Mystery Dinner

I love our annual Mystery Dinner - it is so much work but we have so much fun so it's totally worth it.  I tried to come up with kid friendly food and lots of variety this year.  We did 3 courses of 3 items each.

This years menu:

 

Bones and Blood
(they were served with marinara sauce not ketchup but the picture ended up with ketchup)

To make these I bought breadstick dough cut each strip into 4 pieces then shaped into a bone.

Stay Puft

This is brownies with a marshmallow and heated up frosting -
the faces melted a little but they were delicious

Bloody Face
This is one that we do almost every year because the kids eat them and they are so easy

I want my Mummy

You can't see it very well but it was the one item I didn't get a picture of.
It was a hot dog wrapped in crescent rolls

Ghastly Ghost
So easy and so fun
Heidi made these and she #nailedit

Monster Mash
These little cheese balls were yummy and kid friendly but a lot of work to make

http://www.makeandtakes.com/mini-monster-cheese-balls

King Tut
Megan made these and they turned out amazing. 
She did oreo truffles dipped in white chocolate with mini chocolate chips for the eyes.

Candy Corn
Pineapple, clementine, whip cream and candy corn. 

 Graveyard
pudding cup, crushed oreos and some jello worms
I have to do the jello worms every year because the kids absolutely HATE them and it cracks me up.

I did drinks a little different this year.  I gave the kids 3 options and just had them choose.  They could do "the undead" which was a mummy juice box or "casper"  which was a white cup with a ghost face drawn on with milk or "love potion" which was red kool-aid with dry ice.  All the kids changed to love potion once we started serving drinks :)

Costumes are required :)

And of course the kitchen must be hidden :)

Sidewalk of Fire - 10 years

Our neighborhood puts on the best block party ever for the 4th of July - Sidewalk of Fire.  We do carnival games, food eating contests, deserts, and a seriously awesome firework show.  I got to run the bean bag toss game for a couple of hours while the kids played on the street and got their faces painted. Then we kicked it on blankets and enjoyed the show.

Thanksgiving

The day started with a workout. Some people went running and some to crossfit.  Then we had a big brunch at my house with homemade cinnamon rolls and a burrito bar.  Then dinner at my parent's house.  Then the annual arm wrestling competition followed by deserts at Kami's house.  I love Thanksgiving.  I love spending time with family hanging out and chatting and eating and relaxing. 

2013 Sidewalk of Fire

My neighborhood does Independence Day right.  We have a huge block party with carnival games, popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones, face painting, flag ceremony, and fireworks every year.  It's never on the 4th - this year we had it on July 5th.  Sadly the weather didn't cooperate so we didn't get to the fireworks.  The rain storm was awesome though.  I love a huge storm with real thunder and lightning.  We don't see them in Utah very often.

The street during the carnival.

Soph with her butterfly 

Just hanging out on the tarp

Waiting under a blanket hoping the rain will pass

Kami with the best photo bomb ever -
and Luke joined the party but wouldn't look up (he's the gray blob on my lap)

 Taking cover under the tarp

After running home in the rain....we were soaked!

4th of July

This year the 4th was a little different than normal since all the men are partying in Alaska.  My day started with Kami and I doing the Freedom Run 10K.  Then I took the kids to the rec center to swim for a few hours.  Then we had a big dinner - rather than cook and heat up the house we did sandwiches and they were perfect.  Then all the mom's started to get restless so rather than wait 3 hours for the sun to go down we did a matinee firework show.  We started a little after 7:00 and by 8:30 all the kids were ready for bed and watching a movie.  Hooray!  Sadly, because the fireworks were going off all night - Zeus barked all night so I didn't get to bed early.  It was a great day and so much fun spending time with the family. 

Tays feels the need to do dance moves every time the camera is out

Yes she is in her pj's already

Love this silly boy!

Just us girls setting off fireworks

Tayson finally got to help light fireworks...he was pretty excited

Somehow Eli fell asleep half way through the show