Happy Ha..lll...ooo..weee...nnnn!!!!

Happy Halloween from our Ghastly Ghouls!!

Officer Dominick:

Starship Enterprise crew Member, Brooke

And our resident witch, Diana

MANY, MANY thanks to Sandra, Pete and little Brooklyn for hosting a most spook-tacular Halloween party!

The kids and I agreed that it was the best Halloween we've spent since moving here!
The food was great, the company better, and trick-or-treating in the haunted-mansion-mobile will be a VERY hard act to follow next year!!

And last, but not least, our jack-o-lanterns!!!

You are cordially invited...

The invitations were sent:

The table was set!

The hostess was ready...

And at long last, the guests arrived!

Brooke, the young servant girl, did a delightful job of serving the "tea"!

And so, they drank and snacked and chatted:

Her friends were generous and the Princess was spoiled with many gifts:

To show her thanks, she served them cake and ice cream!

The day wore on, and the girls played, and laughed until they had to set off for their own kingdoms.

The Princess was sad to see them go...

It was a wonderful day and ended just as it should:
Happily Ever After!

Diana's 5th Birthday

This Tuesday marked Diana's 5th birthday, but we didn't actually celebrate until Wednesday. And despite what my sister, Caity, thinks, I'm almost positive that Diana hasn't suffered any permanent psychological damage from our little white lie. ;)

She started her morning off with hot chocolate and pancakes and then went right to my bathroom to gussy up. She'd asked me weeks ago if I'd allow her to wear mascara on her birthday, and I happily obliged.

After her schoolwork was done, she and I went on a birthday shopping spree! Using her birthday money, she was able to pick out 5 things she wanted. (Courtesy of Mimi and Papa Fiore)

As soon as Ed came home from work, she was able to open her other family gifts, blow out the candles on her cake and relish in all of the attention a birthday brings.

And speaking of cake:

It was good!

I mean really, really good!

I made one layer of regular yellow cake, added cherry extract to the remaing batter for another two layers, whipped up some Jiffy Brand chocolate frosting mix and added my own homemade butter cream frosting for the finishing touch.
It's not exactly level and the frosting job could have been better, but the moist deliciousness of the cake made up for it's unflattering aesthetics!

Our First Autumn Homeschool Hike

Diana, Brooke and Dominick on one of the Panther Creek Trails:

After a LONG, 3 hour hike, the kids jumped into the creek to cool off:

After the kids were sufficiently cooled down, I taught them the art of leaf rubbing:

Against all odd's we are officially decorated for Halloween! Last year we forgot to do any decorating and only realized a day or two before the actual day. I was determined to get it done this year in enough time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Ed went and bought the hay, the kids were tasked with creating a scarecrow (of sorts) and I worked on assembling the witch. Ed hung the bats and ghosties later in the day. (I bought all of those at Pier 1 last year on clearance and forgot about them until the kids reminded me.)

Ed's Birthday

We celebrated Ed's birthday this past wednesday, and as usual, he was impossible to shop for.

It's not an issue of trying to shop for a "man who has everything", it's rather an issue of shopping for a man who has everything he already wants. A thin distinction.

The only thing I could think to do, was leave it to the kids to decide for themselves what they wanted to buy for their Dad.

Diana bought him another pair of work gloves and wrapped them in red lame' fabric. Tre Chic!

Dominick found him a Harley Davidson Tee from.... MEXICO!

And Brooke gave him the funniest gift of all: If you were to ask Ed what he wants for his Birthday, Christmas or Valentines Day he always replies "A new butt, because mine has a crack in it". It doesn't matter that we've all heard it about a million times, it's his "g0-to" joke where gifts are involved. SOOOO... Brooke gave him EXACTLY what he asked for:

My band of Merry Weirdo's: