Parade Number One

Last night was the Bettendorf parade. It was a bit chilly, but the girls toughed it out and had fun. They got SOOOOOO much candy! Little Reese stole the show. She was down on the ground getting as many suckers and tootsie rolls as she could.

The festivities have begun....

Halloween is here and in full force!! There are so many activities we are very excited for! Friday was the beginning of it all...

We went Trick-or-Treating at NorthPark Mall in Davenport. Hallie was dressed as Cinderella (so was Ghosty). By the end of the night with everyone calling her Cinderella I honestly think she believed she was. So sweet! Miss Reese was Tinkerbell. She was feeling a bit crummy, since she had shots that afternoon. They had a great time.

Saturday was Boo at the Zoo. I didn't want Hallie to get her Cinderella dirty, so I told her to pick out something from the dress up bin...

JoJo the clown made another appearance! Can you believe it still fits?? She wore this TWO years ago. You can tell it is getting snug, but she loves it. Miss Reese was the world's CUTEST zebra!! :)

In addition to the normal zoo stuff the girls got to trick or treat to vendors around the zoo. Hallie even ran into her new friend, Cora. (Penny's daughter) It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

Fun with Friends

This weekend we got to celebrate Jodi and Adam's new home. They had family and friends over for the fun. We had a blast visiting, playing games and just being with friends. Congrats on the new home guys!!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Last Thursday was Hallie's field trip to the pumpkin patch with her preschool class. It was a lot of fun! Of course a lot of mud... but fun! They got to feed the goat, see the HUGE horse, go through he corn and hay bale mazes, pick a pumpkin and a wildflower, and lastly they visited Bunnyville... a whole town of bunnies! Hallie of course was the kid who found a worm... and the trip wouldn't be complete without finding a "fuzzy caterpillar"!! They all had a great time and it was fun getting to go along.

BFF

Ella and Hallie love playing together... and this picture was just too cute! We can't wait for all of the Halloween festivities coming up!

Hey good lookin', what'cha got cookin'?

We had a great time making "Dinner in a Pumpkin"... and it was yummy! I would recommend it to everyone!! It was lots of fun to make with the kids, Hallie thought it was great! I am not a fan of pumpkin, but the stuff you put in it sure was yummy.

Here is the recipe:
1- small to medium pumpkin (I used a med)
1- onion chopped
1- pound hamburger
1- pound sausage (next time we are just using 2 pounds hamburger)
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1- 8ox can slided water chestnuts (I left out)
2T brown sugar
1- 4oz can sliced mushrooms
1- can crm of chicken soup
2T- soy sauce
1t- salt
1/2 t minced garlic

Cut off the top of the pumpkin and thoroughly clean out seeds and pulp. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Saute onion and meat until brown. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms and soup. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cooked rice and water chestnuts. Spoon mixture into the cleaned pumpkin shell. Replace top and place entire pumpkin with filling on a baking sheet. Bake 1-2 hours (I did about an hour and a half) depending on the size of your pumpkin. Place entire pumpkin on a serving plate, remove pumpkin lid and serve. We also eat the inside of the pumpkin. Enjoy!!!

Let me know if any of you try this! We will definitely have it again!

Still Reminiscing...

I had a little bit of time left before the design team deadline & had a few layouts that have been in my head. They are very simple layouts that are some of my new favorites. The first, has a quote I found and LOVED... and of course had to scrapbook! Plus, there is lots of "doodle sewing". (just random sewing on the page) The second, includes one of my favorite pictures of my daughter, Hallie with her Great Grandpa. Definitely a memory I don't want to forget and I hope she remembers. I had to take the pictures in the grass because it is sooooo windy today this was the only spot outside that wouldn't blow them away! Here they are (be sure to click on the pictures to view them larger and see the detail):

"I wish"

"note" upclose:

sewing upclose:


"Life is simple, keep it that way"

I used simple things.... chipboard, buttons, raffia, brown paper bag.

Buttons up close:

Journaling card inside paperbag upclose:

page up close:

Congratulations Josie and Dusty!!!

Saturday, October 6, 2007 was the "big day"!! We traveled up to Sioux City with Ross and Christi to go to Josie and Dusty's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding! Heck, I was crying before it ever started! :) She looked beautiful, the decorations were great for a fall wedding, the cake was a great idea (cupcakes), the groom was HILARIOUS (I was laughing so hard I was crying again at the reception), it was just FABULOUS!

Everyone from our high school "group" (but Amy-- we missed you!) was there and we were like comedy central at the reception. I haven't laughed so hard in a really long time! We kept ourselves entertained! Adam taught napkin origami, and encouraged us to have a monthly savings :) Christi had a comment for everything!!! It was just non-stop laughter.

Dusty and Josie got up to give the speeches and Dusty had us in tears laughing so hard! Then when I thought we were going to have a "normal" wedding dance, Dusty moonwalks onto the dance floor. He gave us his performance of Michael Jackson! He was soooo good! It was great!

Here are our friends...

Again, when I think I can't laugh any harder... as we walked out to our cars we found a minivan parked too close to Adam and Jodi, so what do you do?? Pick it up and scoot it over!! :)

Thanks for the fun night everyone... see you all in two weeks!!

Homecoming & Pumpkin Patch

We had a really fun weekend going back to Ida Grove for Josie's wedding (another post!) We went a day early so we could help cheer on the Falcons for Homecoming. The parade was fun! You know, we love parades. We went with Ron and Tricia (aka Papa and Grandma) and met Ryan's grandparents (aka the "new" papa and grandma) and Jodi, Ellie, Malia, Jamie, and Blake (my friends and their kids). Hallie and Ellie loved getting lots of tootsie rolls!!

Friday night was the big game. It was lots of fun cheering along with the crowd. Hallie really got into it! "Go big black!!" However, shortly after the halftime performance of the band I found her asleep on Grandma's lap! Guess she was cheering too hard!

Saturday morning we went to Sheila's for breakfast. (for those of you who don't know... this is a local restaurant that has the best cinnamon rolls and hash browns with cheese!! not to mention we can feed our whole family for like $15!!-- and that is ordering drinks and extra sides and the whole works!) Then we played at the purple park before Ryan and I headed off to the wedding.

Sunday morning we had Ladwig family pictures. Shortly after we packed up and headed back home. We stopped in Jefferson at Ryan's favorite pizza place-- Pizza Ranch (where he gets chicken and fake mash potatoes-- I am afraid I will never figure out what they see in this place) :) Then the Ladwig families stopped at Deal's Apple Orchard/pumpkin patch for a hayride and to pick out a pumpkin. (this is a tradition of Ryan's "Grammie")

And now... we are back home watching some Sunday Night Football and trying to recover from all of our adventures!!

28 days of Reminisce...

Okay, here it goes... I have been working on different scrapbook projects for almost month using Reminisce products. This is a design team call for a paper company. It was fun playing with all the different papers! Look for a few of these as classes.... I'll be teaching in Oct, Nov, and Dec.
Enjoy the show... (some still pictures below)

Also, wanted to include my Halloween Laughter book I made for the blog contest.

Here are my projects and layouts individually:
{The slideshow is fun, but if you want a closer look at some of the pictures I have posted them. Just click on them and they will enlarge.}


First, I love this picture of my girls and wanted to do a page with it. So out came the Girly Girl collection. It is so fun. The rub-ons are great and I was able to use them like doodling up the left side and for the title.




Next, is all about me!! When we saw this paper at CHA I fell in love! It is called Live Out Loud-- so cute!! It is totally me... bright colors, cute sayings, fun patterns... LOVE IT! So, I figured the book had to be about me ;) I have also had this acrylic album for a long time and finally decided to use it. Here are a few pages, all the pages are in the slideshow at the end-- be sure to check it out.




Third, here is a coupon holder I found at the Dollar Spot at Target and thought... "hmmmm, I am sure I can find something to make with this!!" So, I turned it into a photo holder. I take a TON of pictures, as you all know, so I plan to stick my favorites in here. There are little tabs I made for the different major events through the holidays. Again, I think the rub-ons were my favorite. I LOVE layering all the stickers and rub-ons and making little clusters with all the fun embellishments.



Here is my star book (from scratch) that I taught at NYOBC (not your ordinary book club). I made another using Reminisce paper and embellishments. Turned out super cute. I would love to have embellished a bit more, but this is a class and we will be limited on time.



Here is a picture of Hallie and Reese's Autograph book for Disney. I love the Disney line! I have lots more scrapping to do with our Disney trips! But here is the cover of their book. (They got lots of compliments on their book at Disney!)



And last, but not least :) Here is my U of I page. We had such a fun night with Jess and the parade and everything I had to get a cute page made! (I used Hallie's pom poms that she got to make mini poms on the page!)