Update On Quad E's Costumes

Just wanted to give everyone an update on Quad E's costumes since the last time I posted, I hadn't made any of them yet. I finally found time to make the toadstool hats for the girls and E1's elephant costume after some research of the best way to attach a trunk, just in time to go to Boo at the Zoo.

*E1 ended up really liking the toadstool hat so he decided to put in on and pose for this picture with E3.

I had decided to attach a mask of sorts to the top half of the grey hoodie and have holes cut out for eyes and the trunk attached. Seemed like a good idea to me and actually turned out pretty well. Unfortunately, E1 found it scary. He was scared of his own costume, oh boy!

* Couldn't even get E1 to leave the costume on long enough for me to take a picture, so I had to put it on E3 for pictures.

I tried to get E2 and E3 to put the costume on, in hopes that E1 will see that they are unafraid and maybe he would feel the same. But it didn't work. Let me tell you, I was really disappointed at first since I had spent so much time on the costume and now he wouldn't wear it. When he looked at E2 and E3 in their toadstool costumes, he decided he wanted to be a toadstool too! We planned to go to Boo at the Zoo that day and I really wanted them to go in costume, so what was a mother to do? I decided to rush and make E1 and also E4 toadstool hats so they could all go in coordinated costumes.

* E4 in his toadstool hat, SO cute!

Later in the day, we figured out that the main reason E1 was afraid of his costume was the mask part, so I asked him if he would be willing to wear the costume if I took  the mask out. He nodded yes. And said he wanted to be a mouse instead since without the mask and only the ears attached to the hood, the costume looked more like a mouse. He got really excited about being a mouse, since he was born in the year of the mouse based on the Chinese zodiac.

So this year, I learned a good lesson of being flexible and showing unconditional love as a mother.

After I had finished the toadstool hat for E1, I asked him if he knew why I was willing to rush and make a new costume for him. When he said no, I explained to him it was because I loved him and gave him a hug. It was a good moment in parenthood, a real Treat!

I hope this Halloween brings some sweet treats for you as well!

Zi

Boo at the Zoo and Mall-oween

A couple weekends ago we went to the Philadelphia Zoo where they had an event called "Boo at the Zoo." The kids could dress up and go trick or treating. This was the first time I've seen so many people at the zoo and amazingly we bumped into Zi and her family there. It was pretty crazy that we had to park at another venue's lot. To top it off one of the trolley shuttles broke down and we ended up waiting over an hour to be picked up. One bad trick! Fortunately the kids were in good spirits and enjoyed their first time on a trolley.
As a treat/apology we got a pass for free unlimited rides in the Zoo. The kids enjoyed a horseback ride and carousel rides. We spent a good amount of time at the primate house where we got up close with some of the gorillas. There was one point when one of the male gorillas ran right towards us. Such a scary sight for me but N was not phased at all. He loved it and stood there watching them. He probably could have stayed all day.

This past weekend we went to a local mall where they have a yearly event called Mall-oween.
We got some fun freebies and activities, then went trick or treating. It was really crowded this year that we had to wait in lines at each store. I think most parents came knowing that Halloween may be a wash out because of Hurricane Sandy. What's with the weather? Last year we had a snowstorm and now a hurricane. Rain, snow or delays the kids had fun at both events.

What fun activities did you do for Halloween this year? 
Did Hurricane Sandy effect you?
Eva

We've been booed!

Every year in our neighborhood around Halloween time we get treats left on our doorstep with a note and a "Boo" sign. I think it's such a fun and cute thing to do. It reminds me of those chain letters that we use to do back in elementary school. Remember those? My kids are always thrilled to find them. This is the sign we got this year.

 

I found their website and saw they have a free printable if you want to start one up in your neighborhood. Check our Pinterest free download board.

Basically you hang the "Boo" sign on your front door or window once you received the treat. Within 2 days make 2 copies of the note and "Boo" sign. Make 2 treats and secretly deliver to 2 neighbors/friends.

Have you ever been booed? Do you make special halloween treats for your friends?

I remember when my co-workers and I use to leave treats on each others desks. It was great! We always had fun celebrating together.

Eva

P.S. For those of you are in Hurricane Sandy's path. Stay safe!

Free Monster Coloring Page

As promised here is a fun coloring page, the monsters are helping Bumble decide on how he should dress up for Halloween! What do you think Bumble should be?

If you like this coloring page, don't forget to pin this to your Pinterest board.

In case you missed it, the link to the coloring page is here.

Monsters Are Here!

The monster magnets have arrived at the honeycomb store!

Which one is your favorite?

New Magnets Alert!

Getting into the spirit of Halloween with some treats and no tricks here at Bumble of Joy, we will be rolling out some fun new magnets tomorrow!

We are a bit giddy about these magnets because they are just so cute and adorable! Let us introduce you to the friendly and not at all scary monsters from Bumble's closet--Mittens, PJ, Tux, Buttons, and Jeans.

See if you can guess which is which. They will be added to our honeycomb store tomorrow and don't forget to come back on Friday for a free coloring page.

Eva and Zi

Toadstools

A few years back, my husband and I decided to tackle the huge project of finishing our basement and making it  a playroom for the kids.  Thank goodness my husband is super handy!  I did the designing and he made it into reality. Not to brag, but the basement really is super cool and fun! One of the fun features of this playroom is a built in playhouse. I will have to post pictures here in the future.

The reason I mention the playhouse in the basement is because I want to share with you today these cute toadstools that I made to decorate the window ledge of the playhouse.

When I was dreaming about and designing the playhouse, I played around with quite a few ideas of what would be used to decorate the window ledge.  Originally, I was thinking I would make sunflowers, or Gerber daisies. But eventually landed on toadstools, since I have a weird obsession with them.  If my husband didn't restrain me and knock some sense into me, I would probably buy every toadstool type decoration out there. I think they had a nice pop of color into the basement that has a green and orange theme.

Do you have a dedicated playroom in your house?  Is there an element of design that you are particularly proud of in your playroom or your home in general?

Zi

Fun and Simple Candy Corn Craft

While going through Pinterest looking for craft inspirations, I found this simple candy corn craft from An Indiana Mom.

I just made some minor tweeks to her original idea and E1, E2, and E3 were ready to decorate their own candy corn. The tweeks I made was instead of doing it on white paper, I changed it to colored construction paper that was not yellow or orange. That way the kids could also fill in the white part with paper pieces as well.

So you first draw a candy corn shape onto colored construction paper.

Then cut little pieces of white, yellow, and orange construction paper and put them into small cups or containers.

Take out some glue sticks and let the kids at it.  Like the paper pumpkin craft I also made one to show the kids what they were supposed to do.

It was interesting to see E1 and E2 carefully place one piece of cut paper at a time and E3 just try to slap on a whole bunch thinking they would all stick. Of course I had to explain and show her that she needed to take her time to place each piece of paper on in order for them to stick. But crafting is not so much her thing, so she just wanted to get it over with I think, haha!

Talking of candy corn, I like them but can't say I'm a big fan of them, anyone out there that loves candy corn? I personally love anything that has chocolate and peanut butter, if it is dark chocolate then even better! What is your favorite Halloween candy?

Zi

M is for mummy craft

Unfortunately we didn't have any coloring page submits for this month's contest.  Hopefully there will be submits next time?

Regardless, here's a fun mummy craft that I did with H&N. H was more interested in making this than N. But once he saw his sister doing it he hopped on to the chair and said "I want to make a mummy too!"
This gave me an opportunity to teach the kids "the letter of the day... M" and H could practice her cutting skills. N's obviously is not as advance but he enjoys learning how to hold scissors and cut slivers of paper.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
White balloon
White cup
White streamers
Googly eyes
Paper to draw arm and legs
Glue
Scissors

As H was cutting I inflated the balloon to make the head and cut a slit on the bottom of the cup. Insert balloon end through the slit.

Now cut streamer in strips. I cut the streamers in half to make smaller strips. Apply glue and wrap up the mummy's head and body. Glue on eyes, arm and legs.

Do you like H&N's mummies? If you do please Pin It, thank you!

What do you love most about being a mummy? or love about your own mummy?
I love getting an unexpected "I love you mommy!!!", hugs and kisses from my kids. PRICELESS!!!
Eva

CSA Gems

Two years ago my husband and I decided to join a local CSA, so we could support a local farm and also to get some fresh organic vegetables and the occasional fruit. It has been quite a culinary experience for us since  we have joined.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, before marriage and children I wasn't much of a cook and didn't really care too much about learning how to cook either. But now I care much more about what I am feeding my children so have taken cooking more seriously and am always looking for new recipes to try.

With the CSA we get to try quite a lot of "new" vegetables that I wouldn't normally buy at the supermarket or farmers market. Most of these vegetables come out during the end of summer and fall. Today I'm going to share with you some of these vegetables and the recipes I used for them.

Celeriac aka Celery Root

*Picture from Lee Court Farms

This is by far the weirdest looking vegetable we have come across from our CSA. When my husband came back with it last year, I was like "What the heck is that? It looks like a brain!" I had to do some searching online through images to figure out what it was. Quite a lot of people add it to their mashed potato and say it's pretty good but I wasn't too sure. Some people make soup with it and I thought that would be a better way to go. I ended up using a recipe that actually originally calls for Fennel, the vegetable that I will talk about next, and it turned out pretty good. One thing to note, while cutting the root after the ugly skin is removed, it leaves a cool feeling on your hands, pretty interesting. Overall though I can't say I'm crazy about it and wouldn't buy it myself if I saw it at the supermarket or farmers market.

Fennel

*Picture from healthfulpursuit.com

This one looks a bit like a heart. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it or what it was called when my husband first brought it home. Our CSA does post all the vegetables we get at each pick up but my husband doesn't always pay attention to it or just can't remember everything. So I did a search online to figure out what it was and then saw that on the CSA newsletter they actually shared a recipe for it--White Bean Fennel Soup. I went to pick up some white beans which I didn't have at home and set out to make the soup out of this unusual looking vegetable. Let me tell you, it was AMAZING! Perfect for a cool fall evening. I hope we get it again this year!

Delicata Squash

*Picture from foodsubs.com

I've seen this at the supermarket or farmers market but never bought it since I had no idea how to cook it. My husband and I both think it's an Asian thing that we just don't usually eat squashes so we are not familiar with it and don't usually like it too much. So when we got a few with our CSA share, I searched online for some recipes that sounded like something my husband and I would like. I found Chili Brown Sugar Delicata Squash with Pears. A few things caught my eye about this recipe, it wasn't the usual just cut the squash in half, brush some olive oil with salt and bake recipes. Because I knew my husband would never eat that and I would try it but definitely wouldn't love it. It had other ingredients such as chili and brown sugar as mentioned in the recipe name and it had bacon! Both my husband and I love bacon so I thought the fact that it had it would give the recipe a chance. So I made it one night for dinner minus the pears since I didn't have any at home and didn't want to just buy some for the recipe. I thought it was pretty good and would eat it again but my husband didn't quite like it. He said the only good thing about it was the bacon! Oh well, it was worth a try.

Leeks

*Picture from agricultureguide.org

I've heard of leeks before but always had an image in my head that they looked like turnips for some reason. So when we got leeks in our CSA share, I had no idea what it was. For a time, my mom was around and she just cut them up and sauteed them with some olive oil and garlic and they were pretty good. But when my mom left, I wanted to see if I could find another recipe for it and realized then that they were actually leeks! I found an easy Leek and Potato Soup recipe and decided to give it a try. I couldn't believe how good it tasted! I wasn't quite sure if my husband would like it but when he got home and tried it he loved it too! It is creamy yet light and not heavy like some soups. I will definitely be making more of this soup.

Acorn Squash

*Picture from gastronomersguide.org

I knew what this was when we got it in our CSA share but usually only see it used as fall decoration and have never really eaten it. Again going to the internet to do some searching, I found this recipe--Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash. Like I mentioned above, we are not big squash eaters, so I thought the sausage in this recipe should help it do better in our household. But again, I liked it but my husband not so much. Don't get me wrong, I loved the stuffing part of it that had the sausage but didn't really enjoy the squash part. Oh well, I guess we won't ever be big squash eaters.

Though some recipes weren't as well received, I was glad that my family and I got the chance to try some of these more unusual vegetables and broaden our horizons. There were a couple, like the leeks and fennel, that I would get in the future even if we are not part of the CSA anymore.

Here are links to all the recipes I mentioned above:
Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash
Chili-Brown Sugar Delicata Squash With Pears
White Bean Fennel Soup
Potato Leek Soup

Have you tried any of these vegetables or any other more unusual vegetable before? Please share your experience and your recipe.

Zi

Decorating pumpkins

Now that we picked our pumpkins from the patch, it's time to decorate them.
I love to carve pumpkins but I think H&N are still too young to use the tools.
Here's a fun and easy idea we use. We have stickers we never used that were included with the helium tank I bought for H &N's birthday party. I thought this would be a quick and mess-free project to create some silly pumpkins.

Instead of lifting that 37 lb pumpkin I had H&N decorate outside. It was a beautiful fall day.

No stickers? No problem! You can create your own by drawing on large mailing labels. Cut and color and now you have your own personal stickers. Or just use plain old fashion paper and glue. Have the kids create their version of scary or silly eyes, nose, ears, mouth and accessories.

A plus about this method is once Halloween is over you just take off the stickers and use it for Thanksgiving decor.

Meet our Pumpkin family!

From left to right: H, N, Daddy & Mommy

How do you decorate your pumpkins?

Eva

New Lunch Buddies Set!

A NEW Lunch Buddies set with all the designs is now available at the "honeycomb store" for only $12! Go check it out!

Fun books of the month

I want to share some Halloween themed books we’ve been reading this month. We hope you will enjoy them as much as we do.

The Hallo-weiner, By Dav Pilkey

Oscar gets teased for being different from the other dogs and what’s worse was the costume his mom got him. In the end he comes out a hero and is never made fun again.

Ant and Honey Bee: a pair of friends at Halloween, By Megan McDonald

This is a short chapter book that I read to H. It's a story about two friends and how they come up with a perfect pair of Halloween costumes.

Five Little Pumpkins, By Dan Yaccarino

A fun book for the young ones, N practices counting as we read this one.

Skeleton Meets the Mummy, By Steve Metzger

We found this one on display at Barnes and Noble.

Something is following Sammy, what could be making that noise? Scritch- Scratch.

We like the ending to this book.

Big Pumpkin, By Erica Silverman

We bought this last year. H loves to read this over and over all year long.

The witch wants to make pumpkin pie but has a hard time getting the pumpkin off the vine. With some help see how she finally is able to make her pie.

We are heading to a book sale at our local library today. We're always looking for new books to read.
What are some Halloween / Fall books that you recommend?
Also, remember to submit your child/children's pumpkin picking coloring page if you haven't done so already. There is only a few days left before the contest ends!

Have a great weekend!
Eva

Paper Pumpkin Craft

Here is a simple paper pumpkin craft that I did with E1, E2, and E3 one day. It is great for younger kids and also can help with fine motor skills.

First I drew some pumpkin shapes on orange construction in all different sizes and then cut them out.

Out of brown construction paper I drew and cut out some stems. And then out of black construction paper I cut out some eye shapes, nose shapes, and mouth shapes.  I also added some googly eyes to the selection so the kids could decide on their own what they want to use.

Then we are ready to start decorating our paper pumpkins!

I also made one myself so the kids could see what they are supposed to do with all the shapes but I let them decide how exactly they wanted to decorate their own pumpkin. They got to practice using glue sticks and placing the shapes on their pumpkins. It was pretty exciting to see how they each picked slightly different shapes and showed their individuality.

Then we lined our finished products for a group shot!

And then hang them up on our magnetic board to show daddy when he comes home.

Any fun fall crafts you have made with your kids? Would love to have more to do with the kids.
Also, don't forget to submit your child/children's pumpkin picking coloring page!

Zi

BOJ Review and Giveaway on Sweet Tiny Blessings

We got another great review, this time by Mommy Mandi from Sweet Tiny Blessings.

Read Sweet Tiny Blessing's Review & Giveaway here.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a custom made Blue Dino-mite Dino Hair Clip!

Pumpkin Patch

We are so happy that the weather turned out to be nice on Saturday so we didn't have to reschedule our pumpkin patch trip! Originally weather.com was predicting 40% chance of rain but then by Saturday morning it was only at 10%. The weather looked nice outside so we decided to chance it and go ahead with our plans.

This year we went to None Such Farms in Buckingham, PA. As mentioned in Friday's post, we had been there 4 years ago when Eva and I both only had 1 child. Now we are going with 6 kids in tow, what a difference a few years make! The farm had gone through some changes as well. Their pumpkin patch had grown quite a bit and there was not only a traditional tractor drawn hayride but also a draft horse drawn hayride as well! The farm also features--decorated pumpkin people, hay bale maze, pony rides, live music, tractor drawn wagon ride for kids and food. The rides require different amount of tickets and the tickets cost $1 a piece.

We decided to go pick pumpkins first before going on the various rides. The field was a bit overgrown so it was difficult for the children to walk through some parts of the patch where there were plants that were taller than them in the way. But we had fun none the less and found quite a few pumpkins to our liking.

E3: "I like this one."

The great thing about None Such Farms is that their patch has various types of pumpkins and even gourds growing so you could pick all different kinds. We were able to pick traditional orange pumpkins, albino pumpkins, and tan pumpkins. E1 and H even found a huge albino pumpkin during our trek!

H:"Look at what we found!"

After taking many pictures and finding lots of pumpkins, we found the ones we wanted and decided to leave the patch and go for some rides.

First up were pony rides for E2 and E3.

Followed by wagon rides for H, N, E2, and E3. E1 wasn't too interested in the rides for some reason.

H & N: "Hi Mommy!"

Then we decided to go on the draft horse drawn hayride since that was a more unique experience.

Not the one we were on but a nice view of the draft horse hayride.

Our horses were named Flash and Clyde. Flash is on the left and Clyde is on the right.

The horses have their own personality and we started out with them tangled up (you can see it if you look closely at the picture), so a farm worker had to untangle them. Then we were off and trotted along the field. At one point there was a bit of a slope and the horses picked up their pace and the kids got quite a kick out of that! There were also some corn stalks hanging low that our carriage came in close contact with so we had to brush those aside. The end of the hayride was a short distance on a paved road and the kids enjoyed listening to the click clacking of horseshoes on the pavement. This proved to be quite a unique experience indeed!

After the hayride, we still had a few tickets left, so H, N, E2 and E3 went on the wagon ride again and had a great time the second time around. By this time the weather was getting a bit chilly and we had used up all our tickets. So after a short rest listening to the live music and munching on some snacks we decided it was time to leave the farm.

Overall, a great experience at the pumpkin patch this year!

We would love to hear your pumpkin patch experiences, do share!
Zi