South Annual Halloween Party

Every year we try and do some sort of holiday gathering for our friends and their kids, typically it revolves around Christmas and it as something to do with cookies or gingerbread houses. And as we get older, our kids get older and families get bigger, it becomes harder and harder to find a date that works for everyone so this year we thought we would do the South Annual Party a little earlier---as in Halloween earlier.

We had a small gathering of friends over last year around Halloween when the Royals were playing in the World Series & it was such great fun to see all the kiddos dressed up in their outfits. We thought, let's kick it up a notch and have a full fledged costume party.

So the party planning began. I got Justin on board with the whole costume idea and sent out the invitations. The RSVPs kept rolling in and the food list kept growing but we weren't shying away from it.

Now we needed decorations and as I pulled out my one tub of Halloween decor I knew I was in trouble & immediately started shopping. I found a few things here and there and then went crazy at JoAnn's, hey it was all 50% off. Each day I would come home with something new and Justin would just shake his head at me, I was fully prepared for him to cut me off but then he made a trip to Costco with Logan & when he returned they had a giant 6ft pirate skeleton. He was digging this whole Halloween thing too!

The main reason we got into the holiday spirit this year was the boys, for the first time they were all about it and wanted to have lots of skeletons and skeletons they got.

& because of my love for Pinterest, I event attempted to create my own Halloween wreathe. I say attempted because it took 2 chalkboards & countless glue attempts to finally get it to stick. The skeleton hands were a dollar each & the chalkboard was on hand but then I ruined one so had to get a second at $9.99 from Target. In the end, a cute spooky Halloween wreathe for the front door.

When it came to the decorations I tried to keep it all relatively inexpensive. I purchased those little skeletons at the Dollar Tree for a buck each & then a few skull heads and gravestones. The only thing that didn't work, the gravestones for outside, they blew away too easily but they made for great additions inside the house. 

Another inexpensive trick--using crepe paper to change the color of my lamp shades. I had done this for Logan's 4th birthday with red and figured black would work too--I think it gave it just the right added touch. 

But back to the party. Justin decided that he was going to smoke some meat for the party and I would take care of the side dishes and the desert--which I could handle even though I am not the cooking type. & honestly, we got so busy that I didn't get to take any real pictures, just snapped a few while the party was happening so I don't event think I got everything we had captured. 

The one item that took the most time, the spiderweb cupcakes. I used my go-to recipe from the Pioneer Woman for Heavenly Cupcakes & then used her filling as the filling and the icing & then created the web after letting the icing sit for a few minutes. 

We did the annual Mummy Dogs but added jalapeno poppers to the mummy family this year--delicious. We had Rice Krispy Treat brains, Halloween Sandwich Cookies, a hummus graveyard, spider pb&js for the kiddos, Jell-O shots (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic), and pudding cups that were like mini-graves. & of course brisket or pulled pork sandwiches. & then for drinks we had Dragon's Blood. 

Guests started arriving as the sun was starting to set so we hurried up and tried to get a picture of each family as they arrived and a group shot of the kids & then one with everyone. & let me tell you, we had some great costumes. 

& not pictured, my MIL and Craig who dressed up as a Pink Lady & a Tbird & then the Reynolds who were a superhero family. 

& please don't worry, the kids Jell-O shots were made in different shots than the adults & the the adult version was kept out of reach of any kiddos. The boys loved eating the Jell-O out of these, so much so, they have requested more Jell-O shots for your average dinner at home! 

Towards the end of the night we gave out a few awards---I mean, it wouldn't be a costume party without naming a few of the best dressed. I had four categories--take that Target had four categories--Best Male, Best Female, Best Couple & Scariest. 

Best Male went to my BIL who dressed up as one of his idols, Prince, or the artist formerly known as Prince. He actually made the guitar himself. He won the coveted fish skeleton. 

Best Female went to Dawn for her interpretation of Cat & the Hat. (The men chose the winner here). 

The Scariest, went to her husband, Nolan. He's in there somewhere!

And the couple, well, we decided to do it as a family award to get the kids involved a little too and that went to the Achatz Family who all wore Star Wars--Force Awakening costumes. & Jake and Hannah were super stoked to get the skeleton chihuahua as they did not have a single decoration at home! They thought the South house was pretty cool with all the decorations and little did they know, they made my night! 

The 2nd Annual South Halloween party was a hit and kids went home with smiles on their faces & hopefully a tummy full of food. The clock turned 10, the house was quiet & I joined Justin on the couch as we caught up on the latest episode of Catching Kelce. What a great evening with friends & a huge thank you goes to my husband as he never says no to my crazy ideas & helps out every single step of the way. He's the best. 

Sporting KC Love

We love our sports here in KC. Royals, Chiefs & Sporting KC so when we were given suite tickets to the last game of the regular season---win and we are in the playoffs we weren't about to say no.

This wouldn't be the first game for the boys, they've been before & went earlier this year with Justin but this was my first game this season & it was good to be back in the midst of it all.

We got there nice and early so we could take the boys down to the field & they could watch some of their favorite soccer players up close and personal.

& right as the pre-game festivities were about to begin, we headed back to the suite to see some of our friends that were just arriving. 

The boys watched the entire game and cheered at all the right times & in the end, we came out with a W! We were in the playoffs and the boys were as stoked as the players---well, maybe not the players but just as stoked as any of the fans were! #gosportingkc 

Kerby's Pumpkin Patch

I try to ensure that the kids visit a pumpkin patch each year. It doesn't always happen but I like to think that the effort was there and that our days just got away from us. So when Justin signed up for another bbq tournament I knew we had our window.

We started the morning out with the boys' last baseball games--their games overlapped and thankfully Janet was there to help so that neither boy felt as though they weren't being paid attention to. After the games wrapped up we headed home, changed our clothes and then off to lunch we went. As we sat there eating I googled pumpkin patches and within seconds, ten or twenty popped up on my phone. I picked the closest-Kerby's Pumpkin Patch.

It was a gorgeous day so I figured it would be pretty busy but to my surprise, it wasn't. Then again, it wasn't a huge pumpkin patch and was missing one MAJOR thing---the jumping pillow. The boys decided to look beyond that and went in with an open mind.

As we walked in the boys immediately found the duck races. What is it about water and boys?!?

 We then headed to the corn maze which is what I was excited for. Typically, okay, almost always, I like to be in control but I turned the navigation over to the boys. I figured the field couldn't be that big so if we got lost, we could turn around and walk out the same way we came in...

The boys alternated who decided which way we go at each turn. Left, Right or straight. We made a few wrong turns but nothing that took us too far off of course and in a matter of 10 or so minutes had made our way through.

They hit up the bean bag toss. The zip lines--where Logan wasn't digging how fast they were pushing him so Kaden asked the workers if they could push him a little easier so he would want to ride again. Such a sweet brotherly thing to do.

The pumpkin field was next and we ended with a little trip through the Spook House, a few more flights down the zip line & then a little tic-tac-toe. Kerby's pumpkin patch was exactly what we were looking for.