Halloween 2022

For the first time ever, we decided to host a trunk at the school's trunk or treat event.  The night before, we decided to do a test run for our set up.

Children peeking out, yep, that's how it actually looked. = )

The weather for the event was better than we could have ever expected.  Our little ones didn't spend much time at the car, but were out having fun at the event instead.  Billy had to run home about halfway through, since we were running low on candy and dead rocks!   The rocks went first, but thankfully we did have enough candy. = )

Halloween fell on a Monday, which is slightly annoying, but I had toothbrushes ready to go.  The hot chocolate bombs were more work than anticipated (they require hot milk vs hot water to make) so I won't be getting those again for a while.

Halloween night was such pleasant weather!!!  We stayed out the entire 2 hours, while Billy passed out candy.  At the end we had two buckets full of candy!!  It was crazy.

Seven was Shaggy this year, as William was Scooby.  He came over at the end of trick-or-treating for a photo op. = )

I hope that Halloweens from here on out are this warm, it would make the holiday much more enjoyable!

later days

edit: backdated for continuity

Lots of Little Memories

This has all the other little things we did between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Emily's ballet teacher was travelling early in the term, so she swapped out that date, for one just before Christmas.  We were on break from school, so it made for a weird day, but she had a good time.  

Alice saw a video on how to make Japanese pancakes and wanted to try it.  The first time, they didn't turn out that great, but the second time they were pretty good.

William and I each had a bout of illness the week of his belt testing, so he had to make it up the following week.  He was one excited little boy to earn his 10 kyu belt.

One day, Wlliam decided to whittle a stick to make an "arrow" and then needed a bow to go with it.  It would have been ineffective as a hunting tool, but he enjoyed it as a toy for two or three days.

Billy's "nightstand" is an antiquated CPU.  As such, it is particularly poor at holding things like his phone and heated blanket remote.  After looking up the prices for a small shelf on Amazon, I decided I could make one.  I found the stash of our old Texas license plates, and easily made him a shelf with command hooks and a bent plate.  His phone cord won't fall down into the other cables (the disaster you see below) and should he ever decide that he no longer needs it, it is fully removable!

Sarah sent over some silpat mats, and while I had used them in the past, I never liked how difficult it seemed to be to store them. Since I was on a command hook kick, I gave it the same treatment as my sugar cube molds.  It has reduced the amount of parchment paper I use, and I am not inconvenienced by it in the least. Finally, a silpat win! 

In one of Juliet's books, she was reading about 'fire cakes.'  They are basically flour, water and salt, baked for a few minutes.  Instead of just eating them inside, we decided to make it into a valley forge experience!  Each child had a towel on one foot, in place of a boot, and trudged through the snow to an unheated shed.  The warm fire cakes were really good, probably because they were warm and we were not, but it was a peak into what the fighters of the revolution endured.

Part of Sarah's Christmas this year.  It is for her garden. = )

Using the remaining reindeer horn from Billy's car, we made Seven into Max from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

I bought some Lincoln Logs, from a garage sale, as a stocking stuffer for the kids, but was disappointed in the scant number of long pieces.  So, we got them out to play with for a day, before sending them on to a new home.

Emily found that an egg she cracked while baking looked like an Among Us character.

I had to wrap very few presents with fresh paper this year.  It is really so much easier to keep the paper year to year.  I did up my number of reusable bags from two to four this year!! (One was my annual increase, the other from my sister, via a Christmas gift from a friend.)

William's chicken nugget looked like a fish!

Billy and I found our new Mexican Restaurant "place!"  The only negative they received was on the queso temperature (it was cold, but the taste was good.)  Billy got one margarita, and it lasted our entire meal, it was so big!

I must say, it feels like it has been a good season!

later days

Halloween 2021

Both Emily's ballet & William's karate had special events for Halloween, so they each had an extra costume.  Emily the flamingo:

And William the deep sea fisherman. = )

We also made some spooky snacks, thanks to the Kroger Magazine for the recipies.

The sausage mummies are so good, I'm pretty sure we had them at least three times!

The kids all wanted a piece with the spider on it, but then picked off the olives. lol.

Emily decorated her computer for the season.

And it was really spooky for the kids when Roblox went down for an entire weekend!!!

And some time in the last year, I found a definitive candy measuring cup. It's a tupperware dressing cup.  The kids are allowed to have their age in candy on the first night, then follow the cookie rule after that (age/4 (rounded down) + 1.)  But, if the candy is small, they may have 2 pieces per cookie.  Every year I was bombarded by: "Is this small? Is this small? Is this small?"  So, now we finally have a cup, that if the candy fits inside, with the lid on, it is "small" if not, it's big.  I told Billy that Alice would be eating a lot of squished candy this year. (and she did.)

Halloween this year fell on a Sunday, which is less than ideal, but we managed to have fun just the same!

Avia stopped by and helped set up the porch and the company that we would be having soon.  Then Sarah stopped by with Seven to get a picture of Scooby Doo & Shaggy together again.

Abby's family, even big Em, came over and played some games in the afternoon, then left just before trick or treat time.  Emily and Abby were peanut butter & jelly.  (Emily and I tie-dyed the shirts when the weather was still pretty.)

Then, we were joined by Willow for trick or treating.  I let Billy take the kids this year, while I passed out candy.  The three little ones were done quickly.  Grace and Juliet helped me pass out candy the rest of the night.  

Eventually, Willow and Emily came back, but her mom took them to a few other neighborhoods to try and score candy, without having to be out in the cold.   Sadly, they ran into a lot of darkened porches.

And strangely enough, despite giving out large handfuls of candy, we still ended up with almost a full bag of candy that did not get passed out.

Afterward, Juliet's friend Kennedy and her mom stopped by for a bit, which made Juliet one happy girl.

It was a fun day of friends, outside time, and candy!

later days

edit: written 11/15/21 but back-dated to Halloween for continuity.

Easter 2021

Easter Buckets were on the table ready to go, the night before:

We "attended" Easter service online.  The pastor was feeling unwell, so the message for everyone was delivered virtually. = /

After service everyone donned their holiday clothing, while Daddy hid the Easter Eggs.  Emily skipped breakfast and was not in the best of dispositions when it was time to hunt eggs.  Alice had a little bit of the 'tween' attitude, but candy goes a long way when it comes to participating in "little kid" activities.

Grace was hunting for purple eggs.

Juliet was looking for orange.

William was hunting for Blue.

Emily cried and moped about as she looked unsuccessfully for greens.  Once the others finished, they helped her track down her missing ones.

Alice was on yellow.  She could not find her final egg!  It turns out that Juliet had accidentally (but understandably) claimed it.  It was a translucent yellow egg with an orange recees inside, making it look orange. We figured it out when Juliet finished and had an extra.

When Avia came over, she took some family shots for us.

Alice didn't want to participate in our bunny pose, so we all helped giver her bunny ears.

Then, everyone gave me big hugs.  I fussed a bit, and seven was not happy that I'd made a distress noise and tried to "rescue" me.

We enjoyed a lovely ham meal, and then Billy and I headed out to enjoy a date. 

Once Emily had some food in her belly, and was back to her normal self, we headed back outside to take a few "make up" pictures in the evening.  They came out so much better!

The weather could not have been more beautiful.  It was a good reminder of the joy that comes with Jesus' resurrection. 

later days