Fast forward to October!

During the beginning of October I was in and out of the Hospital twice in two weeks and lots of doctors visits in between - it was not fun at all. 

Halloween slacked in the costume department unfortunately.  But here goes sharing what we created a day before Halloween!

Here is my little make-shift lion.  I had wanted to use felt strips to make his mane, but time ran short

Our little elephant didn't want to put his nose on.

Finally, everyone is happy after going trick-or-treating at Grandpa's work.  We have our lion and elephant and the two Zoo Keepers!

It was really cute and we got a lot of compliments.  I think they were fun to make from things we found at the thrift store and around home.

It's amazing what you can do with things laying around ;)

Back in June/July...

Our first son turned 2 in the middle of June and then I had my second baby boy 6 days after!  We had Dev's birthday party the first weekend of July and it was a train birthday!

I researched on Pinterest for ideas of what to do since mommy brain was prohibiting me from thinking even the most basic thoughts, let alone plan a toddler party.

I found several ideas for birthday banners.  Here is the Pin.

Here is what I came up with:

I cut out all of the trains and wheels and then my awesome sister-in-law wrote out the letters on it.  I was very happy with how it turned out.

Next I wanted to do something like this.

Here is part of what my brother-in-law created:

He was ridiculously amazing and made an entire train, but I had to feed the baby and didn't get more pictures.

I also really wanted to make an awesome train cake, with fondant and everything.  I had it all planned out, yet it did not work out for me.  I guess I underestimated how busy I would be with a toddler and a 2 week old (HA!)

Even though I am not entirely proud of my work, I will share what I did here:

I think what I was most disappointed with was the color.  If I had had more time, I could have perfected it, but I did not.

So there it is, the highlights of my 2 year old's train birthday party!

A Word of Warning...

I have not tended to this blog the way I have wanted to.  Luckily, I have been creative and taking pictures - I just haven't updated the blog!

I am going to do several posts in a row of some highlights of what I've been up to!

Haalloween Costumes!

For Halloween we went as Hercules, Meg, and Baby Pegasus. I finally found my camera cord, so here are the pictures!

Costume and Crunchies

The first costume finished (well except for adding feathers to the wings) is Devlin's Pegasus costume! It's so adorable on him :)


For the "hair" I did a modified version of Dragonfly Design's Unicorn costume (I used shorter strips of felt and I added in some fleece bits. I also pinned them differently so the strips wouldn't fall down as much.) The tail (not pictured) was made from fleece that I cut up and pinned on. The wings were made from packing material and pipe cleaners, and I will be adding feathers to make them look more like Pegasus wings as opposed to fairy wings.


Today is a chilly day, with lots of snow and falling branches, so I wanted to make something yummy and warm for the cold day. I was reading Family Fun Magazine, which my mother-in-law was so kind to get for me and I came across a recipe for Corn Crisps! They looked so yummy that I had to try them, and I have to admit that almost half the batch is gone between Devlin and I (I was surprised that he kept asking for more, but I'm glad he liked them!)



Here is the recipe that I got from the magazine:

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Flour
1 Tsp Salt
3/4 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Ground Cumin
1/4 Tsp Sugar
1/8 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 Large Egg
1/4 Cup Milk
1 Tbsp Butter (Melted)
1 1/2 Cups Corn (Frozen, Fresh, or Canned)
1/4 Cup Chopped Scallions
Canola or Vegetable Oil

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, cumin, sugar, and cayenne. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and butter. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until they are blended. Fold in the corn and scallions.

2. Pour oil into a large skillet (oil should come 1/4 inch up the side of the skillet.) Heat until the oil "shimmers". Drop a slightly rounded Tbsp for each crisp to make. Fry over medium-high heat until they are golden, about 2-3 minutes. Turn them over and fry the other side for about 2 minutes. Put them on a paper-towel lined sheet pan, add salt to taste.

Hands-on Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Makes: About 18

I didn't have any scallions, so I didn't add them in and I also didn't salt them to taste, but they were awesome! I think next time I might try making them with wheat flour to see how much of a difference it makes!

The start of our decorations

Homemade decorations are so much fun and this year we actually had some time to be creative. There are still more to come (we hope!!)

Simple paper decorations :)


Our door sign made out of fabric. I made it a couple of years ago and it might need an update soon...Still cute though


We have a big tree outside our fenced area, and we decided to make "ghosties" out of an old bed sheet that was ripped. The ripped parts made them look really cool!


Two of the ghosts in our inner yard we made out of an old (and a little gross) bath curatin. Not gross anymore, just cute!


And last is not really a Halloween Decoration, but a terrarium I made in my Horticulture class, with paper leaf decorations.

Halloween Decor

I am so ready to get rolling with my Halloween decorating, especially DIY stuff! I have some ideas for ghosts hanging from the tree, making some wood cutouts that we'll decorate together, and anything else we feel like.

I'll post after I complete projects!!