A parade and a party

Yesterday was the elementary school's annual Halloween parade and class parties. Shaun was able to take the day off so that we could join in the festivities.


L.T. Young.
Dr. Young in the parade.
Mads checking out the parade.
After the parade Shaun and Mads hit the playground.
Connor partying Kindergarten style, doing a coloring page.
Mads crashing the party!

Pumpkins, candy corns and more pumpkins

This Halloween meal was the one I was most excited about making. Bread bowls made to look like pumpkins and my family's favorite cheddar chowder. I am not a bread maker. Sometimes I forget that and attempt to make it. My bread bowls were a bit of a flop. They didn't rise enough to fill with chowder and the stems just kind of melted into them instead of sticking out. Oh well. My family loved the chowder and they had some quite good tasting pumpkin shaped french bread rolls to eat with it!
For dessert more candy corn cookies. They're sugar cookies colored orange and dipped in white chocolate.
After dinner we carved our pumpkins. Funny story...I went to the grocery store the other day and decided to pick up our carving pumpkins while I was there. I stuck three of them in the bottom of the cart, did my shopping and then realized I needed one more pumpkin.I grabbed one and stuck it on top of my groceries. A little boy, probably about 4 years old said,to me "You have a big pumpkin on all your groceries." I said "I know, and I have three more underneath all my groceries!" The look on his face was priceless. The he said "You have that many kids?! That's a ton, no wonder you have so many groceries!" It was so funny, and so much like something Connor would say to a perfect stranger to cause me loads of embarrassment!
The finished products.
All lit up.

Mummies and meatloaf

Tonight's dinner starred mummies once again and the kiddos loved it. I made Shaun some real pizza which he loved and I'm sure appreciated too! I know my ideas are not original. Let's face it, if you've been to an elementary school class party you've had all of these.
If you're looking for something a little more original why not try this?! I wish my friend Jeanette had clued me in on this before I had already made my menus for the week. Who wouldn't want meatloaf hand for dinner? Shaun for one. He wouldn't even look at it up close. This from a man who cuts people open all day. If you really want to make it you can find the recipe here.

Mummies and eyeballs

For dinner last night we had Mummy dogs which everybody (except Shaun. I think he is already tiring of cutesy, kid friendly Halloween food for dinner!) including Connor loved!
With our Mummy dogs I served Frog "eyeball" salad. Originally known as frog eye salad, but saying eyeball makes it sound so much more Halloweeny. We will be having this salad every night this week, plus probably on to next week seeing as how the recipe makes enough for a small army and I'm the only one who would eat it!

Candy Corns

I love Halloween. I'm not one of those crazy Halloween costume wearing, house decorated to scare small children type. More of a Halloween baking, cutesy decorating type. This year I have a thing for candy corns. I used them in decorating. It may have something to do with these. I love DOTS, and to make them all Halloweeny is just too much.
I decided to make a Halloween inspired dinner every night this week until Halloween. Because I am loving candy corns so much this year I started with this on Monday night, Candy corn pizza. It's just a pizza crust with cheddar and mozzarella cheese on it, and then we dipped them in blood (pizza sauce). I served it with a pasta salad and a green salad and it was a hit!
We had these tasty candy corn kiss cookies for dessert.Bet you can't wait to see what I whip up tomorrow!

Princess Party

This weekend Madison got invited to a Princess party. This couldn't have come at a better time. Just last week Madison discovered Princesses. I'm not sure what flipped the switch but all of a sudden she discovered this floofy dress someone gave us and decided it was a Princess dress. She now wears it ALL THE TIME. Sometimes with her tiara, sometimes with an eye patch depending on the day. Her friends down the street had a party that they invited Snow White to and Madison got to go. She was sooo excited. Here she is dancing with Snow White.
All the Princesses in the Castle. That's Mads head just sticking out!

Young Family

Last week we were lucky enough to have some of our Young family come into town to visit. Most of them went to the BYU vs. SDSU game and then the Monday night Charger game (I opted out of both!)Here's all of the cousins that were here in Old Town right before the Charger game.
Sam and her cousin McKinsey at the game.
Amanda and her fun uncle Jeff at the game!

Soccer, soccer, and more soccer

We have had a very busy soccer season this year. All four kids are playing with Connor playing in two leagues. One of Connors leagues just ended and his team took first place!
Connor with his first place trophy!
Madison and I have been doing a Mommy and Me soccer class and she loves it! While Grandpa Dell and Grandma Vicki were here they got to go with her. It happened to be our last class and she received a medal for such a great season!
Her medal
Leaving the field after a great day at soccer. I just think this picture is so darn cute. We have to thank Grandma Vicki for that, she was the official photographer.

Happy Birthday Princess!

For my birthday last week the kiddos "surprised" me with this cake they made themselves and we had a little party the night before my actual birthday.
What did you do on your actual birthday, you're wondering? We went to DISNEYLAND! It was hotter than I thought and a lot busier than I anticipated. Hence the picture of the kids standing in a really long line eating frozen lemonade! We only got to go on three rides. I can't stand to stand in line with all four kids,(OK Madison) for more than 15 or 20 minutes. It was still a really great day.

Because we didn't go on many rides we did some other things that we usually don't take the time to do. We saw this show. It's called Billy Hill and the Hillbilly's.We've seen it a couple of times before and the kids have always enjoyed it, especially when Billy puts in his hillbilly teeth! We stopped, along with Mary Poppins, to watch this band. The funny thing about Disneyland is that their suits didn't seem so hideous in the park, but now looking at this picture without my Mickey Mouse shades on...all I can say is WOW!
We camped out to get a good seat for the parade. It was worth it. It's a new parade and this is the confetti that shoots out all over at the end. Who couldn't love a parade that ends with Micky Mouse shaped confetti being blown all over?!
The kiddos at the end of our day. Because the park was so busy that day they extended the hours and pushed back the fireworks show so unfortunately we had to miss it!We had a great day and Madison has the blisters to show for it! I kept getting irritated with her because every time we'd stop she's pull her shoes off. Finally one of the kids noticed that her shoes had given her blisters, so that is why she is barefoot. Yes, the life of a fourth child. Their mom lets them go bare foot at a public amusement park.(I didn't actually let her walk around in bare feet, just in her stroller! Jeesh, I'm not that crazy!)My favorite part of the whole day? I was wearing my Happy Birthday button they give you and every employee who saw it said "Happy Birthday Princess!" I know they get paid to say it, or fired if they don't, but it still made me smile every time I heard it!