Trick or Treat!

What a nice night for Trick or Treating! Not too cold, and it was still light outside.





Anyway...this year was Mackenzee's first year to go out begging for candy. :0) We only went around our little circle, as that was about all she could handle. Even with just the few houses we hit, they got quite a load. We took Toby with us for his first official "walk". It was horrible. He hated his leash and Jaysen ended up having to take him back home and bringing out the pooper scooper as Toby felt the need to "eliminate" on a neighbor's lawn. Sigh. Needless to say, we did not ring that doorbell!


We did end up having to completely cover up Kenzee's cute costume with her coat. So, nobody got to see how completely adorable she was. Landon's costume had plenty of padding and so he kept warm just fine. He was such a good big brother too, helping Mackenzee ring a few of the doorbells. She really wanted to do her part, but she's just not quite tall enough. It's a good thing she's got Landon. :0)
The best part about the whole night was Mackenzee's excitement over all of it. She was in awe that all she had to do was hold out a bucket and people would give her candy. At each door, as soon as someone answered and brought out their big bowl of candy, she would scream, "canny!" It makes you wonder what must be going through her mind. ;0)
Landon was sure that we needed to go to more houses. That he didn't have enough candy. But, he got to finish the night off by passing out the treats to the kids that came to our house. "I'm the best candy giver, huh mom" So, I guess the night turned out good anyway. ;0)

Class Parties

One of the best things about holidays when your kid is in school is the class parties. Especially when you're not really in charge of anything. Your just the helper. You show up, and help the people that actually planned the party. Good stuff.

The kids get to dress up and they have a little "parade" through the halls of the school. You know...to show off their costumes. I will have to say there were some interesting costumes. Some were truly creative though and I was very impressed. Me? I buy mine at the store thanks!

After the parade, it's party time! The kids got to play bingo, pumpkin ring toss, and bobbing for balloons (not with their mouths!). The kids had a blast! And got too much candy!

My favorite part? That most of the kids in his class know who I am, and those that don't, when they ask Landon.....he grins when he tells them yes. I know it won't last for long. Soon enough he won't think it's cool. But for now...I rock! ;0)

A Boy And His Dog

"I've never had a dog before."

This is what Landon said to me as we were talking about our new puppy in the car yesterday. I had to go and pick him up in Burley and on the way home I asked him if he was excited about having a new dog. That's what he told me. "Yeah....I've never had a dog before." As if I didn't already know that. ;0) He didn't let that poor dog leave his side for one minute and there was a perma-grin on his face all night. "I think he need me more than I need him mom" That's the other phrase I got from Landon last night too. As much as I am hating puppy breath right now....I can't say that I am regretting this. Everyone is in love with Toby and he seems to be adjusting quite well.

Sigh. Now we just have to find a dog house. Where do you get one of those things anyway?

And Toby Makes Five

For those of you that weren't aware, we picked out a dog several weeks ago. It was only a couple of weeks old, so we have had to wait four weeks to actually bring it home. Jaysen has been so ancy about it. So, he called them a couple of times yesterday like a stalker would, until they gave him an exact date as to when the dog would be ours. As I figured, we still had to wait a bit as they wanted to make sure that they got the puppies their first set of shots.

Well, late this afternoon they called back and said that they were able to get it all done and we could pick up the puppy at any time. Which, for Jaysen, meant that very moment. So, we drove out to Wendell to pick up the newest addition to our family.

Meet Toby. He's six weeks old. Isn't he a beautiful dog? He's a Golden Retriever. Mackenzee is already mauling him. And the poor puppy has been stepped on a few times as well. Sigh. Landon doesn't get home until tomorrow night, so he hasn't been able to play with Toby yet at all. In fact, he hasn't even seen him as he didn't go with us to pick him out. So, he is super excited to come home and see the newest member of the family. ;0)

Anyway...if anyone else is wanting a Golden Retriever as well, there are several left. Then we would have sibling doggies! Come on....you know you want one!

Harvest Festival

So, last night was Morningside's annual Harvest Festival. We decided this year though, to make it a little bigger than usual and have some carnival type games for the kids to play. The whole point of the night is to get parents to the school for the Book Fair, to help support our library. And to draw them to the school, we have a party! Good idea, right?

Anyway...we had the bean bag toss, face painting, fish pond, ring toss, and Turkey in the Straw (treasure find) for the kids to play to win prizes as well as a ginormous pumpkin there to guess the weight of. Of course there were lost of sweets to eat as well. We had Krispy Kreme donuts, popcorn, cotton candy, and apple juice. I think I gained 5 pounds just breathing in the air. ;0)

Jaysen brought Landon and Mackenzee to play the games as I was there setting up already. They had so much fun! The prizes were great too. I really liked how the games were suitable for the younger kids like Kenzee as well. It made it fun for everyone. And we all really appreciate those that planned the event and came to help out. It took a lot of moms to make sure everything was covered. Though I am completely exhausted after six hours of Festival Fun, it really was fun.

Pumpkin Contest

Being as involved as I have been this year does have its upsides. I do at least know what is going on all the time at Landon's school. For example, every year they have a pumpkin contest at the school that coordinates with the Harvest Festival. Go figure. I'm sure I got some note in Landon's backpack about it last year amongst all the other stuff and it ended up in the garbage. I cringe saying that, because I know realize how much time and effort go into each of those "notes" that go home. We do realize that most parents do just that...throw them in the garbage. But at least we know they can't say that we didn't try to inform them!
Anyway....back to the point here...I was a little more on the ball about the pumpkin decorating contest this year and so Landon and I set out to make the very best pumpkin that we could.
I'm going to be very honest with you. Though I love fall and pumpkins and all of that stuff, I HATE carving pumpkins. Well, not necessarily carving the pumpkins, just removing the guts of the pumpkins. It doesn't gross me out or anything, it's just annoying. Those strings of guts in there will not come out for me. I can get the seeds just fine....But the rest...sigh. I'm not a patient person. Never professed to be. So, instead of carving a pumpkin (which we did anyway, but kept that one at home) we decided to buy a craft pumpkin and paint it. Michaels has had these babies on sale for a while now at 50% off. So, it was actually cheaper for me to buy the craft pumpkin there than to buy one at the Pumpkin Patch. Go figure.

Again...back the the point....we went on Michaels.com and found this cute idea for making a Frog Prince out of a pumpkin. So, I got all the fixin's for it. Landon had such a good time painting and decorating the pumpkin too. More fun than carving! Though I will tell you that when you have a 7 year old paint a pumpkin, it takes about five coats of paint to get it completely covered. So, be prepared. It took us over a week to get this baby totally done because of it. Well, because of that and also a pesty little sister that really wanted to help. Let's just say that green paint doesn't come out of shiny red Wonder Woman capes very well. Sigh. Anyway...Between the cutting out of the legs, and making froggy feet and eyes, Landon had a ball and was so excited about the outcome. We did change one aspect of the design though...the crown was supposed to made out of yellow foam like the legs....and though I did buy the yellow foam, I knew at the rate that we were going we weren't going to get this dang pumpkin done in time if we had to do any more hand made stuff. So, luckily in Target's Dollar Spot they had this awesome crown. And tah dah! A little hot glue to secure it and we were done!

I took the pumpkin to school just before the end of school yesterday so that Landon could show his friends like he wanted to, and he got the oohs and aahs that he was looking for. Anyway...long story short...his pumpkin won "The Great Pumpkin Award" for his class, which is the 1st prize! He was thrilled! The pumpkin got to stay out in the hall all night during the Harvest Festival too so he could show it off.

This seriously made it all worth it. Look at how proud he is. Isn't this what it's all about? You get to stop running around with your head chopped off for a few minutes and just watch. Can I just tell you that I LOVE being a mom?

Join in the FIGHT Against Drugs!

So, this week is Red Ribbon Week. For those of you unaware of what that is, it the week we set aside in our schools to teach kids the dangers of drug abuse and how to say no when offered any. Today was pledge day at Morningside. And since there were no volunteers to head up this thing, the PTA "Presidency" got to do it. Looking through the catalog of ideas for themes we could use this year I came across tons of items that had camoflauge on them. It immediately caught my attention because of Landon's obsessiveness with army stuff right now. The phrase they were using for this army theme was "Join in the FIGHT Against Drugs". I approached the others with the idea and they took it from there. We were able to get a couple of soldiers from the reserves to come to the school with their HumVee and my brother in law loaned us his H2 as well. So, we were stacked with fun stuff.

We told the kids to wear Camoflauge and they signed their names pledging to be drug free on a big poster we are going to hang in the school. Each got a sticker to wear as well. We made a big sign on the fence back by the playground with styrofoam cups that said "Drug Free!!!!!" The best part though, was that the soldiers let the kids actually climb inside of the HumVee and check it out. The kids had so much fun!

Hopefully they remember the reason for all of this though. This kind of stuff hits kids earlier and earlier and it makes me scared for my kids.