Halloween 2015

This year for Halloween, sadly, Josh had to work all weekend. :( That meant I had to do a lot of the Halloween activities myself (with the three kids…)

Thursday was Avery's preschool Halloween party. I volunteered to help and the teach had set up a station where I helped them make little mummies. Then Friday, it was Caleb and Gabe's class parties. I had been asked by the room mom to help at Caleb's class, so I went in there and made little "graveyard" dirt cups with them. I had printed out little tomb stones with each kid's name on them that they stuck in there at the very end (if they weren't eating it first.) It was cute. I wanted to get a picture of Caleb with his, but he ate it too fast.

Then Friday night was the Burton school Halloween carnival. This is always a madhouse. I was not looking forward to it, but knew my kids would totally freak if we didn't go. So I bought all these punch passes (each little classroom has a game in it and costs one "punch" and there's also food and Bingo) and when we got there I just gave the boys each a couple and sent them on their way while me and Avery did stuff at our own pace. Well Caleb came running up to us a little later and was soooo mad because he had "spent FOUR punches and all he got was a lousy Bingo card!" But then I explained to him that we could use it to go play Bingo and possibly win a prize! So we all went to the gym and I bought three more Bingo cards, (one for each of us) and we sat down to try our luck. Well what would you know… we actually won! That very first round! Which was good too because we were only going to play that one round! So our prize included a bunch of movie passes to the local theater, some Dr. Seuss DVDs, some gift cards to Wendy's and other local restaurant, a small ping pong table (don't know where to put that..) and more! It was a dang cool thing to win! The kids were pretty excited.

So then the excitement continued! While we were there, I had missed a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. But luckily, that person called Josh after me. So I had sighed up for a chance to participate in the filming of a reality tv show with Gordon Ramsey called "Hotel Hell" that was going to be being filmed at Angler's Lodge (a place I worked while in college for a Summer.) I didn't think anything would come of it because they said it would be a "lottery system" who they picked. But they called and said "We have a spot for you and three friends to come dine with us the night of filming!" So I quickly called up my only three friends… lol… and they were so excited! So it was me, Brittaini, Barbara, and Sam (all neighbors of mine) and we went up there on Sunday night. I have to admit it somewhat jaded my opinion of reality TV because honestly the food wasn't even that bad, but of course there were people that were making it out to be the WORST meal ever just because then the camera guy and microphone guy would literally RUN over to their table and film them. It was hard for me because I actually knew the owners and their family and they were all there and we had chatted before we started filming, so I wasn't going to suddenly be all rude about their restaurant as soon as the cameras came on! So I stayed pretty quiet. Therefore I may not actually be seen on TV unless it's in the background. Oh well. It was still a fun and interesting experience to be part of a reality tv show!

Saturday was of course trick or treating. We went to the Hemming Village party in the afternoon and did a hay ride and had a picture taken and stuff. After that we went up to Ashton to look at a house that Brad and Diane are thinking of buying. It needs a lot of work but I think they should go for it! Then at about 5:00 we went trick or treating. We ended up only doing our neighborhood and then it was already getting dark and the kids had plenty of candy. So then we put on a movie and stayed in. Caleb handed out some more candy at our house for the next hour or so and then by about 8 we turned off our light and were done.

So that was our exciting Halloween weekend!

I am also putting some pictures in go some other fall fun! We went to this pumpkin patch at Treehouse Nursery when Stacey and Kamrie came up to visit for a weekend. And then the kids had to decorate pumpkins like their favorite storybook characters for a contest at school!

Wisconsin Trip!

We just got back from our yearly Wisconsin trip a few days ago so I better blog about it while it is still somewhat fresh in my mind!

We left Idaho on Wednesday at about noon and drove to Glendive, MT the first night. (about 9 hours)
We stayed at a nice hotel called the Astoria that I will have to remember about. Then day two we drove as far as Minneapolis and stayed at a decent hotel (not important to remember about. lol) Then Friday we woke and up and drove about ten minutes to the Mall of America! We spent from about 10am to 2pm riding the rides at the amusement park and I did a very minimal amount of shopping. ;) Seriously, I only bought like one shirt, some socks, and a wallet. $30 tops. ;)

Then we hit the road and got to my mom's house by about 7pm on Friday night. When we got there, Rachel's new boyfriend, Jake, and his daughter, Rain, were there to greet us! (surprise!) Jasmine was gone to Carlos's for the weekend so it was just our kids and Rain playing! Oh! And Brayden! How could one forget him!? He is one crazy ball of energy that kid. Talk about into everything! He was our constant source of entertainment! It's so much more fun when it's not your kid. ;) Jake was very nice and I hope he and Rachel do stand the test of time. But we will see…. ;)

During our week there, we slept at my grandma Dahlke's basement, but weren't there much except for sleeping. We went to the Children's Museum in Fond du Lac, Josh went to a Badger game with Jesse, Josh and Norb Schmidt, we went to the Little Farmer (twice), went shopping at the Outlets in Oshkosh, spent a night at the Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells and did all the indoor watermark stuff (just our family, not Rachel, etc.), and ate out a LOT. I actually think between Josh and I we gained like 15 pounds. (5 for me, 10 for Josh) Culvers, Gilles, Chinese Buffet, Johnny Rockets, McDonald's, Applebee's, and more… oh my. We also got to eat dinner at the Schmidt's house one night and see my best friend, Gini, who happened to be home just for the weekend for a wedding. That was a real nice surprise. I was glad that worked out. And she is pregnant with her third baby! They are still living in Eurpoe doing the basketball thing but I think the end may actually be in sight… maybe two more years.

We also loved getting to spend time with Grandpa Bestor and Grandma Dahlke and Grandma Sue. It's too bad they live so far away. One of the funniest things was when we went to my grandpa's house, the kids walked in his back door and were like, "Ohhh what's down there?" (pointing to his basement) Like they were so excited to see a tour of his basement! lol He kindly obliged and showed us around some of his basement treasures. (a pool table that I for some reason never knew was there, an old doll my great grandma Wagner apparently made, and a huge pile of "fix-it" junk that my grandpa tinkers around with. Gabe's favorite was the vice. He squished a metal lid in it.) At my grandma Dahlke's house, Avery was super excited to see her storage room which looks like the back room of Hobby Lobby with all it's seasonal decor organized on shelves. She really got rid of a lot of things when she sold the farm, but her holiday decor takes up the majority of her basement storage room. She has a weakness for holidays. ;) Avery wanted to of course touch everything from the ceramic animals to the silk flowers. We tried to keep her away from that room…

In all, it was a great trip! Loved getting to meet Jake and our friends and family. It was a fun change to be there in October this year and see the changing leaves and do the Fall stuff versus the Summer stuff. I did miss the rummage sales, but that was okay. I did enough damage at the outlets and TJ Maxx to make up for it. ;) Now onto some pictures…