Happy Halloween

Oh goody, it’s Halloween!!! At last we can be ourselves! -xx, The Munsters

happy national candy corn day

ok, so you all know that we loooove halloween & since today is national candy corn day we decided to make all of our teachers a lil sweet spooky treat to celebrate it with tomorrow! so of course we made our famous "candy corn cookie bark"!  it's so easy & mmm, mmm, good we wanted to share it in case you wanted to try it too!

14 whole oreos, broken up. we used the halloween ones with the orange filling. 
1 C pretzels, broken into pieces. we used the small stick pretzels
1 lb. white chocolate or milk chocolate, almond bark or melts.
1 C candy corm.
1/2 C salted peanuts

halloween sprinkles or orange and black colored sprinkles.

cover a large cookie sheet with wax paper. spread broken cookies, pretzels and about 3/4 C of the candy corn onto the waxed paper.  place white/milk chocolate in a container and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.  stir and then microwave for another 30 seconds until melted and smooth.  white chocolate melts faster and burns easier than chocolate.

drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookie mixture, spreading with spatula if needed to coat evenly.  sprinkle remaining candy corn and colored sprinkles over the chocolate while it is still wet.  do not let it harden.  place cookie tray into refrigerator until set and firm. remove and gently break bark into small pieces. store in air tight containers or bags.

pumpkin carving

this year livi & i REALLY wanted to carve pumpkins all by ourselves with no help! so mommy talked daddy into it & off we went. we did wait until it was closer to halloween so the pumpkins wouldn't rot before halloween. daddy made sure to get us really big pumpkins so we'd have lots of space. livi made a kitty in her pumpkin & i made made ribs with candy stuck in them.

happy happy birthday tia liz

happy birthday to you cha cha cha, happy birthday to you cha cha cha, happy birthday dear tia liz, happy birthday to you cha cha cha! we love you so so so much!!!

what livi's been up to in gt

this whole school year in gt livi will be learning about different countries & cultures. they spent the 1st week back preparing their passports for their world travels. the first country they visited was madagascar. they talked about the malagasy people & their daily lives. they studied how vanilla is grown & harvest, they even got to eat some right out of the pod flown in directly from madagascar. they also explored the bamboo forest to learn about endangered golden bamboo lemur. livi's favorite thing about madagascar was meeting a few friends who are only found in madagascar & are now the class pets... hissing cockroaches. they got to dip them in paint & make art with them as they crawled across their papers.  next their off to canada to explore.

livi's cockroach art

livi is a bus rider

well for a while now livi has been talking about riding the bus home from school in the afternoons. the only problem was she didn't want to ride it by herself because that's a pretty scary thing to do. well mommy was talking to some of the other moms on our street & the bus came up. well some of the other girls were wanting to ride the bus too but didn't want to be by themselves either.  the mom's all decided if it was ok with their kids they could all start riding the bus together & not have to worry about being alone. the girls were so excited & decided the very next day they were all going to ride the bus home from school. livi asked a lot of questions before going to bed & not all of them mommy could answer. it was super scary for livi but she was bound & determined to do this. so it was nerve wracking for everyone today waiting for the day to end & the bus to pull up. all of the parents met up & walked to the bus stop together to watch the kids get off the big school bus & guess what... everything was fine! they girls love being bus riders & walking home together & are going to keep at it!

dickinson sock & shoe drive

a few years ago livi learned about "socktober" in her gt class at school while they were studying about philanthropists. they watched a the kid president video "socktober" &  she was passionate to help the cause. so since then every october she collects sock to pass out to people & children that needs them. last year the student council at livi's school wanted to help organize a sock & show drive to help livi with her mission. in ONE week the school collected 416 pairs of shoes & 1,164 pairs of socks for livi!!! this year they wanted to do another sock & shoe drive & now that livi is on the student council she was all for it. with hurricane harvey, we're all still behind on things so instead of collecting for a whole week they just collected for one day. every member of student coucil made posters to let all the students know about it & they also celebrated with a crazy sock day! mommy & daddy decorated smaller bins instead of bringing in big boxes like last year since it was just for a day. at the end of friday when it was time to collect the bins everyone was in shock when they saw how much the school collected! with all the donations we had over 200 pairs of shoes & almost 650 pairs of socks!!! we're so thankful that livi goes to a school that awakens passions to serve people & then encourages & helps them to continue to BE AWESOME TODAY! they will immediately be put to use and is so so so appreciated. all of the families need assistance acquiring even the most basic things that the rest of us take for granted. as winter approaches, the difference of knowing that they will have fresh clean pairs of socks & shoes to help keep their feet warm & dry cannot be overlooked. we are so thankful for every single sock & shoe donated. our dickinson elementary student council and all of the AMAZING families made this socktober a HUGE sucess! our dickinson family has truly made a difference in the life of a child! there is so way we could have done this without all of them! it took us almost 3 hours to sort through all the socks & shoes! we literally were swimming in socks, it was CrAzY! never have we felt so loved & supported!

make a child's day spooktacular

this halloween, children in the hospital won't be out trick-or-treating with their families and friends, but with your help, we can bring some spooky fun straight to them. send a fun halloween note to a texas children's patient. they will deliver the notes, along with the tricky halloween memory game just in time for halloween! we're so happy tch is doing this. if you'd like to do it too please click here to make a child's day spooktacular!

celebrating 20 years

in honor of momo's 20th year of being breast cancer free, we surprised her with a pink balloon release to celebrate. also to honor those in our family that have gone through breast cancer mommy said a prayer for them as momo released the balloons. so everyone in heaven we've lost got to celebrate with us too. we love you momo, as far & as high as those balloons can fly.

club 10 barn dance

Now that I'm in junior high, I can join Club '10. I wasn't sure if I wanted to at first, but the more I thought about it, I realized it was a way to meet new people & make new friends. Club ‘10 membership is open to any 7th or 8th grade Reading Junior High (“RJH”) student, or 7th or 8th grade traditional home-school student (who does not physically attend a home-school program outside of the home), residing within the RJH boundaries as established by LCISD.  However, Club ‘10 is not sponsored by the school.  Since 1991, many parents have stepped forward to keep this tradition going.  Hundreds of junior high students have joined Club ‘10 and have shared many terrific memories of past events.  The purpose of Club ‘10 is to create safe, fun, and supervised activities for students by which they can develop healthy social skills.  They encourage attendance to all school dances and see Club ’10 as another way to supplement with more activities and dances. So last night was the first Club '10 dance of the year & it was a Barn Dance held at the George Ranch Historical Pavilion. There was of course dancing, a photo booth, snacks & a mechanical bull to ride. I did not ride the bull, but I actually did dance to one song. It's still a little awkward, but I'm so glad I always have my besties with me to go through it with me.