As part of Bug's preschool Halloween party, we made two crafts - a toilet paper tube mummy and a laced spider web.

After much discussion about Halloween costumes, the kids finally decided (or I decided for them!) what they were going to be this year. Boo decided she wanted to be a princess. So, mommy waved her magic wand....








She's chomping at the bit to wear it this evening for a Halloween party at her school!
Special thanks to my Aunt Martha and my mom for their expert advice!

So I am starting to think that my children are all smarter than I am, or at least than I was at their ages.


Ebabe, the 21 month old, has figured out how to climb out of her crib and get on top of her changing table. This has happened for 2 mornings in a row now. Yesterday I went in to find her drinking honey (put on the changing table in the middle of the night to stop her coughing spell) right out of the squirt bottle. Today she was in the process of taking all the wipes out of the container. I'm currently trying to find one of those crib tents to see if it will work. Some people swear by them and others say they don't work at all. I don't want to spend $80 to find out it won't work. Well, I don't want to spend $80 at all but...


Bug, I'm discovering is a budding artist. She likes to draw random things around the house, looking at the object periodically but not too frequently. She's 4 and she's a better artist than I am. Check out her Mickey Mouse!


And Boo. 2nd grade and these are some of her spelling words for the last few weeks:
champion, bragging, animals, escape, decorate, imitate, amazed, married, copied, exclaimed, subtracted, repeated, thickening, chuckle, multiplied, fancied, clarified, satisfied, stackable, background, chickens, hammock, knocking, rehearse, perfection, inserting, personal and earthworm. Seriously?!?!? I don't think I had to learn these words until 3rd or 4th grade. She'll probably come home with "sophisticated" next week. Is this the area we live in or do other cities/states/countries have work like this in 2nd grade?


All 3 of them are also much better swimmers than I was at that age. Ebabe started swimming in the 2nd level (B) and has progressed to level D in 2 months. Bug is an excellent floater and, although still using the noodles to stay above water, is doing very well at the front crawl. Boo is in a class with largly 10 -12 year old children. She is learning how to do flip-turns and the butterfly. I can't do those now! Her backstroke, freestyle and diving are among the best in her level according to her teacher. Crazy!

It's fall and I'm finally beginning to get in the mood for Halloween. For the kids snack today, I made oreo cookie spiders. Bug asked me why the "eerios" were orange and I thought that was a fitting name for Halloween oreos.


Anyway, for a quick, easy (aka no baking!) Halloween cookie treat, use Oreos, craisins and black licorice.



Cut the licorice in half lengthwise and width wise. Open the Oreo and gently push the licorice into the filling. Dab a little of the filling in the center onto 2 craisins and place the craisins on the top cookie. Put the top back on the cookie and there you have it! Eerio cookies!

What do you get when you leave 2 bananas and 3 pears on your counter for too long? No, not a bad punchline... ingredients for Banana Pear Bread!!!



I used this recipe, courtesy of Smell My Olive Pits, with a few small changes (in red)


Banana & Pear Bread
Makes 1 loaf
2 over-ripe bananas
2 ripe pears, cut into ~1cm cubes (I used 3 pears chopped into small pieces with my Pampered Chef chopper)
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup caster sugar (I couldn't find any so just used regular table sugar)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup olive / vegetable oil
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 170C (350F). Mash bananas in big bowl, add in pear chunks. Add sugars, oil, eggs, vanilla and mix well. Combine flour, baking soda and cinnamon in another bowl then add it to the wet mixture. Mix till just combined. Pop in a lined (or greased) 9X5 loaf pan (or I’m sure these can be placed in muffin trays). Cook for 50 minutes or when it tests as done. Cool, slice, eat and store.



The bread smelled wonderful as it was baking and tasted great, although a little mushy around the small fruit chunks in the bread. Perhaps I didn't mash up the banana or chop the pear enough. I'd definitely recommend trying this recipe though, especially if you are like me and forget that you have certain fresh fruit in the house!

For children too young to use scissors safely, you could have them color or paint the leaves and then you can cut them out. They'll be able to help you attach the leaves no problem!

It's always fun to look back at family photos. It's also fun to remember the joy of previous Halloweens. Every year I've tried to keep up a family theme. This year may be the first where we don't really have a theme. We're using an old costume, a present from my aunt and some renaissance garb. It'll be a modge-podge but still fun.

Anyway, for your enjoyment purposes, here are the ghosts of Halloween past!
The coolest part of this halloween was that Bug was a glowbug. Her daddy rigged an led light to flash every 5 seconds and I sewed it into her skirt. (That's one plus for making your own skirts!)

I was 8 months pregnant and made a quick bee costume with a fabric remnant and yellow grosgrain ribbon. You can kind of see it under my arm. The stripes went around the back.

2005 - PrincessesThe Butterfly Fairy Princess and the Disney Cinderella Princess. No costume for me that year. Store bought and hand-me-down costume from a friend.

I used oatmeal cannisters, a grey sweatshirt, grey fabric paint, white foam sheets and grey stiff felt for the elephant costume. The peanut was simply a brown remnant sewn into a body suit and stuffed with cotton batting.

2003 - Fairy Tales - Tinkerbell and Shrek (ok, so it was cheesy but I was pregnant and didn't have energy to make a big green ogre costume!)

This was the first year we had a store bought costume. Actually it was a garage sale special. I did have to buy the wings at the retail store.

2002 - Little Ladybug and her little ladybug doll

This year I used a red fleece vest, baste stitched black felt over the front panels and added black spots to the back. (Apparently I don't have a photo of the back!)As little Boo was practically inseperable from her doll, I made a little lady bug costume for her too!

2001 - Lil' Tomato

This costume was a no-sew costume. We used hot glue to glue the felt to itself. The hat was simply brown & green felt (stem & leaves) pinned to a green winter hat.

So, that's my walk down memory lane. Hope you enjoyed travelling with me! If you are interested in other family themed costumes, check out this post at Tip Junkie!

Well, it's my birthday and since I wanted a fun dessert, I decided to make myself a frozen yogurt pie. This is one of my all time favorites and has got to be one of the easiest recipes ever!


To make your own frozen yogurt pie, you'll need:



2 cartons of flavored yogurt (pick your favorite)
some fresh or frozen fruit that will go with the flavor of your yogurt
1/2 carton of whipped cream
a pre-made graham pie crust


Mix the yogurt, fruit and whipped cream together in a large mixing bowl. (Sorry for the crappy picture)



Pour into pie crust. (You can decorate the top with some leftover fruit if you'd like)

Freeze for about 8 hours (or overnight for best results).

Set out for about an hour before you want to cut it if it is frozen solid.




And, with the leftover fruit, I made these graham cracker sandwiches for the kids for after school snacks. Graham crackers, whipped cream and berries. Yummy!!!

Here's the final product in my laundry room!