Trick or Treating Times Three

Saturday 10:00 am- Crud they still don't have costumes.
Two days before Halloween, I asked Amy if she had a costume we could borrow. BAM. Dinosaur. Good thing Zane liked it! Avery was more tricky. We started going through her dress up stuff and pondered being a dancer, cheerleader, gymnast, but then found this witch hat. I figured I could hurry and run to hobby lobby and make a tutu to match. I had a few other ideas for the costume, but ran out of time. We were barely ready in time for Storybook Forest (mainly because of a soccer game and then a shoes and tights meltdown which aunt Brittany's tights and Avery's old Jazz shoes fixed the problem thank goodness).Sunday at 4- Austen's Church Halloween Party.
All kinds of fun things there! Free drinks, peanuts, and popcorn along with hamburgers and hotdogs to purchase.

There were a few games inside...

but the real fun was outside! The animal people were here. This time they got to also see a baby alligator! They rode horses, got their face painted, and jumped on big bouncy toys...

There was a Photo Booth...and a free ride that we were all too scared to do...

Sunday at 6:30- Our church's Trunk or Treat.

Most creative trunk...

Cutest costumed couple...

Best makeup job's...the fake nose was awesome.

My little poor neglected witch was a little jealous. Oh well.

Best set up... We made a round of games in the gym, ending with the Pop Walk. Going until they each won a pop. FUN FUN Day!
MONDAY NIGHT
HALLOWEEN
We went to see the infamous Halloween Witch and her spooky house. The kids were a little freaked at first but slowly walked up to her! We were then invited inside!!!
(Zane decided to wear his last years costume this time)
They had drinks to grab and a huge table filled with all sorts of goodies. Should have snapped a picture of it. There was even a sign pointing out the bathroom. We could have just partied there all night, but decided to hit a few houses down the street. Here is a terrible picture of the house. Much more amazing in real life. There was a big spider outside that the kids took a picture with and freaked out when the head moved! On our trick or treating journey, we saw many amazing decorations.
Zane was scared of this table!! And totally freaked out by the gorilla! He gave me his bucket and said "here you go get the candy!" This house had a little courtyard you walked through to get to the front door and those lights say ENTER IF YOU DARE! One day I actually want to decorate my house. This picture is so foggy because they had to walk past decorations that blew smoke! That was the greatest trick or treating neighborhood I've ever seen. Amazing and our buckets were overflowing just going down two streets.

Animal Party, Pumpkin Patch, and Storybook Forest

Wow. I'm Behind.
Warning: Picture overload

The kids went to their very first exotic animal birthday party. I have no idea how much it is, but it sure did keep the children's attention and the birthday kid got to take all sorts of fun pictures with the animals. I secretly wanted to get a Britney Spears snake picture taken, but unfortunately I was not the birthday girl.
They sat in a circle and got to touch several different exotic animals
and ride on a big turtle

and hold very long snakes.

We also checked out Storybook Forest for the first time. If you don't like sitting your car waiting in line for 30 mins only to get out and stand in line for another 30 mins, this may not be your cup of tea. If you don't mind...have at it! I think it was worth it and the kids seemed to enjoy it. It seems like it's best for preschool age. Since mine are older, we probably won't go again, but glad we went once!!

We walked around the forest looking at different storybook/nursery rhyme characters. Pretty neat I must say.

There was a hayride. Little chilly but enjoyable! I had crazy envisions of it being similar to the Silver Dollar City train ride of many decorations and scenes to look at on your ride, and it was just trees. Ha. Not sure why I had that expectation!! We all still had fun though! We skipped the games with really long lines and went on to cook our hotdogs

and listen to stories being read. Zane LOVED this. I loved being able to write down 30+ mins on his school reading calendar!!

Lastly, we checked out Parkhurst Pumpkin Patch for the first time.

(Wes and Zane went off to buy dirt bikes...which will be blogged about soon)

Enjoyed some rope swingin'

Tire swingin'

Baby pig pettin'

Pony ridin'

and Hay Jumpin'. The only thing missin' was chicken pluckin'. I failed to mention we went with a friend! They went through the hay maze but we skipped the corn maze. They also had a non-scenic but enjoyable hayride! We ended with roasting some hotdogs and marshmallows for some smores.They picked out their pumpkin and took a goodbye picture.

We will definitely be coming back to this one again, especially since Wes and Zane missed out. The kids can burn a lot of energy and stay entertained easily over here. There wasn't long lines (and we went on a Saturday) which is a bonus!

Yay for FALL!!! Yay for HOLIDAYS!!
PS. What is this annoying photobucket pop-up showing up on my blog that says I've exceeded my views and to upgrade to unlimited or something? How do I get rid of that??

Detox Diet: The final two weeks...

IT'S OVER!!

Not sure why it took me three weeks to figure this out, but mandarin oranges and strawberries blended together make a great salad dressing!! We tried a packet of herbs that was specifically for seafood (but of course I don't remember what it was!) you were supposed to put it in melted butter but we used coconut oil and olive oil. Very delish! Baked sweet potato fries were interesting. The sweetness is not what you expect when eating fries, so it was odd at first, but they grew on me after eating a few! PS. Skip the special organic ketchup and eat plain or cheat a little with the good stuff. It's not enough to hurt ya! I thought I'd try my own thing. No recipe, just figured it may be good. Tilapia, Gfree flour, coconut milk with an egg, and coconut flakes. It was actually good! I loved the crispy coconut!

Here was the same thing but baked and with milled flax seed added. I think I liked the pan seared burnt coconut better.

We had a bunless burger with a lot of avocado. Very messy but very yummy.

I have to admit I enjoyed this diet more than I thought. I learned new things to cook and how to tweak "staples" into being healthier. It was also very eye opening to see that we could do it. We did in fact have time. With Avery in gymnastics 3 times a week and Zane in soccer once a week, we often stated "we don't have time to cook." We do. Wes did great helping with the cooking and I realized that I won't in fact fall over dead if I have to wait to eat until after 7:30pm! (In the rules you actually aren't supposed to eat after 7, but that doesn't really work with us on most days!)

After two weeks, I stopped craving Coke but still craved my sweets. I was super pumped to go to church and scarf down a couple Krispy Kremes when it was over!!

Wes lost around 10 pounds and it mainly came off these last two weeks. I think we realized we were snacking on things that were "legal" but not the best option (rice chips, baked corn chips and salsa, and nuts). One person going through a large container of nuts and two bags of chips after just two weeks isn't going to lose weight...who knew! So the last two weeks we said no nuts or chips but only snack on carrots or berries...and he lost! He's planning on doing it again really soon to lose more. I'm all for the healthier foods, but I'm not giving up my sweets so soon!