Crazy Hair Day

The week of Halloween was also spirit week at Sadie and Drew's school.  Halloween just happened to be crazy hair day.  I found a cute idea on pinterest to make two cupcake bunns on Sadie's head.  It turned out perfect.  Drew really wanted some crazy hair so we improvised and turned his head in to a basketball.  Pretty creative if you ask me.

Halloween/Monster Party

Since we had already had a successful trunk-or-treat experience, I wanted to do something a little different for Halloween.  It was on a school night, and the last thing the kids needed was more candy.  We decided to have a Monster Party.  The new movie Monster University had just come out so we decided to base our party around that.  We had fun monster themed food like monster teeth and ears (doritos and potato chips), and noses and eyes (strawberries, raspberries, and grapes), and monster smiles(crescent roll up sandwiches).  We even had themed drinks and huge monster cupcakes from Costco.  The plan was to have dinner, go around the neighborhood for a few minutes to trick-or treat, and then come home and watch the movie.  Brad said he would take the kids out while I stayed home and passed out candy.  After about an hour I was getting a little worried as to why they weren't back yet.  They finally came home and said that they had run in to some friends in the neighborhood and had decided to stay out longer with them and trick or treat to a few more houses.  At this point it was too late to watch the whole movie, so we opted for the first 1/2 hour while eating cupcakes and sorting candy from their trick or treat buckets.  Sadie even went so far as to grab a notebook and "inventory" her loot.  It was a fun Halloween night!  A couple of days later, I noticed a tent that was set up collecting Halloween candy to send to military men and women.  I was itching to whittle down our supply of sugar, so I proposed the idea to the kids.  At first they weren't crazy about it, but I explained that it would go to people like their Uncle Matt who were serving our country.  I told them if they wanted, they could pick 15 pieces of candy to keep and then dump the rest in a bag and we would take it to the collection spot.  After my speech, everyone was on board.  Sadie and Drew came with me to deliver the candy and even got to make thank you cards to send with it.  It was a great way to show
appreciation to the troops.

Trunk-Or-Treat 2013

Our ward had a trunk-or-treat this last Saturday.  The kids waited all day to be able to put on their costumes and go.  Finally the time arrived.  We had to snap a few pics first of everyone in their costumes.  Sadie was a candy corn fairy this year.  My mom made the cutest tutu for her that leaves tons of glitter wherever she goes.  Drew was true to form and went as his usual super hero- Wolverine.  Brinlee was the beautiful princess Merida from the movie Brave complete with a red braided wig.(thanks again to my mom) And Cole was the cutest blue monster ever.  Too bad his costume was fleece lined and made for a place that actually has seasons.  Poor kid was a sweat box- but wouldn't remove the hood for anything. We got festive and decorated the trunk of the van with some crepe paper, balloons, and some glowing lights.  The kids were super successful and came home with buckets full of candy.  I have been trying to convince them that Saturday was actually Halloween- not tomorrow.  I think we will do a little trick or treating around our house and then come home and watch the new Monster University Movie.  At least that is the plan I am going to try to sell them on.

Day 5- Feeding Ducks and Batting Cages

Finally, the fifth and final day of fall break had arrived.  We spent the morning just hanging out, making bracelets, and getting in all the reading that had been neglected over the week.  When Brad got home, we packed a picnic lunch and headed over to Freestone Park.  The kids played at the playground and then we headed over to feed some bread to the ducks in the pond.  The ducks were a little more aggressive than I remember.  They started coming up out of the water to get the bread out of the kid's hands.  After making sure everyone still had all of their fingers, we headed over to the batting cages to use up some tokens from our previous trip.  Everyone got in on the action this time, including Cole with a little help from Brad.  It started getting dark which was our cue to head home.  We enjoyed some chocolate chip cookies made by Sadie earlier in the day and then off to the bath to clean up all those dirty faces and feet.  Goodbye Fall Break.  It was fun and memorable and tiring- but mostly fun!

Day 4- Grocery Shopping and Smurfs

Thursday was a busy day.  Brinlee had preschool again.  So after getting her off, the other three kids and I headed out to do the grocery shopping.  We made it home just in time to drop off the groceries and then run back to pick up Brinlee.  Sadie and Drew offered to stay home and unload the the groceries while I took Cole up the street to get Brin.  I agreed with the stipulation that they leave any and all meat in its bag until I got back.  As I walked back in the door with Brinlee and Cole, Sadie and Drew were hard at work and almost done with the groceries.  They both told me that this had been the best part of fall break so far.  Go figure?  Sadie had been invited to a birthday party that afternoon, so after dropping her off, I got the other kids down for naps and what seemed like seconds later- they were getting up.  Brad had some church training to go to that night.  After a quick dinner with Sadie when she got back from her party, I headed out with all the kids to the dollar theater to see Smurfs 2.  We were all wearing blue to match the movie and I even splurged for blue icees at the theater.  Everyone was very well behaved minus Cole's occasional loud outburst when something funny would happen.  They were pumping the a/c though and everyone got a little cold while drinking their icees.  I ended up taking off the jacket I had on and rotating it through each kid to warm them up.  Funny what desert living will do to you.  After the movie ended, it was home for baths and bedtime.  Another exhausting and fun filled day of fall break.

Day 3- Bowling and Movie Night

On Wednesday, we spent the morning at the park.  The kids were super excited for Brad to come home because that meant we were going bowling.  It takes a good hour for the Phillip's family to bowl an entire game.  Cole really wanted to bowl on his own, but instead he was paired with Brad and had to rotate his turn pushing the ball down the ramp.  I would then have to restrain Cole and try to cover his mouth so the entire bowling alley didn't have to hear him bellowing for another turn.  I guess we have learned our lesson for the next time we go.  Brinlee and Drew were neck and neck the whole game.  On the last frame, Drew pulled ahead and was the winner.  Later that night, we set up the tent, turned out all the lights, and watched the new Toy Story of Terror special on tv.  It was another fun day of fall break!

Day 2- Bracelets and Pumpkins!

For some reason, Sadie and Drew's fall break was a week after all of the other schools here in AZ.  So that meant Brinlee had been off of preschool the week before and now had school during fall break.  We dropped Brinlee of to school and then headed out to some craft stores.  Have you heard of rainbow looms?  They are little rubber bands that can be woven into bracelets.  Sadie had some friends at school who were making them and wanted to try her hand at it.  We ultimately found theses babies at Michael's and bought two packs of 6oo bands each.  Drew was intrigued and got right in to the bracelet making as well.  I bought a little bead container for them to sort the different colors in to and it was a hit.  This little activity kept Drew and Sadie busy for hours.  Later that night we tried our hand at some pumpkin carving.  I am usually more of a decorate the outside of the pumpkin kind of girl, but we decided to go for it this year.  The kids were not crazy about scraping pumpkin guts which meant that Brad and I did the majority of the work there.  I had to keep a close eye on Cole.  I kept thinking I had all the sharp utensils in my possession, and then all of the sudden he would end up with one in his hand.  The finished products were so spooky once we lit them up with our battery powered tea lights(I have an unhealthy fear of fire).  Unfortunately, our hot weather here melted our poor pumpkins in less than a week!  What a bummer!  We made some great memories though so it was well worth it.

Fall Break- Day 1

Just as we get in the swing of a school schedule around here, it is time for fall break.  In Arizona, fall break is an entire week.  Since we didn't have it in our plans to go anywhere this year, I created a fun activity/outing for each day to keep us busy.  On Monday, we headed out to our favorite park- Playtopia.  It is a bit of a drive- but oh so worth it.  We packed a lunch a long with us and stayed for a good 2 hours. Cole is now big enough that he can play on most of the equipment unassisted.  Sadie was close behind just in case.  The slides were a huge hit as well as the huge climbing rocks.  We tired ourselves out and then had to turn up the radio really loud all the way home to make sure Cole(and the other kids) didn't fall asleep until we were home.  That night after Drew's basketball practice, we went out to dinner at Fudds to celebrate Drew's birthday one last time.  They have a great deal there on Mondays where kids meals are only 99 cents.  After Brad paid, he suggested we work Fudds into the meal rotation on a more frequent basis.  It doesn't hurt that there are tvs everywhere playing every football game and highlight imaginable.  We had a great first day of fall break and all fell in to bed that night ready to rest up for day 2 of the fun!