Let it Snow!

It was November 11, and it was snowing!  Crazy!  It only amounted to about half an inch, but the kids were so excited when they woke up and saw the white ground.  "Go outside" were Nora's first words after looking out the window and Ethan could hardly get through breakfast.  So, we bundled up and went out for a while.  They had a blast and weren't ready to come inside.

I thought the first snow called for a cozy, warm dinner...

And homemade chocolate chip cookies :)!

Christmas PJ's just made my day complete!  I love this season!

Don't worry...I'm refraining from decorating for Christmas until after Thanksgiving.

A DQ Party

I decided that we would have a small party for Nora with our friends at our local Dairy Queen.  So, that's what we did for lunch on Friday!  Jared picked Ethan up from school and brought him and also stayed for lunch too.  My good friends, Jessica, Erin and Emily also came with their kiddos (the non school aged ones)!  The kids had a great time and Nora enjoyed the extra attention :).

We picked up some balloons on our way!

Playing and some of our guests!

Presents!

Admiring the Minnie birthday cake

And tasting some too

Happy 2nd Birthday, sweet girl!  We love you!!

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!