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Showing posts with label Tayden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tayden. Show all posts

11.02.2011

Community Pumpkin Carving


Each year a group of students at the local College that Dave works at hosts a Community Pumpkin Carving day.  You can come and get a pumpkin and carve it there.  So not only do you get a free pumpkin, you don't have a mess to clean up at your own house after carving pumpkins!  Win-win!

This was actually the first year that we have gone to it.  I wasn't aware of it until last year and I assumed it would be super crowded and crazy, but it wasn't too bad!  There were plenty of pumpkins and while we did have to share tools, we didn't have to wait too long for them.



Its fun now that the older kids are able to carve their own.  They really enjoy planning out their design and cutting it themselves.  


Evy had fun crawling around with the pumpkins.  I couldn't resist taking more pictures of her with them.  I will spare you and only post this one!  She sure is a cute little pumpkin!

We carved a little pumpkin for her and she had fun holding the lid.  

Like most things she picks up, she had to put it in her mouth.  She actually thought it tasted pretty good and kept sucking on it.


Yumm!  A pumpkin Lollipop!


See how the Jack O' Lanterns turned out after the jump!

11.01.2011

Turkey Lunch

It's the first day of November!  Time to start packing Thanksgiving lunches for the kids!  

Today Ady wanted to eat the school lunch, but Tayden decided to take his lunch.  He thought Ady's Batty lunch from yesterday was pretty awesome and wanted something fun like that.  I suggested a Turkey and he thought that would be fun.



I made a turkey and cheese quesadilla and then cut it out with a turkey cookie cutter.  I actually was able to cut out two turkeys so they are stacked together.  I used food markers to color it in a little.  The turkey is on a bed of spinach that Tayden will probably not eat, but a little of it might get stuck to the turkey ;)  {I actually was surprised this week when I made Super Green Smoothies (frozen banana and spinach) and he liked them!  Maybe he is developing a taste for spinach after all!}

I also cut out some apples to be fall leaves.  They ended up looking a little like bats, so I used food markers on those as well to make them look more distinct.

Tayden wanted to take a piece of his Halloween Candy and then I also gave him some Rainbow Goldfish crackers, which have nice fall colors.

Here is a close up of the Turkey



I included a Thanksgiving Lunchbox Note that I found on Crafts and Sutch last year.  I am working on some more lunchbox jokes of my own that I will share soon, so stay tuned!  And if you are looking for other love notes to include in your little one's lunch, check out my Pinterest board full of printable lunch box love here!



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Halloween 2011


I usually like for our family to dress in a theme for Halloween, but this year the kids all had their own plans. We started talking about costumes and making plans at the beginning of the month, but we were so busy that I still ended up finishing things last minute.  I spent the day yesterday running to the store for last minute items, spray painting Tayden's costume and making treats to take in for Ady's class party as well as tidying up the house since we had a few friends coming by to go Trick or Treating with us and to have Hot Chocolate afterwards.  It was an exhausting day, but we got it all done!


Kyler wanted to be an FBI Agent.  That was easy enough!  All we had to do was head to the thrift store to find a black suit and shiny sunglasses.  We ended up not being able to find a black suit, but I did find a men's suit coat that worked well enough.  He found some shiny sunglasses at Goodwill and we got a Dollar store gun and spray painted it black.  He also wore Dave's Blue Tooth ear piece.  In the end we decided that he looked more like a Secret Service Agent, but it was close enough!


I saw the idea for Tayden's costume on Pinterest here.  As soon as I showed it to Tayden he was so excited to be a Lego Man!

We basically followed the directions found on this blog to make it except we didn't have the perfect boxes they had for the body.  We used a big Office Chair box that we had in the garage and cut it down.  We should have cut it a bit smaller, but, like I said, we ended up doing this one last minute.  Tayden loved it, but it was hard to get around in.  Almost every house had a lot of stairs in front (like our house) so I had to help him up and down all night.  

He attracted a lot of attention though!  Several people stopped by and asked if they could take a picture.  Some houses even said he deserved extra candy for that costume!

If we made the costume again we would make the body a bit shorter, but overall it was a success and Tayden loved it.


Ady wanted to be a mermaid.  I saw this awesome mermaid costume and I thought I would try making one like that.  It ended up not turning out to be as easy or as cute as I hoped.  I didn't buy enough green tulle (it takes a lot more than you would think.  I didn't even have half as much as I needed).  I should have known since I have made tutus before, but it has been a long time ago.  I had some Purple tulle on hand so I added that in to make it more full.  Since it was pretty cold out Ady wore a long sleeve purple shirt underneath and then I made a shell top with some big shells Tayden found in Lake Michigan a few years ago.  I added glitter and drilled holes in them to tie them on like a bikini top. I was really please with how they turned out and  Ady was all excited about them until Kyler called them a bra and then she was pouting and  not wanting to wear them.  I let her take them off after pictures but she was still quiet and seemed unhappy with her costume the rest of the night. I guess she just wasn't feeling it.  You can't tell in the picture, but we also sprayed her hair red.  It looked pretty in person.  


To sort of go along with Ady's mermaid costume, I thought it would be cute and easy to make an octopus costume for Evy.  I used some old tights of Ady's that had a hole in the toes, an old pair of knee socks and a pair of tights for Evy that don't really match anything.  I kept the waist band attached on that pair of tights and after stuffing all the legs sewed them all on.  The six extra legs fit on over her onesie.  I used the waist from the old tights of Ady's to make a hat.  I got the idea for that here. Here is a close up of the hat. 


I am happy with the way the costume turned out.  She stayed in the stroller all night, but you could still tell that she was dressed up with the hat and all the extra legs sticking out.  

On Sunday night Dave was cutting the boys' hair and also his own.  While he was cutting his he thought it might be fun to leave a mohawk on for Halloween.  We spiked it up and sprayed it with some purple hair spray that we had on hand.  He wore it to work all day and got lots of looks and comments. 


For trick or treating he changed out of his work clothes and ended up looking a little like he was dressed like the 90's.


This year I didn't dress up, I just wore some cat ears.  

We had a fun time trick or treating with our friends.  We had two families who don't live in town come with us.  One of the families had never Trick or Treated house to house before!  Their 16 year old daughter had only ever went Trick or Treating at the church!  I wish I had taken a picture of their costumes.  The whole family dressed as ninjas.  Their 5 year old daughter wore a tutu with her ninja costume and had a pink mask. It was cute!  

Tayden's teacher lives not far from us, so we were able to visit his house.  He gave Tayden an extra hand full of suckers. 

Everyone got plenty of candy and all the places we went to had good candy too!  Not much of the cheapo stuff that gets thrown out.  One house was even giving out full size candy bars!

The kids had fun after we got home handing out candy to people.  Kyler decided to give out all the stuff that he doesn't love.  (mostly sour candy - he is more of a chocolate lover)
 
Ady and Tayden sorted theirs all out by type (I always liked doing that too!)



  Kyler prefers the giant pile method.   


10.24.2011

Star Wars Lunches

On Thursday Ady and Tayden had Star Wars lunches. 

I found these fun Star Wars Party Rings and Light Saber Cupcake Picks and when they arrived in the mail, Tayden was excited to have a Star Wars lunch.  I wasn't sure if Ady would want one, but when I mentioned Princess Leia she was on board!


For Tayden's I made a ham and cheese quesadilla and then used a knife to cut it out in a Yoda shape (my husband says the ears are too small.  Next time I will have to have him cut it out!)  I used a green food markers to color the ears and the mouth and used icing eyes.  I gave him a green light saber.


I put a Clone ring on a carrot and a Darth Vader ring on a celery stick.  I used another light saber as a pick for some grapes.  He also got some Star Wars gummies and some Outer Space Goldfish Crackers.


Ady also has a ham and cheese quesadilla, but hers is cut in a circle for a face and then I cut out two smaller circles for Princess Leia's famous buns.  I colored them with a brown food markers, gave her some red lips with a food marker and some icing eyes.  Since she is a princess she also got a crown cupcake pick.  


Again we have a Darth Vader carrot with a celery Clone, some grapes on a light saber, star wars gummies and Space themed Goldfish crackers.

Some of the supplies used to make these lunches:

10.17.2011

Weekend Lunch Fun - Sticks and Outer Space


Kyler likes to eat the school lunch most of the time, so I rarely get the opportunity to pack a fun lunch for him.  Yesterday he told me that he would like a Muffin Tin Lunch since he never gets a fun lunch from me.  I had been thinking of doing a "stick" theme so I tried it out on him.


I made a rolled up sandwich for him and cut it into "sticks", he has a cheese stick some Oreo sticks, a few grapes on Halloween "sticks" and some carrot sticks with ranch to dip them in.  It was easy and he liked that I took the time to make it special for him.  

When Tayden saw that I was willing to make fun lunches, he asked for a Space lunch.  I had some space theme goldfish crackers that he had been wanting to open, so I started trying to think of how to do a space sandwich.  This is what I came up with.


I cut a sandwich into triangles and arranged them to sort of look like a rocket.  I added a bit of ham and cheese for the flames.  He also has the space goldfish crackers, some moon and meteor marshmallows (I used the moon marshmallows from the Halloween ones and the meteors are chocolate marshmallows).  I needed to add some fruit so I at first thought of using green grapes as martians, but Tayden only likes red grapes so I was going to use them as meteors.  Then I saw the little animal food picks and decided to use the green ones to be aliens.


I think it turned out cute!  

Here are the links to some of the supplies I used:

10.13.2011

Lunches Lately - Pigs, Princess, Penguins and Pumpkins


I posted a picture of these Piggy Sandwiches previously, but it was in a birthday post, so I thought some people may not have seen it.  
I made these for Ady for her birthday dinner (per her request).
I cut the sandwiches into circles, cut an oval from ham for the nose.  I added a few sprinkles for nostrils, Nori for the mouths, sliced, boiled eggs for the eyes along with edible eyes.  I used some cheddar cheese for the ears.  I served them with sugar snap peas. 


Here is a Princess Lunch that I made for Ady today.  I made her sandwich into a circle for the face and then used edible eyes, a heart shaped sprinkle for the nose and cut a fruit leather smile.  I used a crown cookie cutter
and embellished it with heart sprinkles and a toy ring.  The scepter is a Pocky stick with a Fruit Leather heart.  I served it with some yogurt with a few heart sprinkles and some grapes.

Yesterday Ady went on a field trip to the Zoo.  Dave went along as a chaperone.  Ady requested a zoo animal lunch to take with her.  Everything had to be able to be thrown away when they were done, so it is not nearly as cute as it would be, but here is what we came up with.


This one is Ady's.  I used my penguin sandwich cutter again.  This time I added Fruit Leather to make it look more like a penguin.  I also included some Doritos, iced animal crackers, some mini M&Ms and apple and a Danimals crush cup. I am not sure why field trip lunch turned into junk food lunch, but there you go :)


Dave had pretty much the same thing except he got Peanut M&Ms.  I think the Penguins turned out cute!


Here is another attempt at a Halloween Lunch for Ady.  I did mostly orange things.  She has a little cup of mac and cheese with a little orange doggy food pick and a Jack O' Lantern Cupcake Pick.  To the right of that is a little cup of Cheez-its. Below that is a No Bake Chocolate Cookie (Recipe here) with some pumpkin shaped sprinkles.  Next to that is a little cup of ranch dressing for the carrots in the cup below that.  She also had a sandwich cut into a pumpkin shape.  I cut out some eyes and a mouth to make it into a Jack O' Lantern and used a food marker to color it in.  On the right is one of my Halloween Lunchbox Notes (free printable here!)


Some of the products I use to create these fun lunches:



Linking Up to:
What's For Lunch Wednesday
Home and Family Friday
Bento of the Week