Hallelujah Party

The church Adam's dad now pastors throws a "Hallelujah Party" every year on Oct. 31. Kids can dress up (or not if they don't want to) and come play tons of games to earn slips of paper good for a small, medium, or large prize. Ryan got dressed up in his cowboy costume and had a great time at the party with Grandpa and Grandma Boone.

He didn't really understand the concept of many of the games, but with some great luck (and maybe some help from the workers now and then) he managed to get many prize slips. It was actually refreshing to see him playing games for the pure joy of throwing a football instead of doing it to get something.  Some of the games he played included Plinko, Sponge toss, Toilet Bowl Toss, Football Toss, and "Pick a Lollipop".

He picked out some great prizes including stickers, a twisty straw, coloring book, maracas, fruit snacks, and M&Ms (I had to let him have a LITTLE bit of candy, but don't tell him that I ate the rest of the bag a few days later).

Throughout the night, they drew numbers for prizes using the number on each child's wrist band. As we got ready to leave, we stopped by the marker board and were surprised to see his number! He got to pick a prize and chose a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD with a little wooden train car! We let him watch it a few days later and he was transfixed! He liked saying all the different engines' names.


Once we got home it was too late to serve trick-or-treaters (Shoot! Whatever will I do with a bag of Reeses PB Cups, Kit Kats and Twix?) but we did have one special visitor. My aunt stopped by with a treat bag for Ryan. We let him eat one of the delicious banana chocolate chip muffins she brought.



I'm sure there will come a day when he'll want to dress up in some horrible zombie killer costume and stuff his face with candy all night (if he is any bit my son, the last part of that is a given), but for now I'm holding on to my muffin-eating cowboy.

And I may or may not be plotting where he can wear those red boots again.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Chuck Norris

Ryan's costume was supposed to be a Chuck Norris, but anyone who says "Cowboys Don't Cry" has never tried to make a two-year-old put on a hat with a construction-paper beard attached to it.

So, Chuck Norris was brought to you by Picnic and in real life, we ended up with a 1960's-inspired cowboy who looks like he should be holding a Red Rider beebee gun to match his boots.

I picked up the hat at the Clay County Fair this fall and found the shirt and boots at Nearly New Town (consignment store) last week. The belt was the skinniest-with-biggest-buckle I could find for 50 cents and he already owned the jeans. The boots took some getting used to walking in them, but by the end of the night he was an old pro!

This old Ranch Hand says, "Happy Halloween, pardner!"

Grandkid Pictures

Taking pictures of Emily, Lincoln, and Ryan is a challenge, at best. Here's a little peek into trying to get a shot of them with Grandpa and Grandma.

It starts with "Hey, everyone try to keep your eyes open."

 Then it's "Don't eat Grandma's ear!"

 "Where did that football come from?"

"Why is everyone screaming? STOP SCREAMING!"

And eventually melts down to this:

The only decent shot we managed was sans Grandpa.

So I think we all know who the problem was.

Happy 5th Birthday, Emily!

On Sunday morning, we all went to church at Orchard Hill. Ryan went to Sunday School with Lincoln and even made a take-home paper. Emily's other grandpa and grandma and her Uncle Tyler and his girlfriend Chelsea all joined us for lunch, then it was time for Emily to open presents!

It was funny as she opened all kinds of nice gifts only to place them to the side and announce, "I hope the next present is a magnifying glass!" She barely even tried out her new plasma car in her quest to find the magnifying glass. But, no worries, we tried it out for her!

Emily checked to see if anyone was leaving any "clues". She recently saw an episode of Blue's Clues and then used the Smart Search on the DVR to find and record a few episodes to watch later. She also showed me how to play several games on their ipad2 and I caught myself wanting to ask her if she could teach me how to run my iphone. 

After playing downstairs, it was time for cake! We sang Happy Birthday and she blew out the candle!

 I was so happy to be there with her...I haven't been able to celebrate her birthday with her since I decorated her monkey cake when she was 2!

 Happy Birthday, Emily! We had a great time!

Emily's Last Day of Being Four

My spunky niece, Emily, turned 5 this weekend and Ryan and I were so excited to be able to spend Saturday and Sunday at her house!

When we first arrived, we took advantage of the nice weather and all played outside in their fun backyard.

Safety first, right?

Then, we took a trip to duo's, the ice cream/coffee shop down the street.

I got a scoop of Zoreo and a scoop of Latte Da and could have eaten a freezer full of both.

When we came back, it was time to measure the corn my dad had helped them plant last Spring.

 It was 10.5" tall!

After supper, it was time for a bath...

...books...

 ...and bed (for the "little guys")

Emily stayed up to help frost her cinnamon rolls for the next morning (and decorate them with butterfly sprinkles) while I frosted her strawberry-flavored butterfly cake!

Emily had a fun "last day being 4" with her cousins!

Pumpkins: The Final Result

Pumpkins: The Beagle

For my next project, I wanted to try out the "peeling skin" method and found a great template for a beagle here: http://features.bhg.com/dog-breed-pumkin-stencils_1.html. Again, I printed it out, pinned it to the pumpkin, and used a push pin to mark the pattern. Then, using the paring knife I either cut all the way through, or marked and then peeled parts of the skin. Not bad for my first try!

Nika doesn't look that happy about her portrait.

But it looks great in the dark!

Pumpkins: The Office

I found pumpkin carving templates for Jim and Dwight from The Office here: http://theoffice-us.livejournal.com/1533355.html, printed them out, and pinned them to the pumpkins. I used push pins to poke the pattern into the pumpkin, then used a small paring knife to carve! We bought twist-in candles and the worked perfectly! Love how these jack-o-lanterns turned out!

Jim and Dwight

Pumpkins: Carving

Daddy cut off the tops and did most of the scraping:

 Ryan helped scoop out the insides:

 He said, "Dis is kinda yucky!"

He let Mommy do most of the carving while he ran around saying, "I LOVE pumpkins!"

Ryan doesn't look too impressed with the carving.

Pumpkins: The Prep and Painting

First, Ryan got the pumpkins all shined up!

 

Then, it was time to "paint" with markers.

 We quickly escalated to real paint. (This is his "serious artist" face)

 

But Ryan was more interested in messing with the dirty water.

 Or painting Mommy's pumpkin.