What to do with Leftover Halloween Candy?

Why, make edible playdough of course!  Use the candy for decoration!  That's what we did.  There are lots of edible playdough recipes out there, so we just used this one, then opened up a few mini packs of M&M's, Smarties (USA kind, not the delish Canadian ones), Candy Corn, and added a few white chocolate chips for good measure.  The best part is, I think the kids played with the playdough and candy more than they ate it.  Also, it kept the littles occupied for a good hour or so.  So, I got some time to myself (I took care of the ever-so-exciting task of doing the dishes while they played), and we got rid of more Halloween candy!  Hooray!  After the kid-os were done, I put the playdough in a tupperware container until the end of the day.  I think they played with it one more time before the garbage fairies ate the rest.  I couldn't bring myself to save it after thirty fingers and three mouths had been playing/eating it for a good portion of the day.  Fun was had, more candy vanished, and cleanup wasn't too horrible since Corky-the-Buddhist-Pug was right there to catch whatever fell off the table.  Yippee!

One of the many creations of the day.

"Playdough I can eat?  Cool Mom!"

We had Brinley over to play for the day.  Tralee LOVES Brinley.  Brinley loves Tralee.  They both loved the playdough.  It was a playdough-playdate-love-fest all up in here.

Trick-or-Treat

Jim got home from a business trip right in time to go trick-or-treating with us.  We picked him up from the airport, drove to the other Jacobs family's house, ate some pizza, and then went trick-or-treating.  We had a fun night.

This is Tralee's face right before she cries.  She was sad because she couldn't be in a picture.  This girl is SOOOOO sensitive.  She gets that from me.  Poor girl.   But never fear, as quickly as the tears appear, they're replaced with smiles just as fast!  Don't believe me?  Check out the next photo.  It was taken about one minute after the above.

Tralee wanted red hair to match her wings.  We found some red hair spray stuff and what do you know?  She looks pretty good with red hair!  

I like Hunter's face in this picture.  I wonder what he was thinking?  Also. . . he WAS NOT a pumpkin for Halloween. . . he was a basketball!!  He finally decided to be a basketball and I thought, "How am I going to pull that off?"  I wandered into a thrift store one day, and this basketball costume was looking right at me!  Hunter was really excited when I showed it to him!  Plus, he looks wicked cute as a little basketball boy.  Hooray!

I know I'm probably biased, because she's mine, but this girl is GORGEOUS!!!!  I just love her to bits!

I walked outside and found Hunty sitting on the steps chillin' all by himself.  He looked so cute just sitting there that I snapped a few pics.

Jim dressed up as a TALL zombie.  He wore stilts around and was a huge hit everywhere we went!

The girls running to get more candy.  Hunter couldn't keep up, so Jim and I took turns walking the slow route with Hunter.

I kept trying to get a good picture of Tralee trick-or-treating all night.  But most of the time she was a running-for-candy-blur.  

Tall Zombie Dad and his little basketball buddy.  

A rare moment where Tralee was still.

Isn't this house cute?  I love it!  I also love the little ladybug.

Cute boy.

I sent him up to the door all by himself.  Such a big boy!

Jovie, Tralee, and Oakley getting more CANDY CANDY CANDY!!!

Hunter's turn

Shortly after we started trick-or-treating I noticed Tralee bouncing around the way she does when she has to go.  So, we departed from the group, walked to a nearby Stinker Station (that's what a chain of gas stations are called around here) and I let my own little Stinks take care of business.  While waiting I played around with my camera.  I wasn't really dressed up this year.  Lame, I know.

A cool house on our trick-or-treating route.

After it got dark our kids started complaining about being cold and tired, so we left.  It was a fun night.

Thanksgiving Printables

I made a few Thanksgiving printables.  I couldn't decide if I wanted a border or not, so I made one of each.  I also couldn't decide on the colors.  I kind of like them both, but went with the second one.  I liked the warmer background color and colorful words.  So, I printed out an 8x10, slapped it in a frame, and now I have some Thanksgiving decor up.  Yippee!

More Thanksgiving Printables here.  

Ladybug Friday

Every Friday I take the kids to the library for story time, and to re-stock our book pile at home; then to the park to burn off some more energy.  After we're nice and tired (I'm usually the one that's tired, the kids could go and go and go just like the Energizer bunny) we head home for lunch and a little R&R (once again, I'm the one that needs to recover, the kids just play some more).  This last Friday Tralee wanted to wear her costume all.  day.  long.  I recently completed it (I made the skirt, the rest was courtesy of Savers and the $3.99 I had in my pocket at the time of purchase) and Tralee was excited to wear the whole shebang.  She decided she wanted to be a ladybug about a month before Halloween, and had been eyeing the wings hungrily since we bought them.  I wouldn't let her wear them for fear they would be damaged before H-day.  Since Friday was our church's Trunk-or-Treat, I thought, "why not give these bad boys a test run?"  So. . .all.  day. long. on Friday my Stinky Tralinky donned her wings, skirt, and antenna.  I grabbed the camera before we headed out to the library and park, knowing I needed to capture a few pics of my little ladybug.  Also. . . I noticed after taking all these pictures that Tralee's wings were on upside down.  All. day. long on Friday I didn't notice, then the first thing I thought after plugging the pics into the computer was, "Her wings are on wrong!"  I WAS going to blame Tralee for putting them on wrong, after all, she's only four and putting things on inside out, and upside down is expected, if not, forgivable of that age group.  Then I realized that if I told everyone it was all her fault, I would be lying.  I try really really hard not to be a liar.  So. . . I'll admit, it's my fault the wings are wrong.  Wrong-sided wings or not, I love all the pics from our Friday at the park.

Now for the pics:

Look at those cheeks!  I love them!!!  They're SO kissable!

Maybe she really could have flown had her wings been on right.

I love it when my kids do sweet things, like hold hands, all on their own!

Thrill the World!!!!!!

We did it!  On Saturday, October 29th, 2011 Jim and I Thrilled the World with about 160-something other zombies in front of Boise's City Hall.  It was SOOOOO fun!  I decided towards the end of September that I wanted to do this, so to actually follow through with something (I'm pretty good at starting things and not completing them) felt pretty darn great!  I was surprised when Jim got on board because he hates to dance!  He later told me he thought I wouldn't follow through, so why not sign up for something that probably wouldn't happen.  Haha to him! 

Jim and I spent the month of October learning the dance from the Thrill the World tutorials on youtube, and by going to the free dance classes downtown Boise.  When Saturday night came around, we were ready!  Saturday was busy, so I didn't really have time to think about performing too much.  I made our zombie costumes, took Tralee to The Wizard of Oz, ran some errands, and by the time I got home, it was time to zombie-up and leave.

We dropped the littles off at Jim's Aunt's, and Jim's Uncle Roman, cousin Mason, and Mason's friends volunteered to come downtown, watch us perform, and video the dance.  That was very nice of them!  Also, Mason and his friends said they want to learn the dance and perform it next year.  They didn't even know what the Thriller dance was before this.  I'm thrilled (teehee) Jim and I introduced it to the next generation.

Anyways, here are some pics from our experience and the video Roman took for us.  

Watch out or I'll eat your brains!

I guess this zombie needed to get her drink on.  Kidding.  Jim was taking pictures, I saw an empty bottle sitting on the ledge in the parking complex, and this is what happened.

Well, isn't he cute?

I like this picture of my hunchback-zombie-hunky-hubby

Outside City Hall waiting to perform

Just trying to zombify my hair.

The undead who were performing went inside City Hall for a few minutes to practice and get the rundown.

I stole a few picture from the Idaho Statesmen:

This zombie and her friend stayed in character throughout the night.  They were really fun.

Cool picture.

Everyone dancing

 Now for the video.  Roman got as close to us as he could (the place was packed!), the only thing is, as close to us as he could get was behind us.  The video turned about pretty great though, thanks again Roman!  Also, thanks Michelle for watching the wee ones for us!  Here's the vid:



When we walked away from the performance that night Jim said, "You're probably going to want to do this every year, huh?"  I wasn't sure until we got home and Tralee saw the video.  She said, "Hey!  Next time you have to take me to that dance party!"  So. . . I think next year Tralee will probably be old enough to performs it (she knows half of the dance already from watching Jim and me practice, and she came to a few of the dance classes with us), so it looks like we'll be there with an extra Zombie next year!  I can't wait!