Trick or Treat

Halloween 2013

Frightfully cold. and windy.
Luckily we got an hour or so of candy collecting in before it started to rain.
Brrrrr.
Did I mention it was cold?
Audrey was Sofia the First. Allie was Supergirl and Ava was a bumblebee.
Audrey ran ahead with her friends (and an adult) and left us behind with the little girls.
We went to neighbors afterward to warm up before deciding it was too cold there too and came back home to get baths and thaw out. Jeremy ended up handing out the rest of the candy in large batches in an effort to be done and shut off the light.
We ended the evening by watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
I went through the candy after the girls went to bed, threw out the bubble gum, hard candy, etc and made Jeremy a bag for work. Even though we only trick or treating for about an hour, they each got plenty of candy.
I bet I end up throwing the rest away before Thanksgiving.

Sarah

Our Halloween

Happy Halloween! A spooky extravaganza before trick or treating.

This was my first year as a room mom at Audrey's school. I participated at Allie's preschool party. Im also on the hospitality committee for Grove. We served a Halloween themed soup bar for the teachers/staff on parent teacher conference day.  I did find myself in the arts and crafts section more than once in the past few months and couldn't help pick up some items for home too. I also wanted to feed my children something that they would eat (that list isn't long) before going in search of candy. And of course, it needed to be gluten free. When I think of a nice warm supper, I think of chili. Since my kids would never eat that, I opted to try gluten free mummies--those hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls or dough. I used Chebe dough and I thought they turned out great, considering they were GF. We also served popcorn, and cupcakes. 

Each person got a Halloween gable box filled with goodies. Jeremy got M&M's, and the girls all got Christmas socks. Seriously, it's hard to find much the week of Halloween that is indeed, Halloween, and useful and that fits inside a little box.

All I wanted all day was to get a picture of all three girls in their coordinating Halloween shirts.  However, Ava would not go outside. It was too cold and rainy for her. Until of course she transformed into a bumble bee and then, I couldn't get her to go inside.

An hour before we picked Audrey up from school a thunderstorm rolled in and shook a ton of wet leaves onto the ground. The girls still wanted to play in them.

 Ava trying to snatch a cupcake.

 "Cheese!" But I am not going outside with my sisters!!!

 Trying all she can to get one of those cupcakes!!

 GF mummy dogs. 

 the ground outside our house after the storm. Before, there wasn't a single leaf on the ground. 

 Finally, my cupcake!

Place cards. Not party hats.

But he started a trend.

 Trick or Treat!!

Party Supplies: 

Cupcakes: Liners from Martha Stewart, toppers from Hobby Lobby. Cake mix Betty Crocker GF and icing, my own GF, DF recipe

Popcorn Bags: Hobby Lobby 

Trick or Treat Sign: The Graphics Fairy 

Place Cards: AC Crafts, Target

Boo Gable Box: Michaels

Sarah

Allie's First Day of Pre-K

In her jean mini skort and white sandals she jumped out of the van while saying to me, "Mommy, I'm scared." Excited to wear her outfit that matched Audrey's that day, it didn't outweigh the butterflies she had about visiting preschool today. Poor Allie has been dreading starting school. It's not like the idea of preschool is new to her, she has visited this building hundreds of times when taking Audrey. But lately she's going through a new phase of being scared to leave me. We have seen this at church too. Her shirt today I bought on vacation this summer. It reads, "Art class is my favorite." For sure. It's true. The girl loves to paint, draw and create. She's awesome when it comes to crafts.

Her lalaloopsy backpack is almost as big as she is, but she's excited to wear it and excited to give her teacher the pictures she requested.  Allie knows her teacher because she comes to my Gluten Free meetings. The teacher had requested two pictures of Allie and one of the family. I didn't have a picture of Allie not in a swim suit from this summer. It was time for a photo shoot. A mini one. Allie told me I could take 10 pictures. And that was all. She had no interest in going outside for the photo shoot, but wanted to sit at the desk I used for Audrey's back to school photos. When I told her to say, "I love school." She said, "I don't like school!" 

She washed her hands, needed help down from the huge stool in the bathroom, hung up her backpack and headed to her classroom.

The first day of preschool is a visit to school with Mommy. We went for about a half an hour. In that time, Allie found her hook for her backpack, made a name tag, found some awesome toys and played, listened to a story in pretend circle time and then we came home. Easy peasy. So easy in fact, she wasn't ready to go.

Sarah

back to school brunch

The Back to School brunch this year was a success, in more ways than one. First, every one who attended had a good time, enjoyed the food and talking with other moms. Secondly, it provided a great distraction leading up to and on Audrey's first day of K for me. I still gave her plenty of attention and gave great detail to her supplies, first day outfit, new shoes, how her lunch was going to work, what she would take in her lunch, what she would take for a snack every day. We labeled her school supplies with care and ordered her a new backpack, talked about how the school day works and even timed how long it would take us to get there on foot/bike and scooter. When I dropped her off in that huge gym this morning with like a thousand other kids, and I felt my lip begin to quiver, I nearly lost it as I bent down to hug her, and  fought HARD not to let those tears actually escape my eyes, I was glad that people were coming to my house in less than an hour. If I was going to all out cry, I wouldn't have long to do it. And I didn't by the way. The walk home with Jeremy was quiet. I knew if I started to talk, I'd speak and then I'd lose it. The walk home was also quite hot and sticky so part of my brain was pretty preoccupied with the sweat dripping down my back. 

My sister in law Hannah, was a great help in prepping last minute details this year as I was up at the school instead of being here, as in years past. She also helped me decide on journals for the favors instead of the five other ideas I had and just couldn't decide.

On the Menu this year: Sage sausage, egg and hash brown casserole, egg and bacon cups (from I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson), Mini Blueberry Muffins, my Pumpkin Bars, cheese truffles with fruit and crackers, Apple Cake (adapted from Cooking with Isaiah), Banana Bread and fresh apples. Orange juice, coffee, sweet tea and water to drink in mason jars of course with coordinating colored straws--not the paper ones, because although cute, no one likes to drink out of them. I always have a last minute, morning of recipe that I decide to make. This year it was banana bread and I think it turned out great, considering you're playing a risky game making anything gluten free with the word bread in the title. I used the recipe from an ABC cookbook I got in the 5th grade and changed a few ingredients to make it gluten free.

I got the subway art from Sweet Coconut Lime as a back to school freebie and
the invitation I created using Birthday Wishes and Cupcake Dreams back to school digital package. The food tent cards and tags also came from there.
The circle tags tied on to the journals came from TomKat Studio and I created the 5x5 journal tag that attached to each one.

Sarah

It's that time already

Today I took back to school photos of Audrey and her friends Julia and Lily. These girls have been friends since we moved to the neighborhood four years ago, and now, they are all starting Kindergarten. Let me pause and grab a tissue. :)

We have so many memories with these two girls the last few years! I wanted to do some back to school --or going to school photos of Audrey and it only seemed fitting to include these girls too. My parents own an old desk that was once used for homeschooling. A few props and a trip to the park and we were in business.

Here are some of my favorites.

Sarah

in 19 days

In 19 days my first born will start Kindergarten.

hold on, the baby just colored on our American Girl doll with a permanent marker......

How on earth did she find that marker?

False alarm. The initial  report was wrong. It often is.  It was a color wonder marker--love those--and not the Bitty baby but a cheap doll from Target. Whew.

I've lost my train of thought. The oldest in now yelling about going outside. And now she's reenacting the newest Sofia The First she saw on Disney Junior this morning. I will miss her being "in character" 95% of the day. Funny thing is, she has no interest in being on stage for real. She's just got an awesome imagination.

Allie needs help in the bathroom.

And Ava has disappeared again and got quiet. Not a good sign.

My to-do list has 35 items listed on it. One of which is updating this blog.

I just got a text about babysitting from my MIL. And someone left the water on the in the bathroom.

The UPS guy just dropped off what appears to be more beer steins for Oktoberfest. Which reminds me, I need to send out those invitations. Audrey was quite irritated it wasn't her school clothes we were just looking at two hours ago on the internet (that I haven't even ordered). 

Allie is now dancing in the piano room with purple ribbon to Audrey's ballad she's making up as she goes.

What was I going to write this post about? How sad I am that she's going to Kindergarten? Oh yes, well, it will be a new adventure around here. Change always makes me nervous. She's very excited. And I'm excited for her. If I could only be a fly on the wall and check in on her every now and then....maybe technology will be there by the time Ava's in K.

People tell me I will love school. I'll love the routine, I'll love the break. I'm cautiously waiting to see if they are right.

 the phone rings, reminding me we are entertaining tomorrow.

Ava and Allie are trying to break into the beer stein box.

life here is crazy. it's loud. and it's full of imagination. And in 19 days it's going to change dramatically during the day.

ava's words and other things i don't want to forget

Ava has really begun to talk this summer. her first words of course were dada and audrey and allie.  More came soon thereafter and then hi and bye. Ba-ba for Grandpa and shes for shoes. She loves her shoes! And then it just exploded. Mama, Mommy, seat, ball, and a million other b sounds for anything starting with b. And then she picked up the word "no." That's been fun. And I say that with as much sarcasm as humanly possible. She's cute though when she says it. I'll tell or ask her to do something she doesn't want to do, she responds, "no."

allie the other day, hungry, climbs up to the kitchen island and says, " I would like some carrots." I tell her she ate them all yesterday. She says, so seriously, "I'm so mad at myself!"

Allie at 3 years and 6 months or so has decided she no longer likes to go underwater. This, after about a week of living in the water on vacation. Go figure. So, she is no longer in swim for the time being.





Sarah