Monday, October 31, 2016

Hallo-Weekending

Happy Halloween!!
 Love, Ariel the mermaid & her shark buddy brother

We spent the whole weekend doing Halloween things so it seems like we've enjoyed an extra long Halloween this year.  It's fun to say yes to all of the Halloween things you can when you have kids.  

I made pumpkin cinnamon rolls for my family and they loved them.

I put together these Halloween Trays for my kids to play with on Friday.  I was thinking they'd sort, count, make patterns and play with it all.  The lacing monsters from last year were still a favorite and I was surprised at how interested the baby was in all of the items.


Fletcher's 1st Halloween
SHARK trying to look scary :)




The scary shark is stealing the mermaid's crown





We headed home to visit our families and have our 2nd annual Halloween Cousin party (last year's Halloween party) with my side of the family!!  We planned brunch, yummy treats, games, costumes and lots more.  The big kids loved my silly Halloween jokes, the cousins loved seeing everyone in their costumes and a good time was had by all.





Mummy games & cupcake decorating!

We added a new tradition to our Halloween party this year.  My mom wanted our kids to get to fill Operation Christmas Child boxes together so we did all of our shopping ahead of time so that we could fill boxes to donate at the party.  My kids loved shopping for gifts to give to kids about their age.  Then we got to tlak about the gifts we bought with our cousins.  It was a great service project to get to do with the whole family.  Have you ever participated in Operation Christmas Child?
Here's what we picked out for a boy and a girl.


 Mimi & Papaw and the 9 grandkids.
It was so sweet to see all the kids dressed up together.

 We watched Notre Dame win, went to a bonfire in the evening, got to see lots of family 
and had a nice weekend!



The weekend ended on a sad note.  My parent's sweet dog, Maxx, passed away Sunday morning.  He was 15 and has been a part of so many of our fun family memories over the years.  We always joked that he was the little brother my brother always wanted.  We're going to miss this bearded pup!!

Hope you had a great weekend.  Happy Halloween  :)

19 comments:

  1. I love the cousin Halloween party! Such a fun yearly tradition! And so sorry about your parents' dog!
    Sarah at MeetTheShaneyfelts

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  2. I'm so sorry to hear about your parent's dog! But how fun that the kids got to spend the weekend with cousins. It looks like such a great time. Also, I love the little sorting boxes...you're such an awesome mom! Have a happy Monday!

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  3. Looks like a fun (and very cute) pre-Halloween weekend! Love the kids' costumes! :)

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  4. It looks like such a great weekend Whitney I LOVE the shark and the mermaid :). I am so sorry to hear about your parents dog too. It is never easy to say goodbye to a pet when they become such a huge part of the family.

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  5. It looks like your Halloween plans were fun! We are planning on doing the Operation Christmas Child also. It's great to see what other people have put in their boxes. Thanks for sharing!

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  6. I'm so sorry to hear about Maxx. :( 15 years is a long time to have a pet - they become such an integral part of our family.

    Your cousins party looked like so much fun! Olive and Fletcher are super cute in their costumes - Ariel is one of my favorite princesses! :) Love your mom's idea to assemble the OCC boxes together. That is such a great tradition! You picked out great stuff for your boxes!

    Whitney @ Come Home For Comfort

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  7. Your two lil pumpkins are the cutest! Loved this post, full of so much Halloween goodness.

    We are doing Operations christmas childnwith our co-op, but you've inspired me to do one at home too.

    I'm so sorry to hear about your parent's dog - that's so hard and heartbreaking.

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  8. So sorry to hear about your parents pup! That Halloween party looks like such a blast though - so fun!

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  9. Aw I'm sorry about your parents' dog : ( O and F look adorable in their costumes, and what a fun tradition to get to do with cousins! I can't waitttttt to have nieces and nephews and for our kiddos to have cousins! Anthony and I were just talking about doing operation christmas child or something similar with Lawter this year. I do an angel tree through work and really want to start getting her involved too! Yall are so good!

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  10. Oh look at all the fun you had! I love it. So sorry to hear about your parents' dog :(

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  11. Your cousin Halloween party looks like so much fun! How neat that you have that tradition!!! I am sorry to hear about your parents dog-it's never easy to lose a pet that was loved so much ❤️ Hope you have a happy happy Halloween friend!

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  12. Love the costumes! And the cousin party looked like so much fun! Sorry to hear about Maxx; now that we have animals around, I know they become part of your family and it's hard to say good-bye.

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  13. Oh my! Fletcher in his little shark costume is adorbs! Love Olive's mermaid costume too! Precious! :)

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  14. The kids look adorable in their costumes. I also participate in Operation Christmas Child. I've got a box together for a girl in the 10-14 age range.

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  15. Sorry to hear about Maxx's passing. Losing a pup is always tough. The party looked like lots of fun! Y'all do some really fun stuff together. Fletcher looks so much like Olive. I've never done Operation Christmas Child. I've done Angel Tree in the past and if I don't adopt my own family to buy for, I do team up with others. Having my own one to buy for makes adopting a family to buy for a little more difficult. You are right, Halloween did get to be celebrated a lot longer this year. We basically celebrated from Friday until last night. I'm ready to move on to the Thanksgiving holiday.

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  16. Very cute costumes! I am so sorry for your pup loss. He looked like a sweet dog!

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  17. Those pumpkin cinnamon rolls look so yummy!!! :D


    Blessings,
    Edye | Http://gracefulcoffee.com

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  18. Oh how I love when siblings dress up as a theme!

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  19. I love the Halloween tests. Olivia still won't attempt lacing activities. I'm so sorry about Maxx! It's so hard to lose a family member!!

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