The annual deer hunting weekend

Oh how my kids get excited for deer hunting weekend!  Not only is it a weekend away from the house, it is a weekend at the "new" farm being spoiled by Nana while Mom, Dad, and Papa are in the woods.  This year, add in the fun of Aunt Kim and Andrew being down for the weekend and for the kiddo's it doesn't really get any better.

For me?  What made it worth it?  I shot a buck at 7:20am.  YEA!  I always say that I want to shoot a deer right away on the opener of deer hunting so I can come back in and go to bed.  The weekends are the only days I get to sleep in and I really like relaxing in bed when I can. So - for a weekend to get up at 6am to get in the woods on a 0 degree day? Not overally excited. But - I finally got my deer.  It has been a few years since I shot one so I was pretty excited.  Plus- we saw lots of deer this morning so it was pretty cool.

The kids came out with us for a bit this afternoon and usually get excited to see if we see a deer.  We did see one cross the fields down below us as we were planning our attack.  Unfortunately we weren't overly prepared to see a deer at this time but we did manage to get a few shots off.  No... we didn't get it.

We debated not coming down this year as we don't really need any venison and unfortunately buying a hunting license out of state is fairly expensive, but I am really glad we did.  It is a tradition and the kids are really starting to value tradition now.  We always have a great time, Mom always has great food and more sweets than a group of 50 need and it is great family bonding time.  The weeks get so busy and at night it feels like we are rushing around.  But down here it is fun to see family, play games, relax and have life slow down a bit.

And to get a deer at 7:20 am.

Oh yeah- both Tim and Dad got a deer too :-)

A good thing done....

Our porch is all "buttoned up" for the winter! This was a big goal for Tim and I (especially Tim as he did most of the work) and we are happy to say that it is done!


Now we are going to slow the work down a bit for the holidays and take life at a slower pace. Poor Tim has been out there as much as he could to get it to this point and I can definitely say we are all excited for him to be in the house a bit more.

After Christmas we will start the inside!  Yea! I am excited for it to be done and for us to figure out the furniture, the flooring and all that fun stuff!

The look of our porch off our deck

And from the side

My little duck hunter

Evan went out duck hunting with Tim this morning and had a great time.   Unfortunately they didn't see anything,  but Evan was feeling pretty important because he got to carry his own bb gun.

Just jumping in the leaves

Today all Evan wanted to do was play in the leaves that had just fallen off the tree.  All Emma wanted to do was make bracelets with her new rainbow loom that are ALL the rage now in elementary school.

Here are a few pics of us enjoying the beautiful day!

Halloween!

Halloween! What a fun holiday :-)   The kids were so excited and were bouncing all over the walls to go out.  I got home around 3:45 from work and got Emma off the bus and then got ready for the night making pizza, moving and lighting pumpkins, and finding all my candy for our visitors that night.  I tried to make pumpkin shaped pizzas for everyone, but honestly, the kids were too excited to eat. So we tried to eat and then just gave up to get costumes on in anticipation for the night.

Our black cat, Emma

Evan was Jake from Jake and the Neverland pirates

getting ready to go in the boo train

Kate and Charley coming out to join us for trick or treating

Everyone boarded the boo train and excited to head out

The LOOT!

We headed out trick-or-treating around 5:30 and had a great time driving around and getting candy. At that time, the weather was pretty good and everyone was happy to see the kids when they made it up their driveways.  We heard many times "Ahh! We never have kids trick or treating here" which was nice as we try to avoid the busy areas of our neighborhood.  The kids did great and LOVED getting candy!  We headed back to the house around 7pm to get the twins ready for bed and to switch drivers.  Tim headed out with us for the last few houses and the last house was a friend of ours who invited us all in for beer. (not the kids!) so, not too shabby.

The kids got home and immediately dumped out their candy and arranged it in various piles.  Emma chose to organize by color and Evan choose to organize by what he likes and dislikes AND what his daddy likes. Evan was so proud that he came home with roughly 20 Whopper mini packs because his Daddy LOVES whoppers.

All in all - so much fun!  It ended up being a beautiful night and I am so thankful that we can enjoy the fun with family.  

And to anyone that may be curious, we only got 1 trick or treater.  At least that we know of.  Tim was home for most of the night and only saw 1 little kid came to the door.  When Tim drove the train, we sat our candy bowl on the porch with a polite note to take 2 pieces.  However, it didn't look like it had been disturbed at all.

And now - 53 days to Christmas!  

The annual pumpkin carving!

Pumpkin Carving!  How fun!  We had 3 pumpkins to carve this year as Tim decided he would float between kids and help them out with their designs.


Here Evan is, carefully plotting his design.

Emma did a lot of research before she decided on one.

Neither kid really likes scooping out the goop. But they sucked it up and did it anyway.

Their designs... Emma chose the word Wicked.

Evan wanted to carve Jaws.

Both kids love the carving and I love the kids carving knives they have in the stores now.  Our downfall though was the size of pumpkins they picked out.  Evan's pumpkin was HUGE and the little kid knives didn't go all the way through it.  So, the floater.. aka Tim.. ended up carving most of it.

Emma started out good.  She got through to the W (ahem.. the first letter) then she got tired.  So the other floater... aka me... ended up carving most of hers.

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The final product!!! Evan's jaws turned into a normal pumpkin face when the floater... aka Tim... was overzealous with the carving and half the pumpkin caved in.  I think Wicked turned out well!  I carved a vampire bat into mine.

So much fun and lead to great anticipation for the next day!

Power Up!

I think I mentioned in a previous post about the "Power Up" initiative by our local clinic and hospital to teach kids about being healthy, eating healthy food, and exercising.  As the kids enjoy cooking so much, I signed them up for the Power Up spooky food cooking class last weekend.  Emma was beyond excited and Evan was surprisingly nervous.  Normally he gets so excited to cook, enjoys watching cooking shows, and really got into the "Guy vs. Rachel: kids cooking" show that was on the food network. So, I was puzzled why he wasn't more excited.  Finally he wanted to talk about it and he said "I don't know Mama.  What if they make me cook with Eel?" reflecting on one of the recent cooking shows we saw.  I thought that was hilarious!

At the cooking class, (which was kind of a misnomer as we watched more than cooked)  we tasted pumpkin smoothies, pumpkin hummus, made pumpkin clementines, ghost bananas, and ate mummy pizza's.  They asked for class volunteers for some exhibits and each time my kiddos shot their hands up in the air to help out.

And this was just a selfie of me and my favorite lady.  Emma and I were having a girl's fashion show!  I was trying to pick out an outfit for a work gathering that night and Emma was trying on her flower dress for a wedding she is in this spring.  I found my tiara that I wore to my wedding, put my jewelry on her and she was loving it!

Halloween snacks

One of the projects we did over the past weekends was Halloween cupcakes! Of all the desserts I make, nothing goes faster than cake. So, I knew this was a good one to have the kids make, decorate, and eat. Both kids are great helpers in the kitchen and now that Emma is a pretty good reader, I am having her read the recipe, get the ingredients, and get things going! Of course, that tends to lead to more fights between the kids with who does what, but for the most part, it goes over pretty well.

We made Halloween spiders!

They loved it!  And I am getting a bit smarter about having them decorate as I told them that whatever they decorate, they eat.  The kiddo's tend to get crazy with sprinkles, licorice, crazy eye balls, more sprinkles and then tend to not eat the decorated ones.  They each got 5 cupcakes to decorate the way they wanted and had to eat them. That lead to not as many crazy cupcakes.

just chilling

The past few weekends, we have been at home relaxing and it has been nice.  Tim has been working on the porch and the kids and I have been taking advantage of Fall.  I was able to take a few candid pics of the kids . . .

 The kids wanted to watch a Halloween show during their quiet time and Evan is not a big fan of some of the shows.  I take a look at them and look!  Emma had her arm around Evan and was comforting him!  It was so sweet.

Here are the kids on the first snowfall - October 20 or around there  -  Evan was so excited that he wanted to go and get his snowpants!  (But, of course when the camera comes out, one or both of them need to act goofy!)  Both kids stuck out their tongues, tasted some flakes, and then came it to eat breakfast.

A fun -fall Weekend

This past weekend was a fun three-day event for us as Emma was out of school on Friday.  As Tim just got back from moose hunting, I decided to take the day off of work and have one more relaxing day with the kiddo's.  On the agenda for Friday was a dentist appointment for Tim & Evan, a 5 year check up for Evan, and then the Mall of America for Nickelodeon World!  A busy, but fun day.

Stillwater sponsors a Power Up program to teach kids about healthy eating habits via handouts, food give-aways cooking classes, etc - and here are the kids at the doctor's clinic posing with the Power-Up mascots.

Let's just say this was the highlight of the doctors appointment (and dentist appointment for that matter.)  We found out the Evan has a small cavity in his molar that will be filled in a few weeks AND that he hates shots.  For the growth curves and development stuff, he is doing just fine.  For shots - he is NOT doing fine and he wouldn't let me forget it for the rest of the weekend.  The first shot went fine because he didn't know what to expect.  The second shot was a challenge.

Luckily after the doctor appointment we did something fun; the Mall of America!  The kids love this place and I like how it tires them out :-)  We bought the unlimited ride wristbands and they were content for a full afternoon.  And I was as well because we all had a nice chat before we got there that some kiddos  may need to ride on some rides (ahem Emma!) that are for younger kids, but that she had to anyway.  She was a good sport and enjoyed them anyway!  I did get Evan on the log chute ride with the same logic, but that was it for him.  He does NOT like that ride.  The nice thing though, is that Evan is short enough that he cannot ride on them without a chaperone and the chaperone rides for free! So, I got to participate in many of the rides for free.

We needed to take a break after about 2 hours at the park, so off to Build-a-Bear.  The kids had not been in there before and I have always been hesitant to take them because I heard it was expensive.  Finally, I caved.  The kids have an attachment to stuffed animals, so I assumed they would be toys that wouldn't get forgotten.  And so far, they haven't.  While I don't have a picture of them, Emma stuffed a bear she named Peace and Evan stuffed a penguin he calls Peep Peep.  Both the kids LOVE the animals and had so much fun throughout the whole Build-a-Bear process.  The sad thing for me (being a sentimental Mom that I am) Peep Peep for Evan has replaced his little duckie that he has had for like 4 years!  Silly I know, but Duckie has been the stuffed animal Evan has cried for when he is hurt or gets shots :-)

The kids slept awesome Friday night after all the running around that day and it was awesome.

Saturday, the kids attempted to rake leaves.  Unfortunately not many have fallen yet, so they didn't get too far, but it was still a nice day to be outside.

And - the main project made some BIG process over the weekend. It went from this:

To this:

We hired some roofers and had Tim's friends over to help with the windows.  So, it is almost all buttoned up on the outside so we can start the inside. YEA!

The last big thing we did was made Halloween cookies.  The kids were pretty much in charge of this one and had a great time.  I made the dough and rolled out 2 cookie sheets full (to get some that would be edible!)  After that, it was on them to roll the dough, cut them out, etc.  They turned out pretty good and the kids had fun!

Sunday was busy with Sunday School and a playdate with some near-by neighbors we are getting to know that have 2 young boys.  The kids had a blast and it was nice to have mine entertained.

A great weekend! Busy, but fun, and we got a lot accomplished.