Happy Halloween

We started the Halloween festivities last week with a purchase of skeleton pajamas…these were a hit in our house.  A good old fashion game of "MONSTER" with glow in the dark pj's equals lots of LOUD SCREAMING AND LAUGHING!!!!  Also, these skeleton pajamas make any dance party way more fun!  As you can see in the video…All Skeleton Riley wants to do is dance but Skeleton Tater will do everything in his power to prevent this.

Last night was trick or treat here in Indianola.  It was Tate's first year going out and we were excited to see how he would react to it all.  Both boys did really good, Riley led the way and knew exactly what to do…but sometimes got his "lines" mixed up…"Thank you…I mean Trick or Treat"  and one time he said "Trick or Treat...I'm not supposed to say smell my feet"  we carried Tate from house to house and let him loose to walk up the sidewalk to the door…the whole way up to the houses he would say "treeeeet treeeet…." and grab as much candy as he could with his hands and say "Taaaaaannk  KU!" At a couple houses…Tate invited himself in or ignored the candy and attacked their dogs.  Ryan and I thought it would be fun to dress up while taking the kids trick or treating.  I had a witches hat from last year…so logically I was a witch (with the most tamed witch costume I could find)  and we let Riley pick Ryan's costume…it basically came down to a scary skeleton man and a giant hot dog.  So we went with the traumatizing-ly scary skeleton man.  We got a couple weird looks from other {boring} parents taking theirs kids out…but as you have learned in the past, we don't mind being the "Addams family" of the block.

 (incase you are wondering…Ryan is not having a stroke…he is doing the Thriller dance)

Peanut M&M's

friday night football games

mcdonalds {supersized}

cops

loud snoring

"pick up your shoes!"

"opinions are like…"

"GODDAMN IT!"

coach

Tom Clancy

coffee-black-caseys mug

uniform and belt

teal polo and jean shorts

good morning Vietnam

the big chill

wedgies and muffin top pinches

trying really hard not to smile

my favorite...flannel shirt with m&ms in pocket

Stickers...

Last night we went to riley preschool open house.  It was nice to see him in his environment with his friends.  Riley showed us all the projects they do and the toys he plays (hoards) with.  Then he proudly showed us his sticker chart.  Everyones chart had 10 or more stickers...riley only had 3.  Ryan said "buddy why do you have the least amount of stickers...does this mean your naughty?"  Riley responded..."no I'm not, I have 3 stars!"  Ryan  then said " dude, only one other kid has less thEn you...that means your the second worst."  Ryan told me to go look at riley sticker chart.  I went and riley again proudly showed me his 3 stickers  and asked riley the same questions "dude...why does everyone else have 10 and you have 3!?"  Riley said..."yeah...I have 1, 2, 3!"  Needless to say riley got the "Lafrenz finish first speech..."  the same speech I got except it was "Collins kids don't get C's"    I'm not sure if the speech was influential to riley...after all he did have THREE stickers!

A Day in the Life...

I know I will wake up one day and wonder where the years went?  And I will think…what did I do all day and how did I do it?  Well, instead of writing it down…I thought a day of pictures would help me remember.  I decided that no matter how little or insignificant, I would take pictures of everything.  And of coarse the day I decide to do this neat photo experiment…Blakely wakes up 3 hours earlier than usual…so it's a 2 cup of coffee day.  I know these are a lot of photos (I took over 300 throughout the day)  but each photo and sequence tells the story of how this engine runs during the day.  

Ice Cream in a Bag

Can anyone say Pinterest…

Now is it P-Interest or pinterset?  Either way I love it…I am not as obsessed as some…but I must say I browse during feedings.  During one of my pin-capades…I found a recipe for homemade ice cream.  I tried it…I loved it.  So I will share:

A gallon freezer ziploc bag

A pint or quart freezer ziploc bag

1 cup of cream

add the cup of cream to the quart bag

 your flavors (if you want any)

I chose oreos and andes mint

1-tsp vanilla

1/2 tbsp no calorie sugar or 2 tbsp regular sugar

add these ingredients to the cream in the quart bag.

Release as much air and seal it up tight

Coarse salt or Ice cream salt

fill the gallon ziploc bag halfway with ice and a hand full of salt

Place the cream mixture in the ice/salt bag.  Seal up the gallon bag and Shake…Rattle and Roll for 8-10 minutes.  I wrapped my bag in a dish towel to keep my hands from freezing.

After the 8-10 minutes…remove the ice cream from the ice and rinse off under cold water.  Get all the salt off…even in the lip of the seal,,,you don't want salt in the ice cream when you open the bag.  

TaDaa! Ice Cream.  

Eat immediately or freeze in the bag.  

Riley helped me make this batch…it was a lot of fun and tastes really good.  

My second batch we added reese's cups and carnation chocolate shake protein powder (I didn't have chocolate syrup)  It was fantastic too and full of vitamins!

Chambray vs Canada

Fall calls for family pictures…and I am especially excited for this years shots because we are a complete family!  I am also excited to outfit the family for these pictures…the color palette…camel brown, cream and denim.

Something like this…but a lighter brown

I ordered everything from Old Navy (with a huge discount coupon) All the outfits are strategically put together to compliment each other, no one is wearing the same thing but it all looks good together, it took me quite a while to find a good combo…I got Blakely little faux fur boots and a denim dress…the boys in corduroy and denim, me in a camel cardigan and Ryan in a chambray shirt.  I just knew Ryan would look so handsome is this shirt and they are "in-style" for fall…but you have wear them right.
When Ryan got home from work…I told him there was a shirt I wanted him to try on.
 He walked in our room and said
"where's the shirt?"
I said "right there!"
 he responded "where!?"
I said "right in front of you!"
he said "no…."

"what do you mean no? what's wrong with this shirt!?"

Ryan explained "I honestly walked in and thought it was a women's shirt…"

silence as a cocked my head and gave him a confused look….

I then pleaded "These shirts are in-stlye!"

Ryan confirmed "I don't give a sh*t if it is in style!  I am not wearing a Canadian Tuxedo in our family pictures!"

See, what I imagined Ryan would look like in this shirt is this:

And what ryan thought he would look like in this shirt is this:

So I am returning the Canadian tuxedo and searching for something else…or maybe I can get the model above to pose in Ryan's place.