Benson Ward Trunk Or Treat in pictures

FOOD:

I made a ton of white chocolate dipped pretzel rods.  They were so yummy, too.

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GAMES

Pin the wart on the witch.  The warts were little dots of that yellow sticky stuff you can put on walls...genius!

Even grown ups got to play...Bart ROCKED the toss the skull in the buckets game.

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Prizes and Photo Ops:

I am dressed up.  Charity, girl singer from The Head and the Heart...totally!

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I love Diana...I am so glad I got to know her and can call her my friend!

 Same thing goes for Rebecca...she really gets into character...actually DYED HER HAIR to be Lucy from Charlie Brown!

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CANDY!!!!  The reason for the season!

Sometimes Red Eye is Funny

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Demon babies or a group of the most adorable 2 turning 3 year olds around?

 This picture has you believing demon babies, I know.  But deep down, K is really a super sweet girl and this picture just LOOKS like she is attacking L, maybe a zombie baby out for zombie brains???  Hmm, I will let you decide.

The Head and The Heart, Lost In My Mind MUCH LOVE

Downsizing Netflix

A few weeks ago, Bart and I decided to downsize our Netflix from two movies out at a time to one.  We just aren't watching movies as quickly as we used to (we used to watch 2-4 movies a week, eek!) and would have one sitting around for at least a week before getting watched.
Then, we started thinking about it more...really, we rarely even watch movies on DVD, and half the time we rent them from a redbox or Blockbuster $1 box because we don't feel like watching the Netflix movie we have laying around.
So, on 11/11/11, we will no longer be Netflix DVD recipients.  We've really loved the ease of getting DVD's from them, but our watching habits have changed, and we feel the redbox and Blockbuster $1 box option is the way to go for us. 
We kept the Netflix instant streaming, though, b/c we love having a variety of movies right on hand for the boys to watch (and no DVD's to scratch, lose, break) and we LOVE watching their t.v. series.  We watched all of "Arrested Development" (did you hear they are maybe going to bring it back on t.v.?  EEK!  So excited), and are currently on the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  We are discussing what series to watch next.  With my work schedule ( I work from home for a telecommunications company), it is easy to watch one episode before or after work, but not a full movie.
Best story about instant streaming (I think that is the right word?):  Ethan is potty training.  Ethan has not pooped in potty.  Ethan watched at least 2 or 3 episodes of kid cartoons as he sat on the potty.  That would not have happened if I had not had a netbook and Netflix :)  Nothing else happened either that trip, but hey, at least he tried!
Have any of you downsized Netflix yet?  Have you thought about doing it?  Or downsizing other technology type things?

Pumpkin Patch That Must Not Be Named

I am not going to name the pumpkin patch we went to Thursday with MOM, though if you are in the Omaha area, you know where we went.
I am angry with them for not giving us the fifty cent discount I accidentally gave my group, and I will go to my grave insisting their website said $6.50 a person when I booked the date, not the $7 they swear it has been for years (it has not, last year when we went, it was $6.50 a person...I doubled checked the calendar on MOM to confirm it).  Considering we had 83 paying people, that cost me $42...AND it would have been easy for them to waive that difference.  I mean, they got well over $500 from our gate admissions, plus the oodles of money the mom's spent there that day.
So, needless to say, I do not feel like giving them any business via a google search that happens upon this blog post, even if we did have a great time while there.  The part that was rubbing salt into a wound is that as they were counting up the thick pile of ones and fives I gave them (40 adults, 43 paying kids), another group came in.  Now, yes, I know it is a special ed field trip and the people accompanying the children should get in for free...but that group got like 20 people in for free.  (That would be $140)  They didn't even give me, the organizer, a free pass.  Lame.  They could have waived that $42 we wound up owing b/c of the miscommunication in the price increase.
So, that part makes me very frustrated...I am trying to decide if it is worth it to email more about it or just let it go.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day.

Best part of the day!  I was picked to play a game during the Pig-tucky Derby.  I think I made a fabulous contestant!

my prize

bart bought a warm caramel apple.  he said he liked the string of it.  see next picture to laugh at him more.

this picture is larger then all the rest so you can see how lovely that "string" from the caramel looked on his face :)  love you bart!

hayrack ride.  we don't call it that in LA.  we call it a hay ride

notice the farmer brown pc of straw?  real nice.

"mining"...my least favorite part.  when i agreed to go there, i thought each boy would buy a rock for a dollar or something.  nope.  $10 for a freaking bag of dirt and tiny pebbles.  i was hopping mad, but i had made a promise and they were for the most part very well behaved all day at the pumpkin patch which must not be named.

Fun day.  Cold day.  But, luckily, low wind day.
Will we go back next year?  I don't know...maybe time will heal the wound of the frustration to get in.  Or, maybe they will stumble upon this post, realize they were real jerks for making me have to pay the money (p.s. I got about 75% of it back b/c I just asked if anyone had the .50 to cover the difference if they'd pay as I gave out stickers) that I did not know to collect.  Next year if I do plan this out again, I will take a screen shot of the pricing the day I send the reservation so we have PROOF of our pricing.