Happy Halloween!

We had a busy, busy Halloween but it was lots of fun!
We started the day with Emmie's Halloween party at school. I was helping with it so Ellie got to tag along and join in the fun! The kids all dressed up and went "trick or treating" around the school before heading back to the classroom to eat some yummy snacks.

Emmie's class

little Belle

I should have gotten a picture of Emmie with her teachers but didn't think about it until later. The woman off to the right with the orange pants is Mrs. Elizabeth and off to the left in the gray skirt is Mrs. Terri. They are fabulous teachers and they love all the children so much!

Emmie and her friend Mason. Mason and his little brother Parker used to be in My Gym class with Emmie and Ellie and Emmie was thrilled to have Mason in her class this year at school!

Ellie even go to join in the trick or treating. This is her with Pastor Ruth.

I had to take this picture because over on the left is Mrs. Dawn. She's the music teacher and while it took Emmie a few weeks to remember her classroom teachers' names, she remembered Mrs. Dawn after the first music class (they go once a week)! Emmie LOVES music!

Getting treats from Mrs. Sandy, the principal.

While we were out trick or treating we ran into Jackson's class. He was an adorable minion from Despicable Me.

Snack time! Ellie was thrilled that she got a seat at the table with the big kids!

The kids had cheese sticks, orange fruit cups, and rice krispies with jack-o-lantern faces on them.

These were the orange fruit cups I made. I LOVED how they turned out! They were actually a lot easier to "carve" than I anticipated. I cut the tops off, hollowed them out (I ended up with about half a pitcher of orange juice when all was said and done...yummm!), and then carved the faces. I filled them with oranges, pineapples, and cherries. My plan had been to use the orange pieces that I scooped out to refill the oranges but there was no way that was happening. I tried to figure out a way to get them out without making a big pulpy mess but was quite unsuccessful so if you're making these don't waste your time trying to carefully scoop out the insides!

 After school we ran home and took naps and then went to get everyone much needed haircuts before family pictures next week. Then we ran home and ate dinner. I was determined that even though we were super busy the girls would get a healthy dinner in them tonight to hopefully counteract some of the sugar they had ingested throughout the day!

After dinner we headed over to Jackson's house to trick or treat! The kids had SO much fun although little Belle was acting like quite the diva princess...she insisted on riding in her stroller the whole time and after about 6 or 7 houses she refused to get out of the stroller to go collect her candy...she had Paul do it for her. I think she was worn out from all the Halloween fun!

The Disney characters...Belle, Cinderella, and Jake.

Playgroup Halloween Party

Monday we had our playgroup Halloween party. We met Christina and Jackson at the pumpkin patch first so that we could get pumpkins to paint and then we headed to the party! There was lots of yummy food and the weather was beautiful so the kids had a great time playing outside!


We took a yummy pumpkin dip with ginger snaps and some chocolate covered pretzels that looked like pumpkins. The pumpkins had green M&Ms as stems and the girls had a great time helping me sort out the green M&Ms...especially since they got to eat the M&Ms leftover in their bowls!

Pumpkin Pretzels: pretzels, orange melting chocolate, green M&Ms; melt the chocolate and after it is melted add 1-2 tbsp. of Crisco...this will help make the chocolate smoother. Dip the pretzels in the chocolate and while they're still warm add the M&M at the top. :)

Pumpkin Dip: 1 can pumpkin, 8oz cool whip, 1 package instant vanilla pudding mix, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice; mix all the ingredients together and at the end fold in the cool whip. I sprinkled mine with some nutmeg to make the top look pretty. :)

 

My little pumpkin girls!

I got these headbands for $1 at a Gymboree box sale...so cute!

Look at my silly Ellie girl...she's such a ham!

Emmie was the first one painting and the last one painting...she LOVES to paint and was so serious about what she was doing!

Ellie kept coming over to entertain baby Madison while I was holding her...it was pretty cute!

Cathy pulled the kids all over the yard in the wagon. Ellie had the BEST time...the faster Cathy went the bigger Ellie's smile!

 

Little Helpers

My current sewing project is quilts for the girls. They are soon going to be sharing a room and getting new beds so I figured I'd make their bedding. The girls are having so much fun helping me "sew"!

State Fair

Last week we took the girls to the State Fair. We ate dinner which included pizza, hot dogs (Ellie INHALED hers), fried okra, and Fiske fries (if you're unfamiliar with those they are a fair staple...thin french fries with vinegar on them). We also had some fresh squeezed lemonade. The girls loved their fair food! After we finished eating we hit up the rides. Let me tell you, the fair was a lot cheaper before the girls discovered rides! They got to pick a few rides to go on and they picked the carousel, the bumblebees (similar to the Dumbo ride at Disney), and the ferris wheel. Emmie spotted the ferris wheel on our way in and couldn't wait to ride it. Paul was not as pleased with that selection
as he is not a big fan of heights.

I love Emmie's facial expression!

After the rides we headed over to the flower building. The girls loved looking at all the plants and flowers and also the sand sculpture.

Not sure what she's plotting but definitely up to something!

I was trying to get a picture of them together in front of the flowers but they decided to make "angry" faces instead.

Sand sculpture...I thought it was a little odd this year.

Emmie LOVED all the flowers.

This was our favorite!

 As we were heading out of the fair we stopped and got a funnel cake to share. Ellie inhaled it (as she had been doing with all the fair food!) but Emmie was not so sure about it. Finally she tasted the powder sugar and got a really big grin on her face. I'm not sure what she thought the powdered sugar was but she definitely didn't expect it to taste good. After the taste of powdered sugar she decided funnel cakes were pretty good!

We had a great time at the fair! I think next year we'll try and go during the day so we can hit up all the animals and have a better shot at skipping the rides!

Boo at the Zoo

We took the girls to Boo at the Zoo tonight and they had a blast! They were both really into the whole "trick or treat" idea and loved looking at all their treats as they went along. Tonight was the perfect night to go as there was almost no crowd and we also saw lots of people we know. We did some trick or treating, rode the train and the carousel, got to see a few animals, and the girls danced to the DJ's music!

Ellie's favorite treat of the night. She carried it around in her hand a good portion of the time!