Our New Year's Eve

Wow, I can't believe it was over two weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to posting about it!

New Year's Eve has never been my favorite. I can't tell you how many I've slept through only to wake up the next day and it was a new year even though I didn't stay awake to greet it. But...

it's important to all the other people in my house!


So a few years ago, I set out to make a bigger deal of it than I had been...which was nothing at all ;)

And you know what? It's become a favorite night for all of us! We start the evening with Todd's family recipe of paella. It was/is the meal his parents serve every New Year's Eve and he wanted to continue the tradition which is a win-win for me since I LOVE paella and I also LOVE when someone else cooks dinner! (The recipe I linked is not the one he uses but it's the closest I found. The nice thing about paella is you can toss in whatever meat you wish so our meat choices are different than the ones in this recipe).

Saffron is the key! It makes it that nice yellow color and tastes amazing!

After we eat, we play some board games. Santa added several new games to our stash this year and we couldn't wait to play them! Uno Attack and Scene It Harry Potter were the games of the evening and they were tons of fun!

Brandon kept getting the attack card that says you can't talk. He got it so often it was almost like a running joke!

Our desert for the evening is fondue. That has now become a tradition as well :) This year, because we are gluten-free, we made our own homemade angel food cake to serve with our chocolate. I was worried about how it would turn out using gluten-free flour but it was perfect!

Doesn't it look yummy?? It was perfect angel food cake! This is the recipe I used and just substituted my gluten-free flour blend in place of regular flour. We love Alton Brown! If you don't watch his cooking shows, you should :)


Fondue yumminess:

Kristen goes to a party thrown by a family we know well. I hate the thought of her out on New Year's Eve but it isn't far and she doesn't have to go on any main roads to get there so it works out nicely. They have a theme every year for fun and this year was "Bling in the New Year":

Doesn't she look blingy? Jon added his bling later...

I'm so proud of my gansta daughter and her gansta boyfriend! ;) Wait, that arm looks awfully bare...maybe I'll get her a tattoo for her birthday! ;) hehe They had a really good time :)

Meanwhile, here at home, everyone made it to ring in the New Year!

Megan could not take her eyes off the screen. She was watching that ball drop for the first time in her life and was so afraid she'd miss it! I love that I caught that moment.

It was great fun and a great way to start a brand new year!

Last One of Trunk-or-Treat

I've blogged the trunk and the petting zoo, but there was much more going on there! Like I said, I've not been to one of these before, but now I'm hooked! It was actually a big party!

 Todd took the kids to the bonfire to roast some marshmallows while Brandon and I handled the van.

When they came back, I took Megan inside for the carnival-style games and such, She painted pumpkins:

 Got her cute face painted:

 She wanted cat whiskers AND a pumpkin ;)

 Then we took a hayride!

Truly a fun night! 

Trunk or Treat!

This afternoon, we participated in our first-ever Trunk-or-Treat! I'm not sure what kept us away last year. Before that, we went to a different church and they didn't have a Trunk-or-Treat so we just hadn't ever gotten around to one.

But we did tonight! And we loved it! Because we had signed up last minute (always...ugh) we didn't really have a plan as to how to decorate our trunk so I hopped on Pinterest (!) and looked up a few simple ideas. All I had to do after that was give Todd a brief description of one I thought we be fun and he took it from there!

 A spooky spider web! Our Mad Scientist was caught in the web so he did what any Mad Scientist would do...pass out candy!!

 I took this one just as it started getting a bit busy:

 Todd took Megan around while I stayed with Brandon. Nicholas took off to do his own Trunk-or-Treating ;)

 It stayed like this behind our van for the better part of an hour:

 Nick had a turn behind the web after he made the candy rounds and then ate enough of it to kill something ;)

 I also snapped a few of my favorite trunks:

 Pac Man! Love it!

A cute ice fishing pond. The kids got a home-made fishing pole and cast it over then a treat miraculously appeared on the other end ;) Fun!

It was chilly outside this evening but we had so much fun! We'll definitely be repeating this next year. And I already have a pins on Pinterest for fresh ideas!

Fun!

This weekend was food for my soul! Of course that means our house now looks like a war zone! I'm sure I'll get to rectify that situation at some point ;)

Friday was a teen night with our co-op friends for Brandon hosted at a fantastic nursery where they took a hayride, played in a corn maze, and had a bonfire. He had a great time! Meanwhile the rest of us had our usual pizza and icecream and settled in to watch "Hocus Pocus" for a little Halloween fun.

Saturday morning was football! I just love watching our guys play. I like football in general, but I really love watching our guys out there! Saturday afternoon there was a very cute dress-up birthday party for Megan to attend:

 Can you tell she was excited! She had a great time!

Saturday evening we decided to have a little bonfire ourselves! One of my favorite fall things to do! It was the perfect evening for it too, not too cold, gorgeous sky. We lingered out there for a very long time :)

 Nick was cracking us up all evening!

 Mmmm hotdogs ;) Brandon's tongue sticking out in this picture is proof!

 It really was just a perfect evening:

 Megan's mouth was full of the biggest marshmallow ever!

 Nick's was too!

 Then they did skits they learned at their scout camps :)

 They had a ball!

 We had so much fun out there that we did it again on Sunday :)

Apples Anyone?

Yesterday afternoon, I treated the kids to some apple picking! We almost didn't go because of this little cold snap we're having but they wanted to so bad I couldn't say no. Not to mention the sound of having some very fresh, very locally grown, very yummy Jonathan apples sounded really good....good enough to brave the cold ;) No wonder they wanted to go! We love our apples!

 YUM!

They couldn't wait to get started!

Nick kept saying things like, "Look at all the apples!" and "I've hit the mother-load!" . He was cracking me up!

 Doesn't he look like he's contemplating eating that one?

 And this is why we go during the week:

 There were other people here and there but NO CROWDS! I'm all about sharing but I really like it when we aren't elbow to elbow with everyone else trying to get our apples ;)

We had a great time! And, of course, we had to have a treat after all that work so I made a gluten-free apple crisp for dessert :) No wonder they really wanted some apples!

King's Island!

Yesterday was a great day! Very last minute, we decided to pop down to King's Island! I cannot even tell you how excited everyone was! It has been on our "Summer List" for the second summer in a row but for some reason, it never gets planned. And seeing as how we went on the very last weekend that King's Island is open this year (other than with the scary Halloween stuff), we almost didn't make it this summer either.

But I'm so very glad we did! We're still paying the price for going on such a hot day (exhaustion!) and for riding so many coasters (sore!) but it was worth is as our family just really had a great time.

 Megan's first ever amusement park ride:

 Nick's first ever roller coaster:

 And they both loved them! Megan was terrified on the roller coaster (the small wooden one at King's Island is now called Woodstock Express) but she ended up riding it several times ;) There weren't lines for most of the rides...at all, so we walked up and right into the little loading stalls then hopped on the ride! I couldn't believe it! NO lines!

Megan also rode a few little rides all by herself:

 Aren't they cute? :)

And more cuteness:

 See all that sweat on Nick's head? After that we all headed to the White Water Rapids ride where we were then completely drenched (especially so since we rode it twice!) but majorly cooled off! We then split up one last time; me with Nick and Megan and Todd with Brandon, Kristen, and Jon. I rode right behind these two on the Woodstock rollercoaster:

 Then Megan had one more ride by herself before we headed home completely exhausted but very happy :)

Some facts to remember:
*There weren't any lines! Mental note to always go when everyone is in school ;)
*Stow everything in the lockers right before you get on the White Water Rapids ride. We were so soaked we were literally wringing out our clothes! So glad we didn't have cell phones or cameras on that ride!
*Nick cannot ride anything that spins even ever so slightly or he has to lay down in the First Aid building. (least fun part of our day, although I must say, the First Aid building was nice and also air-conditioned!)
*Always pay a bit more for the closer parking. Water was $4.00 a bottle! Instead of shelling that out, we walked to the car and snagged our own from the cooler. We also had some snacks in the car so it was a nice, little break.
*Ride the Vortex with oldest daughter :) Fun, Fun, FUN!

It was a great day! I'm so glad we decided to brave the heat and just go!