The Halloween Party

Before Thanksgiving is upon us, I thought I would post pictures from Mo's Halloween party a few weekends ago.  There are a lot of pictures.  Here we go.....

How cute are these two?  An adorable witch and a beautiful butterfly.... until the witch decided she wanted to be a butterfly and the tears began to fall....

 I was trying to convince Emmersyn that being a witch was totally cool.... Now she was just like her Aunt Nicole.... Check out Dr. Steve... I'm not sure I would want him performing any medical assessments on me.... Gabby and Emmersyn did not like Steve's costume because he was very "DIRTY." 

 Amanda had to make a grand enterance as a purple angel...  It's not everyday you see a purple angel..

 Then she started posing for the paparazzi... Check out Gabby mimicking Amanda's moves and coming up with her own poses.... Too funny!

 Here were the hosts of the Halloween party... Luigi with a missing mustache and some type of pumpkin-licious... who I thought looked a lot like Judie Jetson or maybe Thelma from Scooby-doo.  The hair works but she would need to wear some glasses and carry around Scooby snacks.

 A farmer and his live stock... I loved Crystal's costume.  Only she could pull off a pig costume and still look cute.  Justin's outfit was complete with a carrot in his pocket and Canadian wheat he found on the side of the road.

 Here we have Yoda and her silly, Mama witch....

 Nicholas the Ninja and Cameron an angry bird... It was difficult to get them away from the video games to take a picture.

 Bradley was a Ninja or a samurai or a karate kid.... I feel bad that he was taking out all of his aggressions on the poor little pig.  I guess there was no huffing and puffing to get to her.... he went straight for the sword!

 Tyler was a football player who didn't want to wear his helmet.  It was great to see that he was branching out to other sports besides basketball.

 The purple angel stole the farmer's carrot.... right from his overall pocket.... She thought that was hilarious.... I think she was looking for some ranch dip...

 But alas.... before she could get very far.... the farmer caught her and managed to wrangle the carrot back... after all I think that was what the pig was getting for dinner!

 These two decided to swap costumes for a minute....

 Mom and Dad did not participate in the costume fun this year.... but I heard that Crystal is already working on their costumes for next year.... She wants everyone to participate.....Maybe they will be livestock too.... perhaps a cow jumping over a moon... or  hey-diddle-diddle  a cat and a fiddle.... or maybe just another farmer and his dog Bingo.... the possibilities are endless!

 The Ninja was not disgusted by the "dirty" doctor...

 We celebrated both Justin's and Dad's birthdays at the party... The farmer was doing a jig to the tune of "Sto-lat"  (Not sure that is the correct Polish spelling... who am I kidding...I'm sure that is not the correct Polish spelling!)

 This is what happens when one ninja messes with another ninja/karate kid.... a battle ensues... It looks as if the karate kid is dominating the ninja....

 And the battle was over.... that carrot again.... the farmer kept losing his carrot out of his overall's pocket... and now it was being used as a weapon against the defenseless ninja.....

 And finally.... Right as we were packing up to leave.... Luigi found his mustache... tucked into some plastic bag... I had to capture a picture of Mohamed in his full Luigi face.  Although... if you are a true Super Mario Brothers fan he looks a lot more like Walluigi to me.

So that about wraps up the Halloween Party.  What will I possibly blog about next? Hmmm... Until later......

You Must Bake These Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins!

If you love pumpkin bread or pumpkin muffins you HAVE  TO make these.  These muffins are sooooo good and soooo easy.  I have seen this recipe all over the internet, and I finally decided to make them.  The muffins are so moist, and I love the addition of the chocolate chips.  They are 2 weight watcher points without the chocolate chips.... but I really suggest adding the chocolate chips. There are no eggs or oil or butter so they are low calorie.   I have documented the entire recipe for you.  (Plus I needed pictures for Gabby's speech book... so here she is helping me out cooking.) 

Here are the ingredients:

1 box of Duncan Hines Spice Cake, and 1 15 oz. can of pumpkin (not pie mix), and of course I added chocolate chips (too your liking... about 1 cup)

Here we go.... Dump in the cake mix....

 Now my assistant will dump in the entire can of pumpkin.  Then mix together with a hand mixer about 1 minute or 2 until everything comes together.

 Add the chocolate chips.... Lots of chocolate chips.... enjoy the rest of the bag....

 Now fill 14-18 muffins in a muffin tin lined with paper liners.... Bake in a preheated oven 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.  I baked ours about 20 minutes.

 Enjoy your muffins... Look how happy we are after eating 2 a piece....

Now go and bake.... they are so EASY and so YUMMY.... Until later......

Pumpkin Carving 2012

Check out our pumpkin carving experience last week.  Here the kids are excited to get started.  I laid newspaper on the table and they couldn't wait to start cleaning out the pumpkins.  (All 4 pumpkins!)

 Nicholas was just preparing Gabby for what was to come.... some stinky, smelly, slimy, pumpkin-goo.... When I cut off the pumpkin top that was exactly the face Nicholas displayed... Gabby has it down perfectly.

 Don't let this picture fool you.  I think this is the only thing Nicholas did to help clean out the pumpkin.  I think he was actually gagging and had to leave the room.  Oh brother! 

 

 Amanda did a great job this year.  She dug down deep and pulled out all kinds of messy pumpkin slime.  Nicholas could barely stand the thought of touching the insides of the pumpkin.  This was a brief photo of him before he left the room gagging again claiming the smell was making him sick..... and then looking at the pumpkin was making him sick.  Talk about a queasy stomach!

 Even Gabby got in on the action.  She was excited to help out.  She didn't seem to mind the smell or the goop inside. 

 And... after all that effort she found 1 little seed.  I found this pretty funny.  Needless to say... I cleaned out 3 pumpkins and Amanda did a great job with the 4th.

 Then we transferred patterns onto the pumpkins.  Amanda decided on a cat.  She carved the entire pumpkin herself this year.  She did a great job.

 Nicholas chose this scary face.  He cut out the eyes.... but then the smell began to overwhelm him....and I had to finish the job.  Here he is with the finished product.

I carved the eek and there is Amanda's cool cat. 

 There is Nicholas's scary face and Gabby picked out the little goblin sitting on top of a pumpkin.  It is hard to make out... but it was very cool when it was lit up.

So that was pumpkin carving 2012.  Next year... I have to remember less pumpkins.  They are time consuming to clean and carve, but at least the kids had fun (when they weren't gagging).  Until later......

Oh My October is Gone!!!

Oh my!!! Where did the month of October go?  It seems to have flown by when I looked the other way....  Let's see..... This month was filled with visits from family and friends, lots of HOMEWORK, exciting news, computer viruses, real-life viruses, lots of leaves, pumpkin carving, the anticipation of Halloween, lots of decorating, speech practice, lots of piano and tennis practice, making treats, eating treats, and the list goes on.  That about sums it up.... I don't think I left much out.  Here are a few October highlights....

This is Gabriella.... when I found her in my bathroom.... after she got into my makeup... I knew that little imp was up to no good!  Believe me, when I say, the picture does not do her beautiful face justice.  She had lots of face powder all over her nose and forehead, mascara on her cheeks, and a little pink lip stick to give her a natural glow!  I had to take a picture in the midst of telling her she should stay out of my stuff!

 So this little one has really been making progress.  Here she is on her way to school one morning.  Her pre-school teachers tell me she is becoming more independent and saying more things in class.  Her speech teacher has noted her progress too.  She is able to connect more words together in a sentence.  She is actually able to articulate a lot of sounds and many words, but it seems stringing them together gives her trouble.  Gabby has learned to be very brief, and to the point when she speaks.  We have been trying to pull more words and longer sentences out of her.  It is such an agonizingly slow process.... but the good news is... our hard work is beginning to pay off!  As a side note, I took Gabby to the Dr. last Monday because she had some congestion that wouldn't go away after 3 weeks.  While we were waiting for the doctor in the exam room.... which was taking a good 15-20 minutes.  Gabby rolled her eyes at me and said, "Long time."  Which in Gabby language means, "What the heck is going on... we have been waiting a long time for this Doctor to see us!"  Do you see what I mean about trying to extract more words from her sentences.  Hey.... but at least she is able to express herself and the frustration she was feeling at the moment.  It's a step in the right direction.

This month we also got a spur of the moment visit from Grampie Herdoiza.  He stayed with  us a few short days, Thursday-Sunday.  We had a great time.  Gabby warmed up to Grampie very quickly.

Grampie was showing Amanda something interesting on his I-pad. I think it had something to do with Grammie Herdoiza's route for her cruise in Germany.

This was some exciting news this month. Amanda got hired for her first job!  She gets to be a bank teller at her school.  Best Source Credit Union allows kids to set up savings accounts at school and teaches them the importance of saving and exactly how a bank account works.  Amanda had to fill out a job application, get a reference, dress up, and interview for the job.  A week later she recieved this letter of congratulations.  Nine students out of 20 were chosen to work at the credit union every other week during lunchtime.  She was so excited.  I'm excited that she got to experience the interview process and the success of landing her first job.  She has been in training the last 2 weeks.  Way to go Amanda!

 I

 The kids waving fairwell to Grampie as he leaves our house.

 This month we also had the chance to spend some time with Bob and Kaye and the cousins.  Kaye had a great idea to make caramel apples.  Megs and Amanda were unwrapping all the caramels.

 Let the dipping begin.....

 Don't the apples looks delicious?

 I can't believe the size of that bite!   It's a good thing Nicholas's 2 front teeth are finally growing back in!

 Gabriella had a fun time hanging out with Seth.  He had his I-phone near by so Gabby was paying close attention.

 Uncle Bob was teaching Amanda a new card game.  I think it was called, "Kings in the Corners"?

 Josh....just hanging out.....

I know it is hard to see.... but there was a dance party happening in the powder room.  Would you believe there were 8 people and a dog in that bathroom???  Seth had some crazy App on his phone that caused strobe lighting..... along with loud music... which was a recipe for a dance party.  It started with just the kids, then Bella the dog, and finally Kaye and I.  It was crazy, and funny, and very warm in there!  Bob was cracking up and video taping the number of people coming out of the bathroom.  Here is just a small glimpse of the participants.

I'm continuing to find activities to do with Gabby that help encourage speech and at the same time fine motor skills.  Check out this cool paint book.  It is water color with individual paints on each page.  You get the paint wet and then you can color the picture.  Each page has a brand new set of paints.  I thought it was pretty cool.

 Here she is hard at work!

 One afternoon the kids were so excited to rake leaves.   They recruited Amanda's friend and even used a snow shovel to help scoop up the mess.  After they collected the leaves they jumped in them and threw them all around.  I tried to coerce them into helping me put them into lawn bags, but that obviously wasn't much fun. They were no where to be found when it came time to put the mess of leaves in the bags.  I hurried, as darkness fell, to clean up the yard.  Oh well.... maybe next year.

 Finally..... it seems like I always get suckered into helping or correcting homework.  I am getting a comprehensive understanding of the 3rd and 5th grades all over again.  Well.... what do you know... I learned something knew.  Nicholas was doing measurements for math, and I learned that your arm span is the same as your height.  I always thought that was a myth... but after lots of measuring... of most of the people in this household... I would have to say that statement was true.  Pretty cool.  Now go measure your arm span people.  That is a little Jeporady fact that might come in handy one day.

 Well... I have lots more photos to come.  Here is a little teaser of Halloween.... I know you are dying to see costumes and pumpkins and carvings.....

Until later.....