Easy, Quick, Healthy Halloween party munchies for kids!

Linking up again with AP for Hey, That's Pintastic! Monday. We had our 2nd annual kiddo Halloween party this weekend. I pin Halloween stuff to my Halloween party board all year long. This year I was just not really into the planning. Literally, the day of I went through my board to come up with easy, quick, and healthy halloween muchies for kids. The party was so much fun and Chase loved all the fun food. His friends were more interested in playing with his toys but Chase sat at the table chowing down most of the party. You don't get size 9 wide feet at 18 months without a love for food :)! So here are my pictures of the food we made. Everything was completely ripped off from pinterest. I would be nothing without it!

 

Mandarin jack-o-lanterns. So easy. I used a sharpie and I want to warn you that I just peeled one and the sharpie still comes off on your hands. I didn't let any of the kids touch them. Not sure if I did something wrong I just took them out of the bag and drew on them.

Mini pumpkin dip bowl. Buy a mini pumpkin, have your husband carve it and hollow it out. Put store bought dip in it. Voila! Chase quickly figured out how to dip his carrots in the ranch. This was his first time having ranch. He also learned not to double dip!

Fruit Monster! I bought a personal watermelon. Had Hubby cut it in half and hollow it out. Then he carved the "teeth". We kind of propped it up with some fruit. Then I stuck toothpicks in some green grapes for the eyes and a strawberry for the nose and then cut up the other half of the watermelon and the grapes and strawberries and voila! Chase kept pulling the eyes and nose off. Also, watermelon with halloween costumes wasn't the best idea but it is so cute!

Last, and certainly not least, a pic of my little lion!

 

Still no period

*Warning- talking about female things today or as we refer to issues in our family "plumbing".

Chase was born May 1st, 2011.We didn't use any medical interventions to conceive Chase. My cycles are a little longer than normal.  I haven't nursed Chase since August 25th, 2012. Today is October 23rd, 2012. My last period was July of 2010. I am not pregnant.

You might be shocked by this. I have been in a few mom groups on Facebook and there wasn't anyone else in my same situation. I was starting to get worried. I was hesitant to google becase Dr. Google always tells you that you have cancer. I did Google and did see messages from other people on message boards that were in my same situation.

I went to the doctor today for my annual exam and was anxious to discuss what was going on. As I expected, I was told that I was still in the normal range. I wanted to talk about this today in hopes that someone else in my same situation is comforted by the fact that they are not alone. Some women get their periods 6 weeks after their child is born even if they are exclusively breast feeding. Some women, like myself, nurse for a long time and might not get their period back for 6 months after weaning.

I guess I'll also disclose that we are not using any birth control in hopes of getting pregnant again. This complicates things a little because it is possible for me to get pregnant without ever having a period, though rare. If there is no recent last period date with a pregnancy they like to have an ultrasound done by 6 weeks to get the dates correct. Which makes this momma that didn't get to see her sweet boy's face until 13 weeks happy. Which means I need to be taking pregnancy tests like every 2 weeks. So I know you bloggers have already done the research. Where do I get the most inexpensive pregnancy tests?

The plan is if I am not pregnant by January and still haven't had a period, to go in and get a blood pregnancy test and a thyroid test and then jumpstart things with some progesterone.

I feel so much better after my appointment! I really think Chase will be getting to wear a big brother shirt in 2013!

Challenge your closet and day 21 and 22

We had an awesome weekend! We celebrated being done with hell week by going out to p.f. changs with my parents.

Then Sunday morning it was up to Apple Hill for some apple and pumpkin fall fun with our best friends.

* I love this picture. Chase is so excited! I had asked my instagram fashionistas what to put my kid in for our trip to the pumpkin patch and I have to say I ended up loving the red sweater with the orange pumpkins. Isn't his buddy adorable?! They are 5 months apart in age and totally on opposite ends of the height scale. I love it!

We got in a little bit more relaxation. Football watching and hot coco drinking and made a quick trip to the grocery store.

You know me and my laundry issues. I seriously had laundry in the dryer when the appraiser was here. Then I had to do another load Sunday which equals almost 10pm on Sunday night with a mountain of clothes to be folded and put away on the bed.

Luckily the Hubby helped out a little. I asked him if he wanted me to just move it off the bed so he could go to sleep. He said, "It will only take us like 5 minutes." I liked that attitude!

This morning Chase and I slept in, I know bad bad! But I loved every second of it!

I loved having more counter space this weekend since everything was put away and cleaned off for apprasial. So today I did the dishes and instead of just leaving them on the counter to dry I dryed them and put them away (hm are we seeing a theme?). That way I have more counter space!

Since it is a rainy fall day out I was excited to wear my leggins or something warm and cozy. If you follow me on instagram you know about the sweater my husband hates that is super warm and cozy that I'm trying to get him to like. I texted him to see if he liked it better belted. Which he did! So maybe I'll wear it tomorrow!

I wore the pinterest inspired outfit below over a week ago. When Hubby got home from work he said I looked nice which is a rare and exciting compliment! I don't think I had told you all that I got a chambray top! I think I might like it better with the sleeves rolled... I don't know how to make my brown boots show up better in my bathroom.

I have this pinterest inspired outfit on today. The only new item is the leggings.

Day 20

We just got done with the appraisal! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

I wanted to share two cleaning tips with you today. Both were kind of inspired by pinterest so I'm also going to link up with AP and her project pinterest link up on Monday.
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The first one is from pinterest. I remember one day I was scrubbing away at our stove burners trying to get that nasty cooked on stuff off and a light bulb went off and I thought there has to be an easier way to do this and I bet it is on pinterest!

Voila! Ammonia fumes get the cooked on stuff off pinterest says! The pin I found said put one burner in a ziploc bag with 1/4 cup of ammonia and seal it up, put it outside overnight and in the morning they will wipe clean.

I tried this once before but I didn't read it carefully. I put all the burners in an xl ziploc bag and it didn't work. So this time I followed directions and put each burner in a gallon ziploc bag with almost 1/3 cup ammonia. Some of you might be asking, like I did, what about the part under the burners? Well I put those in the other xl ziploc bags I had!

What you will need:
ammonia (my sil said they have it at the dollar store. I got mine at Target)
4 gallon ziploc bags
2 xl ziploc bags
1/3 or 1/4 cup measuring cup
fresh scrubby sponge
Sink full of hot soapy water

What you will do:
1. Put burners in ziploc bags with 1/3 or 1/4 cup ammonia.
2. Leave them outside overnight.
3. Take out of ziploc bags. Try not to inhale the ammonia fumes. Seal them back up and throw them in trash.
4. Bring back in the house and put in hot soap water.
5. Scrub with your scrubby sponge.

Look at that before and after!!

My other pinterest inspired project is cleaning our white kitchen sink. I had thought about cleaning the tile grout in the kitchen. Pinterest told me to mix some bleach and baking soda together. Flylady is all about having a shiny sink and see uses bleach. We don't have a plug for both sides of our sink so I was trying to figure out how to get it shiny white without a plug to soak it in bleach. Then, lightbulb! use the baking soda/bleach grout cleaning trick for the kitchen sink!

It was so easy! I grabbed a red solo cup pour a little bleach in and sprinkled in some baking soda. It kind of made a paste that I just shook out of the cup into the sink. Grabbed my sponge and scrubbed it around the sink and then rinsed with water. Look how awesome the sink looks!!!!

Now I think it is time for beer #2 and cuddling on the couch with Hubby and watching the challenge. Cheers to a super clean house and keeping it looking that way!

Day 18 and 19

Maybe next year my topic will be finding time to blog or something that allows me time to blog every day in October.

We have been so busy! Our appraisal is Saturday and we have been staying up until 11 every night doing stuff around the house. We've been going to home depot just to drive the fun carts.

We bought 4 new ceiling fans. Our old ceiling fans were ugly and didn't really work or made horrible noises. New ceiling fans are such a great investment! The fans we bought were about $70 and it really changes the look of the room and having a ceiling fan when it is supposed to be 81 degrees on October 19th is a good thing! I don't care if designers don't like them. We need them!

 



Isn't she pretty?! I'm so so happy!!! Have you heard they are only making energy efficient light bulbs? We were freaking out today because the engergy efficient light bulbs aren't dimmable. I need to be able to dim the lights in my son's room for his bedtime story! My dad said I should blog about how it was helful having me around today because I actually read the instructions. I was up on the ladder and using a screwdriver today. Didn't know that was part of the stay at home mom gig!

I've already started planning what we will wear for our Christmas cards.

Won't Hubby and Chase look adorable in these sweaters?! Now it is time for me to find something to wear... Anyone have any ideas? I'm totally stumped!

Day 17

My sil came over to help me clean today. My housekeeping tip for today is get someone to help you clean! My dad came over too and watched Chase. If you have a toddler or a baby I suggest getting someone to watch them and then getting someone else to help you. A husband or friend.

My next tip is get a steam mop! My sil brought hers over and it is amazing! Definitely #1 on my christmas list.

Everyone came over around 8am. We dusted the blinds, windexed the windows, vacuumed, steam mopped, and cleaned the showers and we were done and eating pizza by 11:30.

Now to fold and fold and fold laundry!

Inspired

I was inspired to blog today by Shannon over at Life After I Dew. Read this post she wrote. I've never thought about myself as a blogger as a person that could inspire others. Oops I got distracted by facebook. Where was I, inspiration.

Since we are on day 16 of the be a better housekeeper challenge let's talk housekeeping for a sec. I woke up at 6:15 today. I had to work this morning so that's part of the reason but I had time to do my hair and clean the bathroom counter off. Goal is to wake up at 6:15 again tomorrow. So I hope I inspire all of you to do the same. Leave your excuses in the comments stay at home moms that aren't doing this.

My wonderful Handy Manny (aka my dad) did some chores for me while I was at work. He's the best! We chatted when I got home and I looked over my to do list several times and just couldn't really come up with much to do. A lot of the things on my list are cleaning things. Please pray the people return my call and can clean our house Friday! Oh wait, be a better housekeeper! A lot of the things are cleaning the floors too which I want to leave until Friday or Saturday morning.

I did find our receipt for our new carpet. It always amazes me when I find things quickly. Good thing I can remember where I hide all the paper clutter and don't actually organize.

Day 13, 14, and 15

I think the point of this 31 day challenge was to write every day and improve your blogging. Instead I think I've discovered that if I focus on being the mom, wife, and housekeeper that I want to be I don't have enough time for blogging.

We have a super busy weekend. We worked on the house Saturday. Ladies, I can not stress enough how much going forward with the refi has motivated Hubby to get things done around the house. Our house looks great now mostly because of what he has been doing. He stained all our cabinets, our front and back decks, and our front door. I went to home depot for the 3rd time that week and my dad went once for us last week too! Then my mom came over for a date night with Chase. Hubby and I went to McCormick and Schmick to celebrate our 3 year wedding anniversary!

At dinner Saturday night we got a call from my bil. My bil and sil wanted to meet up at the pumpkin patch the next day. I have seen so many pictures from this pumpkin patch from other mom friends so I was really excited to take Chase.

Oh yeah, being a better housekeeper. I washed and folded a ton of laundry this weekend. Today I cleaned up quite a bit.

day 11 and 12

So I've mentioned that we might be having an appraisal done of our house. This should be kicking my lazy butt into gear. I'm guessing if an appraisal gets scheduled for tomorrow the house will be looking good. Here is a list I found of things you can do to get a high appraisal. I wish we had more time to do all the things on the list!
link
1 Enhance your curb appeal. The better-maintained your home's exterior is, the more likely the appraiser is to assume the inside is cared for, too. Mow your lawn, tidy up the yard, weed the garden. Repair or replace hardscaped items like walkways and retaining walls. Trim bushes in the front of the house. Repaint, if necessary, or powerwash your home's exterior if it looks grimy.

2 Spruce up your home's entry. First impressions count. Repaint the door and trim. Put shoes and jackets away. Stash keys, mail and other items that accumulate near the front door out of sight.

3 Clean up clutter. Go through your house and pack up items that don't have a home. Store them in the garage or basement temporarily.

4 Wash the walls to remove dirt, fingerprints and odors. If the walls are stained, crazy-colored or your home has strong pet, smoke or food odors, repaint them.

5 Steam clean and deodorize your carpets, taking care to remove stains. If regular cleaning doesn't do the job, try blotting some hydrogen peroxide on a hidden area of the carpet. Wait 24 hours. If the color hasn't bleached out, use the peroxide to eliminate stains that remain after steam cleaning.

6 Regrout your kitchen, bath and floor tiles, if necessary. Bright white grout gives the appearance that the tile is new.

7 Clean the house top to bottom. Polish furniture, vacuum, mop the floors and scrub the kitchen and baths. Use lightly scented cleaners, if possible, to avoid giving the appraiser the impression you're trying to cover odors -- even if you are.

8 Gather receipts for all the improvements you've made yourself or hired contractors to do. Collect copies of building permits and zoning and building code certifications in order to document that the work was done properly.

9 Create a pleasing ambiance that engages all the senses. Shortly before the appraiser is due to arrive, turn on all the lights. Light scented candles. Play soft background music.

day 10

It is late. These are some things I wrote down today when I was thinking about the different hats that I wear. Not sure if it is possible to be all of these things.

Mom- Be around: help in classroom, be home after school, do cool experiments, help with homework, make treats, take to practice, see all performances at school, look put together, make lunch

Wife- Be supportive, make life easier, make life more fun, make dinner, laugh together, travel together, dream together, parent together, try new restaurants, make lunch

Housekeeper- Get house clean: if someone stops by and takes a tour of the house it is clean, nice decor, sometimes holiday decor, occasional spring or fall deep clean, have a place for everything, have a system for paper clutter

day 9 and a little more

day 9: I have to work today and tomorrow. My goal is to do more house work than I did the last time I worked. Last time I worked all I did was put up halloween decor. Hopefully I can get to the chores I didn't do yesterday!

A little update on the saga from yesterday. I'm hoping this may be the last time I talk about it. In my post 3 years ago I mentioned that dating Aaron was "so not worth it to mess up my friendship". I want to take that back. Aaron was my first teenage love. You only have one of those. My only hope with Amy has been for us to be Facebook friends. I am Facebook friends with Aaron. I know that he recently got married. He knows my son just had croup and I know that his kid had it too. Because people who loved each other care about these things. I now know that Amy never loved me.

Hubby doesn't have a Facebook account. He may some day. If he had joined Facebook yesterday and friend requested his high school sweetheart or his ex best friend I probably would have been upset. Today? I have had a change of heart. Like I said, I realized that no matter what hurt has happened in the past if you had cared about someone you want to know they are doing well. You are happy for them that they have found love. Seeing their children's faces? It is neat!

1 week

Today is day 7 or 1 week into the 31 day challenge. I don't feel like I've made much of a difference yet.

I had talked yesterday about doing paper organization today. Instead we spent the morning getting the front yard looking good. Hubby has been hard at work on his honey do list. We are refinancing and want our house to appraise at the price we payed for it so we are trying to fix a few things here and there.

I had no idea agreeing to a refi would light the fire under his booty to get to work on his honey do list! If I had known I would have agreed much sooner!

We went to a fabulous wedding last night and I hardly slept so I am not much help today. But after this blog update I'm going to menu plan which I normally leave until Sunday at 5pm!

Day Six

I might not have time to post tomorrow since we will be pretty busy so I'm writing this Friday night.

As predicted I was a lazy bum Friday afternoon. I did clear the toys out of the guest room though.

That means tidying up of the main level will have to happen some time tomorrow.

I decided I wasn't going to attempt the 6am wake up on a Saturday morning.

I think a better housekeeper would start making a cleaning list for Sunday.

Flylady is working on paper clutter which I mentioned we need to work on. Maybe that will be my goal for Sunday, get the Hubby to work on the paper clutter with me!

Day 5

Welp, it is 1:30pm on day 5. Chase was up twice last night I think his bottom molars are bothering him. So I couldn't force my butt out of bed this morning :( How many of you in the get up before your kids club do it on the weekends? I can't decide if I will even attempt it tomorrow.

We had a play date this morning which means the dishes and laundry haven't been started. I did get some paper work together for our refinancing. That I was able to find our w2s from 2010 and 2011 in like 20 mins was pretty impressive. Really makes me think we need to organize our papers!

Then I got caught up on facebook and blogs. You know what? I'm ok with that. Because reading other blogs? It is good for my soul! To read that my friend Shannon is, "Wishing that my husband would be more "hands on" when it comes to parenting, wishing my kid were more affectionate, wishing that Baby Dew #2 would hurry up and grow in my belly already" makes me feel a little less crazy and alone. To see those words on a page and think oh my gosh I feel the exact same way! To hopefully have left a comment that can make my friend Bekah's 2 year anniversary of waiting for her baby a little bit better, that makes my heart happy.

Now that I have caught up with my blogging besties I am thinking about bombarding instagram with more pictures of clothes I bought at target and figuring out what I'm going to wear to the wedding tomorrow and how I'm going to do my hair.

So mil if you read this, that's why the house is a disaster and why you might be surrounded by toys in the guest room. Hopefully I get to the cleaning to do list this afternoon, but we all know how I do with afternoon cleaning!

Day 4

Is it only day 4? I guess then it is ok that all my new routines aren't habits yet?

Let's start with the positives: today I got up at 6:37 which is better than the last day I worked and got up around 6:45. Today I even did my hair which really did brighten my day. I also had time to make the bed.

When I got home? Didn't really do much.  Someone thinks giving kisses is fun and I would much rather do this than housework!

Let's see if I can get up at 6am tomorrow!

Day 3

I'm kinda shocked by all the support on my 31 day challenge! Thank you all so much for the encouragement. I'm totally doing this for selfish reasons so that's awesome if I motivate someone else too.

I'm writing this on Wednesday, Oct. 3rd. Yesterday was my first full day of work during this challenge. Hubby's alarm didn't go off so I woke up about 45 minutes later than I had planned. So I didn't really get to do the morning routine of cleaning the bathroom and making my bed. Oh well! My awesome dad/nanny does the dishes for us when I work which helps out a ton. All I did yesterday on my to do list was hang the Halloween decor. Chase had so much fun seeing all the stuff and when Hubby got home from work he pointed everything out to him. Makes me excited for Christmas, but how does the whole tree thing work with a toddler?

Today I have been a cleaning machine! I didn't make it out of bed early but did the morning routine once Chase went down for his nap. I did the dishes and my little helper vacuumed with me. After getting ready for the day, doing a swish and swipe of the bathroom, and making our bed I cleaned the stainless steel appliances and the kitchen floor. I got a bottle of Windex this weekend and was cleaning everything with it today. I cleaned the coffee table and side tables and the windows.

Now I'm pooped!

Did you watch the Teen Mom farewell special? No, it wasn't a repeat of the finale show with Dr. Drew it was another show with their casting tapes and updates on them now. I was riveted! I can't believe Amber chose to go to prison for 5 years. 5 years! Doesn't she realize how long that is to be away from her daughter?! Did anyone else think it was weird when Farrah and her mom were talking about Amber that there was no mention of when Farrah's mom hit her? So I still secretly want Maci and Ryan to get back together. I can't believe he said he didn't love her and the things he said to his ex girlfriend Dallis were so lovely. I hope Carly gets to go to Tyler and Catelynn's wedding. Did Tyler and Catelynn name her? I'm going to go find out about that now!

Day 2 of being a better housekeeper

Day 2- The laundry pile is gone and put away!

I also did the dishes which usually get done but I have had days where I didn't do them.

After putting the laundry away I made the bed and picked up the master bedroom a little.

I also did what Fly Lady refers to as a swish and swipe of the master bath.

Fly Lady suggests getting dressed all the way to shoes every morning. This is a habit I am trying to get in to. Yesterday was a busy day for me so I did this one.

She suggests getting dressed and doing a swish and swipe of your bathroom before your children wake up. This is a tough one for me.

I'm also working on doing a declutter for 15 mins, laying my clothes out the night before, and doing a 2 min clearing of hotspots. That is the nighttime routine and I suck with cleaning after like noon!

So doing the stuff I did was more than I have been doing so success! I work Tuesday (I'm writing this Monday night and scheduling it to post Tuesday) so we will see how I do with being a better housekeeper and working!

31 days

You all know I love a challenge and to post before pictures! Everyone and their mom seems to be doing this 31 day thing so I figure why the heck not. Maybe it will motivate me to stop playing around on my phone and do some housework.

In case you haven't seen it on everyone else's blog, the nester hosts a link up on Oct 1st. The idea is to pick a topic and post about it every day in October.

I mentioned that I was having a hard time keeping up with housework with my new schedule. I decided to try doing some of the things on Fly Lady. It is tough, but I think it is helping. Hopefully this challenge will help me too and maybe some of the other moms struggling with the never ending balancing act we all do.

I will start by finishing this blog and tackling this pile of laundry that needs to be folded.