Saturday Smile

A few pictures from the harvest festival "photo booth" last weekend...

Say 'hoo'!

I am totally my mom in this picture.

"Look this way! Sit there! Don't move! Smile! Let me fix your mask!"

And my favorite one. Me and my little owl.

Halloween

My little owl!

Mason's costume this year was made entirely of things we already owned-- a brown t-shirt and an abundance of felt. (Is there anything you can't do with felt?)

It probably took me an hour and a half to make the whole costume. Cutting out the felt feathers was the most time consuming part. I sewed them onto Mase's shirt and cut out some shapes for the mask. The best part was, he didn't really even know he was wearing a costume-- and even though the elastic on the mask was a little snug, he still wanted to wear it. What a trooper!

We didn't actually go trick-or-treating this year. Our neighborhood church hosted a harvest festival with carnival games. As you can see, they let Mase cheat a little bit. Maybe it was okay since we weren't playing for candy...

He looks like such a big boy in that bounce house!

Here it is: PROOF that I don't always deprive my poor child of sugar. (Insert sarcasm and eye-rolling here.)

Rookie parent mistake: Giving your toddler sticky candy while in the car because you think the fact that it's on a stick will deter him from touching the sticky candy part.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider...

The irony here is that I have severe, and I mean severe, arachnophobia.

I have to say though, our little Peanut makes a pretty cute spider.

Complete with a fly dinner!

For Mase's first Halloween our plans were low key: take a walk around my dad's neighborhood. Grandpa Flint still lives in the house my brothers and I grew up in so the neighbors remember us trick-or-treating every year growing up. I thought it would be fun for them to see the next generation. We went out early, made the rounds, and got home in time to put baby to bed and turn off all the lights and pretend we weren't home so no one would ring the doorbell and wake him up-- sad, I know.

Being that we didn't have much to do (and Mason wouldn't know either way) I went really simple with the costume. A long black skirt I already owned made into a spider web using yarn and hot glue, the Snugli baby carrier outfitted with a red (eco)felt hourglass and a few extra black-tube-sock-legs stuffed with tissue paper. Add a couple of large decorative flies caught in the web and one attached to Mase's pacifier and we were good to go! Easy, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly in that I used very little new material, rather made use of things we already owned.

Maybe next year we'll dress Tage up as a can of Raid.

Under wraps

I'm working on Mason's Halloween costume tonight (yes I'm a procrastinator).

What could it bee???

This actually isn't his costume. It's a receiving blanket and beanie he got from Grandma Pete.

Mason digs it though!

Here's one last Halloween dinner for you!

Mummy Meatloaf

3/4 lb. lean ground beef

3/4 lb. ground turkey

1 egg

1 c. bread crumbs

1 c. dry stuffing mix

1 c. ketchup or barbecue sauce

6 cooked lasagna noodles (with the wavy edges trimmed off)

Mix the first 5 ingredients together, shape into a mound (or bake in an oven-safe bowl) and cook in a 350 degree oven for 45-55 minutes. Cover with ketchup or barbeque sauce and "wrap" with the lasagna noodles.

We ate the Mummy Meatloaf with stuffing and butternut squash (which you can slice in half, place face down in a baking sheet with 1/4 inch of water and cook in the oven with the meatloaf).

Enjoy!

Wrapping up dinner

Hebrew Nationals + crescent roll dough cut into strips = Yummy Mummies!

Get your finger out of my soup!

Monday night we made Sausage and Potato Soup to go with these "creepy finger" bread sticks. You can make bread sticks from scratch or use pre-made ones (like we did). Use a knife to make indentations for knuckles and almond slices (or whole almonds) for fingernails. I like the almond slices because they look more like dirty fingernails-- gross!

Here is the recipe for the soup...

5-6 medium sized potatoes, cut into 1″ cubes
1 lb. pork sausage
1 medium onion, chopped (we omitted this)
1 cup light cream (we used half and half)
1/4 cup butter
6 cups chicken stock (we used vegetable)
1 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
freshly ground black pepper

Bring the stock to a boil in a large pot. Add potatoes (and onions, if using). Cook until the potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, brown the sausage in a separate pan. Add the cooked sausage to the potatoes and stock. Add the cream and butter. Stir until butter is melted. Add the vanilla and balsamic vinegar right before serving.

No tricks, just treats

How CUTE are these candy corn drawstring bags??? They were super easy to make and took me about 15 minutes last night to make two of them for my little cousins, Lauren and Melanie.

Here is the tutorial I found via The Crafty Crow. These are the same talented ladies whose tutorial I used for the Easter egg drawstring bags.

Enjoy!