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Monday, October 31, 2011

Carving Pumpkins and Halloween Day

What a busy fun weekend.  My oldest daughter went to a Halloween party on Friday night and a birthday party on Saturday night. We bought seven pumpkins on sale a week ago (nine cents a pound) and decided to carve them this weekend.  Here are our spooky designs! We got a couple of our pumpkin stencils from some websites.
 
Daddy's Pumpkins
Jack Skeleton
Our Last Name
Mommy's Pumpkins
Big Sister's Pumpkins
Did Her Name
Little Sister's Pumpkins
Sissy's Own Design


We roasted a batch of pumpkin seeds and I was surprised that my kids loved snacking on them.  We generally do not keep the seeds to roast them instead we throw the pumpkin guts and seeds away!  I am glad we cleaned them and baked them. Pumpkin seeds have been a very nice salty treat these last few days!
On Saturday night, my youngest daughter and I enjoyed watching Matilda and Hocus Pocus  while big sissy was at a birthday party.  We also enjoyed some yummy pumpkin and vanilla frozen yogurt from our nearby grocery store!

I hope you had a Happy Halloween!
My husband decided to to dress up this year.  He is so goofy!  He shaved half of his face, tucked in one side of his shirt while leaving the other side not tucked, tucked in his socks on one side, wore two different shoes (dress shoes and sneakers), and combed half his hair (left the other half messy).  He went to work looking that way!  He was very brave, lol!  I didn't bother dressing up!  I am lucky that I wore an orange jacket vest!
This year my oldest dressed up as a NERD.  We had some goofy black 3D glasses, she rolled up her jeans, wore a flannel shirt, cream colored suspenders,and black converse shoes.  During her Friday Halloween party, she was voted the weirdest costume!  
Little Sis wanted to be Red Ridding Hood.  I put her hair in cute pig tails tied with red ribbons. We bought her red cape from ebay, basket with apples from Winco, and wore a black t-shirt, white ruffled skirt, black leggings, and black Toms shoes. At her school Halloween costume parade today, I noticed she was the only Red Ridding Hood!  Yay!
  For dinner, I made a crock pot chili and bought some crazy bread sticks from Little Caesars.  The girls did a neighborhood costume parade, which had pop corn and apple cider.  We had perfect weather for trick or treating! For the first time, we didn't have to go trick or treating with our girls!  Both girls went with some friends this year! So I did some homework while John handed out some candy!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

My Fave Fall Scraps

Falltastic Memories, 2002
Credits: Template by Cindy Schneider Sweet Shoppe Designs, leaves by Dani Mogstad from Sweet Shoppe Designs.  Papers and elements are by Shabby Princess (Autumn Chic and Autumn Medley).  I used lady rene and segoe print for my fonts.
Not So Scary, 2003
 Credits: Template by M Originals, Boo Kit by Shabby Princess, Trick or Treaters by Kate Hadfield from The Lily Pad, Happy Halloween word art unknown artist, and grumble font.
Black Island Farms, 2009
Credits: This one is one of my favorite layouts!  I used Autumn Medley kit and Bountiful kit by Shabby Princess.  I used love ya like a sister font.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Fall Family Outing: Alpine Loop

On Saturday October 22, 2011, We went out on a family outing!  We packed a lunch and headed up to American Fork Canyon.  We drove on the breathtaking scenic route Alpine Loop.  We made a lot of stops along the way so see the beautiful fall leaves and went to Tibal Fork to look at the lake surrounded by pine trees.
 We found a picnic area that had a beautiful cobblestone theater-in-the-pines!   The girls enjoyed playing on the stairs while I collected some colorful leaves for a fall craft project!
For our last stop in Provo Canyon, we stopped to see Bridal Veil Falls. We put our feet in the freezing cold run off near the bridge by the falls.  Then we headed over to Winco to get some pumpkins that were 9 cents a pound!  We look forward to carving some cool jack o' lanterns next weekend.


Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Scarecrow Service Activity

For Activity Day this month, I decided to do a fun scarecrow themed service activity. Here is my simple reminder/invite that I made for my activity girls!
Credits: Paper and "Pick of the Patch" doodles are by Kate Hadfield from The Lily Pad. I used Segoe Print for the font.  We were in need of a fun service activity.  So I decided that the girls could express their appreciation for their school teacher by giving them a delicious fall treat and scarecrow thank you card.  The girls helped me make Scarecrow Crunch and made an accordion card for their teacher.

Scarecrow Crunch
Ingredients:
4 c. Oatmeal Cereal Squares
4 c. Tiny Twist Pretzels
1 (22 oz.) bag of mixed candy (pumpkins and candy corn)
2 (6 oz. box caramel popcorn with nuts
1 (6.6 oz) box of chocolate graham bake snacks
1 bag of Reeces Pieces
Directions:
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Serve as desired. Makes 15 Cups.
Here is my cute recipe card that I sent home with the girls and they each took home a bag of treats for themselves too. 
Credits:  Papers and doodles "Pick of the Patch" and "Tricky Treats" are by Kate Hadfield from The Lily PadI used Segoe Print and lima bean for the fonts. 
Scarecrow Accordion Card

 inspired by Fun with Scarecrows: Katherine Marie Photography
Supplies:
Paper bag from the grocery store, construction paper (yellow, orange, blue, and black), scissors, glue sticks, googly eyes, and markers.
Directions: Measure out a 3X13 inches size card from a paper bag.  Fold the card four times. Draw a hat, nose, flower, hair, etc with construction paper and cut them out. Glue eyes and paper pieces to the paper bag card.  There should be five squares for the kids to write or draw pictures.

Friday, October 07, 2011

Chicken Rolls

My 12 year old daughter learned how to make chicken rolls at a young woman activity a couple weeks ago.  So, she recently decided to make them for dinner for us and little sister helped her. They are simple to make and very savory.  The chicken rolls were perfect for school lunches.
Chicken Rolls
We doubled the batch so we had some leftovers.
Ingredients:
4-5 cups of chicken breast (seasoned with salt and pepper)
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
2-3 T. chopped fresh parsley
chopped onion (green or white)
Sauce:
 1 can of cream of chicken soup 
1 cup of milk
Crescent Roll mixture:
melted butter
1 package crescent rolls (8 count)
Italian bread crumb seasoning
Dipping roll in butter
Rolls coated with seasonings
Directions:
Preheat oven 375 degrees. Cook chicken on medium high heat add salt/pepper to flavor the meat.  Cut chicken into cubes. In a large bowl, mix together chicken, cream cheese, parsley and  chopped onion. In another bowl add cream of chicken soup and milk.  Mix them well and add it to the chicken mixture.  Flatten the 8 pieces of crescent roll dough out.  Fill full of meat mixture.  Press edges of roll together. Roll them in melted butter and season bread crumbs, turn edges down in butter dish.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.
Mmmmmm!  Enjoy!

Monday, October 03, 2011

Bee Attitudes Activity Day Lesson


For Activity Day in September, we discussed "Bee" Attitudes. Here is my cute invite that I quickly put together for the girls.  

Credits: Paper and girl in bee costume doodle by Kate Hadfield @The Lily Pad. I used the following fonts: love ya like a sister, mool boran, and mareen's print.

Clipart from About.com
I had each girl read from Gordon B. Hinckley's article “The Prophet’s Counsel: The Six Bs,” Friend, Feb. 2001, 25.  I made visual aids from 6 "Bee" Attitudes Clip Art  which I printed out, cut out, and glued on a black piece of construction paper. I cut out "bee" attitudes from “The Prophet’s Counsel: The Six Bs,” article and taped each one on the back of the cute  honey bee clip art.  After the girls read a "bee" attitude, I either played a game, did an object lesson, or read a story from the Friend to go along with one of the "Bee Attitudes."  

The Prophet’s Counsel: The Six Bs

“The Prophet’s Counsel: The Six Bs,” Friend, Feb. 2001, 25
Excerpts from President Gordon B. Hinckley’s Fireside Address, November 12, 2000 (“A Prophet’s Counsel and Prayer for Youth,” Ensign, January 2001, pages 2-11.)

Be Grateful

Walk with gratitude in your hearts. Be thankful for the wonderful blessings, which are yours. Be grateful for the tremendous opportunities that you have. Be thankful to your parents who care so very much about you and who have worked so very hard to provide for you. Let them know that you are grateful. Say thank you to your mother and your father. Say thank you to your friends. Say thank you to your teachers. Express appreciation to everyone who does you a favor or assists you in any way. Thank the Lord for His goodness to you.

Be Smart

The Lord wants you to educate your minds and hands, whatever your chosen field. Whether it be repairing refrigerators, or the work of a skilled surgeon, you must train yourselves. Seek for the very best schooling available. Become a workman of integrity in the world that lies ahead of you. I repeat, you will bring honor to the Church and you will be generously blessed because of that training.

Be Clean

Avoid evil talk. Do not take the name of the Lord in vain. …
Choose your friends carefully. …
While you should be friendly with all people, select with great care those whom you wish to have close to you. …
Be clean. Don’t waste your time in destructive entertainment. …
How truly beautiful is a well-groomed young woman who is clean in body and mind. She is a daughter of God in whom her Eternal Father can take pride. How handsome is a young man who is well-groomed. He is a son of God, deemed worthy of holding the holy priesthood of God. He does not need tattoos or earrings or rings anywhere else on or in his body. The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve are all united in counseling against these things. …
There is no need for any Latter-day Saint boy or girl, young man or young woman, to even try [drugs]. Stay clean from these mind-altering and habit-forming addictions.

Be True

Be loyal to the Church under all circumstances. I make you a promise that the authorities of this Church will never lead you astray. They will lead you in paths of happiness. …
Be true to your own convictions. You know what is right and you know what is wrong. You know when you are doing the proper thing. You know when you are giving strength to the right cause. Be loyal. Be faithful. Be true.

Be Humble

The Lord has said, “Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers” (D&C 112:10). …
I believe the meek and the humble are those who are teachable. They are willing to learn. They are willing to listen to the whisperings of the still, small voice for guidance in their lives. They place the wisdom of the Lord above their own wisdom.

Be Prayerful

You need His help, and you know that you need His help. You cannot do it alone. You will come to realize that and recognize that more and more as the years pass. So live that in good conscience you can speak with the Lord. Get on your knees and thank Him for His goodness to you and express to Him the righteous desires of your hearts. The miracle of it all is that He hears. He responds. He answers—not always as we might wish He would answer, but there is no question in my mind that He answers.

"Bee" Attitude Ideas 
These are the object lessons, games, activity, and stories that I used for my lesson.
Be Humble Object Lesson (Family Home Evening: Humility)
Materials needed: A lump of soft clay and a lump of hardened clay.
I believe the meek and the humble are those who are teachable. They are willing to learn. They are  willing to listen to the whisperings of the still, small voice for guidance in their lives. They place  the wisdom of the Lord above their own wisdom.  Demonstrate how the soft clay can be molded into any shape that you desire. Then try to mold the hardened clay. Express the difficulty you are having in shaping the hardened clay. State that hardened clay is unworkable.  Explain that we are like the clay. When we are humble we can be shaped and molded the way the Lord needs us. If we become stubborn we harden ourselves to the guiding influences of the Lord and we become unworkable. Discuss ways in which we can become more humble. (Beth Lefgren and Jennifer Jackson, Building Blocks for Better Lessons, [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1998]  Gordon B. Hinckley said, "I believe the meek and the humble are those who are teachable. They are willing to learn. They are willing to listen to the whisperings of the still, small voice for guidance in their lives. They place  the wisdom of the Lord above their own wisdom."  (Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, January 2001, 2.)
Be True: Story

In some situations it may be inconvenient or uncomfortable to stand up for what we believe in. But it is still important to follow the commandments and live righteously. We must, as President Hinckley reminded the youth, “Be loyal to the Church in all circumstances.”
Tiffany Roy, of the Port Charlotte Ward in Florida, had an experience in which she was true to the teachings of the Church even though it was uncomfortable.
I had just moved to another state and started school. There was a group of girls who found out that I was Mormon and started asking me all these questions. When they found out that I would not swear, this little group of girls blocked me from going inside the classroom. They told me that they would not let me go in until I would swear. I told them that we would be sitting there all day because I would not lower my standards for them. The girls let me go inside because they knew I wouldn’t do it. They avoided me the rest of the year. I did not care what they thought of me. I stood true to my faith by doing this.”

Be Smart: Being Smart Story
Be Smart: The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost … shall teach you all things (John 14:26).
Olivia smiled as she uprooted a reluctant weed. The sun was warm, and it felt good to be weeding the vegetable garden with her family. It felt even better to be finished with school for the day. As they worked, Olivia’s older brother, Jake, started talking about President Hinckley’s six “B’s” that he was studying in seminary.
Six bees? Like bumblebees?” Olivia asked, pointing to a fuzzy bee busily gathering pollen from a bright purple flower.
No,” Jake said. “They’re things that we should try to be. They are be grateful, be clean, be true, be humble, be prayerful, and be smart.”
Be smart! Olivia’s eyes opened wide with dismay, and her heart seemed to drop into her tennis shoes. “President Hinckley says we should be smart?” At her baptism recently she had promised to keep the commandments, and that surely included following the prophet. But if there was one thing she could never be, it was smart.
Olivia dreaded school. Mr. Blaine, her third-grade teacher, was nice, but he made the class do multiplication tables, which tangled up in Olivia’s brain like barbed wire. She felt dumb when she got bad scores on her tests and worksheets. She tried hard, but her best just didn’t seem to be good enough. The rest of the evening Olivia worried that her grades were a terrible disappointment to Heavenly Father.
The next day at school, she felt even worse about “be smart” when she missed five words on her spelling test and couldn’t find Madagascar on the globe. She was relieved when recess came.
As Olivia ran across the grass with her friends, she noticed a group of fifth graders looking at something. Forgetting her problems for a moment, she went over to investigate.
What are you looking at?” she asked a tall girl.
Oh, we found a needle, like the ones doctors give you shots with.” One of the older boys bent to pick up the needle. A sick feeling came over Olivia, and she knew somehow that this was not a thing they should be playing with. “Wait!” she yelled. “Don’t touch it!”
The boy stopped short, staring at Olivia with raised eyebrows.
Well, it’s, uh, way bad to t-touch stuff like th-that,” she stammered, feeling stupid for telling an older boy what to do.
But then a recent family home evening lesson came back clearly to her mind. “If we listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, He will help us know when something is wrong,” Mom had said.
Olivia looked the boy in the eye. “We should probably tell a teacher to come get it instead.”
One of the other third-graders ran quickly across the grass and brought back Mr. Blaine. “Olivia told us not to touch it,” the older boy said as Mr. Blaine bent over the sharp needle.
Smart thinking, Olivia!” Mr. Blaine exclaimed.
Smart thinking? A warm glow replaced the sick feeling that had filled Olivia moments before. Wow! She had remembered her mom’s counsel about listening to the Holy Ghost, and she had followed His promptings. That was something a smart person would do!
Running across the playground, Olivia felt much better about trying to be smart.

Be Grateful: Game (Spin the Honey Bottle)
We played "spin the honey bottle" for a few minutes.  Each girl had a couple turns sharing what they are thankful in their lives. They had a lot of fun playing this game!
Be Clean: Object Lesson
I showed them a fresh bar of soap. I allowed them to smell it and hold it.  I asked them the following question, "What does it mean to be clean?"  Then we talked about how our bodies are like temples and we should keep them clean by not thinking bad thoughts, no wearing immodest clothing, no swearing, and no gossiping. Then discussed avoiding harmful substances such as drugs, alcohol, tea, coffee, and smoking.  We briefly talked about no tattoos or many body piercings.
Be Prayerful:  Discussion
We discussed when we should pray (all day long and pray to Heavenly Father like you are talking to your best friend). The Lord listens to our prayers and may need not get the answers we need right away.  We need to be patient and trust in the Lord about the things we pray for.
"Bee" Attitude Bookmarks  
For our last activity, I had the girls color a "Bee" Attitude bookmark. Supplies: Bee attitude bookmark print out, colored yarn, hole puncher, scissors,
and markers.
Treat: Butterfingers
You can get more B attitude ideas from Sugardoodle.