Our Halloween Bash!

This is one of my favorite pics. The pioneer girl holding up her dress to race to get the candy!

I was pretty proud for how long my pinata held up! I was afraid it would go down at the first wack, but all the kids took a turn on it before it went down. :)

We had a halloween party at our house last friday. It was pretty fun. Despite missing a few families due to a ward activity the same night, we had a good turn out! Melinda came early that day to help decorate and help set up games for adults and kids. We cleared the garage and made that the kids area with a coloring station and pinata. We also had a witch hunt game for them that they were all pretty excited about. ( we hid 40 witch hats all over the place that we cut out of this thick foam like paper) Each kid went home with candy from the pinata and a little baggy of candy that I made up in case some didn't get as much from the pinata.

Ginger did really good the whole time. She was excited to have so many people around. After we all played a game of Candy Corn Catch, I found Ginger walking around with her mouth so stuffed with candy corn that she couldn't close her mouth around it all. hahahah She looked so funny. Of course I was worried she'ld choke on it, so Glen had to pry it out of her mouth. She wasn't too happy about that.

As each family arrived with their scary fingerfood platter, Nelli took their family picture infront of the 'wall cling' that we set up. They also entered their name in for a "mystery drawing" and voted for their favorite costume.
We had dry ice to add to our root beer bowl and made "baked slugs" (chocolate chips rolled up and melted in croissants) and colorful rice krispie treats (made with dino bite cereal).
While the kids were busy popping balloons in the garage, us adults played a game. The first part of the game was to read a short story (I had my dad write up the story) then the second part of the game was to help the "detectives" out by identifying body parts . Glen and I passed around bags that the players had to reach in without looking and guess what was in the bag. example.: the bag that supposedly contained the heart was actually a peeled tomatoe and the bag that supposedly contained the liver was actually cut up spam etc. I know, kinda gross but fun! :)

Melinda planned the other game which included the 'mystery drawing'. She drew out six names and those people had to stand infront of a pan full of oatmeal with little plastic rings hidden in it. For 30 seconds the players raced to get as many rings out with their teeth as possible and the rest of us watched and cheered them on. They were all good sports for being willing to get their face all messy with oatmeal. Good job guys!!!
The Hassingers won first place prize in the costume contest dressed up as cavemen and Glen and I won second place dressed as clowns.

I'm a 2 !

My due date is November 16th, but last wednesday (the day I decided to stop teaching spin until January) at my doctors appointment, I was dilated to a 2. That made my day! I really don't want to be overdue with this one like I was with Ginger. I've also been having alot of braxton hicks contractions.
The good thing is that the baby has definatley dropped which has improved the whole heart burn thing and now I can sleep a little better.
So, when do you think I'll actually have the baby? I'm guessing November 7th. (actually, that's when I would like to have the baby so my sister can see it before she flies back to Texas.)

I go in for another appointment this thursday. I'm anxious to see if I've dilated any further.

(the funny thing is that Glen wants me to take it real easy and not do much, but the other day he took me up in the mountains on a really bumpy ride. hahahhahaha)

preparing for halloween!

So I found a clown pattern at Walmart that claimed to take only 2 hours to make. I decided to go with it since I waited till the week of our party to figure out what our costumes would be. Well, that was not a 2 hour project! It was an all day deal when you take into account the time to wash the fabric, iron it, cut out the pattern and then cut out the fabric and then figure out the directions and actually make it! oh well, I'm happy with the way it turned out. This is why I haven't been blogging lately. I also sewed a clown costume for me and Glen which I'll post up later. I was able to make the second costume a little faster and the last one even faster because by then I came up with some little short cut tricks and had the whole thing memorized.

I love the ruffles. It was so fun to pick out fabric. They had some real good picks on the sale rack at Walmart.

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

I found out about this place from Rachel's blog. I've never been to a pumpkin patch and after seeing her post about it, I thought it would be a fun family activity.

They had a little gift shop and maze to go through. Ginger liked the maze except for the guy that was dressed up in a scary costume chasing the kids. He made Ginger cry.

We went on a 15 minute hay ride. It was fun, but not what I expected. I always pictured a hay ride to be a little more exciting, like sitting on a pile of hay in the back of a wagon with horses pulling it and running through the field. This ride was very slow, calm and with just a few bumps here and there. oh well, I think Ginger liked it. :)

How to make a pinata

Blow up a balloon. rip up a bunch of newspaper. mix up a cup of flour with a cup and a half of water to make the glue. Cover the balloon with oil and then put a layer of newspaper and flour gue on the balloon. wait 24 hours and then put on another layer. Do this three times. Then make a whole big enough to put candy in and pop the balloon. Then decorate as disired.

This was a messy and very time consuming project....mostly because of the way I chose to decorate it. It was fun and satisfying though to see it turn out.

I painted it black and then used tissue paper squares and wound them around my pencil (like in kindergarten) and glued them to the spider body. Then I found this foam thing that is used for a sink and spray painted it black. I hot glue gunned the head and pipe cleanser on. The eyes and mouth are made from heavy weight pellon (left over from my quiet book).

Here's the spider. Glen teased me about all the time I've put into it this is going to be crushed with just one swing of a bat. :(

Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub!

Last Saturday Glen got to take a break and go fishing with his brothers. I came up later with Ginger and some KFC for the guys.

Glen took us out on the boat and let ginger reel in a fish and row the boat.

Such a daddy's girl!

Fall Leaves

My mom has always wanted to see this place during the fall, so I took some pics to post up for her. Here you go mom! The weather has been so nice and the trees are so pretty. I've been taking Ginger to the park alot. I thought this was a neat picture the way you can see the sun rays shine down.

My favorite is the red trees.

I just love how you can see all the different shades and colors. green, yellow, orange and red.

You need to know! THis is horrible.

My mom sent this to me and I thought it needed to be shared with all of you. I'm glad I watched it. I'm alot more educated on this subject. I hope everyone takes the time to vote in November.

My new purse!

Here is my new and improved purse that stands all by itself. I like the fabric but I do like the fabric of my old purse better. At least this one doesn't look like it came from Africa somewhere. hahahhah

I'm going to miss my old purse..but it will be nice to have this new one with stiffer pockets. The old one was just to floppy..as you can see.
(if you want to make one, walmart has the pattern for cheap. It only takes a couple hours to make too! Thanks again to Melissa for sharing her purse making skills. )

Family Home Evening

For FHE last night we went out to the garden and cut down some corn stalks and grabbed some hubbard squash to decorate the front of our house for Halloween and the Fall season.

This right here is about a 60 pound hubbard squash!

Here is just a pic of our yard since we got grass put in. I don't think I've posted any pics of it yet. We'll eventually put rocks and plants in the areas that are just dirt to border the yard.

Diaper Bag From Zimbabwe

So this is the project I was working on last week. My sister made this same diaper bag, just different fabric.
Glen thinks my bag looks like it came from Zimbabwe. hahahhaha Once he said that, now I don't see it as a diaper bag, but a touristy bag from Zimbabwe. Now I'm not sure if I want to be seen with this at church...it is very bright and busy I spose. ahahhahh

It's funny because I had a delima about choosing the fabric. Should I get something that other people will see and think, "oh, that looks nice" or should I get something more babiesh like..noah's ark or teddy bears? ...or should I get something that I like..bright and colorful?

Well, as you can see, I went with what I like since I'm the one making it. And now, I'm doubting myself. I decided I need to just use this bag since I put time and money into it.

My sister said that her bag is kind of floppy, so I put double interfacing in it and now it's stiff as a board. ahhahahh

Your Baby Can Read!

I just learned about this program that teaches babies to read. I went to the website www.yourbabycanread.com and watched the free demos and video about the man behind this program. Now I'm a believer and am excited to get Ginger started! I had Ginger watch the free demo too and she sat and watched the whole thing. I know she was paying attention because she would point to her nose when she heard the word 'nose' etc. So cute! Ginger loves books already, so I think she will enjoy this program. Just the other day I decided to go check on her because she was very quiet. I peeked in her room and she was sitting in her little rocking chair 'reading' a book to her baby doll. Such a good girl! Now I want to go make signs and put them all over the house to help her learn to recognize words with objects.
Has anyone else heard this program or tried it out?

Thankyou Aunt Linda!

I had to post this blanket. I love frogs and turtles and so my aunt Linda made this huge! blanket for baby Jack. I know it must have taken her so much time to do. It's a nice heavy blanket too. I love it! I've never made a quilt before, but would like to someday.

She also put a patch on the back so when Jack is older, he'll know who made it for him.

Thanks Linda!!