It's My Party.....and I'll......

Last weekend my friend Sarah threw me a party for my 36th birthday. I honestly can't remember the last time I had a birthday party! She made yummy chicken spaghetti, my favorite hot sausage dip, a veggie tray with delish onion dip and my new favorite fat-free pumpkin spice dip that we dipped graham crackers and Nilla Wafers in but would also be yummy with fruit.

Matt made one of his famous adult beverages with hand squeezed grapes and lots of other secret ingredients that made lots of us adults sort of silly. Sarah even brought decorations in my favorite colors! Her and Matt went all out for the occasion and we all had a fantastic time.

The kids enjoyed mac'n cheese and hot dogs and all the pop they could drink. (Caffeine free of course.)

Isabel loved the black olives and really enjoyed smashing the mac'n cheese all over her belly.

To top off the party, Sarah also made me my favorite chocolate chip cookie cake. It was so good and luckily there was left overs for me to enjoy the next day as well.

Jessenia and Chad with Isabel.

The kids all had fun setting up a haunted house in Lucas' room with scary music and all. They had each adult enter alone at one point throughout the night.

Of all the people we had in the house that night the only person to break anything was me, when I dropped a shot glass. Luckily, as most of us know, Steve loves to sweep and he does such a great job at it.

The fun did not end when we all went to bed because the Armstrongs had their first sleepover at our house. Luckily it was planned so they were well prepared with jammies, pillows and even the portable playpen for Isabel. I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends who care about me and my family and am so thankful that all the kids and even the dads get along so well. Thanks to all who helped me celebrate. You mean the world to me.

Trick-or-Treat

Sunday evening the boys were so excited to carve their pumpkins. After starting our scary Halloween music we got to work. They each picked out the face they wanted and did the majority of scooping out the innards of their own pumpkins.

For the most part Steve and I did the actual carving until I got brave and let Lucas take over on one of our extra pumpkins......

For some reason the white pumpkin was a lot easier to carve and using the specific carving tools Lucas was able to do the whole thing by himself!! Next year I will know that he is capable but sometimes I still have trouble relinquishing control of certain things. At least I am willing to admit it. :)

Monday morning Landon got dressed in his costume for his Halloween Party at school. He was so excited to hand out the goodie bags we had put together. I was surprised when he asked me to paint his face like a puppy. When I picked him up I thought all his makeup would be rubbed off but it did not look too bad. All the little girls at his school kept telling him how cute he was.

He had me wash his face and said we could paint it before he went trick-or-treating that night. We had Grandma Judy, Papa and Aunt Erin over for chili so they could see the boys all dressed up before heading out into the night. Aunt Erin went around the neighborhood with us which the boys really liked.

We made a pit stop back at the house to check our candy bowl and take a potty break before heading out to 10 more houses - that was the number Lucas came up with. Once we were done we walked to a haunted house a couple of blocks away. It is set up in someones garage and is done every year. Lucas wanted no part of it so Steve stayed behind with him while Landon and I ventured in. (The girl at the door had the "actors" tone it down for Landon since he was so young.) He touched what we both believed to be an old lady statue and when it moved Landon said it scared the jeebee's out of him. Our little man is fearless.

We finally got home a little after 8:00, to find that someone had emptied our whole bowl of candy into their bag. We know we did not have that many trick-or-treaters the last 45 minutes we were out. Irritating, next year we will just have to turn our lights off while we are out and about. Despite the fact, we had a fun-filled holiday. After taking a quick bath and reading one last Halloween story the boys and I were all ready for bed. Landon is already talking about what he wants to be next Halloween.

Pre Halloween Fun

Last week, as per tradition, we painted some of our pumpkins. Lately Lucas has been very into doing things that are tradition and even if we have only done something once, he may just decide to make it a tradition. I actually like that he is old enough now to help decide what we do. As many of you already know, he is the "boss" in this house. ;)

Luckily they are both boys because more projects than not end up with them taking off their shirts. As the main person who does the laundry, I am all about them not ruining their clothes with paint and stains.

??????? No words to describe this outfit

Last Thursday Lucas had his Halloween parade and party at school. I had to leave the house early to help set up for his party so I was not at home to help him get all the pieces to his costume on. Oh well, most of the boys at least knew that he was dressed as Bat Man.

I was in charge of coming up with games for the kids in his class to play. I made a couple of bowls of spaghetti noodles, added some Halloween bouncy balls, blindfolded the kids and told them to stick their hands in the bowl of brains to retrieve the eyeballs. There was only one kid who did not want to participate, even after he knew what was really in the bowls. Next we made large spider webs by playing catch with a ball of yarn. All in all the kids had a great time and enjoyed the prizes I handed out for being such good sports.

Thursday after school Lucas had his little friend Anders over to play. The weather was nice enough that I sent them outside to get some of their wiggles out. I am glad that Lucas is so outgoing and continues to make new friends as well as keeping his old ones. He is definitely a social butterfly.Friday Lucas did not have school so after meeting some of the ladies from my coffee club at Chic-fil-a, we went and picked up grandma Judy and headed to Gardner Village. We try to go every year in October to see their wonderful witch exhibits.

We knew Steve would love the one on the bike so we had to get her in the pictures. We shopped at a couple of the stores, including my favorite, Pine Needles, a great fabric store. I just can't seem to help myself once I'm there.

Despite the massive crowds, we really enjoyed just walking around looking at all the witches. I think at last count, the boys saw 30 something witches. We then went to lunch with grandma before heading back to her house to hang out. She feels bad because she hardly sees Lucas now that he is in school all day.

Friday I stopped at the store and picked up some dry ice so that we could make some witches brew. The boys were so fascinated with the steam and bubbling from the ice, and spent a good hour mixing our brew.

We had so much fun with the witches brew Friday night that we decided to make a second batch on Saturday night when our friend Sean was over. He too loved the dry ice and kept asking me how I learned to make witches brew. I think for a moment he thought I was pretty cool.

Sunday morning Lucas, Landon and Sean woke up and fixed their own breakfast before heading downstairs to watch t.v. Steve had shut my door when he left for biking and with the fan we had going, I did not even hear the boys get up.

Sunday was a beautiful day and the boys spent the afternoon playing in the dirt in the backyard before heading out to the front yard with Steve to play football.Even Power Rangers like to play football.

Fall Break

Lucas started his fall break on Wednesday when he got out of school early. After school we drove up to the Canyons Resort outside Park City where we met Sarah, Sean, Gracie and Isabel Armstrong at the Grand Summit Hotel that they were staying at for the night. They had invited us up to go swimming with them.

The pool was nice and warm but with the little breeze coming off the mountain, any part of our body not in the pool got a little bit chilly. The kids did not seem to notice as much as the two moms did. :) burrrrr. Even little Isabel did not seem to mind the cooler air, as she loved splashing and playing in the pool.

Lucas and Landon had so much fun swimming with their best buds and may have just stayed in there all night if they had a choice. Unfortunately for them I did make them get out so we could get dressed and head home to have dinner with Steve.

Thursday we woke up and played board games before our little friend Danee got dropped off for the day. We watched her earlier in the week as well but before that it had been July since we had even seen her. Lucas has been asking to see her which was pretty cute. He decided he would help me watch her or so he said. He did help put her shoes on when we went to the park and helped her in and out of her seat belt. That counts as helping right? We spent the afternoon at the park playing soccer and watching high school kids play Quidditch, you know the game Harry Potter plays while flying around on a broom. Yeah I had no idea people really played this!! Of course they were not flying but they were running around on their brooms. Speaking of brooms.....

Thursday night I met up with some friends at Inferno for our annual Witches Night Out. The margaritas were super yummy and so were the steak nachos that I shared with my friend Jessenia.

It was weird and a little sad to have some of our friends not present for the evening but we still managed to have a fun night. There were lots of new faces this year as well, including my friend Nicole and her guest Jenny. Once the DJ started at 10 pm we were able to get out on the dance floor and bust a move before heading home for the night.

Friday morning Lucas had his little friend Parker from school come over and play. They have been wanting to play for some time now and so Lucas was so excited to have him over. At lunchtime we picked up grandma Judy and went to lunch at Chilis and got to see Uncle Fris (that's how Landon says it). We did not have any plans at all for the remainder of the weekend so we just hung out around the house playing soccer, football and board games. The boys and I painted pumpkins and did crafts while Steve began winterizing the house. I'm sad to see Lucas head back to school but I'm excited for the coming week filled with Halloween fun.

Fall is in the Air

Last week I accompanied Landon on his first school field trip. We met up with his Wonder Kids Preschool classmates at the Sandy Fire Station where we were treated to a very interactive and entertaining puppy show. I was quit impressed with the fire safety knowledge Landon had learned in school prior to the field trip.

While at the fire house, Landon was pretty quiet which is normal and as soon as we were walking away he started rambling about how his friend Josh was there. It was just funny because he did not say a word to Josh the whole time.

Last week we took our friend Henry with us to the Hogle Zoo. I'm not really sure why, but we have not been to the zoo since last spring. I bought a pass and then did not go at all during the summer. I guess it goes to show how busy we were. We also met up with Sarah, Sean, Gracie and Isabel at the zoo.

After Lucas finished his soccer game last weekend, we picked up his friend Chase and headed to Wheeler Farm for the Pumpkin Festival. Although the three boys had a great time in the hay maze and on the wagon ride, I decided next year we will find a new place to go and pick out our pumpkins. In the past we were able to pull the pumpkins straight off the vine but this year they had huge boxes of little pumpkins that they placed in an open area that you went in and chose your pumpkin from. I was a little disappointed.

We always enjoy just walking around looking at the animals and playing on all the old tractors. Plus now they have a big playground that the kids spent more time on than anything.