Coming Off a Candy High!

We had so much fun this past weekend. Nana, Papa, Tula, Uncle Brad and Aunt Mak were all in town for the festivities. And, of course, Spiderman and Buzz Lightyear showed up! Here they are setting out to gather some candy!

Making themselves at home on a neighbor's porch!

To infinity and beyond!

Aunt Mak with Spiderman

Checking out all of her loot!

Costume change mid-evening

We are still coming off of our candy high! With help from Aunt Mak, we visited almost a dozen houses, and the kids loved every minute of it! Especially the candy! Walker even "Trick or Treated" from the bags of some of the kids that came to our house. He would hand out some candy and then attempt to grab candy from the kids' bags! He was successful at least once with a group of teenagers! He's like his momma, he'll do just about anything for a piece of candy!

Picnic with Parents

Thursday, I had the privilege of eating lunch with two of my favorite people. There's nothing that boosts your confidence like walking down the hall having two little people running toward you screaming "Mommy!"

Once I actually got in their room, we had fun sitting on the floor and enjoying lunch together. The kids couldn't wait to pass out the fall goody bags we had brought for their friends. In fact, they didn't do much eating they were so excited!

You can tell Kathryn was very proud of her candy!

I hope everyone is gearing up for a fun weekend. Auburn's playing Ole Miss and, of course, there's costumes and lots of candy consuming on the menu for tonight! This will also be on the menu at our house...

White Chicken Chili
3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 can (4-ounces) chopped green chilies, drained

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 cans (16 ounces) BUSH'S BEST Great Northern Beans

1 can (14.5 ounces) chicken broth

1 ½ cups finely chopped cooked chicken breast

Shredded Monterey Jack cheese (optional)

Sour cream (optional)

Salsa (optional)

In large skillet, cook onion in oil for 4 minutes or until transparent. Add chilies, flour and cumin; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add beans and chicken broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 10 minutes or until thickened. Add chicken; cook until hot. Garnish with cheese, sour cream and salsa, if desired.

And corn muffins go great with this too! Using a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix, make the mix according to the corn muffin recipe, except add a can of creamed corn and about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. You could also add chopped jalapeno peppers or pepper jack cheese! These are perfect for dunking in the chili!

Fall Fun

Last night, we went to a fall festival at Cousin Daniel's school. We had so much fun. There were all kinds of fun activities for the kids including rides, games, face painting, cake walks. You name it, they had it!

We were even able to take a family picture. The first in many months. I had to scan it, so the quality isn't great. Here ya' go!

Did I mention I love this time of year!

Waitin' on the Weekend

We are all set and ready for all of the trick or treaters that will HOPEFULLY come to our house on Saturday (I say hopefully because I probably bought way more candy than I should have. And being in a new house, we truly have no reference for how busy the traffic will be.) But we are ready for and hoping for a crowd!

Here's a look at some of the goodies just waiting for all of our little guests...

And of course we had to sample some of the candy!

Would you be surprised if I told you Walker's mouth was still blue when I put him to bed tonight? I didn't think so:)

If you would like to make some spider treat bags of your own, they are very simple. Here's a list of the supplies you will need....

clear party favor bags/twist ties
candy
black pipe cleaners
large black pom poms
googly eyes
glue gun/glue sticks or fabric glue

Instructions are as follows:

Hot glue or fabric glue two googly eyes to each large black pom pom.

Fill clear bag with candy and secure bag with twist tie (snipping off excess length).

Take three black pipe cleaners and wrap them around bag (at the twist tie) until secure (usually one good twist around). Cut pipe cleaners to desired length (or leave them just like they are!).

Glue large black pom pom to center of the pipe cleaners

Voila! A spider!

Itsy Bitsy

We enjoyed an itsy bitsy spider fest at our house last night. You've probably seen Spiderman before...

But have you met Miss Spider? Well, I hadn't either until yesterday about 5:00 p.m. That's when we got back home after a quick WalMart run. Sixteen dollars later, and voila! A (very) homemade spider costume!

I thought it was only fitting that they dine on spider sandwiches, served on spider plates.

And what spiderfest wouldn't be complete without an after dinner showing of this...

The kids were interested in the beginning of the movie (this is the cartoon version), but quickly lost interest. So much for mommy trying to carry out a theme:) It was fun while it lasted!

These are a few of my favorite things...

Kids in new pj's quietly watching a movie before bedtime...

Seeing the kiddos' faces light up when I made these Sunday morning...

New shoes (Walker's are brand new from a local kids' shoe store, and Kathryn's were purchased more than half off on EBay! Oh, and I love a bargain too!).

Creepy Treats

Did I mention that I like easy recipes? Well, here's another easy one for the season.

Ghostly Goodies

18 large marshmallows

6 wooden skewers

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 T vegetable shortening

12 Red Hots

Black decorating gel

For each ghost, push three marshmallows onto end of skewer; set aside. Microwave white chocolate and shortening in a microwave safe dish on med-high for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave in 10 second intervals until smooth.

Holding the skewer, spoon melted mixture over marshmallows until covered; place on wax paper lined cookie sheet. Use two Red Hots for eyes and decorating gel for mouth.

Refrigerate until chocolate has hardened.

Or Lauren's way...

I used white chocolate bark and melted it in a double boiler (I never buy shortening, so I omitted it!). It keeps the chocolate softer longer, giving you more time to cover the ghosts. I also used mini M & M's for the eyes instead of Red Hots. For the mouths, I melted dark chocolate chips in the microwave. I put the melted chocolate in a plastic baggie, snipped off the end, and piped on the mouth.

Here are some pictures to guide you along the way!

The best part, eating the finished product! Walker and Kathryn were very pleased with the results. I, of course, at the "mummy" (pictured to the right).

The best part about these creepy treats is the flexibility to be as creative as you want to be! Here is the batch we made last year. We opted for some dark chocolate ghosts as well! You could always tint the white chocolate with food coloring and have any color ghost you would like!