Balloon Spooktacular...

We took the kids to the Scottsdale Ballooon Spooktacular on Halloween weekend. I've always had a slight fascination/obsession with hot air balloons (and still patiently waiting for Steve to take me on a ride) and it always makes me happy to see a hot air balloon lit up at night.

They did some trick or treating to several booths that they had set up. Their favorite treats...a pad of paper and a pen. We sat down in the grass to enjoy the view for a bit and both Hallie and Hunter went to town filling their notebooks.


I could have sat there all night...if it wasn't for a certain little being - approximately 6 months of age - who made it more than clear he was done!

Halloween 2011...

I always have such big plans for Halloween and yet the day arrives and I have all sorts of seemingly unimportant things taking up my time. We started the morning with Hallie's Halloween parade and helping with her class party. Hunter was amuzed with all the cool costumes and made it a point to point out every Woody and Jessie he saw!



We spent the afternoon running random errands including taking Hunter's bike to the shop to figure out how to get the valve covers off. They child proofed them...owners manual doesn't inform you how to get off the child proof covers. I was happy when the man behind the counter didn't figure it out for a while, made me feel slightly less foolish.

Everyone got dolled up and ready for the night - aka picture heaven for mothers! Even Bennett got in on the action. It's fun to see him in the costume that Hallie wore 5 years ago!





We were going to hit up Steve's sisters for dinner, but Steve couldn't get off work early and didn't want to miss out on the festivities. Little Caesars pulled through with a nutritious dinner! We walked the neighborhood with some cousins, got more candy than my kids know what to do with, met up with more cousins for a quick hello before heading home and dumping/sorting out the loot! Hallie meticulously sorted before choosing her 10 favorite pieces (the rest was taken away, there is no way we were going to let them keep all that candy!)

I've got to remember for next year, Steve's cousin utilizes the "Switch Witch". You leave your candy out at night and the Switch witch comes and takes your candy and leaves a toy behind. Genius!

The kids had a great time and this was the first year that Hunter really got the concept of Halloween and we couldn't get him to stop! Another first - wearing costumes without winter coats over them - I could get used to trick or treating in flip flops!!





Is it seriously

Happy Halloween...

Hope you have a "boo"tiful day!

Craft Monday...

Halloween is fast approaching and I get more and more excited each day. In true Kara fashion I've purchased my kids costumes for the next 15 years (although a slight exaggeration, I do have a couple years in storage). Some may say - "But what if they don't want to be that next year?" To that I say, my children are still young enough that they don't really care. Hallie has seen all those costumes sitting in boxes for years now, and by the time it actually fits her she is giddy. I understand, this stage is short lived and I should probably not buy any more costumes for Hallie in advance! Noted.

I've been seeing costumes in every store and my mind started racing...I've already bought their costumes and they're sitting in a box in the garage. Dang. I could always buy/make new ones but it bothers me knowing I already own some.

I started moving around some boxes in the garage and I came across one Halloween box. Decorations but no costumes. But I had a renewed hope that the other Halloween boxes had to be close because they all sat on the truck together...I moved three whole layers of boxes...that is a lot of boxes...but I came across another Halloween box and then another. After a lot of time digging and moving boxes and climbing up and over boxes, I found some costumes. (Of course many of the boxes I moved I then opened and found some things that would be useful now - Hunter's helmet, Hallie's clothing, baby feeding stuff and baby toys. It was like Christmas!)

And of course, since I had already pulled out some boxes of Halloween decorations, I might as well use them right? Our home quickly became "spooky." Not all decor was located (including my personal favorites), but I would say almost 50% was, which was better than the 0% we had the day before, or even last year!!

Once decorations were out, it felt like fall and it felt good. But I was missing my nice fall wreath. Luckily that could be fixed.

My sister and I spent Monday morning at Home Depot and JoAnns gathering supplies for our wreath. Side note: If you're ever tired of paying for overpriced wreath forms, check out the heating and cooling section of Home Depot. You can buy these tubes (We bought the largest size for $1.28):

Cut to length - and duct tape into a circle form. (I duct taped every quarter to help it keep its shape.) Voila. I refuse to pay for another expensive foam wreath mold.


Anyway- Kaytlin and I had a craft morning and to say we enjoyed it would be an understatement. I wish she had more days off during the week!

I wrapped 2-3 inch black linen strips around my form securing with hot glue.

Then made a couple burlap rosettes. I topped mine off with a couple glitter spiders (because nothing screams Halloween like a glitter spider, don't you agree?), which I'm still debating whether I want them hanging down from the center of the wreath or sitting on the rosettes. Currently laziness is winning...they're sitting on the rosettes.

And there you have it. Monday morning craft time complete.


I'm now deciding what next Monday should entail.

Halloween...

Growing up I remember dressing up for Halloween year after year. But if my memory serves me correctly, I wore that costume once, on Halloween night. That was it. Perhaps, one other time for a ward party, but that's it.


Of course, now with children of my own, it seems that Halloween is no longer a one night holiday...it's at least a week long extravaganza! I'm not complaining, I love it, and so do the kids. Plus we get a lot more use out of each of the costumes!!

So the kids dressed up on Monday to trick-or-treat at the medical college, and they scored a fair amount of candy.
 
I love that these three girls are all the same age, within weeks of each other, Hallie being the oldest, and by far the smallest! And no the other girls are not wearing high heels!!

Later in the week, Hallie had her classroom party where she also dressed-up. We opted out of the Halloween party we were supposed to go to Friday night at the school knowing very well we would be back in the costumes the very next night for some "Halloween Eve" trick-or-treating.

I was a little disappointed to have Steve so far away during all our activities. It didn't seem right doing it without him! But the show must go on, and we were fortunate to spend the evening with great friends. We had a selection of soups and breadsticks at the Smith's home before we headed out for a night of candy. It was chilly. 45 degrees and windy. It was then and only then, for just a split second I thought of Steve in Arizona with all our nieces and nephews in short sleeves enjoying the nice weather and there was a smidge of jealousy, but it was a fleeting moment and I moved on to soaking in our last Wisconsin Halloween.

 
The neighborhood we walked was amazing. The houses were all close together, they had decorated and shut down one of the streets and everyone sat in their driveways with buckets of candy. It was the easiest and fastest candy gathering I've ever experienced. Which was welcomed considering the weather and the age of our children!

We went back to the house and enjoyed some hot chocolate, while the children devoured what candy they could with distracted parents! It was a good night. Sad Steve missed sharing it with us!

Happy Halloween...

Halloween afterhought...

I forgot to post any pictures from trick-or-treat 2009. We had a frigid day. Painful to be outside in fact. Hunter went to four houses before Steve took him home. Hallie wanted to keep going. So with leggings, jeans, gloves, vest and a winter jacket, Hallie was armed to get candy. I was cold and wanted to go home but Hallie had endurance. The great thing about Milwaukee is that you trick-or-treat at designated times. Ours was 1-4pm.  This was ideal considering the weather conditions. For the first time, Hallie understood the concept. And as she saw that candy piling into her little bucket, her eyes kept getting bigger and bigger. It was fun. I would've enjoyed it a little more had the weather cooperated but there's always next year.

A birthday party...

A couple weeks before Hallie's birthday I decided we would throw her first real birthday party, and with a birthday close to Halloween it only seemed appropriate to have a costume party. (Plus, decorations for a holiday party are easy...we already had everything!) As soon as I told Hallie about an idea for a party she couldn't start talking about it. In fact we would be hanging out and she would say, "Mom lets talk." "Okay, what do you want to talk about?" "Lets talk about my birthday party." It cracked me up every time, but even so, we would talk about her birthday and she would get so excited.

So we had a party, and boy did we have fun.

We invited her little preschool girlfriends and they all came dressed so cute.

We read Halloween stories, dressed Halloween dolls, ate Halloween themed food and played "spider toss".










Hallie was on cloud nine. Her grin spread from ear to ear. Even for days following the party she was so happy. And as happy as it made her, there is no way I can do that every year. We will definitely have to be an every other year birthday kind of family!