Halloween 2018: Halloween!

Connor was a policeman last year for Halloween.  And he had a police birthday party in February.  And he wears his police costume at least once a week just for fun.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he wanted to be a policeman again this year.  Luckily, the costume that was a little big last year fits him great this year.

As Austin doesn't have a clue what Halloween is, I got to decide on his costume and I wanted it to be something that partnered well with Connor's.  Austin was Connor's prisoner a.k.a. inmate a.k.a. "policemate," which is what Connor kept referring to him as.

I DIY'ed a white t-shirt with stripes and Austin's inmate number (103118, of course).You can't see it on the front because it's behind his blankie.  I opted to skip stripes on the back and went with just the number.

Daycare had a costume parade earlier in the day so I left work early in order to go to that.  Austin's class was up first.

Then came Connor's class.

Note the missing button on his chest pocket.

I said that Connor's costume at school was an off-duty cop: shirt untucked, hat askew, no belt...  As soon as we got home, I made a few adjustments.  Thank goodness for hot glue!  I fixed his belt loops that had torn and glued a button back on.  When it came time to actually dress up for the night, I made sure he looked presentable and ready for duty.

We went to the neighborhood behind ours to trick-or-treat.  They really go all out with the decorations and it's a lot of fun to be part of the crowd over there.

 

Our policeman and prisoner made this Halloween one to remember, for sure.  I love doing holidays with my boys - all of them!

Halloween 2018: Pumpkin Shaving

Connor was so excited to "shave" our pumpkins this year.  I guess "carve" just isn't a word he hears very much so he got it into his head that it was shave and he couldn't get past it to learn carve. Okay by me, I love that 2018 was the year we shaved the pumpkins.

The McHusband and Connor got started while Austin was napping.

After I fed Austin a most nutritious lunch of ravioli, he joined in the shaving fun.

The first pumpkin and its proud creators.

Connor had taken it upon himself to clean the pumpkin and Austin, in true monkey-see/monkey-do fashion, also had to do some pumpkin scrubbing.

Then it was time to take the pumpkins down to the hay bales at the end of the driveway.  With our house so far back and behind trees in addition to the fact that we don't get any trick-or-treaters, it makes no sense to decorate the front porch.  Luckily we had leftover hay from planting grass seed so I was able to set up a little something closer to the street.

I love how excited Austin is in this picture.

 

Connor couldn't wait to put candles in his pumpkins and transform them into jack o'lanterns.  He even dressed for the occasion in his glow-in-the-dark skeleton pajamas.

Connor was pretending to be a zombie. 

I love my little spider pumpkin holder.  Even if we don't get around to any pumpkin shaving, at least one pumpkin will be ready for Halloween. 

Actual Halloween celebration up next!  And by "next," I mean soon...ish.  Definitely before Christmas.

Probably.

Long time no blog

I needed this long weekend.  And the entire month of August plus a week of September.  The move to the new house took its toll.  There was just so much to do that I didn’t have the energy, mentally, to live the life I did before we moved.  But I started feeling more like myself last week and the long weekend helped tremendously.  I was able to be productive around the house, but I tempered it with enough downtime to feel rested.  Connor had his moments, both challenging and rewarding, but thankfully he ended it on the latter note.

We didn’t have any social plans this weekend unless you count touring Terry, Vickie, and Zachary through the house.  In the spirit of the Labor Day cookout, the McHusband and I grilled turkey burgers on Sunday and enjoyed our new porch furniture and lights.

Monday was more of the same: long walk, house stuff, and hanging with Connor.  The added bonus was baking cookies (see, I told you I’m feeling more like myself), visiting Heather who is recovering from some surgery, and the McHusband bathing Monte, who was waaaaay past stinky.

I have Connor’s 18-month post written and hope to get it published this week with some pictures.  Don’t come here every day looking for something new and interesting (or even just one of those), but check in once a week or so.  I hope to resume a semi-regular blogging schedule.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

{Recipe Recap} Brownies with Malted Milk Ball Frosting + Easter weekend

I hope everyone had a good Easter, or at least enjoyed an Easter weekend that was a day longer than the normal weekend.  Like I told you guys last week, we had our family pictures in a park Friday morning, and I hope the photographer got some decent group shots of us.  We’ll find out in a couple weeks…

Saturday night, the McHusband, Connor, and I joined Terry, Vickie, Zachary, and Jennifer at On the Border for Jennifer’s belated birthday dinner.  Well, you know I can’t show up to someone’s birthday dinner without a treat!  Luckily, Jennifer was on board with malted milk so I whipped up a batch of brownies real quick that afternoon.  You may’ve seen my sous chef over there on the right helping me with clean-up duty.

I cheated and used a Duncan Hines boxed mix for my brownies.  They weren’t the star of the show so there was no reason to go all out making them amazing.

The main attraction was definitely the frosting.  I’m not even sure I’d say that the malt flavor came through super strong; it just worked extremely well with the rest of the flavors and made for a delicious frosting.

We liked these cold straight from the fridge.  Chilling the brownies let them be fudgy but a little firmer and the frosting was thicker and less gooey.  However, I had several of these at room temp, too, and I wouldn’t turn them down either way!

In case you’re wondering why my frosting is so colorful, it’s because I used those Robin’s Eggs as my malted milk balls instead of regular Whoppers.

I am already looking forward to using this frosting again, and I hope it won’t be NEXT Easter before I do.

Speaking of the holiday, let me show you a little bit of ours.  It was a fairly normal Sunday around here with house stuff, a long walk, and food prep.  And we might’ve had a visit from a certain oversized bunny.  He left behind some useful things like two hats and a swim shirt and didn’t forget Connor’s sweet tooth, leaving him some marshmallows.  A kids’ CD rounded things out.

 

The weather was gorgeous so we took advantage as much as we could.  The McHusband aerated and seeded the backyard and even put down some sod in one area.  I was pushing Connor in his swing and he was mesmerized by the mower.

You can see on the Instagram video that Connor’s turning into a little pro with his walker.

And he may be saying his first official word: bah! for ball.  He has some words that have meaning to him, and while he says “mum-mum-mum” and “dah,” I can’t say for sure that he means mom and dad when saying those things.  So yeah, “ball” may be his first word.  I just hope “mom” comes before “Monte!”

Hope the oversized hare was good to everyone!

{Frosting recipe}

The last day of Christmas

(I apologize for going out of order but this post was ready to go and I had boot camp last night, which means I had very little time for anything other than dinner and showering.  So just go with my out-of-order flow.)

The Saturday after Christmas, we left the McInlaws’ new house in Clover, SC and headed to Bri’s just outside of Charlotte.  The plan was to spend the day there then head home to Raleigh just after dinner.  A relatively quick visit but better than just seeing everyone for a few hours Christmas Eve.

We tried really hard to get a decent picture of all the kids in front of the Christmas tree.  I’d say we were fairly successful.

We told the kids if they sat for the pictures, then it would be time to open gifts.  We got what we wanted so it was their turn.

All Connor wanted was this old remote that Bri let him play with.

Maxie was so excited to get an umbrella.  She’s not the only one who got an umbrella; I got one too but no one took my picture.

We saved the best for last.  My mom has been needing a new computer for a while and circumstances haven’t allowed her to buy it for herself.  So the McHusband, Bri, Nate, and I made a last-minute decision to add a laptop to her gifts.

I think she liked it.

We left Bri’s at 9:15 and got home at midnight.  Was it a long day?  Yes.  Did we want to be driving so late?  No.  Was it totally worth it to sleep in our own bed and wake up in our house?  Absolutely!

Thank goodness we have a year to recover before we have to do it all again!