The Harry Potter Party

This year my precious girl turned 10...Yes, double digits for her and officially old for me! In all seriousness, how did she get so big?!? I know everyone says that kids grow up so quick and some days feel looonnnggg when you are in them. Some stages were just terrible, some were so amazingly awesome, but the rate at which this is happening is really hitting me!

This weekend we said goodbye to Barbies and baby dolls and traded them for IPods and legos.

For her presents she wanted and I quote, "Gift cards and clothes with no words on them." Who is this child of mine?

The obsession with Harry Potter continued from Halloween, right into her 10th birthday party, for my grown up girl.

This was not a small feat, for Harry Potter party supplies simply do not exist. This was truly the party that Pinterest made!
                                                             

                                                                          The decor...

That's right to get into Hogwarts you need a password and to get into our house you needed one too!

Floating candles...

This was a labor of love, let me tell you. Weeks of collecting toilet paper rolls from my family, and lots of  hot glue, spray paint, fishing line and flicker candles later and, ta-da!

This thrift store find became these fancy candelabras after a little bit of gold spray paint!

Very Hogwarts of us!

A foam board photo booth just like in the movie!

This Hogwarts banner we found on Amazon for like $15, was money well spent! I was just going to hang it on the wall, but Brien took it to the next level and teetered on a ladder to hang it from the ceiling!

The Whomping Willow was all Callie! Just a little bit of brown paper, some thumb tacks and some twisting! She was very proud of her creation!

The food was SO fun and super easy to throw together!

Cheetos and Doritos... what kid doesn't love fake orange cheese?! I know I do!

Sour gummy worms made great jelly slugs

Some chocolate coins were a great pass for Gringotts wizard money!

Jelly Bellies look just like Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Bean without the disgusting surprises!

Lindt Carmel Truffles look surprisingly like gold snitches and Sprees Chews are exactly how I'd imagine Fizzing Wizzbees!

Reese's and a pretzel=broom sticks!

My mom found these super awesome gum eyeballs during Halloween, pretty awesome find mom!

The Entertainment!

Pin the scar on Harry Potter was Callies' creation, she did such a great job and it was super fun to spin those crazy kids and grown ups around and see where the scars ended up!

Our very own Quidditch Pitch! Brien made these out of some 1x2's from Lowes, a couple of clamps and some hula hoops that he ripped the sparkly paper off of!

If only we had our Nimbus 2000's!

And last but not least...Potions class! We made a bubbly mess from the same recipe we used this summer!

I think this birthday was probably one of my favorites as far as planning and hosting, even though it was a LOT of work, but totally worth it to shower my sweet girl with some Harry Potter love!

Thank you awesome family for being there and sharing her special day!!

Happy 10th, baby girl!!

What I Wore Wednesday

This week we are getting back to normal! Yay for easy nights at home and getting caught up on life!

These last few weeks have been pretty easy clothes too! I went though my closet and cleaned and got rid of so many things, I love a good clean out! There was no rhyme or reason to it really, just realizing that somethings from high school and college definitely needed to go!

In other news, daylight savings is so terrible. I like not going to school and feeling like it is midnight, but I dislike leaving school at 4 and it feels like a race to beat the sun home. I wish I lived in Arizona...

Truth...

This outfit was so cute, until I got pooped on last week. You know your day is going awry when you get pooped on...

Chambray: Thifted

Tank: Target

Pants: Kohls

Flats: Target...I had to get rid of these after wearing them, but I found a super cute replacement at Walmart... for, that's right, $5!

It's getting a little chilly in the mornings, time to bust out the vests!

Tunic: 11th avenue

Leggings: Macy's

Vest: Old Navy

Necklace: Target

Flats: Target

Polka dot top: Old Navy

Jeans: Thrifted

Necklace:?? I can't remember!

Flats: Target

Thank you slip extender, I can wear this dress without leggings!

Dress: Target

Slip extender: 11th Avenue

Cardigan: Target

Lace up flats: Target

My Halloween outfit, super spooky, right?! No costumes this year. A couple of my kids asked what I was going to be and I told them, "A mom." They didn't get it...

Dress: Target

Scarf: Target

Booties: Kohls

Happy Wednesday!

Halloween and Holding it Together

This last week felt like a month, y'all! I was taking to a parent about Halloween and it seriously felt like a lifetime ago, but no. It was a week ago. That's all just 7 days. Between birthday shenanigans, my formal observation, redoing Callie's room and just life in between, it has been wild! Hey, I can sleep when I am old...Maybe? We are holding it together...

On Sunday we had such a fun family dinner and carved our pumpkins! The kids had a blast and sweet Kellen kept asking, "Is it Halloween yet? Is it happening?" So. Much. Prep. Work.

Their little pumpkins were so stinkin cute this year! I mean look at Callie's pumpkin gut hair! Adorable!

 The actual day of Halloween fell on a weird Monday! What? Not all Holidays are on a weekend?!?

My school declared that we could not have any Halloween parties for some odd reason, so my team planned the cutest little monster day, you ever did see!

We read I Need My Monster 


                                      
Seriously the cutest little book, that you ever did read! Them my kiddos, who are working on non fiction writing had to create their own monster that lived under their bed and do an " All About writing" where they told what it looked like, what it did that was special, etc...

Then we decorated and ate monster cookies. It was a red letter day in the second grade!

After school it was race home and get ready for candy begging time! We met over at my parents to change and get ready. Kellen straight up refused to put his costume on. The boy was in a mood, this was not going well, already...

We finally convinced him that he would not be getting candy if he just showed up in a Halloween shirt and that changed his mind pretty quick! Finally... Dressed and ready to go!

She was best little Hermione Granger you ever did see!

Not super thrilled with life, but willing to hold it together if it meant he got candy!

Aaaannnd finally some smiles!

He had no idea what was going on behind him!

We managed a few houses around my parents' 'hood and then headed over to see my uncle Buck and aunt Jenny's for more Halloween treats!

Once it had gotten a little darker we headed back to our neighborhood and met up with a mob, I said it, a mob of about 15 children and chased them from house to house in the dark.

Let me tell you, these cuties cleaned up in the sugar department!

Wizard best friends! The little boy who lives behind us, who I am pretty sure loves Callie, was Harry and we had to snap a pic!

We will never be able to eat all of this sugar!

Another Halloween in the books and it was a blast! 

No Sew Spooky Ghost Costume

This year my little man came up with the least original Halloween costume of all times... A ghost.
His older wiser sister decided she wanted to be Hermione from Harry Potter and she wanted Kellen to be Dobby or Hedwig, how cute would that have been?? Elf or an owl, but he was not having either of those.

I was picturing some awful costume involving a sheet with the eyes cut out, but after some scouring pinterest, I found some inspiration!

After standing in line at the fabric store for almost 2 hours, I left with 2 yards of soft white fleece and 2 sheets of black adhesive felt.

The only other supplies I needed was sharp scissors and fabric glue.

First I laid out the fleece flat on the floor...

Then I had Kellen lay down in the middle of it, I made a slit on the top fold for him to stick his head through after I measured his neck.

Next I laid it flat again and had him lay down to measure length and width and marked it with a sharpie.

Then I cut out the access fleece in kind of an oval shape so it would not drag the ground!

The next step is what takes forever! It's just like making a tie blanket, make slits every 1 1/2 inches apart. I made my slits about 5 inches up. I didn't actually measure it, I just kind of eye balled it and there are some major boo-boos, but once everything is all tied up, you really can't even tell!

After all of the slits are cut on the raw edges, tie the individual slits into a knot, not together...

Like SO... 

He was really excited!

Now it's face making time! Kellen wanted a spooky mouth and funny eyes. Yeah, kid I don't even know what that means. After scouring the internet with the search "ghost faces", I almost gave up! But then I had brilliant idea, I searched printable pumpkin cut outs instead until he found a suitable mouth and set of eyes and we printed out both patterns.

Next, cut out the printed mouth and eyes and trace them onto the back of the felt and cut out. Even though the felt was already sticky I went with some fabric glue for additional adhesive! This was my VERY first attempt a home made Halloween costume and I was not going to mess it up!

No too bad for my first home made job! Kellen is super excited and I think it came out pretty cute, for such a boring idea! He is just going to wear some black pants and a white tee under and My grandma, bless her, found a white knit hat for him to wear with it!

We are already for trick or treating! Happy Halloween!

What I Wore Wednesday

This week has been weird, weird, weird. Kellen was sick with a tummy bug, Brien was gone hunting, everything that has to with plumbing was malfunctioning. Over it.

But dressing more fall-y has been a bit of a bright spot. Even when things are hectic and crazy, I still look forward to getting up and getting dressed each day. It's the little victories, really!

Can you tell it was fall break?! 

Top: TJ Maxx

Jeans: Old Navy

Shoes: Payless

Mad about plaid!

Top: Old Navy Jeans: Target

Flip flops: Target

An outfit for a much needed night out with my girl friend from church. What started out as a quick get dinner ended up being a 3 hour catch up fest over tacos and margaritas, it was glorious!

Tee: Target

Sweater: Old Navy

Jeans: Target

Boots: Target

Can you tell I am back to school??

Dress: Target

Cardigan: Target

Flats: Target

Belt: Off another dress

Dress: Kohl's

Vest: Target

Camo flats: Target

Until next week...Happy Wednesday!

Crockpot Apple Butter

Last week on glorious fall break, I decided to try something fun and fall-ish! I have always wanted to try my hand at canning and or making jelly/jam, but I am not so patient or good with these kinds of things!

I found this recipe last week on Pinterest that didn't involve anything like blanching or pectin and I decided to give it a go! Apple butter here we come!

It was SO easy and the crock pot does all of the hard work for you!

You need:
3-5 lbs of apples, peeled, cored and sliced--We had a bunch of galas from the kids lunches last week, so we used those, I am sure any apple will work!
3/4 cup of brown sugar
 1 Tbsp of cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp of cloves
1/2 Tbsp nutmeg

My trusty tools got the job done quick!

First peel, slice and core the apples. Then rinse them and dump them in the crock pot.

Next mix together the sugar and spices, that's all the ingredients you need!

Toss the mixture right over the apples in the crock pot... 

Let the apples cook on high for 3-5 hours, stirring every hour, each hour the apples get a little bit softer and smaller in size.

Once they are soft enough to mash up turn off the crock pot. 

Give the apples a final stir to coat in the spice/sugar juice in the bottom and they they are ready puree!                                      

                                            

I did mine in the good old blender in a few batches. I blended them on the highest setting until it was thick and smooth  or until you get the texture you like.

You could add some of the remaining liquid from the crock pot if the mixture was not smooth enough to your liking.

After the apples are blended, pour them into jars or containers and allow them to cool.

Then pop them in refrigerator to store!

So far we had apple butter on pancakes, toast and right out of the jar. It's not quite like butter or quite like jelly, kind of like really smooth silky apple sauce! 

It's not exactly what I was expecting, but it was easy, made my house smell amazing and it's pretty tasty too!