HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I decided to make just one post of all the things we did for HALLOWEEN so here it goes.

First Jason and I went to Murder Mystery Party at the first of the month that some friends did. Jason was the lawyer and I was a news reporter. It was a ton of fun, thanks Jankes for a fun night.

We made pumpkin bats for Family Night. I got the idea from the YMCA and thought they were really cute. Just don't make them too early, ours got mushy and I threw them out before Halloween.

We went to Night Eyes at the Zoo last friday with the Morris'. We had lots of fun, it was little cold and we thought we would get rained on but it turned out to be a great night.

We carved pumpkins. I don't know who loved it more Jason or the kids.

Savannah had a Preschool Halloween Parade. She got to be the line leader, which she thought was really great.

Then we went trick or treating last night, Beggers Night (for those of you who don't know, here in Iowa we are weird and go trick or treating the night before Halloween and it is called Beggers Night.? I don't know why.) This was the first year Savannah really got into it, we went together for awhile as a family and then Jason went home with Olivia to pass out candy. Savannah wanted to keep going and so did Madi so I took them around to some more houses.

The girls were so cute Savannah and Madi would BOTH knock on the door and say "Trick or Treat" (Madi's little voice was so cute) and then we told them if they don't say "thank you" you won't get the candy (I hate when kids don't say, "thank you" or they ask how many pieces they can have, pet peeve of mine.) so after they go their piece of they would say, "thank you" and run to the next door. It was so fun watching them. The best part was the weather, it was so nice I wore a short sleeve shirt. 100% better then the first year (2006) in Iowa when we got frost bite just walking out our door.

We also made treats thoughout the month. The tradition that I had as a child, making and decorating sugar cookies with different kinds of candy. Jason made caramel apples which we tried to eat (he burnt the caramel so it was really hard to eat, we ended up throwing them out but it was the idea the counts) while watching the classic Charlie Brown's Halloween. And then we made cupcakes with whitches hats, (I found the recipe at Target).

Tonight we went to our Ward Halloween Party followed by Trunk or Treat, just in case the kids didn't have enough candy already. It was nice weather again that it was all outside. We had chili, corn bread, salsa and chips and pumpkin deserets out in the pavillion and then the trunk or treat in the parking lot. It was lots of fun!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Family Home Evening

After the General Priesthood Session of Conference a couple of weeks ago Jason came home with a list of things we need to work on, not nessesarily things they talked about but things that he started to think about while sitting there. One of the things on the list was having a more structured Family Home Evening every Monday night. So he gave me the assignment to make a chart so everyone knows their part during Family Night.

Last week Savannah was in charge of Music which she wasn't too happy about, she really wanted to do the lesson, but I told her we have to take turns. So she got creative. The next thing I know she said, "mom, this is my piano", when I looked she had sheet music (pages ripped out of a coloring book) leaning against the arm of the couch and she was pretending to play. It was so cute. For Family Night we had to relocate the piano to the chair but it worked just as good, she played "I am a Child of God" while we all sang.

I LOVE watching my CHILDREN learn and grow, it is the JOY of my LIFE!

"No, I do it!"

A few weeks ago my sweet little Madi thought she turned 2 and got attitude, she is still sweet she just has attitude too. Everyday she tells me "No, I do it!" when we do certain thing like putting on her belt, picking out her clothes, buckling Olivia in her chair, closing the door, etc. The other day she even reminded me to put bows in her hair. And now every morning if I don't get her out of bed soon enough she takes off her jammies. (Savannah did the same thing at two but at least she was two and we thought it was because we had a new baby in the house, guess not.)

For whatever reason (the Spjut genes) my children become independent very quickly. It is a good thing but also a bad thing when they want to do things that are not very safe or they want to try things that only older children should be doing. Don't get me wrong I love my children and love watching them learn and grow very much, it is just that from age 2-hopefully 4 is a hard stage for me to control my children. So ready or not I have a two year old again (least I still have sweet little Olivia for one more year).

Cuppy Cake Song- Strawberry Shortcake

This have become a favorite song at our house, ever since we heard it on Uncle Jeff and Aunt Rachael's blog. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Z6pWhM6TA

Picking Pumpkins

For the past three years we have gone to Howell's Pumpkin Patch to pick our pumpkins. It has become a fun family tradition. The drive is beautiful this time of year and the girls love the tractor ride out to the pumpkin fields and picking their own pumpkins (they have a corn maze but we have never done it).

Yesterday the weather was really warm so it was kind of weird picking pumpkins in shorts and tee shirts but at least it wasn't as cold as it was our first year.

This year we went with our friends Amy and Ryan. They are great friends and our girls love them.

Do you pick your pumpkins or buy them at the grocery store?