Elmo Cake

This cake is for my neighbor's grandson whole will be one on Halloween. The cake is lemon with lemon curd filling and lemon butter cream. So lemony but so good (there were a few scraps left over). Elmo is make out of rice krispy treat and covered in butter cream. It supposed to look like Elmo is popping out of a present.

Halloween Caramel Corn

Tonight we are going to play Texas Hold 'Em up at the church. We were asked to bring a snack so I decided to search the web for a festive treat. This is what I came up with. Something people can munch on by the handful.....if they like their caramel corn with a faint burn taste! I have to work on my caramel corn making skills. I think I will talk with my mom about it-one Christmas she made everyone and their mother (or at least it seemed like that many people) huge tins of caramel corn. It was SO good! Any way, not sure what happened....but it looks good doesn't it!?

I just drizzled melted milk chocolate and peanut butter chips over the caramel corn. Then I topped it with peanuts and Reese's Pieces.

Puppy Dog Compare

To the left is Hayden in her poodle costume last year and the one on the right is this year.

"Wumber" Woman ready to fight some crime early this morning before preschool!

Thinking about flying to preschool this morning....

Training of a Walker:

A painful to watch kind of story

Layne was taking about 4 steps this morning with no problem! We were so excited and she was just getting more and more confident about her walking skills as the day went on.....until we brought out the video camera!

You also need to keep in mind that we decided to try and video our little ball of emotions 2 minutes before it was her bedtime. Needless to say, after the first fall (painfully caught on tape) she just didn't feel so confident anymore and she let her emotions get the best of her. We made sure to end her night of walking disasters on a good note though. Tomorrow is a new day and I better enjoy having a "not very good walker" as much as I can because this child is going to be a doosie on two legs!!

Dress Up Day #1 at School!

Hayden dressed up today for school and she is also going to dress up for school tomorrow! She wanted to rock it old school today by wearing her poodle costume from last year.

I put her hair in this do so it would look like little doggie ears! She's going to be "Womber Woman" (as Hayden would say) tomorrow!

Here's what Layne was up to while sister was at school this morning. Just watching Grady eat.

She thought about digging in, but I strongly encouraged her not to.

Can you believe it! I found Hayden's old Christmas dress (the one she wore last year) at a consignment sale last year. Layne is going to wear that one this year. Then today I found the same dress in 24 months (which is technically 12 months younger than Hayden.....but that's the size she wears!). So, this year they will have the same Christmas dress!!

They are standing so far apart in the first picture because this is what happens when they are close to each other...Layne hits! Poor little Hayden just takes it too.

Daddy took the girls outside to finger paint tonight while I made dinner. What a special treat.

Layner just loved it....in more than one way!

Yummy!

What a messy little nut!

The finished product...

The BEST Halloween Costume...EVER!

So, we are going trick-or-treating with some friends of ours. They have a superhero theme this year-which works out perfectly for us since we have the Wonder Woman costume already. I decided that that's what Hayden would be on the actual day of Halloween since she will be walking around trick-or-treating with the other kids. Layne will be in a stroller or be carried, so she doesn't have to fit the theme really.

Last night I thought and thought about what it the world little Layner could be. We have some camo clothes for her, so she could be a hunter with that dead animal hat. We have a UPS outfit for her too, so she could be a UPS worker. I really wanted to have her make a statement with her costume.......

Then it hit me.....A TERRIBLE TOWEL! The guys on staff at DP...ok, really it's just 2 of them...like to talk trash about the Steelers. It just so happens that we will be trick-or-treating with both of them on Halloween. SWEET!

I actually have 3 terrible towels (2 Superbowl XLIII versions and 1 original). I sewed together the 2 Superbowl versions to make the "dress" for Layner. Don't worry, it's a very simple wide stitch that I can easily undo when Halloween is over!! I really wanted her to wear something on her head but I COULD NOT cut up one of the TTs. So instead, I cut up my favorite towels from my childhood. I know it sounds weird that I have a favorite bath towel from my childhood, but this one wad my name on it in big bright colors. It was just a special towel. But, I would have rather sacrificed that towel than cut up the original Terrible Towel!!

For those of you that are interested in learning more about the Terrible Towel, click here....

She's Got Lots to Say...

We just have no idea what it is that she's saying!!

This is a normal everyday conversation that Layne has with us. Poor girl has so much on her mind that she wants to get out, but she just can't seem to communicate it in English! I hope this is not a sign of how talkative she's going to be in the future.....

Two Little Pumpkins Riding in a Wheelbarrow!

Here is video of John pushing Hayden and Hannah in the wheelbarrow at the pumpkin patch. They had such a fun bumpy ride.

It's also video of the girls "cleaning out their pumpkins"....not really! Neither one of them wanted to get their hands dirty. So disappointing!

Cuddle Bug

This morning while I was cleaning up a little around the house I spotted this dead animal skin hat in our dead animal exhibit room (aka-the master bedroom!). I just knew that Layner would love it. She loves to cuddle up with soft things. I think she's definitely going to be the child that has a favorite blankie or stuffed animal for years! Sure enough, she cuddled right up with the dead animal skin and fur.

I do want to share some very exciting news! One of my friends, that I knew from HHBC preschool and now she's working for me again at Discover Point, is going to start cleaning our house once a week!!!! I am just so excited about this because it's not going to cost us a cent. She'd like me to tutor her son in order to get him ready for the CRCT and she brought up the whole bartering idea. So, I am going to tutor her son every week and in turn she will clean the house. It starts in November and I can hardly wait. It's going to be such a treat to have a professionally cleaned house once a week!

Please excuse the blinding reflection from the flash on my greasy hair! I don't shower until I get back from running each day and my hair is so thin that it just greases up in 24 hours. Not sure what was going on with the little pony tail either-I think it had a mind of it's own this morning. What I am trying to say is just try to focus on the bundle of tiny cuteness on the right of the picture!!

Wonder Woman!

Here's our little super baby scoping out the problem in the distance and getting ready to take flight!

"You think I can fly with this cape Miss Priss Sis?"

"I mean, I can't even walk...well, really I can but I am just milking this baby thing for every thing I can."

I have a few theories about what Hayden was doing with her hand in this picture:

~Modified peace sign

~Representing for her super hero sister (W for wonder woman)

~Letting everyone know she's three

Hayden told me right before we left the house for the Fall Festival that she actually wanted to be a dog instead of the princess. Wasn't happenin'!

We have a wig for the costume, but she would have nothing to do with it. So, she's a bald Wonder Baby!

Fall Festival

Some of you may remember video footage from last year's fall festival when little tiny fearless Hayden was crawling up HUGE inflatable and sliding down. Well, this year she has discovered fear! She barely did anything!! Most of the things that she attempted ended with her having second thoughts and coming out the entrance! Here she is looking up at the wall she had to climb having one of those second thought moments. She didn't make it!

Here is Layne wishing that she had some hair so she looked less like a baby and could conquer this beast! Maybe next year girl.

Here is Hayden sliding down the one inflatable she decided to do.

Not a very graceful princess on the way down!

Getting the Junk Out...

When Layne woke up from her nap we started getting the junk out of the pumpkins. We put the seeds in one bowl and the junk in another. Neither girl would put her hand inside the pumpkin!

Layne really enjoyed playing with the top of her pumpkin though....

She even enjoyed the taste of the top of the pumpkin!

She didn't want to have anything to do with the junk though!

Two big bites out of the top! Now it's time to roast the seeds.

Pumpkin Patch

This morning we went to Yule Forest Pumpkin Patch with the Harman's! It was so great to hang out with them and watch the girls play with each other. We sure do wish that they lived a tiny bit closer to us because we always have such a good time when we get together.

Here are the girls in the pumpkin picking area. This was a big pumpkin!

It was a little colder at the pumpkin patch than it was at the house. At times poor little Hayden was shivering she was so cold! She had a great time though.

Aren't these the coolest looking pumpkins!? I have never seen pumpkins that look like these. I haven't been to many pumpkin patches in my lifetime either, so that may not be saying much. I thought they were awesome though!

The girlies hanging out with the pumpkins. Grant was there too, he must have been doing guy stuff while the girls posed for pictures though.

Little friendies walking back from the "hay" ride. It was a trailer with benches pulled by an old tractor-no hay to be found. Thankfully, they told us to sit in front, right behind the tractor, so we could get a nice helping of tractor exhaust along the journey. We went through this "forest" that had tons of little wooden cut out figures. The tractor man would look back at us and say things as he pointed to some of the figures in the woods. The man is driving a very old, loud tractor for Pete's sake....does he really think that we can hear a word he's saying?!

He dropped us off at the petting zoo. I think the girls were able to reach one of the goat's tails. So, at least they got to pet something. They had a good time looking at all of the animals though.

Remember how I said I thought that these pumpkins were so cool looking, well...so did Hayden (maybe with a little help from mommy)! So, this is the pumpkin that Hayden picked out.

We then headed out to the patch to cut special pumpkins for Hannah, Grant, and Layne. The girls got a free wheelbarrow ride from a nice hunky man!

Frolicking in the pumpkin patch.

After searching and searching and mommy liking and then finding others she liked....we settled on this one for Layner. So Daddy and the girls cut it from the vine using the pumpkin carving tool the patch people gave us.

On the way back to the farm. Hannah picked out the green pumpkin-isn't that so cute!

Daddy with our two pumpkins. The real fun comes tonight when Miss Priss and Miss Dirt Ball get to dig in and clean these guys out!

We traded Layne's in at the last minute for a smaller cuter pumpkin that is still big enough to be cleaned out and carved.....leave it to mommy to change her mind!

Layner the pumpkin head!

What a fun morning we all had! Grant finally made it in a picture!! We finished the trip off with breakfast/brunch/lunch at The Waffle House!! What a loud bunch of messy troops we were!