Shooting and Cake

My hubby is always amazing me in his awesomeness when it comes to domesticity. He is usually willing to keep the girls while I go off and play at a scrapbooking retreat or a Time Out for Women retreat with my friends. While I am gone he does fun things to do with the girls and generally cooks something or other.

Last weekend while I was in Portland for a spiritual reboot with about 3400 other women, 20 of which are close friends of mine, he took the girls shooting and then baked a delicious chocolate cake, from scratch. I know it was delicious because they saved me a piece. He swears it was more moist the first day but I can't imagine how. Anyway, here are some pictures of the festivities.

We love to take our pumpkins up in the woods and shoot them after Halloween. M said that K was really good at using her sites and had nice groupings on her target.

L had a harder time shooting. She couldn't figure out how to use the sites properly and got upset when she didn't hit the target. She spent most of her time watching a movie in the truck, but she is only 4 and has time to learn.

 

M also let K use his .22 lever-action which she really enjoyed shooting. I have some very short videos I will put up at the end of this post.

And of course my hubby can never come home without bringing whatever garbage he finds up there. Last weekend he found a shot up television that he brought home and tore apart so it would fit in our garbage can. I wish everyone else who shot up there was as conscientious.

And now for the piece de resistance. The very chocolatey and oh so yummy cake.You want a piece don't you? Well, it's gone now but I can say that after making the cake, he cut in half and took it to one of our neighbors whose wife was with me in Portland. He is always making tasty confections and giving them to our friends and neighbors. Too bad you don't live here or you would have some too.

K shooting her .22 youth rifle.

Shooting Daddy's lever action .22.

Multiple Fright Nights

This year my girls wanted to be fairies for Halloween. My mom-in-law made the girls costumes with their help and then bought them some wings on Amazon. She also bought a pair for me and I was able to find a dress at Goodwill for only $4.99 with the help of my aunt.
We had Trunk or Treat on Thursday the 25th which involved a chili cook-off, hot dogs, a coloring contest, and of course trunk or treating. The girls filled up their bags in less than 15 minutes and we headed home to sort through it all. In our family I go through the candy and those items we deem gross inedible we put in our candy bowl for Halloween night. I also make the girls pick out only 15 pieces to keep and put the rest in the candy bowl for others.

 The girls favorite trunk was the VW Bug decorated with monster teeth.

The following day I went down to the beach with my aunt for a scrapbooking retreat. On Saturday there was a costume contest so we dressed up and I won! The prize was a cute Halloween paper pack. There weren't many of us but all the costumes were great. My aunt dressed up as a zombie scrapbooker. There was also a scrabooking chain gang, an M&M, a sixties girl and the King and Queen of Hearts. Only one person didn't dress up. 

 Isn't her makeup creepy? 

I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley!

On Halloween we invited our favorite family over for some trick or treating. We had a great time going door to door in our neighborhood begging for treats. The girls got a ton of candy and the weather stayed pretty nice until after we were done.

 Getting candy from our next door neighbor.

 

 We all loved these Angry Bird jack-o-lanterns.

 

Again, we went through the girls candy, let them pick out another 20 pieces to keep and put the rest in the Halloween bowl, (after my candy tax, of course). Then K handed out the rest of the candy to trick or treaters before we all headed to bed.

A Quiet Birthday

I was out of town for M's birthday so we decided to celebrate it a little early. We took him to Road House for dinner and then came home to open presents. The girls got him two new t-shirts (his very favorite) and a pair of boxing gloves to go with his punching bag. He also received a light-weight camp stove and some money for fuel from his parents. It was a quiet birthday.