Flat Stanley Adventures {Week 2}

This week we had the pleasure of housing our foreign exchange Flat Stanley who is actually a Flat Martian. Blooey is from Canada! It was adorable! I felt so bad though because when we opened the envelope all the eyeballs had fallen off except for one. Before I send him on his way, I’ll hot glue them back on. I got your back Blooey!

We took our Flat Martian to the Kern County Fair. They enjoyed playing with the BUBBLES!

He was a little scared of the GOATS, being eaten by them.

Carmendee wanted a picture with Blooey!

He liked the RABBITS but not the smell in there!

We had a fun time with our second Flat Stanley!

Visit this blog to find out what adventures our Flat Patience and Flat Carmendee had this week! {It looks like they had a great week as well!}

Halloween Foods.

I've gotten a few emails asking if I celebrate Halloween- and the answer is YES!

I LOVE Halloween. It's one of my favorite holidays because it is so fun to decorate, and cook for, and dress up.

I'm a Christian but I believe this is all in fun. I still worship God on Halloween and thank Him for such a fun time with the family.

Personally, I wouldn't dress the kids or myself up as a devil or anything and I opt more for the fun decorations instead of bloody, mangled body parts. I don't mind when others do though. Everyone is different.

One of my favorite things to do is cook for Halloween and try new recipes. I found some foods that we have made over the years in my photo albums and thought I would share.

This was our BUG CAKE. It was chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling. The kids decorated the top with green icing, crushed Oreo cookies and lots of gummi bugs. Around Halloween the stores usually have gummi spiders and snakes and other gross gummi's.

Last year we made this PUMPKIN SKILLET. I made the pumpkin a little too big to fit inside the pan, so it broke. It was really yummy nevertheless!

One year we made a SPIDERWEB BROWNIE. I made a brownie mix and spread it out onto a pizza pan so it baked as a circle. With melted orange frosting in a sandwich bag, I went around and around the brownie. Using a knife, I put lines through the orange frosting trying to resemble a spiderweb. I think the frosting needed to be melted more. You get the jest though?! The spiders are gumdrops. For the legs, I rolled out a black gumdrop and cut it into strips. Licorice legs would look cute as well.

These SNAKE ROLLS are super simple to make. Using your favorite dough or Phillsbury dough roll it out like a snake, you know, like playdough. Bake them up. I used olive slices for eyes and tomatoes for tongues, because I ran out of red bell peppers.

You know, I wish I had a better picture of this because OMGoodness gracious this is yummy!
The crust is sugar cookie dough. The toppings are pumpkin pie mix then chocolate chips and marshmallows and chopped nuts. Not sweet enough for you...drizzle some caramel on it?! Put it in the oven to bake. MMmm....

Did someone order SPAGHETTI and EYEBALLS?
Simply make your favorite spaghetti recipe then make your favorite meatball recipe. Put one olive on each meatball to make it look like an eye. Pile them on top of the noodles. In my meatballs I put green onions, bread crumbs, an egg, and Parmesan. Here I added a slice of bread cut up as well. I bake mine usually then put them in the sauce. Fried is delish as well!

Just a fun thing for the kiddos.
Every year the kids decorate their own cakes and donate them to our Church's cake walk. We usually invite friends over to make their own cakes. The more cakes donated, the merrier. The kids have a fun time and get really creative with the toppings we lay out!

Last year, Noe made us GHOST PANCAKES for breakfast. He did a great job and they turned out super cute! He put the batter inside a cake decorating bag to pipe out into the skillet. He took some batter and mixed cocoa powder into it. It was used for the eyes and mouth.

CATERPILLAR or CENTIPEDE was just chocolate chip cookies held together by green frosting. Pretzels sticks were used for the legs and antennae's. We glued M&M eyes and mouth on with the frosting. It was so simple to make, yet everyone that came over couldn't get over how cute it was!

Halloween isn't complete without CARAMEL APPLES. Every year I set out fun toppings on the table and all us family members create our own apples. I cut each one into fours so they last a couple of days. The kids like tasting everyone's apples as well!
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AND of course my Halloween Muffin Tin from last year!

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Does this post get you into the Halloween spirit? I know I'm starting to gleam with excitement.

If you're super busy at this time in your life, you definetly don't need to go all out. Take it easy Mama. One year Noe ordered pizza. He asked the local pizzeria to make the pizza look like a jack-o-lantern. They used sliced olives for the eyes, nose and mouth. The kids loved it! So did I! I LOVE olives.

Oh, and drinks can be fun too. Red punch looks bloody and stick a plastic hand in it. I have little ones so I opt more for a green witch's brew with gummi worms around the punch bowl. This doesn't give them nightmares. haha

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On my To-Do List post I have some links to some cute new recipes I'm going to try!

Friday Book Project {Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs}

Muffin Tin Monday just happened to be the theme Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. The funny part was that we were going to make our meal based upon that book this week, in honor of the movie that just came out to theaters.

Whatever the weather served, that was what they ate.

But it never rained rain. It never snowed snow. And it never blew just wind. It rained things like soup and juice. It snowed mashed potatoes and green peas. And sometimes the wind blew in storms of hamburgers.

(Spaghetti and Meatballs, Apple Juice, Mashed Potatoes, Hamburgers, Pickles, and Peas)

A Little Sumpin, Sumpin...

The kids made a little gift for their Grandparents this past weekend.

They painted wooden frames from Michaels. We got the kids all dolled up and took them to the nearest park for a picture. I printed the picture out and inserted it into the frame. Lastly, we put magnets on the back of the frame to hang on the fridge.

It's a little sumpin sumpin to thank them for being in our lives.

Plus, it's super cute!

Letter {Aa Week}

The lessons last week were on the Letter Aa.

These were the activities that they did to learn their Aa's.

They made lowercase Aa APPLES.

They went around asking everyone what their favorite APPLE treats were. They got to graph the results.

Look at the ART they created!

Everyone flew their AIRPLANES.

I love these cute ANGELS.

They made paperbag APPLES.

I've been seeing pumpkin ones around lately for the Fall. What a cute decoration?

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These are some books we read this week:

Flat Stanley Adventures {Week 1}

When the kids received Stan The Jet Blue Man from South Carolina, they were so excited.

Look what was in the package! The kids got airplane wings, pencils and airplanes; that they have been having a blast with!

This first week I learned to expect alot of people looking at us, when we bring a paper doll everywhere and take pictures with him. Can I say Awkward?! But fun and so worth it!

We took Stan on a bike ride. The kids are getting comfy in here with Stan. They put their helmets on and we realized Stan didn't have one. Oopsie! Next, time we'll be prepared.

Stan really liked the park. I think he's squished under one of them in this picture. He still had fun though because he likes to go really fast on the slide.

He did manly work getting some wood cut for me at Lowe's.

And then he went to cheer Patience on at Cheerleading practice!


What a nice friend, so encouraging?!

Thanks Stan for visiting us in California! You're off now to Texas.
Visit here for more Flat Stanley Adventures.

Our Flat Patience and Flat Carmendee had an adventure here. {Check out what the girls did!}

Something Is Missing?

Maelyn lost her very first tooth!

A couple of days ago she noticed both her bottom front teeth were loose.

She wiggled them everyday, all the time.

It was kind of gross! She was nervous and excited and asked a ton of questions about teeth. They've been the talk around here lately!

We read this poem over and over.

Grandma is a RDA so she brought over a tooth holder in every color to chose from.

She was excited! Maelyn didn't eat anything crunchy or hard. She chewed very carefully.

You want to know how it fell out? Brother hit her in the face with the couch pillow! It flew across the living room. We searched our beige carpet for this little tooth.

That night, she had to make sure her room was clean because the tooth fairy doesn't like dirty rooms (Mom doesn't like stepping on Lego's- tiny pieces of pain!) She cleared off her gazillion stuffed animals from her bed so the tooth fairy doesn't have to search for the tooth. She understood that Mommy and the Tooth Fairy have a deal that she always leaves the first tooth there for scrapbooks, but all the other teeth she is free to take. She said her prayers and went to sleep early that night!

Maelyn awoke to $1 from the Tooth Fairy and of course, fairy dust leading out the window. She knows that the Tooth Fairy is so tiny that she comes in through a crack in the window.

This is how she looked that morning!

Ready to show all her friends at school her Jack'O'Lantern smile!

Hungry, Hungry Hippos..!

The girls had tons of fun making these Hippos... well tons of fun eating the leftover marshmallows!

To make these Hungry Hippos you'll need 2 pieces of purple construction paper (or gray) per hippo, 1 scrap piece of pink paper, white marshmallows, a pencil, glue, scissors and a black marker.

With the pencil, I made the shape of a Hippo's head on the purple paper. I stacked them all up and cut them at the same time so they are all the same size and shape.

I then cut 2 tongue's out of the pink paper.

Stack the 2 purple pieces on top of each other. Fold the top purple head right in the middle so the mouth opens.

With a black marker, have them draw lines for the ears and nose and then draw on some eyes.

Have your child glue the top of the head's together.

Open the mouth with the fold and have your child then glue the tongue in the mouth.
Use the marshmallows as the teeth and glue them where ever their hearts desire.

Don't these Hippo's make you Happy?!

Kids Movie Night.

We invited some wonderful friends over for a kids movie night. Sometimes outside of school, it's difficult to make time for friends. So we were all excited to spend a few hours together.

Noah made a cute sign for the Concession Stand.

Maelyn wrote down all the food items at our table!

Popcorn cupcakes.

The kids watched the Hannah Montana movie. They kept talking though, so I sent it home for our friends to watch quietly at their house. They were just excited to be together!

After the movie, the kids went into the room to practice the Hoedown Throwdown dance.

It was adorable!

We cherish our friends!

Friday Book Project {Wild Things}

For our Friday Book Project, we read Where The Wild Things Are- AGAIN!

When we were done reading the book, the kids did mischief of all sorts.

They roared their terrible roars, and gnashed their terrible teeth, and rolled their terrible eyes, and showed their terrible claws. (yes, that was by memory!)

Their WILD RUMPUS continues.....

When they were done with their rumpus, I joked about sending them to bed with no supper.

THEN the kids made their own Wild Things.

I set various materials on the table for their creativity to start running WILD.

Have a WILD weekend!

Tortellini Salad

We love salads over here..!
They are super fast, healthy and delicious. My favorite combination!

To make this all I did was buy a Cesaer Salad Kit. It was the Deluxe kit so it came with sun dried tomatoes, parmesan cheese, a packet of seasoning and the dressing. Pour that all into a bowl. Cook a Family Sized package of 3 Cheese Tortellini's according to the directions. Drain and cool. Put into the Salad bowl. Dice tomatoes, cooked bacon and broccoli. Toss the salad. Serve with bread.

We have to get all our summer salads made while the weather is still warm!

{Letter Ww Week}

We started off our Letter Ww Week by making these Wonderful WATERMELON Ww's.
Patience and Carmendee know that Ww is for WHALE. They painted paperbag WHALES.

 We carved a WATERMELON. Carving a watermelon is actually easier than carving a pumpkin. Tasty, juicy watermelon is so delicious in the summertime.

 WISH starts with the letter Ww. They made these cute WISHES upon a star.

We also baked these yummy WATERMELON cookies and WATERCOLOR painted.

These are the books we read this week:

Plus

Disney's The Wild