H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N

Spells Halloween!
We've had a fun (and wet) Halloween around here!  We started yesterday with Ethan's school Halloween party.

Look at all these cute 4 year olds!!  

Tonight was trick or treat night around here, rain and all!  We waited for a few of our friends to get to our house, and then we headed out.  The big boys ran from house to house.  I guess I was naive thinking we would all go as a big group.  It was a great time, and I'm pretty sure the kids had a blast!!
He's a pretty scary Police Officer!

Excited about his police belt!

 And a very sweet owl!

I actually got a good picture of them both...together!!

Now for some action shots.  Bring on the candy!!

The Trick or Treaters!
{Nora, Soren, Kullen, Kelton, Ethan, Chase, Brennan}

Play Kitchen

I've been wanting to make one of these for a long time!  Ever since I saw this blog post from my very talented cousin (in-law) Amanda.  I spent a while looking for the perfect side table (at the perfect price).  One Saturday morning, I left the kids and Jared home to go garage sale-ing by myself!  I stopped at a ton of sales and NO tables.  While on my way home, I saw a women taping a "FREE" sign on a table by the road.  FREE is always the perfect price, so I stopped.  Turns out this table was an antique phonograph table.  The women, her granddaughter and I loaded it up into my van and I headed home!  It was a project I knew I would need help from my handy hubby, so it took a while to complete.  But, it's finally done and the kids love it!  Enjoy some fun before, during and after pictures!
Oh and I've had this beauty in my basement for a long time, waiting for a face lift.  It was also a side of the road freebie, so it will become the pantry to the play kitchen.

Pantry-before

Phonograph table- before

Helpful kids :)

 We had to cut the legs off to make it the right height...

And, it took more power tools to get a hole cut for the sink and faucet (insert handy hubby here).  Jared also added hinges to the bottom of the door and a handle to turn it into an oven!

The sink is a big dog bowl and I found the faucet for $.50 at a garage sale!

We borrowed this paint sprayer from my parents.  It makes the painting go SO much faster.  And it looks better than brush strokes.

Wish I had this for all my other projects!!  

Here are the after photos!!

I used a very light purple color that I got on clearance a few years ago.  For an accent on the pantry, I used a $1 paint pod sample.  The black on the doors is a chalkboard spray paint.  I also made a little curtain to cover the storage side of the kitchen.

The burners are wooden plaques from Hobby Lobby, spray painted a metallic silver with craft sticks cut to size, painted and glued on top.  The knobs are wooden wheels (also from the Hob Lob) painted with nuts and bolts, so they can still turn.

And, yes, that is a glass tile backsplash :).  I wanted some sort of backsplash, and we happened to have some random pieces of tile left over from doing our kitchen at the old house.  We cut a piece of MDF to size, glued the tile on, slapped some grout on it and screwed it to the back of the kitchen.  

The kids love playing with it, and I love play food, so it gives me an excuse to get a little more :)!

Baking a pie!  I lined the inside of the oven with contact paper, since I didn't have enough paint to paint it.

She is always washing her hands and getting water :)

I think the total cost for this project was around 15-20 bucks!!  It helps that I had a lot of the stuff beforehand and that my cabinets were free.

More Fall Fun

Friday, Ethan, Nora and I went to The Great Pumpkin Patch with Ethan's school.  I was a little worried when it was 33 degrees outside when I woke up, but it turned out to be a beautiful, sunny, not windy day!  We had about 45 minutes to explore before we met back up with everyone for snack.  Pumpkin cookies and apple cider!

Ethan and Jaxson in the hay bale maze.  They had so much fun!

Picking his pumpkin out

Cute boy

Nora running through the 'Mini Maze'

Just some pre-school kids having fun :)!

Ethan's pre-school class

Hayden, Jaxson and Ethan 

 Friday night, we kept the fall fun going!  After having 6 trees cut down, we had some extra wood laying around.  So, we decided to have a little fire.  We invited our neighbors over and had a great evening.  The kids loved running around in the dark and I enjoyed the warm fire (after the kids were in bed)!!

Ethan and the fire!

Marshmallow mouth :)

Roasting some dogs!  We need to invest in some real fire sticks.

Me and Nora- the flash was bright

Daddy and the kids!

Dustin and Amanda made it to our house to hang by the fire as well!  I didn't want to blind anyone else with pictures though :).

Saturday afternoon, we played outside and the kids (with the neighbor girls) decided to rake a pile of leaves to jump in.  They had a blast!  And it made for some really cute fall-ish pictures.

My sweet boy!

Showing off her leaves.

Ethan, Nora, Lindsey and Sarah- tossing the leaves in the air

These kids love to play together!

More leaf throwing

Last one :)

Can you tell they had a blast?!?  Happy Fall Ya'll!

Birthday Festivities!

Yesterday, we started the day with Ethan's basketball game.  All 4 grandparents made the trip up, as well as Uncle Dustin and Aunt Amanda.  Abby and Alex would have been here, but they were busy with this, and I'm very proud of them both.  And, a happy birthday to Alex also!

Nora got some popcorn and M&M's as her treat during the game.

Love watching this kid play :)!

After the games, we headed back to our house to open presents.  I'm pretty sure Ethan was more impatient about this than Nora was.  He was so excited to help her!

Getting started!

Such a helpful brother.

This is the gift he picked out at the store for her.  It's a LEGO set :).

Nora got a pillow and some homemade pillow cases from my mom.  When she got the pillow cases out, she laid them out on the floor and said "Nora lay down" and laid down!  Silly girl!  When she opened the pillow, she got up, ran to her room and put it in her bed :).

After presents, it was lunch time!

So thankful for our guests!

And cake!!

That's 1 bright cake :).  31 candles

"2" Sprinkle Cake

She was so happy :)!

2 candles for her.  I think she looks so pretty and grown up in the picture.

Enjoying her birthday sprinkle cake!

Ethan and the chocolate cake.  He said all the boys could eat chocolate and all the girls had to have the white one :).

After nap time, Mrs. Sandra came to bring Nora a birthday gift.  Nora loves Sandra (we all do)!  She stayed for a piece of cake too!

Our adopted grandma!

I didn't get a good picture of the birthday 'kids' yesterday, so I took one today after church.

Love these 2 (and the 4 year old boy) more than words!

Thanks to everyone for the sweet birthday wishes to Jared and Nora.  We had a great day!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Jared and Nora!  Sharing a birthday, is something special for these 2.  I look forward to lots and lots more birthday celebrations with them!

Birthday dinner at Ruby Tuesday.
(Phone picture=not the best quality. And, Nora learned to put her own bows in her hair...)

More on birthday fun coming soon :).