Halloween activities!

Halloween has been a long time coming at our house. We've been preparing for it about two months, no joke. We've made pumpkins, bats, haunted houses, and ghosts out of paper. We've made a skeleton out of paper plates. We had about three or four sheets of Halloween sticker/clingers for the windows. We made bats and spiders out of pipe cleaners and styrofoam balls. We made an edible Haunted House. We also had glowing pumpkin lights hanging from our entertainment center, along with battery operated pumpkins for the kids rooms. And finally, we decorated pumpkins while watching Casper. In short, we have been very busy making our house festive and spooky.

This year we went to three Hallween parties. On Thursday we went to Texas A&M Galveston's Halloween Howl, where the kids trick or treated and played games and bounced in the bouncy house. On Friday we went to IHOP and got free Spooky Face Pancakes for the kids, then went to UTMB's Halloween Carnival, where the kids did more games and got candy. After the UTMB party we headed over to our ward's Trunk or Treat, where the kids played even MORE games, and got even MORE candy.

By the end of it all the kids had enough candy to fill up their own gallon ziploc bags. Talk about sugar overload. They had fun though, and Meg is now a pro at saying "trick or treat". I fear that she might think that now anytime she puts on that costume she'll expect candy. haha. Carter was one awesome Spiderman.

I have one favorite story of the whole time, and that was on Friday at our ward's Trunk or Treat. They had a room set up where you could bob for apples, and after sticking her face in a couple of times with no success, Meg decided to give up and headed over to the candy bucket in the corner. After picking at the candy and looking it over, she dropped them, waved her hand at it, like saying nevermind, headed back over to the apples, reached her hand in and just grabbed one and started eating. hahaaa. I love it. Bo says that later, after eating it half gone, she tried going and putting it back in the bucket, where she succeeded after a couple of attempts to ditch Bo. Bo said by the time he caught up to her, there was a kid pulling a half chewed apple out of the bucket of water and apples. I would've loved to see that kid's face.

So those were our Halloween activities.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I love Megan's smile. Of course Carter has to go for the goofy face.

This is me trying to salvage Bo/Carter's SpongeBob pumpkin.

This was Meg's and my pumpkin.

Bo's Sponge Bob pumpkin. Unfortunately, it didn't survive.

Trick or Treat!!!

I'd like some Fall weather, please??

The high today was 87 degrees.

The humidity was 82 percent.

The heat index was a whoppin' 101.

.

It's the end of October. It should not be that hot outside.

I want sweaters! I want cool weather!

I want to put Meg in her cute tights that I got on sale, but can't for fear she'll pass out from the heat.

.

On a side note, they wanted the kids to dress up in their costumes for story time today at the Library.

In order to get Meg to wear her costume, I promised her that there would be treats.

You should have seen the look of disgust and betrayal on her face when she realized that the "treat" was going to be a book.

It was classic.

I love that girl.

Zoo Boo

Every year the Houston Zoo holds a Zoo Boo, where they do Halloween stuff. Last Saturday we decided to go and join the festivities!

It was great! They had trick or treat booths, a pumpkin painting station, a place where you could color, and all sorts of other stuff. They also had a dance company come in, dressed up as zoo animals, and teach everyone how to dance "Thriller". It was pretty fun. You should've seen Meg, she actually watched the dancers and tried doing the moves. Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's gonna dance when she's older.

It was a little crowded, go figure, and it was HOT outside, but we still had a good time. Our friends, the Wests, aslo joined us, so that made the trip even more enjoyable.

And yes, Carter kept his Spiderman suit on all day, even though it was hot. Meg wouldn't even TRY to put her outfit on. Little stinker. Luckily she's so cute that the trick or treat booths still gave her candy. I don't know what we're going to do when Halloween actually comes.

Carter is in the stroller. I think the heat was getting to him. ha.

At the pumpkin station.

One of the dancers dressed up as a giraffe.

Enjoying lunch while watching the dancers. One of the great things about the zoo is that they let you bring your own food.

The dance company teaching everyone "Thriller".

Ferry Ride!

The kids and I went and rode the Ferry for playgroup last week. We had a ton of fun. There were so many dolphins out! It was great seeing them. Megan didn't want to see the dolphins that much, but she still loved riding the boat.

I was so proud of myself, I had a great idea! I knew there was no way I could hold up both kids to look over the edge of the ferry, so I packed along my stroller, and what do you know, it was the perfect height for my kids to stand on. It was stroller/stool. I was proud, can you tell? I just don't get many ideas anymore, much less good ones. :)

Spiderman Princess

This is what I came home to find today. Maybe I've been gone too much lately.

Bo

Vegetables

Bo just made this comment: "Did you know that you are supposed to have 5 servings of vegetables a day???................Blaaaach." (I'm pretty sure he shuddered too).

hahaa.

It's gonna be fun trying to get my kids to eat their veggies once their old enough to realize DAD doesn't have to eat them.

I'm starving my family!!

Oh man. It's embarrassing, it really is, but for the life of me I CANNOT COOK with this pregnancy.

I've been burning things left and right. I've been measuring wrong. Sometimes I have NO CLUE what I've done wrong.

We had chili and cornbread on Sunday for dinner. Bo made the chili, I made the cornbread. It was a disaster. Oh it was HORRIBLE. I've made that recipe hundreds of times, even down here in Galveston (so I know I can't blame the weather or the altitude), and it has always turned out so delicious and wonderful. Not this time. I have no clue what went wrong, but something did, because it wasn't good. It had a horrible texture and was just bad. I can't even explain it.

Monday I tried a new meatloaf recipe a friend gave me. I mixed it up and put in the fridge to sit at 11 in the am. I was soooo proud of myself for finally being on top of things. Well. I put the potatoes in the oven a half hour before the meatloaf that night, to make sure they were good and cooked, then later put the meatloaf in ON TIME, then while it was cooking and near the end of it's supposed time, I put in asparagus rolled in olive oil and then sprinkled with garlic salt and parm. cheese. I was on a roll people. I had planned a great dinner.

And then....the meatloaf wouldn't set. It looked cooked, but it had the texture of raw meat. So in it went for a half hour more. By this time the potatoes were done and the asparagus was too (or so I thought). We set the table, fixed up the potatoes, cut up the asparagus, got all ready and checked the meatloaf. No change. WHAT THE?!! Back in the oven it went, me a little teary eyed. We sat down and ate what we had and. . . the asparagus was too tough. To quote Bo, "at least your potatoes turned out good." Yeah thanks. Kinda hard to mess up baked potatoes. I wouldn't put it past me to mess them up in the future though.

So by this time, we decided to check the meatloaf one more time, and if there were no changes, we were gonna just call it a failure and go get some pizza.

Pizza it was.

At least my kids finally had some dinner to eat.

I still have 4 more months of this pregnancy. What are we going to do??? Thank goodness for frozen meals and fast food, and a husband who is very patient.

The meatloaf. It looks really bad because by this time we were chopping it up in different places to see if it looked better anywhere else. It had such promise. sigh.

My kids happy with their pizza.

On a final note, weeks ago I had signed up to feed the Sister Missionaries, and tonight was the night they came over. You can imagine how nervous I was to cook. I seriously was.

Luckily tonight it turned out well, thanks to frozen veggies and a pasta dish that didn't require going in the oven...and Bo's help in the kitchen. And by help I mean him checking to make sure I had all the right measurements and assuring me it looked good.

Playing at the park

The weather is FINALLY getting nice enough that we can go outside!! Granted, there are a lot of mosquitoes, but it's still so nice to be able to get some fresh air!!!

With mosquito repelent in tow, we headed off to the Castle Park last week for a playgroup with some friends. We had tons of fun, and luckily I remembered to pull out my camera and grab a few shots!

So here it is, proof that we get out of the house, and proof that I have friends, or at least one. haha.

(at the bottom of this post there also some random shots of Meg, because she's just so darn funny and cute. We're still getting used to having a girl)

Jenn, Miyah, and Carter.
See? We do all get along and have fun!

Meg might look grumpy in this picture, but she's not. She's praying. I love it. She's just giving me a glare for interrupting her little private moment.

Tea party, anyone???

Sorry she's just in a diaper, but clothes are confining and I think little kids in diapers or onesies are sooooo cute. It reminds me that they are still babies.