a typical Halloween evening...

I'm joining with everyone else out there and posting adorable pics of my sweet little ones on Halloween! We had such a great night filled with lots of fun...and the kids were definitely exhausted by the time it was all over.

Pre-Halloween Day
Saturday, October 30th

The kids did a "trial wear" of their costumes to show off to their grandparents who came over on Saturday to have lunch and give them a special Halloween treat.

{with Grandma Ruth & Grandpa Charlie}

Halloween
Sunday, October 31st

Sleeping Beauty & Tigger ready for a fun evening!
Tigger bouncing along. When we went trick or treating, he would run along saying "bounce, bounce, bounce"...it was pretty cute!

Before heading to the Halloween party, we stopped by Friendsview Manor, a retirement community where both sets of my grandparents live. The kids were able to show off their cuteness to their great-grandparents.

{with Great Grandpa & Grandma Ankeny}
{with Great Grandpa Johnson}
Some of the cousins met us there...
Cousin "Kitty" Hannah & Cousin "Buzz" Hunter

The whole crew!
Such a little beauty!
We were invited to a party by my good friend Sarah for Halloween night and she had many fun things planned before we headed out trick or treating...

Food (yum),

crafts...
...and games!
Then we all headed out trick or treating!

I loved watching the kiddos walking together!
So happy about all the candy!
This was one of the "scary houses". I was really surprised they attempted it on their own. You could tell they had some hesitation. However, the second "scary house" didn't work out so well for Austin. He ran away crying...it was so sweet.
Hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween!!

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The crafty part:
I brought cupcakes to the Halloween party and these little cupcake toppers were so fun to make! I used the Stampin' Up! owl punch and added some bat wings. I also added a little "Happy Halloween" greeting and punched it out with the oval and scalloped oval punches.

pumpkin carving time

Friday night was family night and we decided that we better carve our {one} pumpkin before it was too late. Mikayla had a pre-school field trip a few weeks ago and we had found the pumpkin and ever since then it's been sitting on our front porch waiting to be turned into a jack-o-lantern.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

pamper time for the girls!

The last couple of days we had some good friends stay with us from out of town. It was a real treat because we don't get to see them often enough! Each year as our Christmas gift to each other, we try to do something together as a family instead of exchanging gifts. A few months ago, when I saw that Disney on Ice was coming to town (with cheap opening night tickets!!), we decided this would be the perfect family date night to celebrate an early Christmas together!

But, before we had a night out on the town, we took the two older girls for mini manicures and pedicures at a salon just for kids called Sit Still. I had purchased a coupon (referred to by a friend) that awarded $50 in services for only $20, so each of the girls had a real pampering treat! Of course, it would have been better if the mommas got a little pampering time in, too! Maybe next year...

Our two older girls are only a few months apart in age and they love any chance they can get to be together...so do we!

Wondering what I've been up to?

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Just a taste...

Clearance Rack Blitz at Stampin' Up!

I interrupt this blog for a little "business talk". Stampin' Up! has just added 200 items to their online clearance rack. It's super easy to place an online order at my website: heidiboos.stampinup.net. If you have friends or family who love being crafty and creative...some of the things are perfect for your early Christmas shopping!!

For MANY more details, visit my Stampin' Up! blog! There, you will find the link for all of the fun clearance rack items! But, hurry...they won't last long!!

OK, now carry on...you can get back to reading about Austin's Toy Story birthday party! :)

A Rootin' Tootin' Far Out Birthday Party!

On Sunday, we celebrated Austin's third birthday TOY STORY style (his actual birthday was Sept. 28th). We had 17 adults and 24 children in our home! We are so blessed that 1) we have enough room for that many people now that we're in our new house and 2) it was decent weather, so people could be in the backyard to play!

There are lots of pictures, so I'll try to be brief in my words. Leave me a comment if you have a question on anything you see. And, if you want to see the picture larger, just click on it.

WELCOME TO THE PARTY!

This will be the third year I've re-used this banner...I've just changed the pictures each year. Each circle has a picture of Austin that represents each month of this past year.
Monkey Party banner here
Construction Party banner here

My original plan was to feed everyone dinner, but when I realized that EVERYONE on the gust list could make it, we did light snacks instead (that's a lot of people to feed!). The menu was mango-peach salsa (YUM!), guacamole, tortilla chips, fruit, snack mix, and cucumbers and carrots with dip.

And, of course...cupcakes!

I went a little easy on the decorations this year and focused more on the activities. Since there were going to be so many kids in attendance, I knew there had to plenty available to keep them all busy! I came up with the idea of having "stations" available (similar to what I did last year for Austin's construction party), but this time I gave each child/mom a list of all of these activities.


My creative juices just happened to be flowing the night before the party, so for each station I came up with a rhyme and made a sign to hang at each of the locations.
Cupcake time...Austin loves him some cupcakes!

Of course, he loves him some presents, too!
I decided that with so many kids around and you know how much kids love presents, that whoever brought him the gift he's opening, they get to sit right there next to him. Part of the joy for me was seeing the smiles in the faces of the present-giver. There is just something about watching someone open a present YOU gave to them...makes me smile for sure!

And did I already mention there were 24 kids there?!
So, therefore there were 24 goody bags to hand out. Well, technically only 19 since any child under 2 went home empty handed. Sorry Hannah, Levi, Claire, Bradley & Anna...I still love you! It just so happens that the majority of the goodies in the favor bags were found on clearance! Each bag probably cost me just about $1! The top left in the picture below were for the 15 bigger kids and the bottom left were for the 4 littler ones.

All in all, it was a smashin' success and a fabulous day to celebrate my boy! We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends who love and adore our children!!

Another birthday party TACKLED! I love planning these parties, but they are definitely a big job! Speaking of tackling, I should probably get going on cleaning up the leftover party mess. I got started last night, but somewhere along the way I lost my motivation.

{And, slowly, but surely I'm getting back into this blogging thing!}
MORE BIRTHDAY PARTY INSPIRATION HERE!

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