Halloween~Part 1

I figured I needed to break up the events of Halloween since it somehow turned into a week long holiday for us, and it is still going...one more day left!

Earlier this week I took the kids to our weekly ritual of Story Time at the library. Oh how I love this part of our week so much! We get to go sing songs, dance, watch a puppet show, and read stories. Axel has loved doing this since he was a tiny baby when I would take my sisters kids, now he is old enough to join in and "get" it. It is so much fun to watch him. I love it!

This week was Halloween week, they had the kids all dress up, and the story time teachers dress up as well. Axel was pretty excited that one of them was a pirate. :) AND she let him ring the bell too, at first she asked the two girls next to him, but they hid behind their moms, so when she offered him his little eyes lit up, and he eagerly took it, but then he got a little nervous because this required him to be brave and outgoing, but he looked at me and I encouraged him he could do it and he shook that bell with all his might and then quickly handed it back to her and sat down next too me. I love my timid boy so much! 

After we stopped by a tree in our neighborhood that had some great leaves and took pictures of the kids in their costumes, and playing in the leaves. 

I had SO many pictures from this day. So click here if you want to see them but here are a few of my most favortist ones!

Obviously we had Axel be a robot for Halloween. I made him his costume this year, and it only cost me 1.50 for the fabric! I made up the pattern for the shirt, but the hat was a pattern I had, and we just added the applicae's, antenna, and poof ball on top.  I was really nervous about him keeping his costume on, so I wanted it to be something he really loved. And we all know how much he LOVES Robots. I also wanted his costume to be something we could put in dress ups and he could keep wearing.

While I was working on the design of the front I had the buttons on the side lined up, he came up to me and was like "oh a beep beep button!" and was pushing and turning all the buttons :) The buttons and ric rac I acquired from Kory's grandma and literally were perfect for this.

 

He loved throwing the leaves

 

 I tried to get him to look at me and smile, but he just wouldn't. He is still such a serious boy!

 He loved throwing the leaves at me, I had leaves in my hair all day, that night even Kory found some.

Dani was a Zebra this day because I didn't have her costume yet. Oh how she reminded me of Axel this day. She was sooo serious! She was concentrating very hard on all the leaves and the crunchy noises they were making. I could not get her to crack a smile once! 

 

She would NOT stop putting those darn leaves in her mouth! 

This one is my favorite of her! Even though she is not smiling I think it turned out really cute. I love that the leaves are flying through the air because Axel wouldn't stop throwing them on her, and her face couldn't be more put out. 

How come kids in costumes is tooo ridiculously cute?

Yesterday we went to the Anderson Halloween party, and I forgot my camera! I was devastated. I really was. I really wish I would have made Kory take me back home. But I had chili on the floor of the car spilling all over my leg so I just wanted to make it there with out getting burned.

Speaking of chili I had a few people ask me for the recipe for the chili I brought. I got it from my sister, who got it from her mother in law, but it is pretty good stuff. I served a modified version at the party to meet Kory's dietary needs :)  So here it is... (AND I feel pretty good because Kory said he liked it, and he even had TWO bowls!)

Karen's White Chili

4 chicken breasts
1/2 onion
3-4 cloves garlic
4 Cups chicken broth (I just put 4 cups of water and 4 chicken bullion cubes in the crock pot)
4 cans white beans
1 Cup sour cream***
1 can diced green chillies
2 t. Oregano
1 t. Red pepper
1 t. Cummin

Cook (bake) chicken with salt and pepper. I used frozen chicken breasts and cooked them at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, then shredded the chicken, into the broth. 

Sautee onion and garlic with 1TBS Butter.

Add all ingredients together in large crock pot. Simmer and salt/pepper to taste.

***I substituted the sour cream with my a roux of butter, flour and almond milk, and no one could even tell! So if you want to do that you heat 1/4 c butter and wisk in 1/4 cup flour, until you get a paste, then you slowly stir in almond milk, about 1-2 cups worth until you have a good consistency of creme. Then just add that to your crock pot with the other ingredients.