I'm Baaaccckkk!

I'm finally back! Didn't mean to be gone so long, but the computer gods had other ideas and my computer was infected with a pretty mean virus. It had to be taken away, but we're both back now and chomping at the bit to get on with my favorite holiday of the year!


My house is all decorated and I have many pictures to share, but first I want to fill you in on last weekend at my house. It is the weekend we wait for all year long! We have all 7 grandchildren here and it is our official start to the "Halloween season" for our family!

Hannah and Morgan

Caitlin and Olivia

Hudson, Presley and Harrison



After a quick lunch, we started on our crafts. We have done this for so many years, it is hard to find something we haven't already done either here, in scouts, in church or in school. This year I saw this name plaque on Pinterest and thought the kids might enjoy making it.


My original plan was for them to make them pretty much as the sample was made on Pinterest-very simply decorated with painted polka dots and I even bought some glittery confetti in case they just wanted to glue those on and go really simple.


Silly me! The four oldest are just not the "go simple" type. Before I knew what was happening, they had invaded my paints, trims, etc. and were off on their own individual fantasies. It never fails to amaze me how much imagination they have!

These really did work well as a craft for a child. As usual, I did some preliminary work so that they didn't have to use the glue gun. They would have been fine with it, but I'm always wary of an accident. I pre-painted the plaques, made the tu-tus for the girls and hot glued the leg warmers. If I had only been working with the 4 oldest (ages 10-15), I would have let them do all of this but since the little ones were involved as well, I wanted it to be a good experience for all!

Presley's was the basic plaque and she was fine with that.

The boys didn't want tu-tus on theirs, so I cut out a witch's hat for them and they loved it. They painted their own dots-and believe me, they painted them where THEY wanted them. I have a round sponge dabber, so this is an easy task and always successful for little ones! And then, they wanted the glitteries as well. I think they all really turned out well and each was fitted to the individual's level and taste-truly a kid-friendly craft!

Next, we made worms. Notice the boys are missing for the making part of this although they did pop in and out but new Lego sets were just too strong a draw! Now these things are a bit of a hassle to make and until the girls figured out an easier way to unmold, a real paint in that aspect also, but SO WORTH doing! They truly look like the real thing and can gross everyone out-even the person who mixed it up and knows it is only Jello and heavy cream!

The big girls and the 2 boys absolutely loved these but Presley would have nothing to do with them-not even one little taste!


Here are my 3 helpers making a new item for my livingroom. I love it that these kids are getting to be so self sufficient (well, sometimes I still miss my "little ones" but growing up is inevitable eventually I guess). I simply told them what I wanted, cut the strips of gauze and they did the rest. You will see the finished product when we tour the livingroom.


Dinner was super easy this year. Since we have been doing this for so many years, we have tried about every Halloween food out there and I have finally learned that with everything else we try to cram into the day, we are usually pooping out by dinnertime and don't want to spent hours in the kitchen. This year we went back to a favorite-English muffin mummy pizzas. Each kid put their own together with jarred pizza sauce, strips of mozzarella and sliced olives. They also made celery fingers and we added mummy brains (broccoli and cauliflower) and fruit-by this time, we were out of catchy names. We also don't spend as much time on the table settings-just that much more to clean up. Hope I'm not coming off sounding jaded. It's just that we have learned what really matters over the years-not to mention that we were running late and had a Gator game to watch.

We ended up with candy corn pudding parfaits-so simple and they loved them!


While the 2 oldest and the 2 boys were outside tossing a football, these 3 made chocolate covered popcorn mix. It was a bit frustrating because we just couldn't get our Wilton candy wafers to melt so that they would drizzle, but these guys persevered and even though the mix didn't looks anything like it should have, everyone loved the taste. We bagged it up and sent it home for snacks.


Not everyone got the "scary" command but by this time, I think we had taken about 50 pictures, so as long as we were all there, it's good! So sad the weekend is over!! Already gathering ideas for next year!!!

Come back soon and I'll show you this year's decorations. I have made a few changes and am loving it! Stay tuned. And so happy to be back!