Fun In A Box....!

Have you seen these Family Fun Kits?!

Inside of the boxes are ideas that the magazine has featured....instead of getting the stuff all together yourself, you can buy a kit.

A Mom from Girl Scouts bought some kits for my kiddos. Super duper sweet...!

 This was a stepping stone Patience made.

I think it turned out adorable. The paint peals off though, so I would suggest maybe a sealer sprayed on it when finished.

It looks so festive outside...!

They made this Spooky Mansion with the clay characters.

We have it on our coffee table...!

These kits are really fun. The only downfall for me personally is the crafts are a little too difficult for the children to do on their own. They are defintely for the entire family to make together because of the difficulty level.

That's not necessarily a bad thing though?!

They thoroughly enjoyed the fun in a box....!

Our Little Vacation....!

We had so much fun this week being gone...!

And yes, you all were right. I was exhausted before I left from getting everything together. You will never believe, but I woke up with a cold on that day. A cold! Once we prayed in the car and hit the road....I got to relax and it just felt nice. So nice.

Noe made us Mickey Pancakes for breakfast that morning...!

 This was our little Countdown until Disney.

 All the parts of the Mickey head were glued on each day as we got closer. The last thing to put on was the nose.

 The kids posing before we left...!

 They're just a little excited, just a little...!

 Cuties...!

 They used their bags the entire time in the car.

 We visited my Grandparents.

 The kiddos put their costumes on to get ready for Mickey's Halloween Party.

{The bus ride to the Disney Park.}

 Carmendee pretending to be asleep. She thought it was a funny picture.

 {My loves}

 "Another picture Mom?" YES!

 Waiting for the Pirates of the Carribean ride.

Great lines that day. The most we waited was to see the Princesses!

 {Us girls hanging out}

Snow White and her Prince Charming.

They were inseperable that day. She loved having Daddy to herself.

 Haunted Mansion decorated up with Nightmare Before Christmas decor.

 Noah hanging with his pal. This guy had a hard time writing his autograph! {hehe}

 {My Princesses}

 {Getting Ariel's autograph}

Patience is so shy!

 Noah on a ride...!

 Princess Aurora and the girls...!

 Does it give you any ideas of fun shapes to cook or bake with?

{Thinking of making of making a Mickey shaped bread loaf this week.}

 We were Goofy-ying around!

Tea Cup time...!

Tea Cups when I'm old, aren't as much as tea cups when I was young!

 The Fireworks show was the best I had ever seen...!

Unbelievably awesome!

 {Dumbo Ride}

 {Carm on a ride}

 {Me and my love}

 {Noah and the Scarecrow}

 We partyied hard that night...!

One of the latest nights besides New Years, that they've stayed up...!

We slept at my Grandparents and woke up early to visit.

 They love my grandparents and my uncle and aunt...!

The kids had such a fun time. I did too...! It's nice to get away from time to time.

I truly recommend Mickey's Halloween Party!

It's cheap{er}, super fun, lots of candy from Trick-or-Treating, great music, awesome parade and fireworks.

The only downfall for my family was it was so late. The kids are in bed by 8 usually. It was getting difficult to keep some of them awake. We had to sugar them up!

I feel energized to get things done back home now. I needed that...!

Disney {Car Kit}

To keep the kiddos busy when traveling, I put together a Car Kit for each of them.

They are bringing their Trick-or-Treat Bags because they get to Trick-or-Treat around the Disney Theme Park.

I just added some fun things in their bags. 

They each got a clipboard with coloring pages, mazes, jokes and worksheets....clipped on to it.

They also have their autograph books, Disney sticker packs, Disney fruit snacks, their Minnie/Mickey Ghost Lollipops, Mickey Cookie, crayons.



This will keep them busy for awhile.

I know they'll bring some books as well. All my kiddos love to read.

I'm so excited....!

Now, what am I going to do to keep busy?! Where's my magazines?!

Autograph Books.

For our Disney Adventure, I made these Autograph Books for the girls to get all the characters' autographs {my son said he's too old for that.}

They are so excited to try to collect them all...!

 I started off with one of these chipboard books. I stocked up on some from the dollar section at either Target or Michael's {I'm sure it's one of those stores....I live in those two!}

I took 2 of the chipboard pages for each book. One for a back cover and one for a front cover. The inside is lined paper cut into a circle...for the autographs.

 I just scrapbooked the chipboard covers.

I added Distress Ink around the sides because I'm a little obsessed with using it on everything. It gives it more dimension.

These are the back covers....!

And....the front covers again...!

 Disney scrapbook paper is probably one of the easiest papers to find....and the stickers are also. I had most stuff but bought a couple of extra papers. I figured that I'm going to use it when I scrapbook our trip when we get home.
This would be a great idea for any trip. If you go to the zoo, maybe print pictures of the animals for them to check off or use stickers.
If traveling somewhere, the kids could maybe check off places they pass or stop at.
The possibilities are endless.

These are so cute....!

Disney Suckers....!

Can you guess where we our headed this week for a little vacay?!

DISNEYLAND....!

Disneyland is having Halloween time certain days of the month of October...it's about half price for tickets....so we thought we would head down south for some spooky fun.

The kids get to wear costumes and the characters are giving out candy. I'm so excited. I can't wait!

Now...onto fun stuff to get us ready for our Disney Vacation......!

I'm sure you all have seen Ghost Lollipops for Halloween. Now, I totally recommend making them for an inexpensive treat to give away. They are super cute for children's classes and even church events.

I made our kiddos some Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse Ghost Treats.

They get to munch on them during the long drive to the amusement park.



I just experimented with them seeing what colors and faces I liked better. My kids like everything a little different and unique. They never pick the same thing. I attached all the accents on with hot glue.

These would be a cute party favor as well...!

 I hope they like them...!

Whoopie Pies....!

I completely love Whoopie Pies...!

They are little, delectable pillows of fluffy sweetness.

Better Homes and Gardens has this link with tons of various Whoopie Pie Recipes. I've tried a few of them and loved all of them. You can fit these into any gathering or theme...! Just use your imagination.

Here is the Classic Whoopie Pie Recipe that is so delicious.

Last year for soccer, instead of soccer ball cupcakes or cookies, we made Whoopie Pies for the team. Noah's team colors were light blue and silver. I made the dough a light blue color. The inside was white then I rolled in into silver sprinkles. I put them in cute little bags with silver and blue ribbon. Everyone loved them...!

How cute are they with chocolate dough and orange frosting inside for Halloween..?!

I'm telling you, so many options!

The month of October is.........

Play Hide-N-Go Seek in the dark month....!

So, it may not be a real thing...but it's our family tradition all month to play Hide-N-Go-Seek in the dark.

We grab our flashlights {they even had flashlights at the dollar store,} turn off all the lights in the house {the Fall weather makes it nice and dark} and hide from each other.

To make it a little spookier, we have a Halloween CD of spooky sounds that we listen to while we hide.

Some of the littler ones from time to time, get spooked. We just pair up with them. Just explain ahead of time, not to tell everyone your hiding place {haha!}
Trust me, this is addicting...!

You may want to play every night...!

Friday Book Project {The Biggest Pumpkin Ever}

For Friday Book Project, we read the story "The Biggest Pumpkin Ever" by Steven Kroll.

It's a cute little book. Carmendee really enjoys it and Maelyn says it's her favorite Halloween book.

To go with the book, we made handprint pumpkins to decorate our front window.

I added some vines with window markers. So festive!

To make these, simply put orange paint on their knuckles and green paint on their thumbs.

Have them push down on the paper pretty hard and make sure knuckles are close together.

We used a manilla folder for the paper to make them sturdier.

Handprint Projects are always my fav...!

Calendars.....!

I have that tune "I love my Calendar Girl" in my head as I post this before bed. Oh man, I hope it doesn't stick in there.

Christmas is coming soon and it's time to start thinking of Christmas gifts.

One gift that we give to each set of grandparents each year is a homemade calendar for the upcoming year.

We started this about....6 years ago?! Wow...time flies...I know I say that alot, but it does!

This next picture was one of our first ones. I made it all on my computer. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I liked it.

The cover and back was made out of picture collages.

 In the inside, I used my old school computer program and made calendar pages.

I just laminated it with the school's machine and used binder rings to bind it together.

 I liked how it turned out so the next year we decided to do the same thing.

I just did slight changes using a harder laminate.

 Each calendar page layout was a little different than last years as well.

So, then after that...my Mom told me that she used our calendar as her main calendar but she wanted to be able to write in dates, etc. We then changed it to no lamination and actual squares for dates like a real calendar at the store {I can't find the calendar the year after that I made.}

After that, I switched to buying our calendars from either Costco or Shutterfly.

They are both around the same price. You can find them anywhere now, Rite Aide, Walgreens, etc. I personally prefer Shutterfly. There is more of a variety on the monthly pages within layouts and backgrounds. Costco for some reason does not make the calendars at the store, so you have to have them shipped to your house and pay for shipping as well. What I have been doing the past two years is using my Shutterfly account {just sign up easy peasy} and update it each month with pictures. So, at the end of the year I don't have to fumble through all of my pictures trying to remember what happened each month. When you open the account, which is free, they send coupons all the time...so I use those to pay for the calendars.

I absolutely love this gift. In fact, so much that I make myself a copy...yep these are mine.

Who doesn't like looking at their kids?!