Halloween Costumes

How fun is this … Kelly’s Korner is doing a Show Us Your Life post about Halloween costumes today. So FUN! My girls are still putting the finishing touches on their costumes for this year so I don’t have pictures of them just yet. Hope plans to be an Angel, Joy plans to be a Cowgirl and I am going to be the Green M & M. =)

 

BUT, I thought it would be fun to take a stroll down memory lane ….

Halloween 2011 – I was a terrible Mom and took NO photos, I will have to get some from my friends. Hope was a clown, Joy was a black cat and I was a witch.

Halloween 2010 --

My hubs was Donald Trump {it was hilarious!}, I was a 60’s Diva chick ….

Hope was a Gypsy …

Joy was a DONUT! I made both their costumes that year.

 

Halloween 2009 --

Joy was Sharpay from High School Musical …

Hope was a Pirate …

Hubby was a ??? Zombie kinda thing? And I was a pirate …

Halloween 2008 ---

   My girlfriends and I wore football jerseys …

And both my girls were Cheerleaders …

In fact, the whole group of friends were Cheerleaders!

Halloween 2007 --

My girls were both Pink Poodles – I made these costumes too, they were so cute!

We love Halloween, we always get together with a huge bunch of friends and have a fun party with potluck food, then we go trick or treat for a while and then come back so everyone can check out their loot. It’s always a great time!

Go over to Kelly’s post to see a whole bunch more Halloween posts! =)

Friday Faves 10/26

Whooooiee! This week has been CRAZY for me! Between working every morning, several school appointments or functions, church things, half days, and everything else I feel like I can officially say T.G.I.F!!!
My running shoes got a lot of miles this week {and not from exercising!} simply from running back and forth to so many things. And my car got a good workout too! Why do so many things have to be in different towns??
Anyway, in the midst of crazy week I tried really hard to see the beauty in the little things …. so here we go with Friday Faves for the week.
1. I went to a student/parent/teacher conference at Hope’s school on Monday. Her teacher had such wonderful things to say about her! I felt so good knowing that she is doing so well and has transitioned so easily from homeschool to public school. We celebrated afterwards … she chose ice cream, I chose a Salted Caramel Mocha – YUM!

2. Even though I DREAD getting up at 6am and especially when it’s still dark out, I have been really enjoying the beautiful sunrises this week. Trust me when I say that the picture does not do it justice … the sky has been filled with pink, orange and purple colors each day. What an AWESOME God we have!

3. The trees in my back yard are changing! Can you see how many leaves have yet to fall … then look at the ground and how it’s already covered in a BLANKET of leaves! I just love all the colors … and yes, we will need to get busy raking soon!

4. There was a time when handprints on the window {or mirror} would have made me shout at my kids … but now, I cherish it … all too soon the time will come where the handprints are gone.

5. I will admit I made this little treat a couple days this week … coffee with Pecan Praline creamer, whipped cream and caramel drizzle …. mmmmmmmm.
 
6. Friday morning pancakes … just because … my girls were very happy. =)


Hope you have a great weekend … we have company coming over tonight, a race in the morning, a soccer game after that, a birthday party in the afternoon … and then we will be RELAXING! =)

Friday Faves

 

Happy Friday friends! This week has been a WHIRLWIND for me and I am SO thankful it's Friday! My hubby has to work this evening so my girlies and I are having a girl's night in ... homemade Chinese food, ice cream for dessert, movies and maybe even spa night. Ahhhhhhh.....

 

But first, I'm linking up with Rachel from Finding Joy with my Friday Faves for this week:

 

1. Pumpkin & Apple Picking at our favorite local orchard

 

 

2. Fall hikes with family

 

3. Girls learning new instruments {and doing pretty well I might add!}

 

4. The drive home from work each day - this has been such a gorgeous fall so far!

5. A fresh look for the front of our house. I used Mr. Clean Magic Eraser on the siding on the ENTIRE front of the house, repainted the front and side doors, and spray painted the shutters a new color. I am very happy with how it looks so far!

 

6. Homemade bread

 

7. Pumpkin smoothies ... mmmmmm

8. Excellent progress reports from my girl's schools.

 

9. TWO long walks with one of my besties this week!

 

10. 3 and 4 year old giggly voices at the preschool I work at.

 

11. Good reports from a few of the people we've been praying for this week.

 

Have a GREAT weekend friends!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Art Club

My daughters both love to do anything artsy. They've taken art lessons from my Father in law for several years and always love to make and create things at home.

My oldest daughter is going to art club in her middle school ... it's an after school club that she stays for. In the club they pretty much have free reign over any of the supplies in the room. They can make or create anything they want and be as creative as they want. It's kind of neat for her to have all the materials at her disposal!

Today she came home and said, 'Mom, I made some gloves in art club!' .... 

Pretty clever, huh? Another girl in her class predicted this would be a new fashion statement in middle school and my daughter plans to wear it to school tomorrow. =)

My younger one was sitting there taking this all in and she said, 'I'm going to join art club when I get to middle school too!'

Gotta love it!

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

 

We have had some GORGEOUS weather lately! Cold at night and in the mornings, and nice and sunny/ comfortable during the days.

 

Today I wanted a little snack but wanted something semi healthy and yet delicious too.

 

Here is the Pumpkin Pie Smoothie I came up with:

 

Yoplait Light vanilla yogurt

Fat free skim milk {I fill the yogurt container after I've dumped the yogurt out}

1 heaping TBSP Pumpkin puree

1/2 scoop Vanilla protein powder

Dash of cinnamon

Dash of Nutmeg

Dash of Ginger

Ice

Whipped Cream for the top

 

Blend everything except for the whipped cream together, add as much ice as you like to get the desired consistency {I used about 3 handfuls}

 

Pour into a glass, top with whipped cream and ENJOY!!!

Easy and Delicious Crock Pot Applesauce

 

Today I'm sharing with you a super easy, super delicious recipe for homemade applesauce.

 

First, it's best to pick fresh apples from a local orchard ... not only are they super fresh and delicious, but the experience of doing this together as a family creates wonderful memories. =)

 

How many apples you will need will depend on the size of the apples, how much sauce you want to make and the size of your crock pot.

 

I have 2 large crockpots {I am so sorry, but I cannot find the size of them written anywhere!} and it took about 8-9 large apples to fill each pot. I ended up doing 3 batches total so I used around 27-30 apples.

 

 

 

First peel the apples ...

 

Then chop into small pieces ...

 

Dump all the apple pieces into the crock pot - don't worry if it's full up to the top, the apples cook down a LOT so it's OK if it's really full.

 

Then I add 2 tsp of cinnamon and 2 TBSP of brown sugar plus 1/2 cup of water or apple juice. It might seem like you need more liquid but trust me, you don't. The apples create a lot of their own juices and if you add too much your sauce will be too runny.

 

You can adjust the cinnamon and brown sugar amounts for your taste {or omit altogether} , I like a little cinnamon flavor and just a little sweetness to my sauce so this combination works best for me.

 

Cook in the crock pot on low for about 8 hours. You can stir it up every once in a while just to get things well mixed.

 

Towards the end of your cooking time you'll notice when you stir that the apples just mash up so easily. Continue stirring or mashing until it has the desired consistency. You can also process in a food processor or blender if you want it a little more smooth .... I happen to like mine with a little bit of chunkiness so I leave some chunks in the final product.

Ladle into jars and allow to cool. Process jars in a water bath canner - OR - simply freeze if you have the freezer space. I have done it both ways and it tastes awesome either way you can it.

My daughters and I LOVE this sauce, it tastes so fresh and yummy. ENJOY!!

 

I am linking up with Kelly's Korner's Crockpotalooza 2! Go check out all the other fabulous Crock Pot recipes!

 

 

 

Checkin' things off my list

We have been so busy lately! But today, a gift ... a rare day at home. Yay! SO thankful for these types of days ... especially as it's POURING outside and quite chilly too!

Now that my girls are in school every day I have been slowly trying to tackle little projects around my house. There are so many 'little' things that just don't get done when life is busy. Things like washing windows and windowsills, clearing cobwebs out of the corners in the basement, scrubbing down dirty doors and walls, etc.

Today was a good day to tackle a few things.

* started the day by making homemade applesauce ... it cooks in the crock pot all day, so it was a good day to do it. I have to say I am LOVING the way my house smells today!

* got the whole upstairs cleaned ... in my house the 'upstairs' is our main level so that means the kitchen, dining room, living room, bedrooms and bathroom


* yep ... even cleaned the bathroom! {ugh, why do I put that off so much, I dread cleaning the bathroom!}

* washed all the jars and lids that will be used for applesauce

* changed out the sheets on all the beds

* painted some shelves for my soon-to-be craft area

* painted a table for that same area

* ran several loads of laundry {including folding and putting away!}

* cleaned some of those cobwebs I spoke of!

* wiped down some of the walls and baseboards in the basement {I still have a lot more to go, but a little bit at a time certainly helps!}

* got all my stuff packed and ready for a fun scrapbook weekend with my girlfriends! {super excited about that!}

I'd say it was a highly successful day! =)

My cozy fall living room

 

I mentioned in a previous post how I was decorating for fall on a budget this year ... as in, I had no money to spend and I had to be content with using what I already had.

 

Mission accomplished! What I did was create a cozy, warm space that I enjoy spending time in. My living room has some olive green and light blue features in it so I ended up just adding some orange things and surprisingly it all works just fine together!

 

Here is my mantle:

 

And from another angle, in natural light. My plants spent the summer outside on the deck and they grew like CRAZY!

 

I have this shelf by the front door so we can hang coats, school bags and such on the pegs.

 

This is how it usually looks. The shelves on the bottom are used as our homework station with important school papers and books, supplies for doing homework and projects and our library book bins.

 

Looking from the hallway towards the front windows. I LOVE my windows that allow so much sunshine to flood the room during the day! {As you can see we have ONE.UGLY.FOOTSTOOL. I have great plans to recover it someday if I could just find the right fabric.}

Looking at the other side of the room. I repainted that dresser last spring in a beautiful light blue color and I still love it every day.



 

Found this neat pumpkin on clearance at Target a couple years back. 

This is what I would call 'Mom's corner'. I love to sit in the recliner in the morning to have my quiet time and my coffee. I love the collage of photos and such above the chair. I love the collection of books on the stool to the left. I love the cozy old quilt that has all sorts of holes in it but I just can't part with. It's just my own little special place. And yes, I do share it with my family, but they rarely sit there since it's not a good view of the TV. ;)

For years we have had a living room table set - it has a big coffee table and 2 big, square end tables. But the problem is, they are just WAY too huge for our little living room and people would always just bump into the corners of them and get hurt. So recently I saw on Pinterest an idea to use bar stools as end tables and I thought that was brilliant! I love the height of them, I love that they are small enough to fit in little spaces and that you can move them around the house as needed. I got 2 of them for only $6 on a resale group on Facebook and I love them!

 

This is looking back at the other side of the room ... kitchen/dining area in the background. I like to change my pillow covers for the seasons so I put these orange, plush ones on for autumn. {I like to think they draw your eye away from my old, torn up couches! hahaha} 

 

Another 'little' table. This one I found at a yard sale for $5 and I need to do some repairing and paint on it but trust me, it was a good deal.

 

The whole room. =)

 

It may not be perfect or BIG or glamorous ... but I think it's warm and comfortable and cozy and that's what is important to me.