a halloween favorite!

for the past several years, we have gotten the papa murphy's jack o latern pizza on halloween night.

my kids adore pizza and would eat it 3 times a day if i would let them.

of course, by the time we get to it, we take off the olives (YUCK) and add more pepperoni.

so im not sure why we make such a big deal out of it...

dizz knee land!

yup-this is where we are headed!

and, it turns out my friends heather and megan are too!

sad, they wont let me embed it, so click here if you remember the song and want to sing along.

(or if you are you are like my brother patrick and don't even remember it, you can hear it for the first time.)

so we will see you all soon!

once a princess, always a princess!

for the past few years i have been a princess at halloween. one year i was sleeping beauty (with a big long black wig...goo!), last year i was peincess leia so this year i'm...

an indian princess!

not really pocahontas, as i dont show that much boob. or belly.

usually.

and this is a way way simple costume. you will need 2 tshirts (whatever size fits. i used a large) and some beads. i bet you can use the colorful plastic ones,  but i used wood ones that i spray painted.

(and this was the ONLY photo out of 40 that i could use of my kids in the shirts)

i sewed the shirts together at the bottom, right sides together, then cut one off right at the arm pits of the shirt.

i strung the wood beads onto a string as a necklace.

pretty much that is all.

i re cut the bottom on an angle to be a bit more cooler. and i cut some fringe on the arms.

with what was left of the cut shirt, i made a little belt and strung some beads on it.

so watch out john smith-there is a new pocahontas in town!

balls with an 'S'

look at what i found in the dollar bins at michaels!

yup-more balls.

i love cupcakes!

but i hate bath and body works.

well, not really.

i used to work there years ago (awesome 40% off discount!).

and they show me love when they send me coupons for free stuff.

so today i went to get my free travel size of whatever.

and walked out with these...

little hand sanitizers that smell like cupcakes! yummy!

they were 5 for $5, plus i had a 20% off coupon, so really 80 cents each.

then i told the cashier my plans for these little things. she totally hooked me up!

she gave me 5 little gift bags with ribbon and tags, but i only ended up using the bags.

i put glitter and little die cut butterflies in the bags with a candle.

get it-a cupcake and a candle for your birthday!

isn't that adorable!

(yes, some of the glitter says 'over the hill'. got a problem with that?)

makes you wish it was your birthday doesn't it?

oh, only 191 days until mine!

crazy sean and her monkey balls

my jazzercise instructor, crazy sean*, makes THE WORLDS BEST monkey balls cake thingy.

honestly, i have tried many and this is our favorite.

20 frozen rolls

1 package of butterscotch non-instant pudding

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter (NO MARGARINE)

2 t cinnamon

spray bundt pan with non-stick spray. cut each frozen roll into quarters and rolling in pudding. place in bundt pan. melt butter in pan and mix in brown sugar and wait until it is dissolved and bubbly. pour over rolls and plastic wrap over bundt pan. let rise until doubled.

bake at 350 for 30 minutes covered in foil. take foil off and bake 5 more minutes.

yup-the kids got to it before i had time to take a photo!

*she is called 'crazy sean' by my kids. when they would go to jazzercise and be in the daycare, they could hear sean saying funny things (like 'arm up' and 'let me see you sweat'. you know, crazy people talk.). she was also wearing a microphone, so it was nice and loud.
so why wouldn't you naturally call her crazy sean.

teacher halloween gift

back in may, i made my friend, gram, some cute cards for mothers day.

they were so easy and just useful, i thought i'd make some for nate's teacher this year.

**you see, i have this 'thing' about giving teachers more candy. really, what adult needs more candy?**

nate says, 'my other teachers liked us, but ms. ames LOVES us!'. how could you not just adore a teacher like that?

i started with this fabric, it is a little grandma-y, but ms. ames is a grandma. she will like it.

then, i just did what i did before with the the underwonder and the sewing machine.

i even used a really really fancy stitch!

and here is the finished project! i got the envelopes at savers for 75 cents for the pack. so way thrifty too!

and before you think 'thrifty ba-you are just so on the ball with getting your teacher halloween gift done!', let me say that my kids go on break thursday and won't be back until the 2nd week in november. so i HAD to get it done now.

but you can still think i'm on the ball. i won't complain.