Happy Halloween!!

 Yes, trick-or-treating was last night (because Ohio is cool like that) and though it was pretty cold outside, we had a lot of fun.  I layered up the boys under their costumes because I refuse to be the mom that makes their kids wear a coat over their costume (still traumatized ;).  

Batman and Robin joined a pair of Peter Pan's for a fun night of running around past bedtime and collecting candy.  I enjoyed the after party where I had to "check" the candy and remove all that may contain peanuts (Grant is allergic).  I figured to be extra safe I had better finish off at least half of the peanut-containing treats, just for safety of course.

 Lots of pictures for Grandparents and otherwise bored people's enjoyment.

 Batman and his trusty sidekick in full costume.  Robin was opposed to hiding his true identity for every moment except this one.

 The R.S. put on a fun Halloween activity at the church.  It was a fun reason for the kids to wear their costumes again and have treats.

 We had bought Halloween cookie cutters that Grant was begging me to use (plus the giant container of Halloween sprinkles my mom had sent to us).  Since we have been surrounded by baked goods and candy I didn't feel like undertaking the messy and time consuming task of making and decorating sugar cookies.  Instead we made a pan of rice krispie treats and used our cookie cutters of cut out shapes.  Grant was in charge of sprinkles and Tate was in charge of adding the candy corn and pumpkins.  I think Tate thought his duties were to touch a candy corn to the rice krispies and then deposit it in his mouth. 

Ah yes, I believe I was right in my assumption.

Spooky Crafts

This craft is obviously not spooky, we just happened to have finally finished this during the month of October.  I am somewhat embarrassed to say this project was started before Tate was born, back when Grant was still really into cars and trucks.  Ryan cut the wood, we painted, and used bought stencils for the smaller paintings.  I think what took so long was that we had to hand design and cut out the stencils for the motorcycle, tractor and firetruck.  I'm not very artistic, so this part was frustrating and slow (hence I procrastinated finishing it).  Finally it is done!  We added Tate's name since Grant does not care too much about cars and trucks now and one day they will be sharing a room.  Grant did say he liked it, so I don't feel too bad about taking a over a year to complete it. 

 Now on to the spooky things.  My mom kindly sent the boys a Halloween package in the mail (which they were very excited to get).  Among the goodies inside was their new favorite skeleton PJ's.  The bones glow in the dark so the first night the boys put these on they invented a new game they call "dark".  Basically, they turn out all the lights in Grant's room and chase each other in a circle growling and making spooky noises.  It has somehow made it's way into the bed time ritual because now we generally can't get from teeth-brushing to book-reading without a few rounds of "dark".

 In that same Halloween package I received the Taste of Home Halloween magazine with tons of ideas of yummy Halloween treats, crafts, costumes, party ideas and the like.  Grant and I made these cute little lanterns using old jars, tissue paper and lots of Mod Podge.  It was fun and they turned out really cute.  I'm really into Halloween this year (partially because Grant is so excited about it and partially because it's just fun).  I am planning on making several of the Halloween food ideas so I'm sure I will post some of those (I know you can't wait :).

Here's what they look like at night on the porch.

The Fruits of Fall

 I have been meaning to post something about our garden since we started it this past May.  That obviously has not happened so I guess better late than never.  We followed the Square Inch Garden book in putting together our 2'X4' garden and have been able to enjoy lots of great produce with not much work (when you use the soil combination they suggest you never have to weed...we really have not weeded the garden once).  Our tomatoes were the main producers and the plants still have tons of tomatoes on them (I hope they turn red before it gets too cold).  We also had a green pepper, basil, a few potatoes, carrots and zucchini.  I have always heard how zucchini produce by the bushel full but it didn't quite work that way for us this year.  The plant made one huge zucchini and then I think it developed some kind of fungus because the end of each zucchini would start to rot before it was finished growing.  Our dying zucchini is the one you can see hanging out of the side of the box.  And no, my children don't usually run around in their underwear and diapers.  Only when we declare it white trash day.

 I have only canned twice this year but I was able to use my garden for one of them.  I found a delicious salsa canning recipe online and used up some of our many tomatoes.  We've been downing this stuff, I think we only have 2 jars left.  I was also able to can berry jam (black and red raspberry mixed) and we love it.  There's just something about homemade jam, it can't be beat.

 I have very limited pictures of our garden, but this is a gem that happened just last weekend.  Every Friday night we switch off babysitting with one of our good friends for a date night.  It works out great because our boys are about the same age and love playing together, and we actually get to go on a date twice a month.  This past Friday the boys got into costume right away and spent half of the night running around fighting the bag guys.  The stealthy Blue Batman is none other than our young Grant and Tate is actually the Spiderman "helping" in the garden.

 Since I'm catching up I have to mention about another quick but fun trip we took about a month ago.  Ryan's sister, Cheryl and bro-in-law, Bart recently moved from West Va to Spokane.  We had to visit them one more time before they moved cross country.  It was great to spend time with them and we will miss being relatively close.

 Bart was awesome to show Grant a thing or two on the ol' guitar. 

 As part of the trip we drove over to Charlottesville, VA to visit Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's famous house and land).  I've been a couple of times and had wanted to take Ryan.  It was a beautiful day to enjoy a beautiful house and a beautiful countryside.

Grant doesn't nap anymore.  So one day I grew suspicious the more quiet he got during his quiet time.  What can you say, it's exhausting being a fireman!

First Family Campout

Within our first year of marriage, Ryan and I bought a tent with plans to put it to frequent use. Six years later, it had been used one time. Very sad, I know. This past summer, being the summer of fun, I made a vow that we would go camping, no matter what. Before I knew it, it was a Thursday at the end of August, and we were getting some unusually cool weather. I was about to accept that maybe we just weren't meant to go camping when my friend suggested we put together a last minute camping trip for the weekend. We were in. After spending an afternoon getting things organized, we got a big group of friends to head down to Hocking Hills for some outdoor fun. It was a blast!

We were nervous how the boys would do, but they had a great time, slept well, and didn't get lost in the woods (which is a major concern for our escape-loving boys). They loved having so many of their friends with us and ran and played for the majority of their waking hours.
It was also really fun for the adults to hang out after the kids went to bed. We played Werewolves (one of our favorites) and chatted with everyone till probably 2am. We must have been having a good time to stay up that late since we all knew the kids would be up at dawn (which they were).











The next day we went hiking around Hocking Hills. Before I moved to Ohio I never would have expected to find some of the geography we have seen here. Here we are hiking on the Rock House trail, through one of the caves. It was really cool.



The boys had to wear proper head gear at night. Once they saw we had head lamps they snatched those babies up and claimed them as their own. I was able to confiscate them after the boys went to sleep, though.
In the end, we didn't even use our tent. Come to find out it's only a three man tent so our friend let us borrow their eight man tent, which is a huge difference. We will definitely have to upgrade for any camping next year, and hopefully we'll put that tent to frequent use.