Happy Halloween!

I have to admit...this day makes me a little giddy.  I love the excitement of getting the boys all dressed up.  Even more, I love seeing everyone else's costumes and decorations.

We did a little Halloween Sneak-peek at a Fall Festival this weekend.

 
Yep...Frankenstein and Fireman Ryder made their debut.  The Fireman didn't want his picture taken.   I'm not surprised in the least...but he wouldn't be an honest man if he said he didn't have fun...Bounce House, after Bounce House, after Bounce House AND more bowling with Pumpkins = Heaven to a four year old boy!

And for something fun...how about these treats?  A S'mores gift pack for all of Ryder's friends at school.

My girlfriend/realtor/workout buddy/save me in a pinch friend Jennifer had the idea for the Mummy Chocolate Bars.  I wanted to pair something with it and had seen several of you (Amy Jenkins and Heather Keating I'm calling you out!) post these little marshmallow ghost on Facebook.  I snuck a few graham crackers behind the marshmallows, painted my clear bags with a sharpie and this job was done!

 Eighteen 25 posted some free printable Halloween tags last year and they were still available...so I snagged a few and tied on top.  This is was super easy to put together if you need something to hand out to a special neighbor or friend tonight!

Bowling with Pumpkins

What better way to spend a chilly October afternoon?  Thank you to Disney Junior for giving us the idea.  Bowling with a Pumpkin was a huge hit for this 4-year old!

Wordless Wednesday

Tasty Tuesday- Candy Corn Finale

It is officially the last Tuesday in October and my last time to post about the deliciousness of Candy Corn for a whole year.  I'm a little bit sad.

Today we made a few turkeys.  For the past two years I have seen the Oreo Cookie Turkeys that use Candy Corn for the feathers.  The only problem... by the time late November rolls around, all of the candy corn is off of the shelves in the store (and in my pantry).  This year I decided to stock up on the candy corn so I'd have enough left to make these little treats in November.

We did a trial run this afternoon...Rustin has to bring a "Fall" snack to share at school.  Turkeys are really not "Fall" when I think about it...but we made these cute acorns to go with them (and I'm pretty sure acorns are a "Fall" thing).

The acorns are so easy.  I've seen them on Pinterest made several different ways.  A lot of recipes call for Nutter Butters, but the boys school is a Peanut free zone, so we chose to use mini-vanilla wafers.  Here is how you assemble them.

You'll need Kisses, a small cookie (we chose the mini Nilla wafers), pretzel sticks, and chocolate icing.

 Squirt some icing on the flat (bottom) side of the cookie.  This is my master of all things icing.  In case you were wondering...he can "do it all by himself".  Make sure you get enough icing on the cookie that it "glues" the cookie and the kiss.

Attach the Hershey kiss to the cookie. Allow it to dry for a few minutes.  Next, put a small dab of icing on a pretzel stick (approximately 1/4" in length) and attach it to the other side of the cookie.  The end result looks like this.

The Turkeys are really simple too!  I followed the directions on  Cookies and Cups only making a few modifications.  Hershey kisses instead of chocolate covered marshmallows and I skipped the red icing gel for the gobble.   Also..I took the cookies apart and squirted a little icing in the middle.  This will help hold the cookie together a little more securely while you are attaching everything to it.

That's it!

Special Boy

This boy melts my heart in so many ways.  Ryder is extremely special and yet I'm not even sure he realizes it.  I couldn't ask for a more thoughtful, caring, rule following, loving, funny four-year old.  I mean really funny.  Like...where do you come up with this stuff kind of funny.

Sometimes it is the most trivial things that mean the most to him...like this green coat.  He found it on one of our after Church outings to Costco.  The Costco trips we make every Sunday after Mass and a trip to Taco Cabana.  Taco Cabana...the reason he skips breakfast before church.  The place where he loves the Tortillas and the Queso.  The place he knows his Grandparents will be and usually his cousins too. 

We had a day last week that was cool enough for a jacket and the green coat came out of the closet.  He wore it to the Pumpkin Patch at school.  His face spells S-A-D.  Sad he was...he needed me that day.  A little uncharacteristic of him...he's usually fine without me.  He was tough and survived the rest of the day at school.

A few other things he loves right now...Disney World's Haunted Mansion, pretending to play restaurant, the carwash, pizza, vanilla ice cream, his "Best Pal" Pluto, trips to his Grandparent's house, Sonic Grilled Cheese with a Powerade Slush, and despite my better judgement..."Phineas and Ferb".   

Tasty Tuesday- Candy Corn Rice Krispies

Incase you thought I had run out of ideas for different ways to consume candy corn...I haven't.  This week we added them to our Rice Krispy Treats.

I always melt my butter and marshmallows in the microwave, even though the directions instruct you to melt them on the stove.  I start out at 1 minute, stir and then put back in an additional 30 seconds as needed.  The marshmallows will puff up like this.

Stir everything up together (as if that wasn't obvious).

Ryder is my Kitchen helper and he always likes to stir.

Press them down into a greased 9x13. Hint...put a little cooking spray on your hands and you'll have a much less sticky experience.   Cut them into squares once they have completely cooled.  Taking a bite and getting a chewy piece of candy corn is amazing.  Just ask me...I've only had half the pan tonight ;)

Burlap Wreath

I had a tease post about 2-weeks ago with an image of the start of a burlap wreath.

Truth be told..I ran out of hot glue and tried using straight pins.  FYI, that doesn't work. Don't try it.  I decided that the method I was using to apply the burlap looked messy, so I removed everything and started from scratch this morning.

I had all of the burlap scraps in a pile and I just started folding the strips in 1/2 and then rolling them into a tight pinwheel.  I hot glued the end of the pinwheel to itself and then glued it to the wreath.  Keep going, filling in all the blank spots of the burlap wreath.  To add color, I used some orange wired ribbon I had in my craft closet and made a few more pinwheels.  The final result looks like this.

There are a few fake spiders (the big one is from Michael's)...the small ones are the little rings, that I cut the rings off of.  I followed this tutorial to make the tag.  There is a free download for the printable!  Awesome!

I re-purposed an old grapevine wreath I had up in the attic.  All of the other materials were purchased for less than $10.00.    There you go!

Tasty Tuesday- Witch Hats

Yum-O!  And oh so easy!  Here is what you need:

1. Candy Corn Hershey Kisses (I found them at Target).  If you can't find them, regular Hershey Kisses will work.

2. Keebler Fudge Stripe Cookies

3.  Orange Icing (In a tube on the Baking Aisle)

Unwrap the Hershey Kiss and put a squirt of icing on the bottom.

Attach the Hershey Kiss to the bottom of the cookie.  That is is it..You are Done!

The Pumpkin Patch

We headed out to the Pumpkin Patch this morning with a few friends. Ryder's only request was that I not take his picture.  I didn't listen. Rustin loves Pumpkins so he was in Heaven. 

This is generally what happens when I try and take a "together" picture.  They try their best not to cooperate!

And again...I'm not sure what was going on here.  Some kind of weird brotherly love...they had fun today!

Do you ever?

Do you ever sit in your living room at 3:30 a.m with your laptop and read through your old blog posts?  Probably not....unless you have a newborn in your house...which I don't.

Early Sunday morning, I was wide awake in some crazy, allergy induced state. I'm a violent sneezer. I can't sneeze softly.  I've always been envious of people who can...its just not in me.  I moved to the living room so the sneezing didn't throw Matt out of bed. It was pouring down rain outside and the sound of the water hitting the chimney was strangely calming.  I jumped onto my news-feed to do some catch-up reading on all of the Blogs I love, but don't seem to have the extra time it takes to read them all.  Y'all know I love Pinterest, but I feel like it takes away from actually reading Blogs.  A friend reminded me that it takes me to some new Blogs that I had never ventured to before...but  rarely do I subscribe to this new find or continue reading.  I just pin a particular idea and I'm done.

Anyway, I jumped on here to catch up....but instead found myself nostalgically reading about the little happenings in my life way back in 2008.  My 4-year old was a baby and the struggles I mention about raising this new member of our family, don't seem like much to stress over now.  Two kids make one a piece of cake and I imagine those of you with three kids scoff at my struggles with just two.

I sometimes wish life would just slow down.  Reading back to 2008 seems like yesterday...and yet so long ago.   I've started to try and stay off of the computer when I'm home with the boys.  I want them to remember the things we did together this short time I have them at home...not me on the computer.  I can't always control that.  I still work and sometimes that is hard for Ryder to understand. He is different than Rustin.  He needs to be with people all of the time.  Alone time is not something he cherishes.  He wants us to lay with him at night while he falls asleep.  I'm not going to lie...some nights that is a beating.  I'm exhausted.  I'm ready for both of them to be in bed so that I can watch TV or just do nothing.  As I lay there beside him, I remember that one day he won't want us in his room anymore...much less to lay with him as he falls asleep.  How can I not cherish these moments?

The three boys in my life are absolutely the BEST BLESSING life has to offer.  I am so thankful for this Blog and the opportunity it has given me to document all of our little moments...like this little trip to the Ice Cream truck.

It was our first...honestly the Ice Cream Truck creeps me out.  But to a 4 and 2-year old it is all but amazing.  A truck full of ice cream, driving around playing music...the music growing louder means it must be close...and then Ta-da!!!  They see it!  It is the most excitement of their entire day!   It was Friday night...Ryder was riding his bike and Rustin was toddling around on the front porch with us...we told Ryder if he could get the trucks attention they could each get something.  He came through and had the truck pull right up the drive to the front door.  We had two happy boys!

Hope Y'all have an amazing Monday!

Tasty Tuesday Candy Corn + Cupcakes = Yuummmmy!

I'm going to try and put up a recipe that uses Candy Corn every week in October!  I love me some candy corn :)  Last night I made a really simple pumpkin cupcake recipe from none other than Pinterest.  I think this was actually a Real Simple Recipe.  Either that or Martha Stewart.  Aren't they kind of the same?  Anyway...to make this all you need is a Yellow Cake Mix, Eggs, Oil, Pumpkin Puree, Cream Cheese, Powdered Sugar AND Candy Corn!

Candy Corn....you either love it or hate it.  I happen to love it.  What I really love is those little pumpkins that they sell right by the candy corn.  They are absolutely amazing.  Never mind though...back to the recipe.

Bake the Cake exactly as directed EXCEPT instead of adding the Water, use 1 Can (15 oz.) of Pumpkin Puree.  I chose to make cupcakes, but I suppose you could make a cake if you wanted.

You may already be very cupcake savvy, but here is a tip....I use an ice cream scoop to put my batter in the lined cupcake pan.  For this recipe, I used two scoops per cupcake. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 Degrees. 

Let them cool and then they are ready to frost.  For the frosting you'll need two cups of sifted powdered sugar and (2) 8-oz. packages of cream cheese (room temperature).  Blend with a hand mixer until smooth.  I used a disposable icing bag and a Big Tip to pipe the icing onto the cupcake.  Garnish each cupcake with a few candy corns!  You're done...Yum in your mouth!