A Halloween Birthday

What to do on a RAINY Halloween?  Well, I guess you could trick or treat all night but we decided to make that really quick.  Just 5 houses and we were all done!  It was pouring rain so we just took our tike around to the close neighbors. 
He was content with that, and

probably would have preferred going in to any one of them to sit and stay a while (he tried several times).  When kids came to our door he wondered why they didn't ever come in.  But he did see it as an opportunity to raid OUR candy bowl each time.  We also, we meaning Amy, decided to try making a haunted gingerbread house.  These little numbers are difficult!  Even though we had directions, all ingredients provided, and plenty of time I thought it was much harder than it looks.  I have never touched gingerbread before but it smelled great.  But black frosting?  Really?  It looks like tar and has about the same consistency.  It was very fitting to spread it on the roof.  To get the thing to stay together I ended up using frosting like caulking - that I can do.  This little house is air-tight and energy efficient!  Now, before you give me any credit, you must realize that I did follow the kit with only a few artistic modifications like the jellybean path, chocolate gravestone and blue eyes in the windows.

Our little 3 year and 2 day old had his birthday party on Friday.  Luckily Jared's sister has kids so it wouldn't be an adult only party!  It was fun to see 5 boys running around being boys.  Although our house isn't as quiet as it used to be, it's still a fairly calm place most of the time.  We had three soups to choose from and homemade rolls (thanks Grandmas) as well as chocolate birthday cake.  These cute owl cupcakes were made by our friend...perfect for a Halloween birthday party.  This was just the kind of thing I would have liked to have done but just didn't get to.  Thanks Jenifer!  And presents - because he had two parties I don't think we'll need Christmas presents.  He got some long pj's which he needed, some books on potty training (we needed) and lots of new toys to play with.  The new books are great too, he has read "Down by the Bay" several times and practically has it memorized.  Thanks to all of you who took time to celebrate with our special toddler.  He loved his party!