Homemade with Love

Happy Halloween

 

Here is a pic of my girls before we ran out the door this morning, with treats in tow. They are so sweet, it's spooky. Still have lots of things to do for tonight. The girls will be clowns, but no make-up (per request).

I didn't get to bed until 1 a.m. I needed to clean my kitchen and bake this for tonight:

 

As I was cleaning out space for it in the fridge, I dropped about a quarter of the gallon of unpasteurized (read: thick and sticky) Apple Hill apple cider on the floor and on my bare foot. Ewww. Totally torqued me. Luckily the girls were in bed, so as to not hear my colorful language. ;)

I will try to post again later with photos of out spooky decor, before it gets put away tomorrow!

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Time Flies

  

When you are having fun! Here we are at our annual pumpkin carving on Sunday. I love the way all the pumpkins look all lined up together. As you can see, a few of us (I won't mention any names, but they are usual offenders) CANNOT look at the camera and/or smile or even half-smile. Can you believe this was the best shot out of six?

We got our 90-year-old grandma on the ground next to the pumpkins and we all took turns taking our picture with her. She was such a good sport.

 

The girls did a great job on their pumpkins this year. Abigail even de-gutted her own pumpkin.

 

 

Here is what our four pumpkins look like at night.

 

On Friday night (so sorry, no photos) some of "my peeps" came over for a scrapbook/craft night. I had such a wonderful time. I am truly bummed that I didn't take out my camera. Next time. Ladies, thank you all for coming over to play.

After Wayne cooked us dinner (thanks, honey) he took the girls to see HSM3, along with a friend and his two kids. Such an awesome dad. He keeps asking me if I am jealous that he went to see the movie and not me. Um, no.

Last night, we made our gingerbread haunted house. This is such a fun activity and MOST of the candy and royal icing ends up on the house. Before and after shots.

 

   

 

Tomorrow is the girls' playdate afterschool. About 10 kids. Dinner. Bobbing for doughnuts. Two craft projects. Decorating cupcakes. Jumping on the trampoline. Spooky music. Lots of fun.

Sew Busy

 

I worked on and (almost) finished a couple of sewing projects that I have been putting off. Let me start off by saying that sewing isn't my forte. But I enjoy the feeling of completing a sewing project. KWIM?

One of the projects I worked on was this Halloween apron. Thank you to my lovely assistant Abigail, who held it up for this photo. The apron is for me. I mention that because I seldom ever sew for myself. I only followed the pattern for the puffy pocket. Other than that, I winged it. It is also reversible, except there is no pocket on side two. Very pleased that it is done and that the fabric I purchased in JULY was finally put to use.

   

The other project that I started today (and will finish on Saturday) is a cute little cupcake costume for spoiled, little miss Olivia. I will see her Friday to adjust the straps for her height and then give it to her on Sunday at our family pumpkin carving day. This is so sweet in person. It is so tiny and the felt should give her extra insulation on Halloween night. She has a chef's hat and a tiny rolling pin that will round out her ensemble.

Fall Fun

 

What fun we had on our way home from Lake Tahoe visiting ranches and farms in Apple Hill! The apples were SO delicious and the weather was crisp and sunny and beautiful. Perfect fall weather. We stopped at quite a few stands along the route and we came home with LOTS of apples and apple cider. What made it even nicer was that my cousin Misty and her family met us there. Here is what I made yesterday with some of the apples. I used Rome Beauties and Golden Delicious.

 

I actually made two of these babies. My hubby and girls were so sweet with their compliments. They say it is the best apple pie they ever tasted. <------me, gushing with pride.

Here are a couple more pics from one of the farms we stopped at. This was the farm that Wayne and Misty's husband Joe dared each other to eat acorns and almost gagged. Boys Men are so weird.

   

The reason we were in Tahoe the night before was to attend a friend's wedding. She looked so pretty and was so happy. Here are a couple of the 297 shots I took that day.

   

 

The wedding was in Incline Village, NV and the reception was in South Lake Tahoe, CA. The reception was so much fun, as it was a dinner-dance cruise on Lake Tahoe. Congratulations Laurelyn and Doug!

Autumn Owl

 

Here is the tutorial I promised you last week. Click on the pdf link for a downloadable pattern to use and follow along! Have fun and let me know if you made the owl.

 

 

 

Download autumn_owl.pdf

Picking Pumpkins

 

On Saturday, we got up early and drove to Half Moon Bay to go to the pumpkin patch. We visited Pastorino's Pumpkin Patch first. I took some pictures of their flowers and a portion of their Halloween gift boutique. Beautiful stuff. The weather was PERFECT for picture taking and we were lucky enough to have someone take a picture of us all.

 

   

We then headed across the street to Lemos Farms. LOVE this place too. I got lots of great shots of the girls. We went on a hayride in the coolest old truck ever and the girls fed the VERY hungry, aggressive goats. Quite funny.

   

 

 

 

Next, we were off to Half Moon Bay State Beach to have a picnic lunch and play in the crisp water. The girls played. I napped on a blanket. It is so weird. Almost everytime we go to the beach, I just lay down in the sun and then I am out. Catching some ZZZs. The beach is so relaxing. I managed to snap a few pictures there as well.

 

After a few hours at the beach, we drove to yet another pumpkin patch to actually buy our pumpkins. Four huge pumpkins. A simply awesome day. I love my family.

October Calendar

October is shaping up to be a very busy month for us. I subbed a half day today and I will sub a full day tomorrow. Kinders. Very sweet group. Lots of fun. I am even bringing a book from home that I love. It is such a great book and I HAVE to share it with this class.

Tomorrow afternoon we will be decorating the house for my favorite holiday Halloween. SO excited, but there are EIGHT orange and black totes outside waiting for us. Good times.

Saturday, we are day-tripping it to Half Moon Bay. Our favorite pumpkin patch is there and we love the weather. I hate picking pumpkins in the valley. It is always too sunny and my pictures reflect that AND it is always about 90 degrees. Not exactly what I consider fall weather.

Next week, Wayne and I are going to a concert. He surprised me with tickets for our anniversary. I have seen this group THREE times. All in my 20s. It is a boy band. Oh Oh Oh Oh OH. Can you guess?

Another weekend this month we will be taking a trip to Apple Hill with my cousin's family. We haven't been in years. In fact, the girls have never been . Excited about that.

I am also having some of my peeps over at the end of the month to craft/scrapbook. VERY EXCITED about that. So excited that I am going to do a make and take. I plan on doing a tutorial on my blog very soon with a downloadable pdf pattern file, as it is the owl above.

Of course, the family will get together at the end of the month for pumpkin carving. My theme is "Franks n'Stein". So, I will be serving hot dogs and root beer floats for our meal.

The girls have been bugging for a Halloween playdate or get-together with some of their friends. There is a group of kids that we have over that just get along so well together. I will have to come up with some project centers and activities that will appeal to 3rd grade-8th grade kids, as that is my age range. I am thinking we could bob for doughnuts. I did this one year with my girl scout troop and they all really liked it. Any other ideas?

The girls want to be Hillary Clinton (Hailee) and Sarah Palin (Abby) for Halloween, but since they wore their clown costumes for all of an hour in May, they will be clowns. And that is that. But I might cave. Not sure yet. October is a long month.

I also want to fit in a gingerbread haunted house and maybe a trip to the local haunted house.

Whew. I am exhausted already.