The Halloween Party

Every year I have a halloween party for Madeline and Jacob. We love to plan the activities, prepare the costumes, and have screepy food. The little boy, David, next to Stephen said "you need to cut your hair it is too big!" We laughed pretty hard!

I love Madeline's creativity! She read a great book this summer called "the tale of Despereaux". It is about a mouse named Desperaux who defies all "norms" set before him and talks to humans, carries a sword, and isn't afraid of cats! Madeline loved the book so much she decided that is what she wanted to be for halloween.

So, how do you make a mouse costume...

1. buy gray velvet material on clearance at Joann's for $7
2. look at pictures of Desperaux for his upcoming movie and see his lovable body and how to duplicate it. The kids watched for movie trailers for over an hour. It is going to be an adorable movie ;)
3. cut out and sew (i learned how to sew from my sweet mother) I was often unpatient, but I learned some sweet skills
4. how to keep big ears from sagging? Use florist wire to line the ears.
5. $7 fabric, 2 hours of cutting, sewing, and fixing ears....see an excited daughter love her outfit, priceless

Here are all the friends enjoying the apples that they bobbed for. Bobbing for apples is hard work but they were each determined to get at least one apple. Many of the kids were under the water for a while! No, problem we know CPR, my hunky husband was a lifeguard!

Don't Eat Pete! We played with fun game with M&M's. There are 9 squares and one person leaves the area while the others decide which square is "it". They person comes back and eats the M&M's until they pick of the one that is "it" and they yell "don't eat pete!"

Jacob loves being action heroes. We go to the wonderful "Ryser store", our neighbors, and borrow costumes each year. This year Jacob is a transformer but in the picture above is only wearing 1/3 of his costume.

Coeur d'Alene

The Coeur d'Alene resort was beautiful. Here is a picture of our awesome romantic bedroom! It has a flat screen tv that we didn't even turn on. The couch is right by the balcony so you can sit and look at the beautiful mountains and stunning blue lake ;)
A picture outside of our room.
Stephen and I went on a ride to the "floating hole" at the golf course. Here is a picture as we are on the lake of the resort.
This was a wooden boat with a cool copper top and leather seats. The boat is used as a golfer's shuttle and to take guests to the golf course.

Here is the famous floating green. It looks a little tricky but I guess some people can make it. The green is on a computerized pulley system that can adjust it from 100 to 175 ft out. I could totally make that hole! Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of our delicious dinner from the 5 start restaurant at the resort, yum!

Spokane

This is a beautiful flower in my front yard. I wanted to take a picture of it with my new Nikon D40 SLR camera. I love my new camera!
We stopped at the dam to look at the Columbia River. A funny story, my sister Cynthia and my parents went to Spokane and visited this dam as well. My sweet sister called tis the "corpse" of engineers instead of "corps" of engineers, sorry Cyn the "p" is quiet. shhhhh
Stephen and I stopped at the Davenport Hotel to see the beautiful foyer. Stephen had a meeting in Spokane last month and stayed at the hotel. The architecure is gorgeous!
A mother of a wagon. This is a huge slide and the little kiddos ride down the front handle, weeeee!
My mom rode on this carousel back in May and had a blast. My sister, Cynthia, described my mom's feelings as giddy. So I was way excited to ride it as well. Stephen and I searched the riverfront to find it. We followed beautiful music to this building. We walk in and they had just finished the last ride, no carousel ride for me ;( .

Stephen had a work meeting in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. I love going on trips and having a vacation from the normal. So on our drive up we stopped in Baker, Oregon. Nyssa (go Bulldogs) played Baker in high school but as an adult I appreciate the quaint community.
For several years, I have noticed billboards advertising the "Geiser Grand" historic hotel and though hum, that looks cool. So we stopped for breakfast and enjoyed the beautiful grand hotel.
My breakfast was stuffed french toast with strawberries and whipped cream, ya it was good!
Here is a picture of the hotel from across the street. Their website is www.geisergrand.com .

oh my gosh, are those not the cutest little weiners you've ever seen ;) you use hot dogs, (i like nathan's) and wrap rhodes bread dough around them and top them with a cute little cap and their ya go. they are almost too cute to eat, almost!
i saw this in pottery barn and thought.... um Jacob is asking me everyday, seriously, everyday "when is halloween?" me... "jacob, it is in 3 weeks". "but, mommmmm, you said that last week, no fair is it ever going to come"!!!! so here we go, i'm going to make a halloween advent calendar it is a brilliant idea and so cute. i'll report back with a photo and stories

you say it's your birthday

well, i'm another year older... okay i just had to say that part because it comes along with birthdays. here is my birthday pie. i'm not a cake person, oh there has been maybe 3 cakes that i've like my whole life (yes, 36 years and counting). but having a wonderful mother that makes the most amazing pies, yes it spoiled me. so my sweet husband knows what i like and buys me a pie.
crazy kid!
for my birthday i received chocolate (oh ya!), a waffle cone maker (thanks Barb and Ron), a paper shredder, and a new camera. so you will see even more cute pictures... i know try to contain yourself.

for breelle's birthday gift, we went to the children's discovery center. they enjoyed the bubbles, the pulley chair, playing with sound waves, and seeing a rector scale.
the tunnel of mirrors!
jacob works hard for his money, so hard for his money! future checker