Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Happy Halloween: This & That


Happy Halloween!  I'm pretty excited for today - Tatum has no idea what's going on but last Halloween he was only two weeks old so at least we can get a little festive today.  I can't wait to see him trick or treating - he loves holding things in his little hands so I think he'll enjoy getting the candy at each door.  Speaking of trick-or-treating - I have my Halloween candy bags almost ready to go, a few more to finish today...

Halloween Crafting: This went much better than the last time we tried at a holiday (around 4 months old) so I'm hoping to try something bigger for Christmas gifts but Tatum made some cards for family and friends with his little foot print and I turned it into a ghost - inspired by a Pinterest find.


Pumpkin Painting: I wasn't sure how this would go but figured we could take a shot.  In order for Tatum to not try to eat the paint, I helped dip his hands into the paint and guide him onto the pumpkin... next year on this one!


Halloween Baking: I was in a time crunch yesterday so I didn't make as many things as planned but I had time for my favorite Christmas cookie (with Halloween colored sprinkles) and some mini white chocolate pretzels.


Pumpkin Carving: We typically do this just before the big game so we did it last night when we had some family over and everyone helped out.  We all took them out for a test afterwards.


Halloween Eve:  Like last year we had family over to see Tatum and start celebrating.  He and I got some playtime in while we waited for everyone then we enjoyed some cheeses while we waited for lasagna and meatballs to heat up paired with a salad for dinner.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Penn State vs. Iowa


Another Saturday, another day of football.  The weather on Saturday was less than perfect - cold and rainy but luckily by game time it was a lighter rain/mist.  We had a bunch of family and friends in town and had a great weekend.  


We went down to tailgate a little bit later than usual due to the weather but managed to had a good time.  We did some potato soup, pulled pork sliders and hot dogs as well as a few dips and other little things.  We did whatever we could to stay warm! 



It was a good win but went to the final minutes so we couldn't sneak out early - We hurried home right after to warm up and had some other tailgate stuff, ordered pizza and enjoyed all hanging out.  Lovie and Tatum opted to stay home from the game and stay warm! 


Friday, October 26, 2018

Pumpkinland


Pumpkinland is somewhere we've been going since I was a baby and we even took Tatum last year! We love this little farm near my parents house and they have the best activities throughout the year - We also go here to get our Christmas trees in December.


After apple picking we went back over to the barn with Lovie and Uncle Davey and grabbed some apple cider and apple cider donuts - which Tatum loved tasting - to snack on before checking out the animals.  We went to play on the playground and then headed over to Pumpkinland.  


We wandered through the craft section and let Tatum wander around outside as we checked out the displays.  We grabbed him a few mini pumpkins for us to paint with him and Poppy got there just as we were heading in to enjoy it with us.


Thursday, October 25, 2018

Apple Picking


After a bit of rescheduling, on Monday afternoon we finally went apple picking!  The farm we go to is one that we've been going to since my brother and I were little and they didn't have apple picking back then so it was a first for us and Tatum but my Mom and Derek had both been when they were younger.


We had a great time and awesome weather.  We were a little late in the season to go so we just picked a few "good apples" that we could find and then headed back to the farm for other activities.  We've already picked up fixings for an apple pie that Derek wants to make.


Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Tatum's Tailgate Birthday Party


We had the best time celebrating Tatum's first birthday with family and friends - this was a milestone for us - as still sort of "new" parents, we've never thrown a kids birthday party before but we had so much fun.

We used our neighborhood clubhouse so we didn't worry about having to clean up our house after the party and it worked great.  I used a bunch of balloons for the decorations, the classic one year banner, a first year sign with his stats, a football sign and a framed invitation.


We had most of the food catered by our country club to keep it easy and went with all football/kids food - hot dogs, chicken cheesesteaks, cheesesteak egg rolls, mac n cheese, chicken tenders, wings and a tater to bar since we call Tatum, Tater Tot.  I also had some kids snacks like applesauce pouches and veggie sticks as well as some stadium snacks like popcorn, cotton candy and cracker jacks.  We had another little table with some fruit, veggies and salad.


I got a few inflatables - a football player you can throw the ball to and a ref as well as borrowed a bounce house from a friend.  In another room were some football coloring sheets and a duck pond guessing game since Tatum loves ducks.

In the game room which already has foosball, ping pong and shuffleboard tables set up we brought home our corn hole and ladder golf games from Penn State - the kids loved them and finding the beanbags and footballs at the end was fun, ha!

We had little football boxes for gift bags with a football rubber duck, bubbles, a squishy football and a little foam finger.


I always love dessert so we used our favorite bakery for a nice cake and then had a plain smash cake for Tatum and finished the dessert bar off with some candy.  We went simple with wine, beer, water and seltzer as well as juice boxes for the kids.


Tatum LOVED his cake!  On his real birthday he had just a cupcake so this was his first time to really dig in.  At first he just played with it but then he went to town snacking on it too.  He had some of his older friends help him blow out the candle.


It was such a fun day and while it was exhausting and overwhelming, it went by in a flash.  We felt so blessed to have so many of our family and friends in attendance to enjoy the day. Tatum got tons of attention and ran all over the place.