Princess of the Week

The week of Halloween, Chloe was the Princess of the Week in her kindergarten class. With this prestigious title, comes activities revolving around her each day at school. On Monday, she brought in a poster full of pictures all about herself and she shared it with her class. On Tuesday, her classmates each made a page about why Chloe is special and those pages were compiled into a book for her to take home. Wednesday she got to bring a book from home to be read at story time and also brought a special snack to share with classmates during the story (she brought kettle corn). On Thursday, Justin, Cooper and I went to her school and ate lunch with her. And then on Friday, she invited Justin to come talk to her class about his job. Chloe had such a blast as Princess of the Week!

Here is Chloe introducing Justin to her classmates. I was holding Cooper and trying to keep him quiet, so I didn't get very good pictures.

Halloween Night

Justin took Chloe and Cooper down the street trick or treating. Justin was dressed as the Planter's Peanut, Cooper as the cutest Dumbo you've ever seen, and Chloe as a clown. After they got back from trick or treating on our street, Chloe and I went out and she drug me around the entire neighborhood. It was fun to see her so into trick or treating! Overall, we had a really fun Halloween this year!

The front of our house:

I guess we didn't wipe all the pizza sauce off of Dumbo's face!

Back home with lots of loot!

Carving Pumpkins

Justin was super busy at work, getting ready to open their new store the week of Halloween, so I had to... I mean got to be in charge of carving pumpkins this year!

Chloe had quite the plans for her pumpkin. She was a little disappointed when I told her that I didn't know if we'd be able to actually carve the tongue or eyelashes...

Chloe and her finished Jack O Lantern:

Cooper helped me carve one too. He seemed to much prefer beating it with a mallet than touching the pumpkin or helping with the carving.

And our finished Jack O Lantern:

Chloe's Clown Costume

This year for Halloween, Chloe wanted to be a clown. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, if you're weird and obsessive about clothes (especially kids clothes) like me, then it would have bothered you incredibly (like it did me) that all of the children's clown costumes available for purchase are incredibly cheap in construction and appearance. So, that left me needing to sew Chloe a costume. Now, I am not a sewer. Yes, I have a sewing machine and grandeur ideas about using free time to sew wonderful creations. The reality is that besides making an apron in seventh grade, I had never used a pattern before. But, with a little guidance (ok, at times it was a lot) from my mother, I was able to make Chloe the most adorable clown costume ever (and no, I am not biased).

(yes, it has a hoop in the bottom... like I said, SUPER cute!)

Tater Tot Casserole

After listening to some friends of ours RAVE about Tatertot Casserole for the past 7 years, I decided to give it a try! Imagine my suprise when it turned out to be really yummy and my kids even ate it! Here is the super-easy recipe incase you want to give it a try:

Ingredients:

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 bag tater tots

shredded cheese

1 lb of ground hamburger meat

serves: 6 or 7

Brown hamburger meat. Drain. Add cream of mushroom soup (don't forget to add one can of milk if you are using condensed soup) and stir together continuously.

Let simmer on low heat for 15 minutes.

Place mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish. Lay tatertots neatly on top of the mixture.

Place in oven on 375' and let the tater tots brown. (about a half hour)

Sprinkle with cheese; melt it in the oven and ENJOY.

Oh, and here is the humor part of the post... I was on the phone talking with my sister-in-law, Carissa, and she started to say to me, "I have to tell you about the most ghetto dinner ever that my kids and husband just love..." As soon as she said "ghetto dinner," tatertot casserole popped into my head. And yes, tatertot casserole is exactly what she was going to tell me about!

Happy Birthday Justin!

October 23rd marked Justin's 32 Birthday! At his request, we had a party with our little family, dining on swedish meatballs (with lingonberries, of course!) and had carrot cake cupcakes for dessert!

The Birthday Boy

Blowing out his candles

Cooper was quite impressed with Justin's candle-blowing out abilities!

Chloe chowing down on a cupcake

Cooper thought he was HILARIOUS looking through the balloons. I must admit that his face pressed up against the balloon is pretty funny!

I'm baaack!

We purchased a new computer this weekend... that means I'll be back up and running here soon!