Halloween is Almost Here and I can Hardly Wait!

Call me crazy, but this year, I'm going to try and do this. Will I be biting off more than I can chew? Indeed I will. But this is the second year I've seen Ali do this, and I'd really like to document our December, the days that lead up to Christmas. Mason is 7 this year, really, how much longer am I going to be able to document the innocence and magic? So, I'm going to attempt to gather my supplies, and create the book before hand... Then during the month of December, I'll focus on printing off my daily pictures and journaling. Wish me luck...

***Ladybug update: I'm pleased to report that Sunday was a sunny day and it ended up being warm enough to release the ladybugs! The jar got put outside, and the lid was unscrewed. And all the ladybugs flew away home. That relieved a LOT of pressure.

I spooked up our house this year. I put out my decorations, though not as many as I usually do. I am trying to eliminate some of the 'cute' stuff. Last year Mason informed me that he wanted things to be 'more spooky'. It's kind of a tough transition to go from cutesy to spooky... So it will take me a couple of years to gather adequate scary stuff. I've been giving the kids the occasional 'spooky' treat. Here are a couple I've done so far.

Mummy's in a blanket. Cute, but they look SO much better in the magazines don't they?

Monster's Mouths. These one's were a huge hit, the kids LOVED them. I thought they'd be mortified by the whole apple and peanut butter thing, but they weren't. These little gems have been requested a number of times since. Too bad I can't send them to school...

Which has me thinking, why don't I just make the entire month of October spooky, rather than try to cram it all in the last week of the month? I'll do a better job next year. I've got great recipes, and I should try to do one every few nights. I love it just as much as the kids do. That will be my goal next year. Someone might have to remind me about that!

I've got a busy weekend ahead, with our annual adult and kids halloween parties. I've been getting things done BEFORE hand, rather than running around like a mad-woman the day of.

To date, I've baked pumpkin cookies for Mad's preschool [and put them in the freezer] I put together goodie bags for the kids party on Saturday. I made lollipop treats for Mad's school. Mace and I put together treat bags for his class. (I'll post pictures of them soon)

Tonight we had family pumpkin carving night and the pumpy-kins turned out FANTASTIC. Since Mason came along, we've always picked out a pumpkin each, and designed our own. This year was no different, and they turned out great. I'll post pics of these later as well.

Wouldn't it be great if I were this organized for Christmas too? Having said that, I haven't even thought about that yet. I can look at that one starting next week. I've got my gigantic on-going list of things to do. The thing I like MOST about lists, is crossing items off. Today I crossed off 'clean oven'. Yay for me!