Thanksgiving 2013

Happy Thanksgiving! So thankful for family and friends. Hope you all had a wonderful day.

reindeer

These two boys are extremely happy that the reindeer (and camel, sleighs and trains) have arrived at Swansons Nursery for the remainder of the season!

Posing with Jingle:

what does the turkey say?

Elliott is ready for Thanksgiving!

Halloween eats

Since my kids don't eat traditional Halloween candy, I try really hard to make sure they have some extra special more healthy treats to enjoy. Here's what I cooked up this year.

Monster eyes! I originally used them for Oliver's birthday cupcakes. Very easy to make, just a drop of melted coconut butter with a mini chocolate chip in the center.

Spiders. These were a huge hit and Oliver's favorite. They were absolutely delicious. They are basically chocolate dipped apricots with fruit leather strips for the legs. I found the recipe here.

 

 Our treat plate: spiders, ghosts, three musketeers and chocolate coconut clusters. No one in this house complained :)

A few other eats from the day:

Liverwurst jack-o-lanterns, these were a big hit, but now Oliver asks for them every day.

jack-o-lanterns turned monsters with the addition of eyeballs

ghosts, spiders and eyeballs for snack

And dinner was yummy mummies! The picture does not do them justice. They were so good that we will not wait until next  year to make them again. Grass-fed hot dogs wrapped in spiral cut sweet potato and baked until crispy. Then they were dipped in a bloodbath of ketchup :) Recipe is here.

trick-or-treating

A short snippet of our trick-or-treating. It soon got too dark for the camera.

more Halloween 2013

The boys loved Halloween this year! It was fun to watch Elliott get excited about it for the first time. He loves pumpkins and to say BOO! Oliver has proclaimed Halloween his favorite holiday since it's near his birthday, though I think this may change in a month or two. Here are some pictures of Halloween day and pumpkin carving.

Preschool Halloween morning

walking to school

Oliver wanted me to dress up :)

coming home with his pumpkin

he is soo proud of it!

Pumpkin carving:

Elliott liked scooping the seeds back into the pumpkin

jack o lanterns! Oliver chose all of the designs

Picture time by the pumpkins:

Penny smells witches in the air

this is my favorite :)

cutest Santa ever!

Happy Halloween from the North Pole!

eating treats!

Trick-or-treating time! We all dressed up to match Oliver's costume and we are now known as the "Christmas Family" on our block.

knock knock

maple tree

Here is Oliver's annual maple tree picture. Look how they both have grown!