Pumpkin Carving and Decor

This October has been filled with so much fall fun. I'm sad to see it leaving, but I can't wait for October next year. I love getting to decorate my own apartment, and go on fall dates. We've fit in more batches of pumpkin cookies then we should admit to, watched Hocus Pocus, went to Dr. Slaughters, a corn maze, carved pumpkins, and made caramel apples.

Taylor takes his pumpkin carving very seriously. I don't think they would ever admit it, but Taylor and his twin compete to see who can can carve a better pumpkin every year. His pumpkin came out pretty cool. 

I chose a much simpler design, but sometimes less is more. I don't have the patience to do something intricate. I always forget how much fun it is to see your freshly carved pumpkin all lit up.

Taylor and I decided that we are going to get decorations little by little every year so that we don't have to spend a fortune all at once. This is what we have found this year.

We picked up these skeletons for a dollar at the Dollar Tree. They started out sitting nicely on the bookshelf and TV stand, and then Taylor and Sheldon moved them around. We came home one night after Sheldon had been in our apartment, and found them laying in our bed tucked in on each of our sides. 

Terrible picture, but I got the pumpkins at Target for a dollar each as well in their dollar spot.

I made this wreath back in September. It is the most expensive Halloween decor, but I like it. I bought ribbon at Walmart, Micheals, and Ebay which gave me such a wide selection to choose from. I measured each kind of ribbon, cut them the length I liked, and tied them on in a random order. The ribbon looked nicer when I first made it, but 35 mph winds haven't been very nice to it. The bats were super easy to make, and I love them. I traced a bat i printed off of the computer, bent the wings out a little, and hung them up with some blue tacky stuff. Now that the hard work is done I can't wait to use them year after year.

This 'Spooky' sign doesn't have a good home yet, but he has been working it on top of the stove. I found it for three dollars at Seagull Book. I love finding random cute decorations for super cheap. It makes them so much better.

Happy Halloween!

Drag Races

It is surprising that I have been with Taylor for over a year and a half now, and this past weekend was the first time that I went to a dirt bike event. His family is really into it and goes to/competes in hill climbs, races, and goes on trips to Nevada where they can ride in the winter. This was the first event that worked out with our schedule, and was close enough to not cost us a fortune. It was also the first road trip that we got to take our new car on, and he did great.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture that I took of us.. But it does show how gorgeous of a day it was. Sunny and sixty. Couldn't have asked for a better fall day.

Taylor's parents weren't able to make it at the last minute, but we did get to spend the day with his aunt and uncle and two of his cousins. It was nice to see some family since we rarely make it down to Grace anymore.

My view for the day

I wasn't very fond of the snowmobile racing. Too loud and annoying for my taste. We saw a terrible wreck happen to one of the snowmobile racers which was definitely the worst part of the day. Last we knew he wasn't in good shape, but you aren't going to walk away with just a bruise when you crash going 108 mph.. It made me very grateful that Taylor doesn't do any of this competing so I don't have to worry about something like that happening to him. 

My favorite part of the day! Yes, that is lawn mower racing. They went so fast.

Looking at this all day didn't hurt

We came home covered in dirt with sunburned faces. It was really fun, and I'm glad that Taylor got to go to something that he loves.

Cookie Tradition

Growing up we had many different traditions. One tradition is to make these super scrumptious sugar cookies every Valentine's Day and Halloween. Valentine's Day is always hearts and Halloween is ghosts and pumpkins. These are the only two times of the year that we ever made them, and that is what has made them.

A mess that I don't mind, and nothing better than my man using the Kitchenaid.

I brought the cookies to work and decorated them with the boys. It was so perfect that they had Halloween shirts on. Take note of Bridger eating a spoonful of icing, and it was at 9:30 in the morning. (they just couldn't wait any longer) We made the cookies back in February as well. I love getting to share this tradition with them. 

Wild Adventure

Last weekend we went to the Wild Adventure Corn Maze in Blackfoot. It was both of our first time going to it, and we really liked it. Actually, it was my first time ever going to a corn maze. We went in the afternoon so we wouldn't freeze, and the weather was perfect. There are three different mazes all in one. It is huge!

For an hour straight this is all we saw.. I loved it.

I really liked that they had check points within the maze and a map. Although, the map didn't seem to help us to get out at all. It was nice to know where we were when we could actually find a check point. Please note that check point five was punched three times. Somehow we kept coming back to it..

It was such a fun date!

 There was so much for kids to do there. I can't wait to have kids for all of these fall activities. I can't believe that October is coming to a close so fast. It nearly breaks my heart. I feel like I still have so many more October activities to blog about, and so little October to do it in. 

Please Don't Make Me the Librarian

This semester I'm take a class called elementary early field experience. I love this class. This is our first real introduction to teaching. Twice a week we go to a local elementary and observe, teach, and help out in a classroom. On Wednesdays my first graders are in the room, and on Fridays they go to library and gym so we help the teacher prep.

Now that the background is set I have a funny story to tell. When we got there last Friday we found out that the librarian wasn't there. Due to budget cuts they aren't getting substitutes for her anymore. The teacher asked me if I would take them to the library and read them a story for half an hour since she really needed the prep time. They weren't going to be checking out books or anything complicated. Sounds easy, right? That's what I thought too, and it was until the last five minutes...

So wish I would have worn my glasses that day 

We read Stellaluna since they were finishing up a week about bats. We were discussing discussing the differences between bats and birds when I heard one boy complain about getting slapped in the face by another boy. I told the kids that it isn't nice to hit and that we need to keep our hands to ourselves. I thought everything was fine, and then the next thing I knew the boy who got hit is bawling his eyes out. The library isn't connected to the school at all so I was completely alone in dealing with this(which I know a normal teacher would be, but I don't even know the students' names yet..). This student couldn't have picked a worse time to cry because I needed to get them lined up and headed to gym. Somehow I got the kid to calm down, and everything turned out kind of fine, but if I was never a librarian again I would be more than happy.