Sixth sensory for $4.99

This was mostly for my Cam man dude....who still hates to be sticky and has a hard time touching things like glue, paint and slime.   :)
I've heard about these awesome hidrogems and wanted to give them a try.    We found these at JoAnne's craft store for $4.00.    
They are squishy and super slippery.  They can be broken pretty easily but MY kids played with them and we didn't have any broken ones.
Well.  We decided to freeze them as an experiment as they are made mostly of water to see how they would freeze...and then we let them thaw in our hands.   The kids got a little too anxious squeezing the hard frozen balls and as they quickly melted down, defrosting to their original soft balls they were broken into little pieces and thrown away.   Still fun to do.
MUCH more fun than the cockroach we froze and then waited to come back to life in St. George.  Which by the way....didn't happen.   Nope.  They die.  

What I loved was to sit back and watch how true to personality each and every one of my kids were while playing.  

Syd made patterns with hers

Nathan put his in jail.  Those two are in jail on his lid.

When Ryan wasn't making a mess with his....he would make a train and choo choo them around his lid.
Cameron immediately started playing, writing his story with each one in his own make believe world.

Spencers were babies and promptly put to sleep.

Such fun little water balls.

This sensory time lasted almost an hour with all 5 of my kids.
GOOD times people !  Good times.

Halloween Party 2011

I don't know if you remember the one we had last year.   We decided to make it an annual thing this being our second year.   I hope we can continue the tradition.  
Even if it's just food, ending with "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" played on the side of someone's house.

It was so much fun.    We switched it up a bit this year.   Instead of just having it at our house, we had different things at the neighbors houses.   
Food at Cannons, games at ours, crafts at Cindy's, treasure hunt at everyones, story time at Grays, movie at Maxfields.  It was a nice change.

We had to split up the little kids and big kids due to game playing ability. 
Here's a sample.  oooooor, 18 thousand examples. of the night.

Homemade Chili  mmmmm

The littles.   I didn't get a picture of them carrying pumpkins under their chin, or bobbing for marshmellows and some of the other things they did.   Because I was too busy with the big kids.  :( 

Our sweet neighbor Carrie, who came over on her husbands birthday to help with the littles.
Love her. 

Porter

Will molding the chewed up gum from his teammates to create a sculpture of Frankenstein

Will's little bro Ben doing it for team #2

Jackson shooting Trix cereal into a cup held on your teammates head...out your nose. :)
Thus the hesitation holding the cup on his head.

and also the look on his face.

Eating a banana through a knee high.

Hudson

Nathaniel

This game could have been more fun.    One kid from each team put pantyhose on his head.   One of the legs filled with flour.   Then they try and swing their head to hit the other team player trying to see who ends up with the most flour all over them.
We ran in to some problems....we needed to make a knot in the leg with the flour before adding the flour.   It was too long and just dragged on the ground.   Next time.   Always next time. 

Mommy Monster Makeovers.
Each family made over a mom.  
The BEST time EVER to have an extra mom in your family.  :)



Brittany and Jackson.  Not pictured...Logan and Porter.



Cindy and Hudson.  Not pictured..Easton and Beckham.

Lisa, Will, Ben and Max. Not pictured...Henry.

Top it off with a little spray paint.

Ta Da !

Our wonderful next door neighbor Lori is a 3rd grade teacher !  and a fabulous story teller.

The little listening to Halloween books.

Max, Hudson, Nate, Ryan, Cam and Spencer. (not pictured Porter and Henry)

While the littles were listening to stories and having a candy hunt in Lori's backyard.  The big kids were running through the neighborhood  having a treasure hunt.

It really was lots of fun.   We ended the night having a movie in Brittany's backyard wrapped up in blankets.   My babies went to bed and didn't make it to the movie...but Cam, Spence and Syd all held out.   They went to bed at 8:45 pm tonight. WOWza !  They Stayed up so late :)   It felt like it to them with their 7:30 pm bedtime.
Already planning next years fun !!!

Halloween silhouettes !

I used a lamp and taped white paper on the wall.    I had the kids stand and pose while I tried to trace their shadows.
Not such a good idea.   ESPECIALLY with little kids.  
After I cut out what I was able to get traced,  I taped it to my black paper and cut it out again.
Next time I'll have them lay on the paper and trace and cut once.  
Like most things...I always make them out to be more than they need to be.  ;-)

from left : Ryan with his hands on his head, and Cameron (I'm not sure why I didn't get a better picture of those 2)
next window Spencer and Nathan and last is Syd.

I love that you are able to document their little size and also decorate the house at the same time. 
Such a multitasking craft.

Note.  let me tell you how many times I've walked through the house late at night and thought that someone was watching or standing outside of the window.   FREEEEAKY.  especially while alone.  just be prepared for that if you do it.

Pumpkin Painting 101 from a complete novice

A couple of years ago my mom and I saw some painted pumpkins in one of her Home and Garden magazines.    Ever since we've threatened to try them ourselves.  
Janice has a work trip this week.   She left this morning before 5am and won't be home until Friday.    I thought this was the PERfect opportunity to take a day to myself and asked my mom to share it with me and paint pumpkins.   So Saturday was my day.   The day to paint pumpkins.

We were certainly more confident about all of it while buying the paint.   but as soon as it came time to actually paint we completely forgot all of the cute ideas we remembered seeing.    
It was a rough start for me.....but my mom kept reminding me how, this was supposed to be fun and not to worry about it.  (easier said than done when you wanted super great just like the magazine, painted pumpkins)

We started by wasing them.      



we did 3 parts water to 1 part bleach. 




let dry



Tape the tops.   always have an assistant.  Any dog will do.




We hand painted the tops but I think next time I might have just spray painted them the same color as the pumpkin.




spray paint.   you'll notice her one gloved hand.   I wasn't so cautious and my hand still shows signs of black and white painting today.




blow the bottoms to help dry before you set them down to spray the rest.  :)




let dry




And paint and decorate.  
We also did a little bit of bling (notice my white one)  These are mine.




My moms.   Cute right.   This picture doesn't do justice to some of the little details she did to hers.

 This took us all day.   Well that we laid down and took a nap and watched a movie didn't help.  ha ha  
They turned out great and we were both happy with the end product.  
Today of course I have a ton more ideas and would do some things differently...but that'll have to wait until next year.  if I remember them in a year.  :)

This moment Friday

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember

Cousin Jen

It doesn't feel like that long ago when we had the priviledge of having Jen stay at our house.
She moved home to Seattle and has only been able to come back to visit a couple of times. busy life.
Every time she leaves we wonder why we let her go.    Duct tape and pad locks...That's what it'll have to come to :)
You can clearly see why we love her so much.