Halloween 2017

Last week after school Halloween began for our family! I picked up Princess Elena of Avalon and we head right over to NOMA to enjoy a Pumpkin Palooza!

We have been attending for the last few years and it’s amazing how this community event has grown tremendously in attendance numbers!

Next up… we enjoyed some weekday funnin at Catholic University! Both kids were official NASA astronauts ( it was so cold baby boy didn’t get to show off his shirt…. but he did trick or treat…. for me 😜 because I mean let’s be honest…. I can’t let my precious baby eat candy yet!) The kids had a blast! The students worked hard and were so kind to the attendees! They served pizza and snacks, had a trick or treat trail with fun costumes all around. Tons of games and activities, face paint and two moon bounces on a large field that was highly decorated for all to enjoy! We will definitely be back next year!

Three days into Halloween and it’s time to hit the Halloween streets! Crowded per usual! Fun costumes and a bucket full of goodies.

Are anyone else’s kids obsessed with The Descendants Movie? Liv/Uma was pumped to get all suited up and debut her outfit!

The weekend was also filled with parties cue: Beyoncé “We Like to Party” ….. and

Halloween has not even officially arrived!

Daddy playing wingman to our little “ladies man”.

We have a few more events to attend to finish off our Halloween season ( I miiiight update this post to include them)

Happy Candy Day 🎃

WELove Swen Squared

My precious Prince turns 1 today and I couldn’t be prouder to be his mother!

What a joy to be a boy mom and our journey has just begun! Baby boy Mommy remembers every second of your glorious birth story and I’m honored that I get to watch you grow! Your individuality is already shining through and your relationships with daddy and sister as well as us as a collective family unit is thee fuel in my existence! We needed you and you came to us at the perfect time.

Love You Endlessly!

Can He Get Much Higher!?

This weekend we enjoyed a great first visit to the College Park Aviation Museum! The museum had a small entrance fee but especially with the Holiday event they were hosting it was well worth it! This event was full of crafts, an amazing balloon artist, tattoos. The museum has air planes to get a hands on experience as well as flight attire to play dress up with and lots of other nooks and crannies of amazement! And the biggest moment of the day was Santa being flown into the museum by police helicopter! Big Fun and Loads of Holiday Cheer!

WeLove the Smell of Presents

The US Botanical Gardens makes for a wonderful winter day escape. The various plant habitats allow you to escape and enjoy nature in a pleasurable climate. The current holiday display is so beautiful you have to see it to fully enjoy all of it’s splendor. Even the aroma in the places screamed holiday! Enjoy the pics and be sure to add this location to your holiday roster of events.

Get Crafty

*Egg Carton Bingo
This wonderful craft from Noodle & Doodle is perfect for a holiday road trip
What You Will Need:
1 cardboard 12-egg carton
Old magazines
Pictures printed of various things you might see on your road trip
Small tasty treats
Glue stick

How To:
Tear up lots of colored pieces from magazines.
Using a glue stick, decorate the front of your egg box with the colored pieces. You can make a picture, or just make it colorful.
Cut out different small pictures of items you might see from your seat in the car while on a road trip. You should have 12 pictures, one for each section of the egg carton.
Using a glue stick, adhere each picture onto one of the sections in your egg carton.
With the egg carton open, place your treats into the top portion of the carton.
You are now ready to play Egg Box Bingo. All you need now is to go on a road trip!
To play Egg Box Bingo: When you spot something outside the car window that is on one of the pictures, put a tasty treat in the corresponding egg holder. When you have spotted everything in one row – either a short line up or a long line across -shout “Bingo!” Then you get to eat the tasty treats in those rows. Or you can play full house bingo: Only when you have spotted every picture in your egg box can you shout “Bingo!” and then you get to eat all the tasty treats.

*Paper Plate Dream Catcher
What You Will Need:
2 sturdy paper plates, with identical large circles cut out of the middle of each plate
1 piece of orange net, cut large enough to cover the hole in the plate
Items for weaving (string, yarn, straws, ribbon, etc.)
Feathers
Stapler
Tape

How To:
Place the orange net over the large hole in one paper plate. Staple the net in place. (You can use tape instead, but it may not be as strong a hold.)
Weave the string, yarn, straws, ribbon and orange through the orange net. Adhere the ends of each item to the rim of the plate with tape. Repeat with as much stuff as you wish to weave.
Using tape, secure 3 feathers to hang down from the bottom of the plate.
Place the other paper plate over the first one and secure with tape. (This gives the catcher a nice finish.)
Hang above your bed to catch your dreams!

*Strumming on a Banjo

*Cotton Kitty

Your little ones are sure to “Gobble” these juice boxes right up!

National Christmas Tree Lighting 2014 Tickets

Tomorrow is thee last day to enter the lottery for the Christmas Tree Lighting! Hope to see you there! *fingers crossed*

Christmas Party!

Liv hosted her 1st Annual Christmas party and it was fun times had by all! So much so that mommy didn’t have a second to take many pictures ….
Liv’s guest were greeted with holiday tunes ( let me just say that while Christmas shopping we purchased a Bluetooth device that allowed me to play Pandora from my iPad through our Ihome system… Am I late on this!?! We Love It!)
The little people munched on snacks galore one of my favorites being the “Rice Krispy Tree”

I also created a photobooth backdrop from a thrifted thick table cloth with snowman designs on it. Creative, yet the kids couldn’t stay still long enough to get many still shots.
In addition to ornament making the kids had a blast on their candy cane hunt which was really made successful by the 70 degree weather we had this weekend.
For the first time I dyed noodles so the spaghetti dish was holiday themed with green noodles and red sauce. This holiday has really gotten me into utilizing food color in my edibles to add to the decor of an event. It excites me to add that extra festive touch and I’m sure I will be doing that for each holiday now 🙂

Ice!

Ice at The National Harbor was a unique and exciting frozen wonderland!
Colorful ice of Christmas imagery surrounded us and we took many turns on the slide!
I hope you guys have been making the most of this cold winter season by partaking in all the holiday fun to be had.

Pumpkin Patch 2013

My little family really enjoys the holidays!
Sharing all the fun family traditions with your little makes everything even more special!
Most pumpkin patches are not open during the week to families which is pretty inconvenient … So discovering Queen Anne Farm so close to home and convientely open weekday hours was a blessing!

We love farms in general, the fresh food , novelty items, live stock and overall experience *sigh* these truly are the best moments.
Farm time is one of the rare times my family gets to disconnect from technology and just engulf ourselves in nature. We make an effort to appreciate these times as often as we can. Liv loaded into the little red wagon they had available and gazed at the chickens and other farm animals present, squealing and imitating their sounds. The bulk of our time was spent finding the best pumpkins of course. And yes pumpkinS because baby girl needed a big pumpkin and a tiny one as well. I swear she touched every pumpkin on the field 🙂
When she was satisfied with her selections. She also picked a sunflower to take home! We stopped in the little shop area for the neccessities yummy cider and pumpkin decorating kits!

So silly! And allll mine 🙂
Happy Fall!