Pumpkin Carving

The girls and I carved their Jack-O-Lanterns . Hallie was all into it... Reese on the other hand wouldn't touch it!! She'd say "Noooooooo Way!" I'll post some after pictures when we get the candles in them tonight for the trick or treaters.

Also, Wednesday night we went to Faith Alive at church for Family Night. Each family carved a pumpkin. Hallie did most of the work getting all the junk out, Ryan scraped the insides, I carved the face, {as ordered by Hallie} Grandma Carmel and Reese watched. Then they did the lesson by "Pumpkin Light"... it was really neat, but I couldn't hold my camera steady enough to get a great picture.

Can you believe it??!??!!?

Just so you know....


And to top it off... after the girls' gymnastics tonight it was down to $1.97!! I thought I was getting a steal this morning at $1.99! YIPEEEEEEE! I may start "topping it off" once a day :)

Girl's Day Out!

Saturday I took the girls for a Girl's Day Out! Our first stop was Creative Kid's Stuff for a Halloween party! The girls wore costumes (Hallie switched to a cheerleader for this one). "Mouse" from If You Give A Mouse A Cookie was there. (This is one of Hallie's favorite books) They had a couple craft activities... but they were just happy seeing Mouse and getting chocolate chip cookies.

Then we were off to Stella's to eat lunch and get shakes. {for those of you not from around here... they serve your shakes on your head!!) I decided to have the girls wait to get their shakes until after our lunch so they would eat... I think poor Hallie was so stressed out about getting it on her head she didn't really eat! After the shake came and the stress was over she ate her whole lunch!! :) Next time we'll just get the shakes to begin with!!

We got home and had a little Halloween slumber party... eating snacks and watching Scooby Doo!

**Ryan went to the hockey game with Nick... sorry, he didn't come home with any pictures to post! Darn guys! :) But said it was a ton of fun... they went into a shoot out, but lost. They were playing Sioux City!!

Friday Fall Fun

Friday was the Family Fall Fun Night (or something like that) at Point of Grace (Nick and Lori's church). They invited us to join them and a few other families for a night of FUN!! Hallie LOVED the blow up jumper/slide things. Reese was sleeping for most of it. I didn't get a great picture of Reese in her witch costume... I'll keep trying. (they have a lot of activites to wear them to this week) After the festivites we all met over at the Hamann's for more fun. Thanks for all the fun! :)

A little of this, a little of that...

I have all kind of pictures that need posting! I debated on doing lots of posts or one big hodge podge... so here is your hodge podge!

Little Reesey was so tired at supper the other night she scooted the chairs together and took a nap! {she actually stayed sleeping the whole night!}

Happy birthday to Bentley! He is 2!! Maybe the "puppy stage" will start to be over?!?! The girls were excited to celebrate with a new collar, bed and treats!

We had a great trip to the Quad Cities Wednesday and Thursday!! Our first stop was the Garner's! Hallie and Reese had a great time visiting Ella and Sydnee and Kim and I couldn't get in enough "girl talk time"!! The trip was NOT long enough!!! We'll have to plan an overnight with you or something!

My class at Scrapaganza was a "sell out"!! Thank you to all who came and made the night so fun! Here are Lolly and Marion {with a pumpkin in the middle!!} :)

We stayed the night at Becky's. Thanks so much for watching the girls!! {sorry about the popcorn}

Meet Peter Parker... I mean Levi :)

Hallie thought Levi's rats were so cool! {don't think we'll be getting one anytime soon!!}

We finished our trip stopping in Iowa City to have lunch with Jess!! Can't wait for you to come visit us in November!!

And I'll leave you with a little Happy Halloween from Hallie (left) and Ryan (right)

*Hallie thought of the polka dots all by herself!! She's so creative, makes me smile!!*

...and Miss Reese

Dinner in a pumpkin

I have had the request for the dinner in a pumpkin recipe a couple times now... so I figured it was that time of year again to post it!! We are waiting until next week to make it, so here is the link to last year's post! (can you believe how much we've changed???)

http://ladwigs.blogspot.com/2007/10/hey-good-lookin-whatcha-got-cookin.html

Enjoy! I am off to make some YUMMY apple crisp :)

Hallie-ween

Last night Hallie wanted her picture by the fall decor outside. She looked too cute! I wanted to share with you some of the effects you can do with Picnik.com Try it out sometime with your digital pictures! (yes, I know... the cold weather has killed my flowers... but I'm just not ready to throw them out!!)

Original

With Effects

Living History Farms Halloween

Last night we joined the Hamanns for a fun family night at the Living History Farms. There was Trick-or-Treating, hayride (with a super long line, so we passed), marshmallow roasting, and spooky storytelling. It kicked off our Halloween festivities :) Thanks Nick and Lori for the pre-party pizza and for the invite.

We even ran into "Fancy Nancy" (Kiera) and "JoJo" (Kya).

Ahhhhhh, Reesey loves Lori!!! {She always wants Lori instead of me!!}

My SuperGirls

This morning at the Urbandale Library they hosted a "Superhero Costume Contest" Hallie saw the poster and was so excited for it! I "whipped" up a little costume for Miss Reese last night, she was a "Baby SuperGirl" (as Hallie said) Since I knew the Hamann boys were both superheros I asked if they wanted to go along (Poor Parker had to go as "one armed Batman" since his cast wouldn't fit through).

They each got a little goodie bag and comic book, listened to a story, and the winners were announced. Our little Reese got second place. She was pretty proud.

Tonight we are off to a fun night with Ryan's family. (The Hamanns and his brother Ross' family) I'll have more to blog tomorrow!!

Come see me!!!

...and make a cute book!! I am teaching this wooden album NEXT week at Scrapaganza in Davenport!! It is bright and fun! All of the pages are different sizes and shapes. Come visit and take my class on Wednesday the 22nd from 6:30-8pm!!! The cost is $28. I kept the "topic" of the book really open so you can fill it with any type of pictures. It will also make a great gift! With the theme "Life's Moments" you can fill with everyday pictures, wedding, baby, anything!! I am including a whole package of the glitter American Craft "Thickers" so you can change any of the words you need! There are only 12 spots available, so be sure to call Scrapaganza and sign up soon (563)391-0099. Can't wait to see you there!!

Reporting in from sick bay...

Hello. Just wanted to let you know I have caught a flu bug or something?!?!? This is day three and I think it may be over!! I am going to the "baby" dr this afternoon, so hopefully it was a virus or something and not baby related (I am sure that is what it is, 'cause baby is still BOUNCING off the walls!!) :)

Yes, high maintenance friend, house pics are going to be up shortly!!!! Here's the update: The basement is framed, yesterday the cement cutter came and cut the floor for plumbing (who is here today) So we got a nice 1 inch thick layer of dust throughout the whole house! The sun room holes are done (2 feet across and 4 feet deep!!) The fence posts are in the ground and the fence guys should be back in 1-2weeks to put up the fence. Yes, they did manage to hit a sprinkler line, so there is a guy here right now repairing the sprinkler system!! Once the basement is all finished (so people are done tracking in mud) the carpet will be replaced in the house. {Wow, that's a lot going on now that I write it all up!!}

And yes, HM friend... if all of this gets done on or before November 20th... I'd love to have a little housewarming party!! :) {Maybe a little more low key than yours}

So that is all that is happening here in the Ladwig household. Hope everyone else is doing great!

Happy, happy, happy

Birthday!!! Have a great day Jodi!!!

Weekend Fun!!!

We just got back home from a fun weekend! {I promise, I was there!!!-- the one picture I was in I was talking!!-- guess I need to pass off the camera more!} We headed out of town on Thursday evening to stay with Ron and Tricia. On Friday we spent the day with Great Grandpa and Grandma Bolles. The girls had fun helping Grandma make Monster cookies & of course found a stray neighborhood cat!

Friday night we went to dinner with Ron and Tricia... and played at the "purple park".

Saturday morning the girls were back at cookie making! This time helping Grandma Tricia make and decorate sugar cookies. (Hallie has been wanting to do this since she found out we were going back!) Grandma even let her use the decorating tips and bag... she is quite a professional!

We stopped in town to see the Lansinks for just a bit! Hallie was very excited to see Ellie... Reese was excited to play "mommy" to Malia! :) {Hallie is thinking... what the heck is she doing???}

Saturday evening Ryan and I went to Kyle and Bonita Hansen's wedding. It was a great time catching up with "old" friends!

This morning we got up and at 'em and headed out to Jefferson to Deal's Apple Orchard & Pumpkin Patch. They were having their annual Fall Festival. The girls rode ponies (twice), made ropes, ground corn, went through the petting zoo, did spin art, and even won pumpkins in the ring toss game. We all went on a fun horse pulled hay ride and enjoyed the fall day!

Thanks Ron and Tricia for a fun weekend!