November 2012

On September 1st Faith turned 11 years old and we celebrated the following Sunday on the 4th. She designed and created a beautiful cake based on the movie Brave. (not sure why Buddy's sporting chocolate frosting war paint)

 Unfortunately, this cake barely made it to my parents' house intact and suffered irreparable damage shortly after arrival. It was baked in two loaf pans and held together and on top of a round cake with almond bark. Not steady enough for a 20 minute car journey! But it was still awesome and a great effort on Faith's part.

 

She got lots of fun gifts! I can't believe this girl is so grown up already :(

On the 13th the kids gave an impromptu performance of their dancing skills!

On the 15th we decided to go to Phantom at Davis High. I thought we'd better go before the last few days it was showing to make sure we got tickets. When we got there, EVERY ticket through the end of the run was already sold out! There was quite a line of people hoping for unclaimed tickets and we would have to wait for an hour without any guarantee of seeing the show. The kids decided they wanted to wait, even though the gentleman at the counter was not very hopeful for us. Well, we got some of the last tickets and we even got to sit together! We were on the right side about halfway back in three seats with an open space next to it (wheelchair accessable seating) and it was wonderful!

 

Both kids loved the show!!

On the 19th Faith went with Tammy, Tina & Lana to Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2. Buddy and I waited to see it with Tony that Saturday, but Faith is a super fan!

November 22nd was Thanksgiving. We ate two wonderful dinners and had lots of fun with family at each house.

On the 23rd, Mom took the girls (+ Buddy for the first time because he had been dying to go the last few years) to the Nutcracker Ballet.

 

She made beautiful Sugar Plum Fairy ornaments for the girls,

and got Christian a manly Nutcracker.

On the 29th we kept Buddy out of school & Tony out of work and went as a family to see Faith's ballroom dance performance at the Festival of the Trees. My mom & dad and Tammy came, too. After the the dancing, we looked at lots of trees and gingerbread houses. Tammy spoiled the kids with goodies and we enjoyed some fresh scones.

(this pic was taken by Christian of his favorite tree. LEGO themed, of course!)

We got the kids some tickets and they got to be inside the bubbles and make some crafts.

 

 

After the festival, we ate at Chick-fil-A and walked through the temple lights. It was such a nice night, the kids wouldn't keep their coats on! (of course, I was wearing two coats and still froze)

Second half of October 2012

On October 19th we got to attend Joy & Jordan's Halloween party! We brought two creepy treats, Dracula's Dentures (homemade chocolate chip cookies with red frosting, mini marshmallows, and almond slivers--entirely made by Faith and Bud),

and caprise skewer "eyeballs" (1/2 grape tomato, mini fresh mozzarella balls (bocconcini), torn piece of fresh basil leaf, and a slice of pimento olive, drizzled in a balsamic vinegar reduction--made by me).

We dressed up, of course!

I especially loved Eric's mullet:

Joy did some cute games for the kids. They especially loved "fishing" for spider rings with sparkly pipe cleaner hooks.

On the 20th we decided to use some passes for Cherry Hill that I'd gotten on sale. In the fall they call it "Scary Hill" and decorate their mini golf course with a Halloween theme. We had a great game of golf,

the kids loved their climbing gym/ball pit, and we shot each other with foam balls in their air powered ball-shooter room. It was a lot of fun!

That evening we went to Black Island Farms with Tammy.

Faith even won a pumpkin because of her great shot with the corn cob cannon!

One of their favorite activities this year was "skating" or "snowboarding" on their feet down the baby slide. Watch out little kids!!

Those who can handle carbs enjoyed trying mini cinnamon sugar donuts and some deep fried oreos.

The corn pit was a hit, as usual.

We even picked out some pumpkins before heading home.

On the 21st, after seeing fried cheese balls on an episode of "Diners, Drive-ins & Dives", I attempted to replicate them. It was basically three kinds of shredded cheese barely held together with a little egg and bisquick and flavored with green onion. They turned out delicious!

Before heading to the grandparents, Faith dressed up her baby.

My mom did some Halloween games for the kids over at her house.

On the 22nd it was mustache day at school as part of red ribbon week.

The 23rd was crazy hair day!

On the 24th we enjoyed some pomegranate.

On the 25th we had a crazy snowstorm! Lathan and Christian had a ton of fun making snowmen.

Much of it was melted by the next day, but the creations survived!

The 27th was our ward trunk-or-treat. We had a lot of fun and got to try some delicious soups.

On the 30th we did our pumpkin carving.

Tony took the 31st off so he wouldn't have to stress about not getting home in time to go trick-or-treating, so he got to be a room mother and help out with the kindergarten Halloween party. At our station we had the kids decorate cupcakes in ice cream cones with frosting in little ziplock "piping bags" and tons of fun, creepy candies.

Here is Faith's pumpkin:

and Christian's (with one of Tony's above it):

We went around the neighborhood until we froze, then stopped by so that my parents could see our costumes. At the Braeggers' we ate chili and Tony took Buddy around to some more houses. Tammy didn't disappoint with her darling goody bags. We had a great Halloween!