Halloween Event Three: Annual Party at the Grahams

We wrapped up our Halloween fun at the Grahams home on Friday night. (Yes, we didn't trick or treat on Saturday night. We were all kinda done with Halloween for this year. We had a wonderful nice quiet night at home as a family on Saturday night.)

This was our fourth year to have a party with the Jacksons and the Grahams. It's really become one of my favorite family traditions and I truly hope we can continue for years and years to come. It's been fun to watch our kids multiply and change! I thought about posting a whole bunch of pictures from years past, but I'll just link the old posts since looking back is probably more fun for me than for most of my blog readers! Click here for our first party. Click this one for our second party. Click this sentence for last year's party.

All six kids - with lions as the bookends:

The newest member of the crew, Miss Shelby, wasn't too sure about being a hot dog:

Isn't this the cutest baby and baby costume you've ever seen?

The big kids eating dinner together:

Happy Halloween and thanks for checking in!

Halloween Event Two: Preschool Party

Halloween Event One: Trunk or Treat

Confessions of a Wanna-Be Crafty Mom

Yes, I'm a wanna-be. I want to be creative, and I want to be crafty. I am SO NOT either one. I really and truly do not think that I've ever had one truly unique idea that I can call my own. However, I am all about stealing ideas. Maybe that should be my title. Confessions of the Creativity Thief.

Anyway, in case there are any other women out there who feel my pain, I wanted to share a website. Probably most of you already know about it. But if not here it is: http://familyfun.go.com/

Have you seen the magazine Family Fun? My parents were getting it (and not sure why - probably ordered it from one of my youngster relatives who had school magazine drives) and mom started giving it to me. It's got all kinds of great ideas! I highly recommend the magazine, and the website - which is free of course!

Here's two recent things we've done from this magazine/site:

Gourd Guys

That's Camden's on the left and Scott's on the right. Now, let me first say that when I first asked Camden if he wanted to do this with me, he said, "No, let's have a sword fight." Seriously, all he wants to do these days - have pretend sword or pretend gun fights. Hoping this is a phase.....

Then, inspiration struck me and I said, "Hey, we can use my glue gun to attach the different things."

I just wish you could have seen his face. "A GLUE GUN ??!??" Oh my. He was previously unfamiliar with the glue gun. That's right, child, Daddy's not the only one with a gun! (Brian has a bb gun - how do you spell that?)

So, if you are looking for something to do with your cute little pumpkins/gourds this time of year and with your sweet little pumpkins (children) on a rainy day, try it out. You really can't go wrong! The magazine suggested using "natural fall things" (leaves, twigs, nuts, etc) but I just grabbed what we had on hand. We used googly eyes obviously, skewers for arms, pretzels for ears, chicklets/pecan pieces for eyebrows and buttons, the stems for noses, peanuts for feet, and cut up cupcake liners for hair. That was Camden's idea, I'm proud and a little ashamed to say. I couldn't for the life of me decide what we had on hand that could be used for hair. I had the cupcake liners out and Camden said, "Let's cut it up in little pieces and glue them sticking up around the head, like my hair sticks up." And it really does resemble Camden's bedhead, I must say!

Scary Mouth Apples

This was a snack idea from the magazine that I made for Camden's preschool class Halloween party. The teeth are just slivered almonds - pressed into the apple!

No, I'm not sure that it was a huge hit with Camden's class, but Camden thought it was great, and that's all I really cared about. And at least one other kid in the class knew what they were supposed to be. Granted, a couple of kids said, "I just want a plain apple." So, maybe this would be a little more fun for grown-ups or at least older kids.

I've actually done several things from this magazine, so if you have an interest, check it out!

And feel free to leave comments with other websites you've found to be helpful as a mom. The vastness of the internet amazes and slightly overwhelmes me, so don't assume I've seen or heard about any site - please share!

Camden's Party Required a Bouncer - HA HA

When I asked Camden several months ago what kind of birthday party he wanted this year, he answered, "I want a party at the bouncy place." He meant Pump It Up, where we had recently been to a couple of birthday parties. I waited several more weeks and asked again, hoping he would give me something else that Ms. Cheapo here could work with. I mean, I want to do special things for my kids, but I was really hoping that I could do something special with a little less cash! Unfortunately, his answer remained the same. Well, I had decided some time ago that we are going to do big parties every other year for my boys (and have these on alternate years so I am only planning one party a year - unless a third Walker child comes along, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that....hmm, gonna throw off my system) and so we looked into renting an inflatable bouncy thing-a-ma-jig. Still not "cheap" but allowed us to save a little bit.

**I am going to do a little advertising here, just because we had a GREAT experience with this company. We went with Fun Services and they were just wonderful. Best price I found - and also great service. They were on time, did all the set-up/take down, even upgraded our rental to a slightly bigger one at no extra charge to us!**

Anyway, back to the party. It was supposed to be a joint party with our friend, "Miss Jewel,"
a sweet "adopted grandmother" who really has the same birthday as Camden (a few years apart :)) but unexpected health issues unfortunately prevented her from coming.

And now I must say another huge THANK YOU TO GOD FOR THE NICE WEATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!
I would have been more disappointed than anyone if the weather had ruined our plans. No, I'm not a control freak or perfectionist at all. Why do you ask??

Here's the birthday boy:

On a serious note, I am so thankful to have had the chance to celebrate Camden's 4th birthday. I try not to do so, but I can still picture that comatose child who for two hours couldn't talk or answer me, for 15 long minutes didn't even move his eyes, who had wet himself, who was drooling, whose body and eyes were lifeless, who I thought was gone from me forever. That seizure forever changed the way I look at both of my children. I simply cannot adequately thank all of you who prayed for him. I debated attempting to thank you who came to the party in a little speech so that I could do it in person, but knew that I would dissolve into tears, no, actually sobbing, and no one wants to see that at a birthday party. So, I'll say it here and hope that several read it - THANK YOU. From the deepest part of my soul, thank you.

Here's all the kiddos:

Was it a little crazy with all these kids? Of course. But was it also super fun? Of course. I can't imagine leaving any one of these precious children out, they each mean so much to Camden and to all of us. So glad they could all join us!

Here's just a few more pictures of the day. I didn't get great ones, because I was running around attending to details, but my sweet friend Amy said she took several for me since I couldn't, so be forewarned that you may see another post sometime with her much better pictures.

And finally, the real reason we had the party - so that Scott could have LOTS of shoes to try on while they were all in their sock-feet in the bouncer:

LOVE

LOVE. THESE. BOYS.

Making Halloween Cookies

Aunt Dinah AND Uncle Alan came up for a visit last weekend, and we got to use the fun cookie cutters that she had given the boys as a little Halloween treat.

We didn't admire the cookies for long before going ahead and eating them!

Dinah and I couldn't figure out how to make black icing. Feel free to leave a comment and enlighten me. We had to settle for purple cats and bats:

Camden had fun, I promise, although he clearly doesn't look too enthused here:

Enjoyed your visit, Dinah and Alan!

In Search of the Great Pumpkin

The Walker crew met up with the Lassiter crew for a morning of fun at Gentry's Farm in Franklin. We were also excited that Aunt Dinah got to join us too. I think it took all 5 of us adults to keep up with these 4 toddlers, and I'm pretty sure if Dinah hadn't been there one of my boys would have ended up in the pond without us realizing it. Well, there or splashing around in the port-a-potties. Ick. SO glad Aunt Dinah could come along!
As I'm sure those who know me well already know, I'm a sucker for a little boy in overalls, so of course that's what my two were wearing. We had a beautiful fall day and a great time was had by all. Thanks, Lassiters for the fall fun!

Love Maggie's face in this one, and I think Camden and Will were pretending their gourds were water squirters or guns or something:

Will and Camden "lead" us on the corn maze:

Love Scott's tongue hanging out - he was working hard!

Carousels and Cupcakes

Just a hodgepodge of pictures from the last few weeks:

At the zoo on "member morning" when the carousel is FREE! You know me and free... We rode several times, changing animals each time.

Having fun with our favorite McDonalds:

Birthday party cupcakes - what utter bliss and mess all rolled into one:

I couldn't resist getting this on camera- Camden got up to potty in the middle of his nap one day and then didn't even manage to pull up his pants before falling back to sleep on the floor. I guess I'm glad he made it off the potty before falling back to sleep.

Happy Fall, everyone!