Halloween Fun

I wanted to get our Halloween pictures up.  Everyone was sooo cute!

Rafe was a little cowboy dude!

Scout was dressed in a cute Halloween onesie.  Kendra wanted to dress her up as a little indian but didn't get to it.  That's understandable since Scout was just 10 days old:)

Haivyn was a little pumpkin girl!

The Phelpses dressed as Ninja Turtles.

Henry was such a cutie in his headband and onesie:)

As for Rick and I....... we were geeks:)

I wanted simple comfortable costumes this year.

I have really been enjoying this Halloween month.  A few weeks ago we had our annual Phelps Siblings Halloween Party.  Since this was our 25th year (and only a day after Rick's birthday bash) we decided to do things a little different.  We met at Braza Grill Restaurant and had a fun dinner.  Afterwards we went to Hale Theater for a show.  Unfortunately, that part was not so good.  Not many of us liked the play so half of us left at intermission:(   Bummer deal!  

The next week Rick and I hosted our first annual Phelps Family Halloween Party.  This was with our kids and grandkids.  I spent the day cooking and preparing for the party.  I made some Werewolf Stew (meat stew), Bat Wings (chicken wings), Yummy Mummys (Eggrolls), Wigglin' Worm Salad (chow mein),  Skeleton Bones (breadsticks), Pumpkin Cheese Ball, and Witches Brew (homemade root beer).  The party got started on a good note with us eating dinner and then all heck breaks loose!  One of our children started acting out.  Rudeness is never becoming of anyone and since I want my home to be a safe place physically and emotionally for everyone that enters, we ended up having to send this person home.  Of course, his/her behavior affected all in the room so it took a little time to regroup and feel like we could start having a good time again.  I swear,  I cannot tell you how tired I am of the drama that is a constant in some of my children's lives!  It has been YEARS of emotional crap (am I allowed to say that on a public blog?) that affects ALL of our family members.  I am seriously tired of it.  I sincerely hope that I can have normal family relations with ALL of my children in the years to come. 

 Ok, rant over. 

After we regrouped we had a fun time playing silly children's games and then a couple of rounds of dominion.  That part was fun!  Oh yeah, we also tried making the apple balls that we found in The Netherlands last month.  Not quite the same.  They sure tasted good but they did not look ANYTHING like those pretty things we saw last month.  I have never used phyllo dough before and thought it would be easy.......well, next time I will have to try using pie dough.  

We'll take an E for effort though:)

Another fun thing that I have been doing this fall season is making a lot of home baked goods.  Rick has been asking me to can the tomatoes that we raised in our garden and so I made some salsa.  My last batch was not spicy enough for my Spanish speaking esposo so this time I made it quite hot.  HE LOVES IT! ...and I am happy that he is pleased:)  Rick has also been asking me to can pumpkin since we had oodles of them grow in our garden this year.  The last few days I have been baking pumpkin pies, cupcakes, and just this morning pumpkin pecan waffles.  It has been really fun and they all taste super delish!  I have been enjoying sharing my baked goods with the neighbors and my family.  

Last night was Halloween and Skylar and Sarah came over to spend the night with us.  We had such a great time.  I got to snuggle with Henry (Who I might add is getting chunkier by the week!  I love chubby babies!)  and along with passing out goodies to the few trick or treaters we get down this lane, we played three games of dominion!  Skylar is really hooked on this game (usually because he wins) but we all really like to play as well.  After the games were over we headed downstairs to watch Midnight Lace and to munch on some of our Halloween goodies.  

It has been a great Halloween season!