Fall Fest

  Hi everyone! It’s good to be back! How you have been?!?!?!    I have 27 more photo shoots before the end of the month, then done for the Season.  Weeeelllllllll, 2 Snow Seniors, a maternity and 2 weddings, but …

Tortellini Chili & Cheesy Fondue Bread

  Did you all have a fun weekend?   We don’t love Halloween and all that surrounds it, but we do love to dress up! So, we either head to Fall Fest at church, or we go see family members …

Hubcap Hubbies, Cowboys & Indians and A Horse (of course)

  We had a great evening last night celebrating Fall Festival at church & going to visit my Grandparents and a few teachers and friends.  I chose not to take my camera in with us to the church Fall Festival, & I was glad I didn’t! It was all we could do to keep track of our little horsey in that big crowd.  🙂 

  As you can imagine, it is super-duper late at this moment, as I am staying up to get these photos ready for you.  So without further adieu, here they are:

These first few are taken Friday after school, Destiny wasn’t home and Pax was napping, so there are none of them alone.

Pax has spent the better part of our weekend in this Cowboy hat from Tylan’s costume.  He is so proud of himself when he can get his short little arms up high enough to get it on and off his head.

*Take note of this typical Male move right here……Come on, who teaches them this stuff, really!

The Ol’ Stink Eye

Yes, that IS a Hubcap. 

Found in the shed and wired to his belt……..So stinkin’ hilarious!

This next one is one of those unintentional shots that turn out so fun!!

Didn’t Destiny do a great job on these last few photos?! My little up and coming assistant!  🙂

  Hope you had a fun evening and your sugared-up kids CRASHED right into bed and slept all night long for you…..mine oldest 3 had 4 pieces of candy which is SUPER DUPER exciting at our house!  We brushed teeth extra extra good tonight, and no sugar for a while!  I grew up with my mom telling me this, but another mom last night reminded me: white sugar knocks the immune system for 5 hours!  I am not willing to deal with that now, since the pukes and bronchitis are going around!  Ew.

Happy Tuesday!

~T

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Halloween Or Halloweenie?

   As you know, this blog just turned 1 last week, so here is the new dilemma I discussed with you Friday:

Surely I can I start RE-posting things now that we are at the year mark, right?  Especially as the holiday’s come up?

  I’ve covered everything we do each year once, so I guess we’ll just keep revisiting those traditions each year, as we have new readers now.  A LOT of new readers! YAY!  Welcome, I am so glad you come each week to visit us! 🙂

Without further adieu, I give you last years Halloween post, newly revised:

Halloween Or Halloweenie?

  Halloween is here, and with it comes the moral battle I hear mom’s going through each and every year:

 Do we, or do we not allow our kids to celebrate Halloween? Does it dishonor God if we chose to participate?

Even if we call it, “Fall Festival”, are we participating in an evil holiday that was primarily made to honor the lord of death?

Here are some Halloween articles with varying views: What is yours?

Trick or Treat, or Abstain

Exposing Halloween

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

  When I was a kid, we were not allowed to go trick or treating, or even give away candy to trick or treater’s! We posted a sign on our door that said “‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ We do not celebrate Halloween!” You’d be surprised how many candy-hungry kids, still rang the doorbell! It wasn’t a big deal to me, we go to hang out in the basement, watch a movie and have snacks! Cool! (Of course, church carnivals were not so readily available back then either!)

Dale and I choose to allow our kids to dress up in nice, friendly costumes, and go to our churches Fall Festival. It’s a carnival, which means fun booths and inflatable’s! They also get some candy, but you know me and sugar, they can each have a piece (or three) that night, but we leave most of it at the church for the other kids to enjoy……

Ok, ok fine! I admit it!

I keep all the good chocolate candy to indulge in later.

What can I say? It’s great to be the mom! 🙂

Destiny goes to a Christian school, and they don’t even have a day where they can come to school in costume, in fact, the past 2 years there has been no school for Parent Teacher Conferences, genius!  If she was in public school and was invited to dress up, would I allow her to do so, and participate in a celebration of Halloween at school? I don’t know. If I had a guess, I’d probably allow her to dress up.  The next question that comes to mind is would I allow her to stay for the party?  Hmm, again, I don’t know.  I’d probably have to make sure the party games, activities and movies were appropriate before I could make that decision. I remember there were kid’s in my class pulled one year by their parents because of a spooky movie being shown in the library.  I assume my mom didn’t know about it, or I’d would’ve been outta there too!  🙂  I remember hating it, but being to scared to leave without a note.

   What are your thoughts on taking a stand against Halloween?  Does it change it for you when you think your child will be the ONLY one not in costume at school today? Would you pull your kids out of school this afternoon if you find out they are watching a creepy movie, or something you deem inappropriate? Or is it just easier to go with the flow and talk to your kids about what is appropriate or not later on, at home?

  Unless Dale and I feel God is asking us to take a stand in a different way, we will choose to allow our children to dress up to go to the church carnival on the evening of Halloween. No haunted houses, no spooky costumes, no creepy Halloween movies or tv shows will be watched.

  We just explained to our kids, in simple terms, that we feel Halloween is satan’s holiday and we will not participate by going trick or treating or doing any of those kind of Halloween activities. Then we remind them that night also happens to be Fall Festival, and they are welcome to go there instead to celebrate fall, and honor God by being in His house.

To them it’s as simple as that:

Fall Fest = candy and fun at church!

  When they get to be teens, I am sure we’ll re-visit this issue, but for now, we are all good! Besides, if you ask me, once they outgrow participating in the carnival, they can WORK at the carnival! I just don’t want them out and about on the streets that night. Too many creepy people, doing creepy things after the kiddies have all crashed from a sugar coma and been tucked into bed.

What is your stand on Halloween? What are your children allowed or not allowed to participate in?

  Last year, our family dressed up in 50′s clothing. Fun, friendly and fabulous 5o’s! Man I would’ve loved to live back then. 

Look at little Pax! How do they change SO much in just 1 short year??

This year we are doing Cowboys & Indians!  Dale and I don’t always dress up to match our kids, but if it works out, we LOVE it! 🙂  I’ll post pics tomorrow.

So, baaaa-ck to the topic at hand……Am I a sheep just blindly following the herd?

Or I am doing the right thing by finding a middle ground, and allowing my kids to participate, but only if they go to church that night?

The great Halloween debate continues……

  So, does me not taking a 100% Yes or No stand on Halloween, make me a Halloweenie?

~T 🙂

 

Florida Surprise & Fall Fest

 

Fall Fest was a success and my kids are in bed,  happily sleeping off their sugar high…..

Avery likes sleeping with something special each night.  Usually its a doll or stuffed animal, but nope, not this time.  Her choice? A box of Milk Duds.  I made her put it under her pillow and let me just say, they BETTER all still be in that box in the morning!  

 

  Besides Fall Fest, we had a weekend full of family fun!  Some surprise company showed up clear from Florida!  My brother, Chad and his girlfriend, Lauren decided to come for a short, spur of the moment visit.  Mom and I were the only ones that knew about our special company, and even I wasn’t supposed to be privy to that info. Mom slipped up and told me, but I was glad to help plan for their stay! 🙂

They squeezed into the pantry and jumped out at Dale when I sent him for a bag of chips…..

Apparently, when your name is Dale and you’re super laid back, this is as surprised as you get!

Surprise! The view from the pantry.

 

We had the whole family out for a bonfire, complete with Hillbilly hotdogs and S’mores.  (I’ll try to post the Hillbilly Hotdog recipe tomorrow, they were delish!)  That evening we celebrated Chad and Grandpa’s birthdays, since they are only a day apart.  Dessert choices?  Triple Chocolate Cake, Baked Apples and an amaaaaazing cheesecake by Mark. 

With desserts like that, how can a girl be expected to choose?  I had no choice but to try a bit of each.  I figure the first dessert was for Paxton, the next for me, and the 3rd, for us to share.   🙂  

Chad put together a beautiful picture frame of he and Grandpa’s shared birthday parties over the years, the first being age 2 and 57, the last one taken for the 17th and 72nd birthday’s.  A photo from the party will fill the empty slot representing their 26th and 81st birthdays!  How special! 

 Destiny had no school Thursday, Friday and Monday, for parent-teacher conferences. What a total God thing that Uncle Chad’s trip correlated with her time off!!!!! We had such a great time,  just hanging out with them, and playing games till 2 am.  Lauren and I kicked some butt at Tribond.  Well, actually, the guys won, but only because we let them. 🙂  My only complaint was the weekend went too fast!

Here are some pictures from the weekend…… 

I am off to do laundry and make a menu & grocery list for November. 

Guess, its back to real life again! 

May your day be blessed with happy kids, who NEVER beg for the candy you stashed on top of the fridge, who have cavity free teeth, and who do not whine and fuss all day from an overly busy, super-duper exciting, sugar coma kinda weekend……and may you not be caught as you sneak the chocolate from the kids’ candy stash!

Happy Monday!  🙂 

~T

Bye, Chad and Lauren, come back soon.