Post Thanksgiving Fun

Our family had a great Thanksgiving this year.  I roasted the Turkey, made essential sides, and also had sister-in-laws who brought their so delicious dishes to devour up as well!!  We had a great time with Nate's two sisters and their families, exactly what you should do on Thanksgiving. 

After all the yum yummy food, our family went on a two night get away to the famous Wisconsin Dells!  We stayed at the Kalahari Resort mainly for their indoor water park that I was really impressed with!!  We had originally booked a "hut" room that was a 2 queen bed room, but as I checked in at the front desk they informed me that our family was selected to receive a complimentary room upgrade to their Royal King Suite!  All I could say was SWEET!!

The king suite was two rooms that connected in the middle.  One with a king bed and jacuzzi tub/bathroom, and the other one was two queen beds with a fireplace and their own bathroom as well!  We even had to use a special card to get into the hall way for our room.  Again SWEET!! 

Going after Thanksgiving there weren't very many people at the resort which was so nice.  We would go multiple times down the same slide without any wanting time.  Justin absolutely loved the tubing rides!  His repeated phrase was "I go again, again!!"

The wave pool, and lazy river were a lot of fun, but my boys had the most fun on the fast tub rides and the surf shop.

Hayden was unbelievable surfing!!  He was a natural.  You would think that he was almost going to wipe out, but then he would make a remarkable recovery and continued surfing!!  At one point he was even surfing BACKWARDS!!!!  and showing a little bum as you can see from his picture ;)

Nate did a great job at surfing as well.  They had a lifeguard at the bottom showing you different maneuvers to make.  One move was to grab your board, roll on your back and come back on top of your board after the roll.  I tried this and it was a no go, but Nate make it look easy.

Clay had the most fun on the slides and would go on anyone of them!!

It was definitely a trip our family wants to make a tradition out of!!

Thankful Tree

 We have so many things our family is grateful for that we started to write them down and place them on our Thankful Tree during the month of November.  Our tree started out pretty sad looking until we added our thankful tags and watched it grow!!

Every morning I would ask the boys what they were thankful for, then I would make our tags.  Here are some of their responses..... Thankful for Grandparents: Grandpa Ron, Grandma Mindy, Grandpa & Grandma Cottrell

 The weather, U.S.A, our House, School, Trees, Family, Animals, Cars, Phones to call family and friends, The Church, Mom and Dad, The whole World, Being Healthy, Lights, Scriptures, Work...Dad's job, Books, Good things to drink, Food, Warm Clothes, Friends, Toys, Treats, and Temples

We had fun making our thankful tree.  For Thanksgiving we were able to have Nate's two sisters and their families over for the Big Turkey dinner.  I roasted a turkey and made the potatoes and gravy and everyone else brought yummy sides like stuffing, green salad, rolls, corn, sparkling apple and grape juice, ice cream dessert, pie and other trimmings to feast on.  It was a great time with everyone.  We ate, flipped through Black Friday ads, ate some more and just chilled, exactly what you are supposed to do on a Thanksgiving Day!! 

Fall Leaves

Have you jumped into a pile of leaves lately??  It's the "it" thing to do right now!!!

Warning: It will cause extreme case of laughter!!

ABC'S

Justin LOVES letters!!  He is constantly naming off letters everywhere.  I mean he is noticing stop signs and store names and even the letters spelling out the word seat belt while he sits in a grocery cart!  He doesn't quite have the concept of whispering down yet so while we are at church trying  to be quiet, you can hear Justin  saying, "H..Y...M...N...S look mom letters, see H...Y...M...N...S" as he studies our church's hymn book. ;)  I am always surprised he says M and N right beacuse those are tricky for kids. 

 I had made cards for Clay and Hayden when they were learning ABC's so I had Justin play a game with them with some other ABC cards I had bought at the dollar store.  I started by mixing all the first cards and we found them one by one together and lined them up.  Then I dumped the other card set out and told him to find matches.  He would pick a card and say the name, find it, and place it below the matching letter. It was hilarious to watch, with each card he would talk to himself, "T, look Mom T....T....T...T   Oh here it is T!!!"

 I am trying to have him see how letter make words so after he spells S..T...O....P , I say that spells stop and he usually repeats me.  Funny boy, I love it!!

FALL Season!

 Fall is the best season, especially in Illinois with so many trees changing colors and the many different pumpkins patches and fun farms to go to!  We recently visited Krueger Farm stand that is really close to our house, and then to Stade's Farm and enjoyed buying pumpkins and eating their famous Apple Cider Donuts!!

 Oh, and swam in their corn pool!!!

 Love those Apple Cider, sugar coated, so delicious, oh so yummmy donuts!!!

 We already carved two big pumpkins at home so we bought small ones to take home and paint.

 Justin took his painting seriously and made everything  into a piece of art...including his face!!

Halloween Fun

Happy Halloween!!  We had great Halloween Fun this year!  The boys had lots of fun dressing up and going to a Halloween Carnival, Trunk-or-Treat at our church, and Trick-or-treating with a big group of friends on Halloween night! 

Justin was a PIRATE!! He was so cute, he wanted to keep his pirate hat and skull patch on and would say "Mom, look mom, ARRRRRR"

Hayden is Super Mario!! I had fun making his costume from dollar store material.  His hat is a fleece cap that was folded up and sewn to have a brim on the front and white and red felt sewn on to make the"M." His gloves were clown gloves minus the extra clown material that we cut off.  Pants were made out of two baby fleece blankets!!  Red shirt was found on clearance at Target.

Here are super fun friends that went to the Halloween Carnival with us.  Three beautiful princesses, a overly cute purple unicorn, and Justin's best buddy Thomas the Train!!

 Clayton become Harry Potter!!  Minus the glasses, Clay didn't want to were glasses with his costume but had fun making the lightning scar on his forehead!  I found his black vest, Gryffindor red and gold colored tie, and the cloak at thrift stores all together totalling less that $5!!

We were treated to have another pirate with us at the Trunk or Treat!!  Our cousin Pirate Jordan!!  His new little sister Ever was the cutest little pink ballerina too!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

Crafting Wednesday

Wednesday has become a super fun craft day!!  A group of crafty friends and I started getting together once a week on Wednesday to do a craft together.  We take turns hosting and have a big potluck.  We all bring our kids and they have a ball playing with all their friends.  While they play, we craft, nibble on food, and have a great time together.
Here are some of the projects that we have done......so far ;)

Book Page Pumpkins

http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2011/09/book-page-pumpkin.html

Beaded Spiders

http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/10/guest-project-make-beaded-spider.html

Braided Ribbon/Chain necklacehttp://www.u-createcrafts.com/search/label/jewelry-necklace

Halloween Jars

   http://notsoidlehands.blogspot.com/2011/09/guess-whos-cute-craft-is-on-front-cover.html

 Wooden Turkeys

  http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2010/11/creative-guest-2x4-turkey-by-craft.html

Fall Blocks

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2009/10/autumn-blocks.html

I have had a great time making these and even better time getting to know 6 other ladies.  The host house gets turned upside down and your craft gets interrupted with one or more child's needs but we all have fun with it and the kiddos have a big play day together and everyone loves it!   What's the next crafts on our list girls??

Halloween Treat!

I wanted to share a fun Visiting Teaching Treat that I gave out recently that was super easy and yummy too!  I put together these bags that has a cute message and oh... so... yummy caramel popcorn.

  Here is the recipe: 

Caramel Popcorn

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 quarts popped popcorn

(I used regular popcorn kernels and a 5 quart pot and popped the popcorn over the stove, mainly because I don't own a popcorn machine.  You can follow the instructions of the kernels pkg on how to pop them using the stove.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.  Place popcorn in a very large bowl.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla.  Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
3. Place in large baking dish (I used a big roasting pan which made stirring really easy) and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Tip:  Once my popcorn was popped I put it in the oven while it preheating.  It is easier for the caramel to get mixed evenly over the popcorn while it is still warm!

Copy & Print out this message in a fun Halloween style font and attach to bags filled with the popcorn goodness!

SINCE THIS IS THE TIME FOR GOBLINS AND BATS,

HALLOWEEN SPIRITS AND GHOSTS AND CATS.

WEIRD HAPPENINGS AND WITCHES BREW,

THESE ARE THE THINGS I WISH FOR YOU...

MAY THE ONLY GHOST THAT COMES YOUR WAY,

BE THE HOLY GHOST TO GUIDE YOUR WAY.

MAY THE ONLY SPIRITS YOU CHANCE TO MEET,

BE THE SPIRITS OF LOVE AND KINDNESS SWEET.

THESE ARE MY HALLOWEEN WISHES FOR YOU,

MAY GOD BLESS YOU IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.

IT'S NO TRICK, I JUST WANT TO SAY,

{ IT'S A TREAT TO KNOW YOU IN EVERY WAY!}

 Throw in some cuties like these helping out in the kitchen and you have yourself one great morning!! Even if my floors ended up being soaking wet! *grin*   Enjoy!

Love me some RUFFLES!

I recently came acrossed this picture of a ruffle wreath and LOVED IT.  So I tried making my own version of it using some left over corduroy fabric I had from making my kitchen curtains.  And I ended up with this beauty!!

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out.  I had fun making the flowers and was so happy that my mom sent me a burlap potato sack from home a couple of months ago and told me to see if I could make things out of it.  I loved how the burlap accents the flowers and it originated in Idaho!!

I will now try my hand out on giving a tutorial on how I made it.  Hopefully it is clear enough and you can make your own version for yourself!!

Step 1: Cut 2" wide long strips of your fabric of choice to cover your wreath.
Mine was a 12" wicker type wreath I bought at the dollar store.  Apply hot glue to your fabric a little bit at a time, then wrap around wreath.  Repeat until entire wreath is covered.

Step 2:  Cut your fabric the width that you would like your ruffles to be. 
I cut mine 4" wide and foot long. Then using a basting stitch on your sewing machine sew down the length of one side of your fabric with 1/2" allowance on the side.  You do not need to backstitch on this.  After you sewed down the one side then pick one string from your thread and pull to start making your ruffles appear.  I used two different threads to sew with for two reasons.  1. I wanted a stronger thread on top that would not break as easily when I pulled on it to make the ruffles.  2.  It makes it easier to see which thread you are pulling and then you can pull from both the top and bottom of the fabric.

Keep pulling the fabric till your ruffles look like this

Step 3:  Hot glue your ruffle around your wreath. 
Apply the hot glue to the fabric along the top and wrap overlaying your ruffles.  Repeat making ruffle fabric pieces and gluing them to your wreath till she is all covered in beautiful, fluffy, ruffles!!

Step 4: Accessorize your wreath!

I twisted the bottom of a square piece of burlap and hand sewed it to keep the twisted look in place and hot glued it on.  Then I placed three flowers and a bit of extra ribbon to put on top of that.  I made two different kinds of flowers. 

1. Fabric flowers

Using a t-shirt that I haven't worn in like forever, I used this tutorial to make the cream fabric flower.

http://emilys-little-world.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-make-t-shirt-fabric-flower.html

2. Ribbon Flowers

First cut a circle out of felt of the size you would like your flower to be.



Then make a knot at the end of your ribbon.  This will be the center of your flower.  Hot glue the knot  and any extra ribbon on the end in the middle of the felt circle.  Then twist the ribbon and hold while you place hot glue around the knot and then secure your twisted ribbon down on top of the hot glue.  Twist ribbon, glue, and secure all the way around till you are at a point to cut the ribbon off, and glue down the end.  I  used a match to burn the end of the ribbon so I wouldn't have to worry about any fraying then I glued it down.  And you now have a gorgeous ribbon flower to accessorize with!


Hopefully this tutorial was helpful!!  I ended up putting my wreath over a mirror I have in my living room and I get to smile at it all day now!!