Happy Halloween People

This picture is from last weekend. We went to the JDRF carnival at UNMH with Brandi and her kids, like we do almost every year. They'll dawn the same costumes today :) Darth Vader, Capt'n cutie, and Faith is a princess. (P.S I will be so totally happy when Halloween falls during the week again and I don't have to hear "is it time yet 5,945,103 times during the day!)

It was a "snowy" day today...

Not the first time, not the last, that this activity has entertained these children on a lazy day~ Believe it or not there are hotwheel cars somewhere in there. They played forever and got quite messy while they were at it. At some point a shaving cream "fight" broke out, and as I am all for self expression shaving cream fights aren't big with me, or the mess they make. They had it everywhere. Including the vertical blinds. Yeah...no thank-you. Faith got in on the action, too but she was in the shower when I snapped this pic. I proclaim that I must have the cleanest table in town :) I got last night, all day today, and tonight until tomorrow morning with the kids. It has been beyond lovely. We have been playing, cleaning, watching America's Funniest Home Videos, tonight we went to my Dad's house to carve pumpkins, roast various foods around the bon-fire, play with remote control cars, dinosaurs, rock 'em sock 'em robot battles, etc. It was a lovely day. Tomorrow I am going out to Rio Rancho to hang out with Brandi, go to lunch, and have a small break before trick-or-treat time. I am hoping for a full week with the kids, crossing my fingers! I go to the community college to talk to an advisor, too. Monday I have lunch with a Jenn & Noah, Tuesday I am taking Rach's family dinner, Wednesday is half day, Thursday I go to speak with an advisor, not sure about Friday, yet, Saturday Faith, Alorah, and I are going to walk in the JDRF walk to fight Type1 Diabetes. My friend Brandi's son has had Diabetes since he was a baby, he is the sweetest, most loving, amazing child you will ever meet. He has never complained about his disease and is brave beyond his years. I am so glad we get to participate in this walk with such wonderful people. It is nice to be busy again. I was beginning to go stir crazy! I am still trying to find balance. I push it too far, and pay for it, too much. Unfortunately I still have a long way to go. I do feel like I am starting to turn the corner though, I know I am leaps and bounds from where I was 2 weeks ago. Happy Halloween everyone! Enjoy it and be safe!

Halloween Past

Remember when we where in school? We wore the costumes our parents bought us to school on Halloween (or on a Friday if it fell on a weekend). Then, we did a neat parade where we all, by grade, paraded around the school in and out of every class so that everyone got to see our costumes. It was awesome! I loved it! I remember it very well. Somehow we all survived Freddy Krueger hands and no one said a word. Now, with political bureaucracy shining brightly in classrooms everywhere, we don't have Halloween, oh nooooo. We have "fall parties" that somehow conveniently occur the week of Halloween. Then we have "themes" for classrooms. While this may make perfect sense to the school board (to impose the "no Halloween" rules forcing teachers to be creative) it makes our lives, you know-the parents, more chaotic. Gee thanks school board people. Awesome. Now parents get to come up with not one but TWO costumes. Why in the world they cannot just send a list home of things that are okay and things that are not okay I will never know. Simply say, hey NO blood and gore. No showing too much skin. That would not be that hard to do. Some schools do storybook themes, that would not be so bad-most costumes can be modified to reflect a book.
Our school did not do a storybook theme. Our school chose to do a cowpoke theme and a super-hero sweatsuit theme. The ideas are cute. Fortunately Target had their Hanes sweatsuits on sale last week. I always buy them anyway, they make great jammies and hang-out clothes. Alorah's sweatsuit was around $8. No biggie. Faith's cowpoke thing was more. First, the boots, which I know she did not need boots but she has had a pair every year and always loved them. I found a pair at Target for $20 and my mom split them with me. I got her a shirt on clearance for $4 and Levi went and got her a stick horse for $13 at Toys R Us. Alorah's class made their capes in class which was great. I wish that Faith's class had just made the stick horses. I know they are not that hard and if you do them for a group and a $5 donation from the parents the supplies would be a snap to get together. Unfortunately when I priced out buying each item it was almost as much as buying one that was already made. I chose to not attempt my inept crafty side and we got the one at the store. So, $37 later we have her "cowpoke themed outfit" for her. I'm not thrilled. Her pet doctor barbie costume I bought last year was 75% off and only $7.00. If she had been able to just wear that, oh the money we would have saved. I'm sure I could have cut corners somewhere, not bought the boots, used a t-shirt instead of a button up, etc. I just didn't feel right about it. My mom had the idea to do her hair like I did, put the freckles on, and she provided the bandana. This will be her costume next year too! I'm not letting it go to waste.

She does look awfully cute. I am just bummed that life isn't as simple as it once was. How nice it was for our parents!

Costumes from last year. Vance is getting more use out of his Doctor costume.

JDRF

On Saturday we went to the JDRF Halloween carnival at the UNM college of Pharmacy. We went last year as well and it is a great opportunity to teach the kids about diabetes. We are also doing the JDRF walk at balloon fiesta park next weekend with Brandi's family. Brandi's son, Trey, has been diabetic since he was just a baby, her husband also has the disease. They are such an inspiration and have a great attitude about it. Trey and his sister Devyn also have Celiac's Disease. They have faced a lot of challenges but handle them beautifully! We all met there and had a great time along with Leona and her 4 beautiful girls Mara, Mikaela, Tessa, and Kyra.

Brandi, me, and Leona

all our beautiful kiddos! They are getting SO BIG!!!

I thought the concemed sign was hilarious lol

First we had a very yummy snack. It was tasty!

and then we played!

Brandi's little Pie-Pie, she is a doll!

look mom, a pretty butterfly for a pretty princess!

Brandi and Audrey

a blue spider!

This pic is SO cool. He got a rubix cube as a prize.

Barbie Pet Doctor Faith

Cookie Love

Rach came over with the boys, Addison, and Hailey today. We baked cookies and the kids played. We ended up with over 80 cookies :0 (tripled everything) 3 dozen of them are going to Faith and Alorah's class parties for Halloween, the rest we split between our families :D Cookies=Love. Rach got me hooked on these and they are so yummy. The recipe is further down :)

Rach's niece Hailey. So cute!

Addison!! Silly tot!

playing hot wheels.

SO messy but oh so tasty!

These cookies are SO good! I'm talking mega tasty! The trick is making them nice and thick! If you make them thin, well, they aren't so good.
Here is the recipe. Make them. Love them. Share them!

Cream Cheese Cut-out Cookies
1 c. softened butter
1 8oz pkg cream cheese softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
3 1/2 c. flour.

Cream the butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Add the egg and extracts. mix well.
Then add in the flour. Refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours (VERY important!). Roll out and use your favorite cookie cutters. I prefer them to be about 1/2 inch thick. Yes, that thick! It makes them SO tasty! Bake 375* for 9-12 min, you have to check them! If they brown you've gone too long. You want them to be done in the middle but not browned.

Almond Icing
4 c. powdered sugar
4 tbs butter
1/2 tsp almond extract
milk*

Cream together powdered sugar and butter, then add extract. After they are blended it will be crumbly. Add milk slowly until you get the consistency of icing you desire. Less milk=thick icing, more milk=glaze. I like it somewhere in the middle.

Mason loves Wii.

Max loves cookies

Vance loves cookies

Addison loves cookies

Finished product. Yummmy Yummmy!