{party info}

For those of you who are interested, here's where I got my ideas...

The bat wings are just chicken wings that I ordered (duh).

The mummies are from Pillsbury. They were easy and delicious. Two tips...Use the crescent roll seamless dough SHEETS if you can find them instead of the crescent rolls so you don't have to worry about pressing the perforations of the crescents together before slicing. And use a pizza cutter instead of a knife or scissors to cut the dough. So easy!

The deviled eyes are just my usual deviled egg recipe with half of a pimento-stuffed green olive for the eye, little gherkins for the eyebrows, and cut up red pepper for the eyelashes.

The roasted bones are from Pillsbury and the blood was my regular pasta sauce that I make.

The gooey ghosts are just regular PB&J sandwiches that I cut with a ghost cookie cutter.

The jack-o-lantern bites are from Bakerella. Usually her stuff is too complicated for me, but these were really easy. I ended up using black gel decorator icing for the faces because I had it left over from Gerard's birthday cupcakes, but next time I would go with melted chocolate like Bakerella suggests.

I can't remember where I got the candy corn pudding idea, but it was really easy to do. I used instant banana creme pie pudding for the bottom layer, instant butterscotch pudding for the middle orange layer, and cool whip for the top. I think if I ever make these again I might just opt for all vanilla pudding and use food coloring. I think the different flavors were a bit too much.

The witch's fingers were a last minute addition. I had seen several variations on cookies like THESE and I had planned on making them. Of course, since I am not much of a baker I bought the Pillsbury refrigerated butter cookies and planned on using that. Good thing I tried a test "finger" a few days ahead of time, because they just didn't hold their shape and ended up more like a big flat oval with an almond stuck on the top. So at the last minute I thought of making them with pretzel rods, broken in half, first dipped in red chocolate (it looked more like pink, though). Once that chocolate had hardened I dipped it in white (so it would look like a white finger with blood inside once bitten) and placed a sliced almond on top while the chocolate was still warm for the fingernail.

I got the pretzel idea from a friend last Christmas and made them last Valentine's Day. You can see that post HERE.

Oh, and I made cute little food labels and I got that idea from HERE.

That's about it! I hope everyone had a happy halloween and stayed safe! Gerard and Morgan had fun trick-or-treating (although big Gerard got called in to work). I'll post more about it with pictures tomorrow! Goodnight!

{happy halloween!!!!}

Gerard had his cub scout pack meeting Thursday night and we all went to watch Gerard receive a patch, some beads, a leather for his belt and some other stuff. Each den got up in front of the whole pack to tell them what they've been doing the last month. Gerard's den was the first to go (they're the youngest) and Gerard was the one who grabbed the microphone and spoke first. He is NOT shy, and he was very cute and proud of himself.

Yesterday was Gerard's Halloween party and parade at school.

Then we had a little Halloween party here last night. I love Halloween, and I think the kids and the rest of the guests enjoyed all the Halloween-inspired foods as much as I enjoyed making them. In the interest of getting the pictures posted, I'll post them now and post recipes, directions and links later or tomorrow for those of you who might be interested.


I bought "Bat Wings":


I made mummies:


And roasted bones with blood:


Devil's eyes:


Gooey ghosts (PB&J for the kids):


Jack-o-lantern bites:


Candy Corn pudding:


M&M pretzels:


Witch's fingers:


We also had "Severed hand cider" (apple cider with frozen hands floating in it) and a witch's cauldron filled with beers, or "Witches Brews".

I hope everyone had fun!



Happy halloween!

{not my idol}

OMG, it's Boy George all over again. I wish my eye makeup looked that good.

{volunteering}

It may be a few days before I post again....

{hockey and stuff}

Alright, I know you're going to laugh at me for even bothering to post these hockey pictures due to the amount of blurring I had to do. You know how closely guarded our top-secret location is! However, I felt compelled to post these anyway because I was relatively happy with the way they turned out. Shooting at the rink has always been a thorn in my side -- the proper exposure is tough with the bright white ice, my color balance is always off, and I'm usually shooting through plexiglass or a net while chasing after Morgan. Despite all those issues I thought I'd post anyway because Gerard was excited to practice on the "big ice" -- where our minor league hockey team plays. Gerard is #2, wearing a black helmet and blue laces on his skates in case you can't pick him out. So enjoy (if you can ignore the blurring)!

Then this afternoon we played outside with Maddie, Abby and Savannah. It was a beautiful fall day (probably one of our last!)

{'nuf said}

Another busy week ahead. Let's just hope they don't close school again.

{ms. balboa, if you please}

Yo Adrian! Check out my eye (and don't mind the lack of make-up and the disheveled eyebrows!) I'm thinking it's a sty. Yet another reason not to leave the house! Oh, and did I mention it hurts like hell?

{the rules}

I just realized that I posted an update without any pictures of the kids, and we all know how my mother feels about that! So as not to break the rules any further, I figured I ought to post a few pictures....

Gerard's school picture:


Did you know princesses eat dinner?



And so do princes....