Halloween Brownies!

One of the kids favorite parts of any holiday are the parties at school. We try to send in goodies with them. This year Daylyn took the Marshmallow Mummies that we made earlier, and Allison wanted to bring brownies. I am sure that many other busy moms out there know that helping our children make things takes more time than just simply making it ourselves, but in my quest to have and create more memories with my kids, I thought it would be fun to have her help me make them. She was thrilled.

Read instructions

Pour brownie mix into bowl.

Crack and add eggs.

add water and oil

stir, stir, stir!

Pour the batter into pan and bake. While brownies are baking, run upstairs and get dressed for school!

Let brownies cool and frost with orange frosting of course.

 The big decision, what sprinkles to use? 

(I have a sprinkle addiction, so there is normally more than one choice available. LOL!)

Sprinkle away!

 

 Smile, and look what you did. :)

Halloween Fun

Friday night, our Primary had a Halloween Carnival for our kids. I know my kids had fun, especially the girls. The boys had fun too, they got to scare kids in the Haunted Alley. I took some fun pictures of the girls that night. I plan on taking some more pictures tonight as well of the boys. :)

Mornings at my house...

Friends and family know that I am not a morning person. I also know that I set the tone in my home. So, while I still would rather work most of the night and sleep in, I don't have that luxury anymore. I try to be happy, cheerful, okay, not cranky in the morning, so that the mornings can run smoothly. Do I always succeed? Heavens no, but at least I am trying right? My oldest son, Tyler, is going to seminary, so I get up early with him. He is like me, not a morning person, and I have to make a public apology to my parents, I am so sorry for all those "fun" mornings that you had to deal with me getting ready for seminary and school. I am lucky that Tyler is better at mornings than I was. Though we did learn the first year, that both of us awake at 5, not a good thing, so we changed things up.  Anyways, here is a typical morning at our house...crazy huh?

4:51- alarm goes off so I can wake up Tyler, and then back to sleep.

4:57 - alarm goes off again to make sure Tyler did get up and I go back to sleep.  He is like me and can "wake up", have a conversation, and still be pretty much asleep. My parents would watch me get up, walk across my room, turn off my alarm, and never wake up!

 

5:15 - Actually get up and go downstairs to spend some time with Tyler and say our family prayer before he heads out to seminary. This is where I am very blessed. Our friend is one of the seminary teachers and lives in the neighborhood next to us, so he picks Tyler up everyday. Because of him, I don't have to wake up all the kids, pile them in the car to drive Tyler to seminary. If you are a mom that has to take your kiddo to school and wake up all the younger siblings, you know what a blessing this is, Thank you Bro. Smith!

5:30 - Go back to sleep.

6:00 - Alarm goes off  yet again to make sure Travis has gotten up for school. Now Travis is a morning person. Most of the time he is up before his alarm even goes off, and is pretty much cheerful from the minute his eyes open. It is wonderful! And then, back to sleep again!

6:55 - Alarm goes off for the last time, and I get up and wake up the girls so we can pile in the car to take Travis to school. We have our family prayer in the car on the way to school. Last year I was really good about helping the kids learn an Article of Faith as well, and I don't know why we got out of the habit, but I think we will start again tomorrow. It really helps to set a good tone for the rest of the day.

8:00 (tues and thurs) - Take Daylyn to school for choir practice, and then Ally and I come back home.

9:00 - Girls catch the bus to school and then I have an entire 5 hours before I run to the school to pick up the boys from school.

* Note*

The craziest part of all of this, is that most nights I don't get to sleep until midnight! Sleep is over rated right? :) I know I am not the only mom out there that has crazy mornings, and I think it is amazing what families accomplish every day by the time the kids head off to school. Give yourself a hand, or a pat on the back for all you do everyday just to start the day. I think we all deserve it! Oh, and a secret that can make the morning easier....always have chocolate available!

 

Who knew? My daughter, the songwriter...

My youngest daughter has taken to writing her own songs lately. She writes down the lyrics, and walks around the house singing them. Here are a few of her latest ones.

I have a heart

and no one can see it.

I love my family

and my friends

and my teachers.

------------

A bird, a blue bird

a blue jay, a blue jay

Look at it fly

Here it tweet

You see the nest

there are eggs

its hatching

Blue jays yeah!

---------------

and of course she had to come up with a Halloween song as well. :)

Halloween Boo Boo

Scary Hide Hide

Help, Help

AHHHHHHHH

Halloween

AHHHHHHHH

BOO!!!

Marshmallow Mummies

A few times a year, I get to play in the kitchen and make treats that my kids just love. This is a new treat this year inspired by a picture in a magazine that I saw at my friends house, thanks Jan! They are fun and easy to make, in fact, we even had our young women make them at our Harvest party. :)

What you need to make these:

• bag of marshmallows

• big round sprinkles

• white chocolate

• sucker sticks (I get mine from Jo-Ann's)

• styrofoam

• small bags to put them in after

1. Melt white chocolate. I use a sugar dish, and melt the white chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals until it is done, stirring each time. I then place the sugar dish on a candle warmer to keep the chocolate warm.

2.Take Marshmallow, sucker stick, and dip end of stick into melted white chocolate, and push into marshmallow. Set on wax paper to let white chocolate harden.

 

3. Once you are done inserting all the sticks into the marshmallows, you will dip the entire marshmallow in white chocolate.

 

4. Once marshmallow is covered in chocolate, place 2 round sprinkles on the marshmallow to make the eyes. (You can also just put sprinkles all over the marshmallow as well, very cute!)

 

5. Place mummy into styrofoam to the chocolate can set.

 

6. Once chocolate has hardened, Dip a fork into the white chocolate and use that to drizzle white chocolate over the marshmallow to create the look of a mummy.

 

7. Set mummies back in the styrofoam to set. Once the chocolate has set again, place your mummies into a small bag and tie with a twist or ribbon. Aren't they cute! Now present them to your kids and enjoy their reaction, or for a fun family night, have them help make them!