. Warning: giggling will occur, this is normal:)

Stamp your child's foot on the paper to create the top of the tree.

After you clean off your child's foot, make a few coconuts with their thumbprint.

Last, glue on a few letters and you have a "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" coconut tree.

Here is the book that inspired me. Check it out!

Miss Felicia

I love Felicia's creativity and imagination! I don't know why we even buy toys anymore. While playing outside today, on this blustery day, the other kids ran for balls, bikes, swings, and the sandbox. Not Felicia, she was perfectly content to just pick dried up flowers and "cook" for me. She played, off by herself, at times talking to herself and with a smile on her face the whole time. What a sweet girl:)

Egg Carton Bats

Here is an easy bat project to do for Halloween.


For this project you will need: an egg carton, black paint and googly eyes.

First cut the egg carton down to just three sections. Cut the two end sections to resemble wings.

Put on a paint shirt and paint it black. I sure am glad I put paint shirts on the girls today. Though we paint an awful lot I think sometimes Mady can not control herself. Today was one of those days. I decided to do the dishes while they painted and when I turned around Mady painted all the way up to her elbows. Solid black. Thank God kids are washable:)


Last I added eyes and a pipe cleaner to hang it. I kept ours pretty simple, but you could add some fangs if you wanted to.

Why Won't These Pants Stay Up

Madelyn came downstairs the other day, she was quite annoyed I would say. See, she was having a bit of a problem. She really wanted to get cozy in her pj's just like mommy and her pants would just not stay up. I took this picture just at the point that she realized her "pants" were not pants but her jammie shirt.

Muffin Tin Monday- Halloween

Today we did our very first Muffin Tin Monday! Every Monday, sycamore stirrings hosts Muffin Tin Monday. To play along, you serve a meal in a muffin tin. Simple. Fun. This week's theme is Halloween/Autumn.

Top row: Vampire teeth (apple wedges filled with peanut butter with candy corn fangs)

Toasted pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin spice pudding

More vampire teeth

Row two: Cheese ghosts

Worms ( slivered hot dogs)

Candy corn and pumpkins

Bottom row: carrots

bloody dipping sauce(ketchup)

noodle brains (mac and cheese)

more carrots

The kids loved this and we will definitely do this again!

I Caved

I don't know. I just can't be on strike, my family is just so pathetic when they have to fend for themselves. I did however, stay in my pj's all day and do very little by way of cleaning on Saturday (which I am regretting now). Though today, I got up, showered and took myself to church. Today was my turn to have the children in nursery and we had a lot of fun. We had lunch at church following the service so we got out of cooking . Yay! After that, we went to Target. Not very exciting, but the drive was nice. The leaves are still so very colorful and the sun was shining brightly, what a great way to recharge! Just getting out of the house was enough to energize my soul and I feel much better now:)

TGIF-the Strike Begins

This really has been the longest week ever! I honestly can't wait to sleep in tomorrow, wear my jammies all day, and not move off the couch. I think I might officially declare a strike. I'm entitled.....right? Yesterday, I kept trying to convince myself that it was Friday. You know what a bummer it is when you realize that it's not? Really, back to the strike, I demand less laundry, dishes, and cooking. I would also like to go to the bathroom unassisted by a 3 or 4 year old. I'm a big girl, I can handle it. A nice long bubble bath without a knock on the door asking how long I'm going to take would be nicer. Even better, a night out, alone with my hubby. Dinner. Movie. A clean house when I return........a girl can dream can't she?

Salt Dough Ghosts

I found these ghosts and I just knew I had to do them. They were a little hard for the little girls to do, but Aaron really enjoyed doing this project. You can find the instructions here.

Toddler Theme Thursday

This week's theme is black and white animals. The girls had so much fun marble painting last week when we did our handprint spiders that I thought we would use the same concept for zebras.

The only supplies you need are a cutout of a zebra, black paint, a marble, and a box to shake it in.

Just dip the marble in the paint and drop it in the box with the cutout. Have your child shake the box back and forth the create stripes with the marble.

Here is Madelyn's finished zebra. We can't wait to see all the other great ideas that you all come up with!

I've Been Tagged (for the first time)

I have been tagged. I'm new to this, but, I'll play along! Annie at Junior Mints and Reeses has tagged me for a cool meme. The rules are as follows: choose the sixth photo from your sixth album and post it with a brief description and/or the story behind it. Well, I ,like Annie have many albums and not any order to them, but here goes.


This photo was taken on Easter day 2006. This is my sweet baby Madelyn with my mom, Kaye. Madelyn had just been baptized and this was taken at our celebration after. What a special day for all of us:)

Now I get to tag six ladies too, how fun!

Lauren at Life and Times of a Family of Four
Jennwa at Ramblings of a Crazy Women

Chrissie at Flipflops and Applesauce
Lettie and Nicole at Heaps of Laundry
Tammy at Time in A Bottle
Rachael at Mommy Learns to Blog

Check This Out

If you get a chance, check out The Secret is in The Sauce. It's a great way to find some really cool blogs! Though I am fairly new to blogging, I know that it is very addicting. This is a great site to feed my addiction! Enjoy!

Is It Only Tuesday?

Seriously, I feel like this is going to be the longest week ever. I'm not really sure why, but, I have a serious case of the "blahs". Maybe I just need a change of scenery or just a long nap. Either option is doubtful. Oh well, maybe tomorrow will be better......

A Day Enjoying Nature

Sunday, the weather was beautiful so we decided to spend the day outdoors. We went to a state park and had a picnic. This is something we do every year during fall. The colors were so vivid , the air so fresh, and the sights were better than anything we could have seen back at home watching television. The fresh air and hiking made for some very tired kiddos on the way home, but it was well worth it!

A Day At World's End

What a fabulous day to spend outdoors! We loaded up Nana and Poppy's van with lots of good food to eat and headed to World's End. We do this every year during fall to see all the beautiful colors of autumn.

The kids collect all things nature!

They have so much fun together. Almost like it's the first time they have been there.
















I could not stop taking pictures. Everything was so perfect.