Sweaters: Jack Spade for GapKids camo tree sweater

Making a pot roast for dinner tonight

Thanks for spending the weekend with us!

she’s a sloooooow eater and a not very graceful eater sometimes….(well actually, most of the times) especially with those giant gaps in-between her teeth eating spaghetti can be (not a pretty) challenge.

Sorry sweetie, I had to take the picture so I can show this to your daughter one day. 🙂

Shrimp and sausage jambalaya 

Three cheese alfredo pasta bake &

Apple and celery salad with mint and ricotta salata to bring to a pot luck dinner

Corn bread muffins with raspberry jam – Sunday afternoon treats

We’re playing Dr. Feel-einstein game.  Kids have to put their hands in each numbered bag and guess which part of body parts they are feeling.

In the bags were:

• Dried Apricots – Tongues
• Cooked, Cold Spaghetti Noodles – Hair
• Peeled Grapes – Eyeballs
• Peeled Tomato – Heart
• Candy Corns – Teeth
• Baby Dill Pickles – Nose
• Cauliflower – Brain
• Slime – Booger (the best one!)

The facial expressions were priceless!

Then, make Mummies : This is about to get really messy…

Kids decorated their own candy apples.

Chloe’s apple

I had so much fun thanks to all the parents who helped me entertain my little sugar filled guests. This was the best way to celebrate Halloween…with sweets and sweet friends. Happy Halloween!

We are hosting kids Halloween party for our friends families today!

Crawling sandwiches – turkey & cream cheese spread on pumpernickel bread 

Mummy dogs – baked hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls

Candy popcorns on the cob – melted marshmallow with popcorn, chocolate chips & sunflower seeds

Finger cookies –  recipe here  

And cheese broomsticks – string cheese & pretzel sticks

Kids games/table:

Kids will be playing  Dr. Feel-einstein game

Decorate-your-own candy apple station for kids with melted caramel & chocolate with lots of sprinkles and candies.

Chloe and Shane helped me put faces on each cup for the little guests.

Witch table legs from Chasing fireflies.

Adults drink station:

Wine glasses dipped in the cinnamon sugar 

Honeycrisp apple sangria – Chardonnay, Schnapps, pisco & honey with apples, orange, lemon, lime, cinnamon sticks, ginger & cloves.

We are ready for our guests!

Ready to go get some candy?

Yeah!

Our first trick-or-treaters! Our very own babysitter and his friends!

That’s it for the trick-or-treaters that came to our house. We’re now off but left a candy basket just in case.

Look who came to visit! Chloe’s babysitter as a baby. Cute. 🙂

Just down the street from us, they block off the road and all of the town kids come here to trick-or-treat. Awesome. We don’t even have to drive.

Kids met most of their friends from school!

Chloe’s inseparable bff.

Couple of houses even opened up their backyards for neighbors and had a block dance party. SO COOL.

When I got to my kids school field for the Halloween parade, there were middle school student marching band playing music. So cool!

Here comes second graders!

Chloe is a cha cha dancer!

There were some really cool costumes.

I can see her miles away.

Now the kindergarteners

Here comes my Ninja!

I drove to their school FIVE times today, between the kids drop off, snack drop off & 2 parades!  Glad the parade was worth it though. 🙂

Today was the last official soccer game of the season and Chloe broke out of her shell! She was on defense and managed to steal the ball and kick it away. What. 

She’s been so timid about kicking the ball and had kind of a nonchalant attitude towards the games this whole season…which was fine. It’s her first time and I loved seeing her enjoy just being out with her friends on the field and we also loved Saturdays mornings as a family and seeing the kids play. 

This morning it was freezing cold and raining but again the girls played a really good game. And when Chloe kicked that ball, everyone including the players and all the parents shouted her name and cheered for her. It was one of the moments that I will always remember. I was so proud of her and also really appreciated all the encouragements and support. We had great coaches and awesome team members. Go Blue Bombers! You were unbeatable!

Look at her in action!

After the Sunday service we debated where to go eat for lunch. It’s actually our 13th year wedding anniversary today and we talked about how we were going to spend today for weeks. I, of course, had my heart sat on going to one of  fine restaurants in the city…but we decided to cancel everything and just stay low key. As a family we’ve been talking about making a sacrificial givings to our church campaign, building God’s kingdom…so this  was sort of in leu of that decision.

So we went to Houston’s for lunch because Andrew’s always been a fan of their food but we haven’t been there for years. We have a lot of good memories of the restaurant food, as it was our go-to place to gather with our friends after work when I was living in the city. I lived a block away from Houston’s when we were dating and we would always get spinach dip while waiting for the rest of the crew to join us.

The lunch was delicious. We enjoyed everything we ordered, enjoyed the low key family style and had a great meal. But our lovely waitress and even a manager popped in a few times apologizing for their tardiness. We honestly didn’t even realize our food was taking too long and when they brought out our dessert, they told me our check had been taken care of and we were free to go. Wait, what? …what just happened.

Thank you Houston’s for our wonderful free meal on our anniversary!! Wow, one of the best services we ever experienced!

Thank you God for noticing the littlest efforts in our hearts and always reminding us that YOU are real and so loving. We Love you so much! Please help us to never lose track of what is the most important thing in life and thank you for making us a part of your plan.