Not a Fan of Halloween but....

This year was different! We have had so much fun talking about Halloween all month long. The girls had no idea what Halloween was so I checked out cute Halloween books from the library, bought them cute costumes and by the time tonight rolled around Destina was fully on board with Halloween! We thought maybe she could be Whoopi Goldberg..... they do kinda look alike!
At first Destina thought it was quite strange when I explained that she was going to dress up and go to people's houses and ring their doorbell and they were going to give her candy! But apparently after talking with her friends at school she realized that this really did happen for one magical night each year!

But the festivities started about a week before Halloween with pumpkin carving. First we had to drive all over town looking for the cheapest pumpkins it became a game driving to each store to see who had the cheapest ones because of course we were too cheap to buy all the kids big pumpkins at the pumpkin patch! Once every one found the perfect pumpkin the carvings began!

Both girls loved digging out the goo in the pumpkins they were both covered in pumpkin slime up to their elbows and down to their shoes!

At our house Scott does all the pumpkin carving the kids clean out the pumpkin and tell him what design or face they want on their pumpkin and he goes to work creating masterpieces!

Of course if the kids really want to carve their own he is happy to let them and Jayden thought he would give it a try this is as far as he got as I was taking this picture his hand slipped and he cut himself! This was the second time in about 10 minutes that he cut himself the first time he was trying to take the knife away from Destina and grabbed the blade....he was done shortly after this and went into the house to apply the first aid knowledge that he just learned at Scouts the night before, thank goodness they taught them that if you are bleeding get a band-aid!

On Friday night some of the stores close by were having a trick or treat so we dressed up the little girls and took them down there we thought this would be a good warm-up for Halloween night, it was in the daylight and there were not too many people around, they got the hang of it pretty quickly except Avrie was scared of everything that was not dressed up as a princess!

On Saturday our church had a trunk or treat and chili cook-off and dancing, most of the other kids had other parties to go to so we just took the little girls but they had so much fun!
This year Ryan dressed up as an old man and Jayden dressed up like a....

Mexican...nothing like adding a little culture on Halloween night!

Avrie was the cutest princess fairy

And Destina was a "nice" witch!

The girls had a lot of fun dancing at the party and they did not want to stop!

Today I pulled out all the stops! I found some fun food items that I thought would be fun for the kids to make and then eat! My first project was to make little mummies by dipping Oreos into white chocolate and putting little chocolate eyes on....

I failed miserably the chocolate would not set up and the cookies kept breaking and this is as far as I got, then the kids just started eating them, oh well it is the thought that counts right??

Yeah she now likes all things chocolate!

My next crafty food item was caramel apples and thank goodness this turned out pretty good except by the time we started making these it was getting close to dinner time and everyone was full from eating too many Oreo cookies.

We melted the caramel and dipped the apples

They turned out pretty good but they are still siting on the counter untouched because by the time we ate dinner it was time to go trick or treating and then when we came home it was bed time! They will be tasty tomorrow!

I guess she was not too full to clean out the caramel bowl .

Finally it was time to light the pumpkins and go out trick or treating our little cousin and a friend's kids came over and we set out for a night of candy gathering! When my niece came over she was so excited to go trick or treating and as a bonus her school was collecting money for a charity in her little orange box and unfortunately the letters are a little hard to read but those letters were UN*CEF - I hope the $1.50 she collected will be put to good use saving all the orphans from International Adoption because heaven knows they would be better off raised in an orphanage than a loving home! She might have collected more money but I could not keep my mouth shut...surprising I know!

10 hours later....

Destina finally has long hair! She has been begging me to add yarn extensions to her hair ever since I did Avire's hair. So we started on Saturday afternoon at 2 and worked until 9:30 with a small dinner break and then started again today after church and just finished. It was much easier once I finally watched the video and learned how to do it but she has such thick hair it still took forever! She sat good the whole time never complaining she even managed an hour nap today while I was working on it. She is excited to try different hair styles and she loves having long hair. I just hope it will last as long as they say so that I don't have to do it again for a while I am sure this will be a favorite!

Ocean Shores

Last weekend we went down to Ocean Shores, about a 4 and a half hour drive from our house. Grandma and Grandpa had a condo down there for the week and so we came down to visit them, it was like the revolving vacation villa! First Dan and Lynn and Jennifer came down, we came right before they left and then Scott's other brother and wife came after we left. The weather was pretty darn good for the middle of October it was sunny and in the 6o's the beach had great sand and Avrie was in heaven digging. It was fun hanging out with the grandparents for the evening and the kids had fun swimming too!

The Pumpkin Patch

We took the girls to the Pumpkin Patch along with 6000 of our best friends! I guess that was to be expected since it is gorgeous weather, blue skies and in the 60's, on a Saturday everyone was at the Pumpkin Patch today! Although it was pretty crowded we did not feel too crowded the only time we had to wait for the crowd was when we were buying our pumpkins otherwise there was enough space for everyone.
The girls were really excited to go and find their pumpkin but Destina was a little disappointed that she could only pick a pumpkin that she could carry out the the car. She wanted a huge pumpkin but we were too cheap for that! But we did get to see all the farm animals, go through a corn maze, and a bin maze, ride in a Hay Ride, and walk all over the pumpkin field finding the perfect pumpkin. The girls had a good time and it was great to be outside taking advantage of this beautiful weather!

New Attitude

After seeing pictures of girls with their hair done with yarn extensions from this web site
Keep me Curly I decided to give it a try. I went to the craft store and bought a thing of yarn and some beads and 3 1/2 hours later Avrie had longer hair. Next time it shouldn't take me as long and maybe if I had watched the instructional video instead of just looking at the pictures my learning curve would not have been so painful. It took me about 15-20 minutes each to do the first 2 then I got the hang of it and it was a little faster. When I had Destina helping me it went a lot faster. She was mad, I had just spent 2 1/2 hours the night before braiding her hair and when she came home from school and saw what I was doing with Avrie she wanted me to do that to her hair as well. She also informed me that I am very slow and that in Haiti they did her hair much faster.
Along with her new hair style Avrie also had a new personality she became even more sassy but she loves her hair and has been giving me hugs all morning and shaking her head to hear the beads click. She knows she is cute, not that she didn't think so before...now she just has a little more attitude to go with the hair!




Yeah I think I deserve a pat on the back, but Avrie was the real trooper she was really good the whole time. We did it in three different time slots for about an hour each and she sat on my lap and played with the yarn and beads the whole time no crying!

Wonderment!

We drive down this road almost daily and every time I have had Destina with me she has been in a state of wonderment! It started back in the middle of September when the very top leaves started to turn yellow and she noticed and with excitement in her voice she pointed it out to me. "Mommy look at the trees they are changing colors what is happening?" I explained to her that every time at this time of the year we call Fall the leaves start to turn yellow, red or orange and in a few weeks all the leaves of these trees will be yellow and it will be beautiful. Then pretty soon after that they will all fall off. She took a sad tone to her voice and asked, "why do they do that?' I explained that winter is coming and all the leaves die and fall to the ground during the winter and the trees rest, but that in spring there would be beautiful pink and white flowers on all these trees and she remembered seeing that last spring. So every time we drive down this street we talk about how much the trees are changing and she is filled with a great excitement and wonder that only a child that has never witnessed the beauty of fall, but understands her surroundings are different than she has ever known, can have. It is pure joy and wonderment!

Thanks Katie for the great picture!

"It's Chocolate, You Don't Like Chocolate!"

The gig is up! We have been busted! For months, 8 to be exact, Avire would not eat chocolate. Shortly after she came home someone gave her a Hershey's Kiss one day after church and she rode all the way home with the "cacaolate" in her mouth until she could take it no more and she spit it out, it was a big slobbery mess all over my hand and down the front of her dress. Since then all we had to say is "it is chocolate, you do not like chocolate", and she would turn away and not get into my chocolate stash or want any chocolate.
Well, that all changed...tonight Scott was eating MY chocolate stash and Destina came up and said she wanted some M&M's and she took a handful then Avrie, copying her sister, said she wanted some and we gave our standard reply "It's chocolate, you do not like chocolate she then said "I want a blue one." She gave it a try and she loudly proclaimed "I like chocolate!" Now we are in trouble!