Halloween Linky Love 2010

There are so many great blog posts out there about Halloween that I thought "What the heck! Might as well have one more day of Halloween fun!"  Definitely check out these great posts and don't forget the comment love!

1. Got lots of candy left over?  Head over to Sweetnicks for a recipe for Halloween Peanut Butter and Toffee Bark.  YUM!
2. Are you a Harry Potter fan? Check out this AWESOME Hogwarts Student uniform that my friend over at LittleRedSaid created.  That is one sweet costume!  Love the scarf.
3. Want to see the cutest little Yoda ever? Head over to Amalah.  I know she doesn't need any more traffic from me but Ezra is seriously cute (and Noah too as Obi Wan Kenobi).
4. Want another way to use up that leftover candy?  Head over to itsoktobeweird for a Candy Corn Bark recipe.  It has chocolate and pretzels. Oh how I love sweet and salty together.  YUMMM!
5. Want to totally gross out your kids next Halloween?  How about making a meat hand (think meat loaf but hand shaped)?  Head over to Dinner with Julie to see this thing for yourself.
6. Just want to look at everyone's Halloween pictures?  Head over to The Snyder Five for the Halloween picture link up!

Hope you had a WONDERFUL Halloween!

If you wrote a great post that I missed, please leave me a link in the comments!

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Happy Halloween 2010

Halloween was a bit crazy for us this year.  On Thursday Evan had a Halloween party at his preschool.  On Thursday we had a party at our friend Shawna's house and tonight the finale.....Trick or Treating!

Shawna & Kali

Thanks to Evan's Auntie Victoria, he had two costumes to pick from. One was the Alien from Toy Story and the other was a puppy (tho he swore it was a bunny).  He decided to wear the "bunny" costume to Shawna's and the Alien everywhere else.

Evan as a puppy/"bunny"

I only took him to the houses in our loop so he didn't have an obscene amount of candy.  He got to eat a few pieces tonight and he mostly wanted to eat the chips he got.  

In case you're wondering...here's what Evan looked like last year.

We had about 30 Trick or Treaters last year so I bought enough to give 1 bag of Cheetos and 1 Mars bar to 60 kids.  You would think doubling the amount would be enough....right?  Wrong!  We ended up getting 120 kids!  We ran out of candy at 6:50 so I had to run out and buy more.  Had it been later we would have turned off the lights and called it a night but that was too early.

All in all, it was a great night.  

BUT....did I mention that I'm on a diet?  Yep.  I didn't eat ONE candy bar.  It almost killed me but I managed to "just say no".  My trainer would be proud!

How was your Halloween?  Did you go Trick or Treating?  Hand out goodies?  What did you hand out?  Dish....I would love to know how your night went!

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Top Ten Tuesday - Great & Not So Great Things About Halloween

The days are getting shorter and chillier.  Autumn is definitely upon us.  Now it's time for Halloween!

I've always loved Halloween though I've never been very good at coming up with great costume ideas.  Here are my Top 5 favorite things about the great candy holiday.....

1. Candy! - Yes, I know.....I'm an adult, I'm supposed to eat healthy and candy is bad, bad, bad.  Hey, at least I'm honest.  I could lie to you and say I don't drool over the candy aisle at Halloween but I won't.  I try to save myself as much as I can by refusing to buy Halloween candy until a few days before because I can NOT help myself if it is in the house.
2. Taking Evan Trick or Treating - He still doesn't really "get" it but he likes it just the same.  He heard "candy" and he was all in. I keep reminding him that he has to dress up.  We'll see if he agrees to wear his costume.
3. Costumes - Not on me mind you.....on the kids.  I love seeing Evan and all the other little kids dressed up.  So cute!  This year I wussed out and bought Evan's costume instead of making one.  He's going to be one of the aliens from Toy Story.
4. Jack O Lanterns - I love carving pumpkins.  We haven't done one yet this year but I'm sure we will before it's over.
5. Our yard decorations.  We started decorating our yard for Halloween last year.  This year we bought another blow up decoration.  Evan LOVES them.

Unfortunately there are also some things I really DON'T like about Halloween.....

1. Teenagers who trick or treat and don't dress up.  I'm not a crabby person who says "you're too old to trick or treat" but at least dress up!!!
2. Super scary decorations. - I like a more friendly, less scary Halloween.  I really don't like when people make their houses super scary for trick or treaters because it really scares little kids (like mine).
3. People who judge me because we celebrate Halloween.  I truly believe that you can celebrate Halloween and believe in God.  I don't try to push my beliefs on people so I really, really wish they would lay off mine.
4. The incessant begging for candy. Evan will ask for candy if he can see it.  That's why we put the candy in a reusable shopping bag (non see through...yay!) and put it in the pantry.  It then sits there forgotten until I throw it away the next year b/c it is so hard (one of the joys of living in Calgary dryness).
5. Not knowing how many Trick or Treaters we'll get.  There's no way to know.  I like to have just enough candy so that I don't have tons of leftover candy because I WILL eat it.  

So what do you think about Halloween?  Love it or hate it or a bit of both?  I would love to hear your thoughts!

Linked up at Oh Amanda for Top Ten Tuesday!

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Craftastic Mommy Weekend

Dewey is away this weekend on a golf tournament so Evan and I had a "Mommy Weekend".  The weather in Calgary has been dismal lately so we have spent an awesome weekend indoors.

Saturday started out with a new recipe....Cinnamon Rolls!  They turned out amazing.  I promise I will post the recipe soon.

Then my friends Christine & Erin came over to make some jewelry and drink wine.  We had a great time!

Here's the necklace I made.  This is the pendant.  The necklace is leather cord.  It's supposed to be "Industrial Chic".

I bought Evan crafts to do with us too but he fell asleep on the couch instead.  We decided to do the crafts this morning while we were waiting on Dewey to get home.  

Michael's had 3D foam craft kits on sale for $3.99.  I bought 2 for us to build for Halloween decorations.  They were almost the death of me!

The kits don't actually contain instructions.  It says "Look at the picture and construct".  If only it were so obvious.  I had all the fencing glued on when I figured out that they would work better flipped upside down.  So I took them off & reglued.  Then Evan leaned over where I was working and left this in his wake.  *sigh*

The house kit didn't do much better.  It fell apart at least 4 times before I finally got it constructed.  The kits say "Peel & Stick" on the front but you have to glue A LOT of it.  Oh and did I mention that all the pieces are covered in glitter?  Now Evan, me and the kitchen are also covered in glitter.  :)

Ack!!!  Be CAREFUL!

"Who....me?  The craft destroyer????"

They turned out okay in the end.  We'll see how long they last. 

How was your weekend?

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Happy Halloween 2009!!!!!

We had 2 whole days of Halloween fun. It all started on Friday with a visit to the H1N1 flu vaccination clinic. We saw a few people dressed up there (and it was 8am!). After that we headed home to make treats to take to our little kid Halloween party that afternoon. They're ghoulish brownies. They look like little ghost faces.


They look super cool, huh? Note to self, though....don't try to double a recipe you've never made when you are taking them somewhere! I cut my timing too close & these weren't cool by the time I needed to cut them. The kind of fell apart and weren't nearly as cute when they were cut up. Oh well....it was totally my fault!

Evan dressed up as a lumberjack this year for Halloween. We borrowed an Elmo costume but Evan wouldn't go near it. He loves Elmo but he doesn't want to "be" Elmo. Lumberjack is a super easy & cheap costume. Plaid shirt + an eyeliner beard and you're set!


We headed to Shawna & Kohen's for a party. I don't have any pictures to upload b/c I left my camera & my witches hat at Shawna's. I usually manage to leave 2 or 3 things at her house every time I visit. Doh!

After their party, we headed home. I threw my back out some time in the morning while hurrying to get to the clinic for our shot. That coupled with the shot meant that I was NOT feeling too hot. I crashed on the couch for a few minutes to try to regroup so that we could attend the party at our friends house. It was up in the air whether we were going to go or not but in the end, I rallied. We had a GREAT time. So many fun costumes & great times. I'm glad I went.

Vegging out on the couch with Evan between parties

Dewey kept leaving the door open at the party so I locked him out. This is his best "please let me in" face.

Saturday morning we had a lazy morning of pancakes & playing. Everyone was completely bagged so our whole family took a 2 1/2 hour nap, which NEVER happens around here! After nap, we carved our pumpkin & then we dressed Evan up for trick or treating. He went trick or treating last year but he didn't really "get" it. This year he LOVED it! We were afraid he wouldn't say "Trick or Treat" because we couldn't get him to say it before we left. After he was out, he was a champ. He said "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You" at every single house. Everyone loved his costume & he got loads and loads of candy. He was so excited he was practically vibrating. I wonder how it's going to go tomorrow when we have to explain to him that "no, you can't go trick or treating again tonight".









Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

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Getting Ready for Halloween!

Will and Nicole were here this weekend so we decided to (finally) decorate for Halloween. Dewey took them out to buy one of those ginourmous blow up lawn decorations. Evan loves it and calls it "the punkin with the monsters". We have to open the blinds in his room so that he can say "Goodnight" to them before bed.

Nicole decorated the front porch with Halloween tinsel.

Our awesome witch that sings "Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun" just like Cyndi Lauper

Nicole trying to look scary with spiderwebs on her head but managing to look more like George Washington.

Evan is such a camera hog. I told him to sit by the pumpkin & this is what he did...

then this....

then I told him to try to pick up the pumpkin.....check out the face! Ha!

Last but not least I bought a ton of candy at Costco. Now we just have to figure out what we're going to be for our Halloween party on Friday. What.....you thought we would have done that by now???? You OBVIOUSLY don't know how we roll!

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Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Greetings from the farm! Tomorrow is turkey day and Nana's already working on the feast! Not exactly sure what all we're having but I'm sure there will be turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, turnip puff and pumpkin pie. I gain weight just thinking about it!

While I'm away and eating more than blogging, I thought I would ask another question and see if I could get some more commenting going on. See, I'm trying to make it a habit for you! It has nothing to do with me being a complete comment 'ho! :)

Anyhoo....on to the question. Dewey and I have a Halloween party to go to and we haven't bought our costumes yet. I'm looking for ideas on what we should go as. Extra points for costumes that are unique or that we can make instead of buy. I know I have lots of readers who are way more creative than me so help a girl out!

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Baby Halloween Party 2009

Diana & Daniel hosted the second annual Baby Halloween party today. I took the day off so that Evan and I could go. We had a great time. All the usual suspects were there. Kate as a dinosaur, Kohen as a monkey, Evan as bat, Daniel as a bear, Heather as Jasmine & Emma as Darth Vader. Diana really outdid herself with all the food & goodies. A wonderful time was had by all! I stopped by work to show off Evan in his costume. Unfortunately he fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got there. I woke him up & took him in anyway. Now he refuses to go to sleep. I put him to bed as soon as we got home but he's still not asleep. He isn't crying but he isn't sleeping either. Hopefully he will sleep for at least a few minutes so he won't be so crabby when we take him trick or treating!

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Pumpkin Carving

Evan got to carve his first pumpkin tonight with his Daddy. This was an extra special pumpkin, too, because it was grown in Nana's garden! He was very intrigued by the cutting and scooping that was done. He even licked the pumpkin "lid" to see how it tasted. He thought it was pretty good so we had to take it away or else the pumpkin wouldn't have a lid. Later we dressed him in his costume to try to get some decent pictures. Unfortunately, I have forgotten EVERYTHING I learned in my photography class so the lighting is dismal in almost all of them. Oh well, we had fun anyway!

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