Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to you from me and my pumpkin gal above! My favorite day of the year! I'm so happy it's on a Friday. We'll be trick or treating after school and my husband will carve our pumpkin  and the kids will be having their trick or treat friends over for pizza so it's gonna be a busy day! That's the plan! I'm meeting a friend for breakfast this morning first, once Caitlin gets on the bus, all decked out in her devil costume. I hope you checked out our party post from a few days ago. We still are talking about our friends and their costumes and the funny things that happen at parties. A fun week with all kinds of cool things. The door bell rang two nights ago and we were"boooooed!"

Caitlin's friend Natasha left a bag on our porch of homemade chocolate chip cookies! She told Caitlin in school yesterday that it was her! It's tough keeping a secret :)
 Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Caitlin's school working the Halloween Happening. Her school does this every year and it's so fun. The school is from grades 3-5. She is in fourth The whole school stays from 3:15 to 5:45 going to different events set up such as games and dancing in the gym, a show featuring acrobats and magicians in the auditorium, a craft and snack in the cafeteria and then you can trick or treat down the HAUNTED hallway....and that's where I was. All us Moms are lined up along the corridor in the semi darkness giving out candy and trinkets to our trick or treaters. Here's the hallway before the kids came trick or treating and before the lights go off!

A good time for us all! I think we did some great decorating too! Today she is allowed to wear her costume to school but she can't bring her pitchfork!

Once she gets home we will trick or treat with her friends for a bit, my son goes out with his own friends and then we meet back at our house for pizza. Then after pizza my husband will take everybody to two houses in our neighborhood that turn their homes into haunted houses! I'll stay home and give out to the trick or treaters.

I didn't get to photograph Carol and Frankie's coop for you but we decorated that for Halloween too. Carol and Frankie were enjoying the backyard yesterday poking around for their own treats in the the dirt and deserted garden. Here they are in front of the strawberry plants.

Wishing you a happy Halloween with lots of treats and just a few tricks!

Witches, Devils, Ghosts & Goblins!

Happy Sunday morning to you all! And welcome to my newest follower! Thank you for your interest, and I hope you come back again and again :)

 It's CHILLY here this morning, and the cats were all snuggled up in an afghan in the parlor looking adorable. Then when they heard I was awake and the coffee maker started making its sounds, they were awake and running around playing with eyeballs! I have a big bag of ping pong balls that have an "eye" painted on them left from the Halloween party and the cats are going nuts for them. They run and slide and get crazy! Before you know it, their antics had Caitlin awake and our day has begun!

We had such a good time Friday night at our Halloween party. My son let me take his picture (which he rarely does) and that just made my night! You know how teenagers can be. Billy is 15 and prefers to take the pictures; not be in them! Lately he has been giving in though--he's tired of hearing his Mom beg and plead :) He's such a good boy.

All the girls came for games and refreshments ( I love that word) and it got pretty crazy. Nine year old girls know how to party and their high- pitched voices and screams could really break some glass! Oh boy. Just play some musical chairs and hot potato and you'll find out! The squeals and laughs were terrific though cause they were having fun! Those happy screams mean SUCCESS!  We played charades and did the grab bag too which was a big hit! It's funny how the girls will sing and dance in front of each other and be silly but when you play charades, they are too embarrassed to "talk like Dracula"" or "cackle like a witch" ???????? However they did love when they got the charades that said "act like you're a diva" or "pretend you just met your favorite pop star"---they're all over those two! Heck, not one of them would "howl like a werewolf" which I promptly did to show them how  :)      We had lots of fun and so many laughs.

Twelve girls all together and a few stayed for the sleepover. At nine years old, a lot haven't even done a sleepover at anyone's house yet so we were happy a few did stay. They were all nice, well-behaved sweethearts.  Here are some of the snacks we had besides pizza:

And this was all that I got to photograph...even more food  I hadn't even put out yet but God Bless them all: THOSE GIRLS CAN EAT! They had a great time and we were all happy! Plates of mac & cheese, fruit cups, pumpkin whoopie pies...all yummy!

Saturday morning after the last guest left, Aunt Linda,Caitlin and I went to a Harvest Festival at a nearby church. It was cute but very small and we didn't stay long though I did try a plate of Korean food from the food area. Not bad. I love Japanese and Chinese so I wanted to try it. Then we headed to the St. James General Store. We needed our "old fashioned fix".

The general store is the oldest, continuously running general store in the country. It was opened in the 1850's  and has never been changed since 1894 with the original counters, pot belly stove, coffee grinder and more. It's so fun to visit in Fall and Winter as the store is all decorated!It's only 15 minutes from my house so we go pretty often. The big candy counter has jars and jars of candy and the store smells of Yankee candles and a wood burning stove. They have new stuff and seasonal stuff but hey keep it the way it always was and most times the ladies behind the counter are in what they call "Gibson Girl" dress. I've blogged about the general store before it's such a family favorite. When we got home, my husband and son were back from where they were and they talked about going to Deepwells Mansion for the haunted house.

My little devil went with my husband and  Aunt Linda on Saturday night! There were no age restrictions so we let her go. It was a "scary" house. She couldn't wait and although I don't like scary, we let her go so that she would see what it was all about. She had the option to stay outside with my husband or her Aunt if she changed her mind last minute...but she went! They said it really wasn't scary.. on a scale of 1-10 and 10 being the scariest, it was about a 5. She screamed ALOT my husband said.....but she had a good time and ended up going in twice! Now she can cross that off of her list of "things to do..."!! I had opted to continue my after party clean up and watch "The Haunted Mansion " so I didn't go.  Thank goodness they all bought that excuse and let me stay...I don't like scary :)

Time for me to get going and get ready for Sunday! Have a great day!

Tonight is the Party!

It's party time tonight! And we are ready! well almost......The party includes twelve of Caitlin's friends some of which are staying over for the haunted sleepover! Semi haunted...they are only 9! First, it's food and games and then at 9:30 when everyone leaves...it's sleepover party time! With some haunted sounds, assorted rubber rats and spiders, etc thrown in! And Hocus Pocus and Hotel Transylvania playing on the tv! And snacks. There's always snacks!

 Caitlin and I made Halloween Hugs. Super simple. I try to give her a recipe that she can do basically on her own cause she loves to have her input. This recipe is:  Square or round pretzels, a chocolate kiss and candy corn. First you put the kiss (or chocolate kiss Hug) on top of the pretzel. Pop it into the oven at 250 degrees for 5 minutes until the kiss begins to soften. Then take it out of the oven and immediately press in a piece of candy corn!  She did the whole thing except for the oven part.

Super cute! We made a whole bunch!We also decorated our cupcakes and made brownies. We are having pizza, mac and cheese and pigs in a blanket...cupcakes, brownies, Frankenstein pudding cups, cookies and raspberry tarts. Hmmm...oh yes, pumpkin cupcakes and jello jigglers....there's more...The girls and a few of my friends who are coming should be eating and playing games all evening!

All this activity in the house with party preparations have completely knocked Jinxie and Moo Moo out! They are exhausted! Wait till party time!

Halloween Party Prep & Camping

Happy Monday Morning! It is cold this morning! I'm so glad I had my fuzzy jammies on. The heat clicked on too. All week we are expecting cool temps! Fine with me; I love a good Fall chill in the air. This was another speedy weekend for us, but we got done what we needed to.

I went camping with my Girl Scout troop on Friday night (more on that in a minute), Saturday morning Billy took our son Billy upstate for his weekly doctor's appointment and then they roamed around in the mountains up there, and Sunday  we went to get Caitlin's Halloween costume and the pumpkin patch. I was thinking how busy all of us bloggy friends are:  between family visiting and just having fun with them, party planning, decorating, and wondering who made what this weekend!

Let me tell you, if you have never spent time camping with six nine year olds, you don't know what you're missing! Half of my troop came, and they were so funny and so good. Below were our accomodations:

It's quite cozy. In there were six girls and two other Moms besides me plus one older sister of one of the girls. They had so much fun making crafts, having a bonfire, making smores. There was even a little Fall festival. That's Caitlin below in the cat sweatshirt. She is the tiniest  of the campers, my little mousie :)

She walked on monster feet! Not easy to do!

Here she is with her friend Faith.

This task called for teamwork--what Girl Scouts is all about! They had to move perfectly as a group in order to move the ski! They did it!

SMORES!  She had decorated her face with foam pumpkin decals too.The smores were great...

Paddle boating in the afternoon. It was just a great way to end the day!

When I got home late afternoon Saturday, I was pooped! The funniest thing happened. The girls were all in the tent with their sleeping bags and us moms were at the picnic table chatting when we hear one of the girls say "Lets play Truth or Dare." So our ears perk up, we are ready to stop the game if we needed to, this is a G rated camping trip....and the first question is to a little girl named Ashley "What is your middle name????"  We looked at each other and smiled! hahahahaaha Ashley took the dare. She wasn't telling her middle name! She had to hold her breath for as long as she could. The next question posed to another is "would you go to the store in your pajamas???" and so on and so on and us Moms laughed and rejoiced that our little ones were still innocent and oblivious to most of the crazy world we live in! No worries here at nine years old. And btw, they would go to the store in their pajamas! At least that's what they all said!

Sunday it was the pumpkin patch! We picked a good one to carve...My husband is the master carver of the family :)  at least that's what he says! In the afternoon I made some goody bags, and a few more things for the party Friday night.  On to the party store -- Caitlin is going to be a devil for Halloween! She picked out a cute costume! However, the horns were so comfortable she kept them on till she went to bed last night!

She can't fool me--I know she's really a little angel!

Friday! Friday! Friday!

Early start today! I have a lot to do! Girl scout camping tonight :)  My co-leader and I will be sleeping under the stars with some girls from our troop. It's supposed to be a beautiful evening for the bonfire, and we all love that. It's only an overnight trip; I'll be home late afternoon tomorrow. The theme for this weekend is Fall Fun!We were told there will be cider tasting, crafts, pumpkin picking and more. What I like about this trip is I don't have to really rough it. I mean I appreciate there are bathrooms! We stay in a three sided structure that has a wood floor and canvas sides and they prepare the meals for us so we aren't cooking ourselves. It's organized and the girls love it. We did it last year and now we have more girls joining us. Caitlin packed her ghost stories book, her haunted house joke book, bingo, mad libs (HAVE TO HAVE MAD LIBS!!!) and the assorted stuffed animals that can't bare to spend one night away from her :) Camping in the Fall is my favorite cause I don't like heat of the Summer, there are no bugs except for an occasional spider, and being among the trees in the woods just makes me appreciate even more the colors of the season, the crunching of the leaves, and all that.

I wonder if I find one of these in the woods!

I saw a great craft the other day and started making a bunch of them for Caitlin's party next Friday night:

How cute are these??? I was really excited to find this as I love doing these types of party favors and some of them are getting repetitious. This was a brand spanking new idea! They are stacked Halloween oreos in cellophane tucked inside a witch's shoe! There was a pattern for the shoe. If anyone would like it just give me  a shout out and I'll send you the link. The only thing I didn't do was add the tag which has a quote from the Wizard of Oz. I just used lots of pretty ribbon but you could print up whatever you would like and make it into a tag. It'll pare up nicely with my witch's hat candy bags that I make every year:

Yesterday I made all my popcorn cups. This is a shot of them filled from last year. It's amazing how the addition of a pair of googly eyes can transform a cup into so much fun!

I kept picturing these guys all mumbling to each other as I was making more and more and gathering them on the counter.... I think I heard one of them say to another "move over..you're crowding me!!"

More Halloween work to do but tonight and tomorrow it's all about the Girl Scouts and my Caitlin!

Have a great weekend!

Lots of Things Going On!

After my happy Saturday with friends and family, we settled down a bit on Sunday. Billy wanted to finish up the craft room :) and he pretty much did! With the exception of painting the counter above the shelves and some wall shelves for me, he did everything I wanted because I want to do it as I go along and not rush to finish it. I have to slide in the shelves for the cabinet. Just didn't get a chance yet. Oh, and of course the curtains won't be nailed to the wall either :)

He put a great piece of granite for my workbench that he had in our shed. The room looks small in pictures but it's perfect for me!

 There was another piece of granite for a shelf. See below. He wants to add more shelves but I'm planning it out! I have a picture in my mind of what I want it to be like.

The top of the cabinet has to be stained or painted and a few other little things done and I'm all set! Then I can have fun decorating it.

While he was working upstairs, I had a craving for stuffed mushrooms so I made a batch...this is them before I baked them. The smell of garlic, cheese and parsley filled the house! Yummy.

Caitlin got a haunted house joke book from the library and read me every one.

There sure were some cute ones. I was thinking of printing some for her Halloween sleepover. Everyone has rsvp'd now and we have ten attending for the party and four of them staying for the sleepover. And speaking of sleepovers, I also have my Girl Scout camping trip coming up! Oy Vay! I've got lists galore over here!

 Have I mentioned that Caitlin learned to crochet? My goodness she is crocheting up a storm! She took to it so easily! I just have to keep Jinxie away from her yarn cause he runs with the end and pulls out all her hard work :( silly kitty.  Good thing Caitlin loves him so much.

Talk to you soon!

I Love My Weekends!

Yesterday was a fun,, fun day! It was just a simple kind of fun too with some special people visiting for Halloween snacks and my near completed craft room! Did you ever have one of those weekends when all your plans actually work out well with no glitches? Hurray! That was my Saturday!

I finished all my decorating (I think) although I did go out early yesterday with my sister-in-laws and found some more cute items at the dollar store. The dollar stores here have really kicked it up a notch on the holiday decorations! I got some cute cut outs that I'll probably save for next year and a few little trinkets for my trick or treat bags.Caitlin was going with Aunt Linda and Aunt Barbara and cousin Donna for a fun day--lunch, Hicks Nursery for pumpkins and the Halloween show and then back to her Aunt Linda's for pumpkin painting. My husband started working on my craft room and I was preparing for a fun afternoon. The house is all decorated and I just love having people over :)  

Is it me or don't pigs in a blanket mean a party??? They do for me! They just make me smile!

Add some popcorn to a witch's kettle....

Cookies, cake, donuts  and potato chips, coffee, tea and candy corn all on a Saturday afternoon with people you truly like to be with! You just have fun chatting and never run out of things to talk about.

The kitchen was lit up! And a glow in pumpkin orange and black!

The Halloween village was lit and I put in the flying witch  I bought from the thrift shop. She circled the neighborhood....

I had two additional special guests who loved our ghosts in the hallway! 

Lucky me I got to see these two for two weekends in a row! Love them! and they are just discovering Halloween!

They walked around and around looking at all the Halloween decorations.

And loved the bug pops I made them offered by this little witch.

It was a nice day! I had to repair my skeleton friend earlier as little Jinxie the kitty decided to play with his dangling legs and we discovered that the "leg bone was no longer connected to the hip bone..." as the song says. But he lives! or does he? that's the question...he is a skeleton!.

So as all this coffee drinking, snack eating and chatting is going on with my adult guests and my kiddie friends, my husband was up the stairs hammering down a pretty wood floor for my craft room and sawing shelves and counters! 

They'll be a work bench under the window and in the left photo these are the bases for shelves, He has to insert them yet but I had to take some pictures! I'll have shelves on the walls and he put tons of outlets!!!  I can have all my crafting goodies in just one room and leave my makeshift spot in another part of the house and have my own room. More pictures to follow. I'm so excited :)  I told you it was a really good Saturday!

Caitlin came home from her day out with a big smile. My niece, who is her second year of college and was home from the weekend, and Caitlin did a little performance of several songs from FROZEN acting it out dramatically and lip synching perfectly like two silly gooses. It was funny and sweet. My daughter was beaming! What great fun they had.

I spent the evening relaxing and making more of my pumpkin friends! I hope you have a wonderful weekend too!