However I am feeling majorly excited about the kids dressing up for Halloween and going Trick or Treating with them like we do every year. I love seeing their excitement and it's all just so fun!
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| I even turned myself into a vampire, just for fun you know. |
So tonight I decided to be a little festive and create a menu to get us all in the Halloween spirit. Tonight I made Ogre Feet Loaf, Witches Fingers, Ghost Poop, and Ectoplasm Oooze. My kids devoured our "gross supper" with a vengeance! They had so much fun pretending to be vampires while they ate their supper, ok ok so maybe we ALL made goofy noisy, silly faces, and perhaps growled, hissed, howled and used our best/worst vampire voices and evil laughs while devouring our Ogre Feet Loaf. There wasn't really anything special to making our Ogre Feet Loaf, I just made a regular meat loaf like I would any other time (I *DID* use a bit more hamburger than I normally would though to get the desired size of Ogre Feet Loaf, there is still quite a bit left over but that's ok we actually LOVE meat loaf in this house!! It will be eaten that is for sure!)
I just made my meat loaf like usual and then used an aluminum baking pan I had on hand and split my meat mix into two parts. I plopped it into the pan and started shaping it into the shape of, well as best as I could...into the shape of a foot. When I got it how I wanted it (including a bit of ankle), I then took the other half of the meat and did the same thing with it. I did a few final adjustments and then took an onion and cut off two slices (I had to take off an outer ring or two of both slices) and then I squirted a bit of ketchup on the "ankle" part, and plopped the slice of onion on there, like a bone....if you were to cut off someone's foot...at the ankle. I then formed 4 toes at the bottom of each foot (couldn't quite get 5 in, and I figured it's an Ogre's foot and our Ogre happens to have 4 toes so take that). I took those extra rings that I had popped off of the previously mentioned slice used as ankle bone and I sliced them to fit onto each "toe" as a toe nail. It looked gross, and awesome at the same time. Then I popped those bad boys into the oven to bake like I would a normal meat loaf. Though they ended up baking a bit longer as it was a bit thicker than what my usual meat loaf is. When it was all done I pulled it out and painted on some ketchup with my basting brush, and then popped it back in the oven for a few more minutes.
The kids LOVED the finished product and thought it was so much fun. To go with it, we had Mashed potatoes (ghost poop), with ectoplasm Ooze (brown gravy), and there was witches fingers, which was actually whole green beans that were all long crooked and skinny like a witches fingers might be. Mmm Mmm good supper.
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| The before photo, before it got popped into the oven. |
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| Mmm yummy Ogre Foot Loaf |
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| The after photo, after it was done baking in the oven (yeh the ketchup was a little messy...) |
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| Witch's fingers .... green beans |
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| Ghost poop...mashed potatoes |
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| Ectoplasm Ooze...brown gravy |
Plus it kind of went foot to foot...erm...leg...with the episode of the Walking Dead that I watched on Sunday. Mmm meat.
While making this meal for my children tonight I was fondly recalling the times my Grandma would cook meatloaf with my Mother and I. When I was little she once swiped my favorite bunny (to be fair I had been being a pest with said stuffed bunny in the kitchen and not doing what I was told and just being a royal pain in the butt like 6 year olds are prone to doing!) So she swiped my stuffed bunny until I decided to listen. Instead I stormed off to my room and she said she'd cook my rabbit. Later when I heard that supper was done I came running out of my room...and lo and behold...there in the meat loaf pan was a rabbit. Being a NIAVE 6 year old I thought she had cooked my stuffed bunny (I was six and to ME the rabbit was ALIVE ok? Don't judge me and my wild imagination, Mmk?) Anyway, I was hysterical. My Mother and Grandmother got a giggle out of it, I did not. Not at all. Not at first anyway.
Once they showed me how silly I was being and pointed to where my stuffed bunny was actually sitting in the kitchen...and I realized my Grandma had NOT cooked my bunny....I was fine. I laughed. I felt silly. She had simply created art out of the meat she had been preparing in the kitchen while I was busy being a little pest. Served me right for bugging the day lights out of them while they were trying to cook.
Best "rabbit" meat loaf I ever ate. No it had no real rabbit in it, strictly beef, just shaped like a cute little bunny rabbit. She later also made a turtle shaped meat loaf, and a few other animal shaped meat loaves when I was growing up and it was a hugely fun thing for me that I truly enjoyed her doing! So as I was making these feet loaves for MY kids I thought about my Grandma and I am pretty sure she would have liked them and gotten a kick out of the kids reaction and how much fun they had with it.
I know. I know. My family is COMPLETELY morbid. Eh, go suck on a lemon you sour pusses. At least we have FUN, and have memories (and therapy bills??) to remember later on down the road.
I really enjoy doing little things for the kids. I mean I'm not ALWAYS on the ball doing fun, cutsey, things for the kids. Being that "ON" all the time is EXHAUSTING! I used to do that, back when my daughter was a baby, but wow....I just couldn't keep up with it all. So I learned how to manage my fun creative with just being relaxed and calm. You can still do the fun and exciting, and still not feel pressured and like you HAVE to do this and this and this and this and that or your kids will have a MISERABLE excuse for a child hood.
I remember when I was still really young my Mother, Grandmother and I (Incase you have noticed my Grandmother was a HUUUUGE part of my life growing up she and my Mother raised me and were always there for me and are huge parts of my life and memories growing up). They would go out every December and we would cut down a live Christmas tree out of our property and drag it back home. It was EXHAUSTING. Honestly...I hated it. Thankfully my Mother quit doing it when I was like 8 or so. I'm not a fan of the real Christmas tree, I know, how awful IS that? Who hates a real Christmas tree? Don't get me wrong, I LOVE trees, but I just don't see the reasoning behind hacking down a perfectly good tree to decorate it and keep it up for a month or more, and then just fling it to the curb. Nothing screams "I LOVE THE PLANET" like kidnapping a tree, and then littering all over it, and then throwing it away.
ANYWAY, what I was saying before I went off on a rabbit trail...
That was a special thing my Mother and Grandmother did with me, as well as always hiding my Easter basket, and writing messages in the snow from big foot or whatever. They were fond memories that I look back on and think about and they make me smile. I try to do that with my kids.
This year it will be three years since I introduced our "Elf on the Shelf" to the kids, and they absolutely LOVE IT. So this year...to be a little silly and to have some random fun, I picked up a silly orange skeleton from the Family Dollar store here in town. His name is Marvin, courtesy of my husband. He's kind of silly and a bit naughty, he loves to be dramatic. So far the kids just think I'm silly, but guess what? I. Don't. Care. I'm having fun. Guess who the ones are jumping up every morning looking for Marvin? Who are the ones running home after school to see what Marvin has been up to while they were at school? Yeh, uh huh, my kids. So if they thought it was silly...they wouldn't be quite so excited over it now would they.
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| Marvin, being a skeleton on the shelf. |
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| Dying a dramatic death |
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| Swinging from the chandelier |
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| Marvin swinging from the chandelier |
In fact, I think Marvin is going to take my daughters Barbie convertible out on a little joy ride tonight, with one of her favorite Barbie's, and he might even borrow my sons stick on mustache that he got at school today. Ooooh yehhh.....
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| This week is Red Ribbon Week for drug awareness at school. The kids all got fuzzy fake mustache's at school. Son Circus #2 didn't want to take his off . I sent him to school as a fresh faced kindergartner, and he came home a man with a stache' ha! |
The other day while watching "Sherman and Mr. Peabody" or whichever way the title goes, ha! There was a scene where the Mona Lisa was being painted. Son Circus #1 became so excited he almost flew off the couch. "MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM!!!! I KNOW WHO THAT IS!! I KNOW THAT GIRL!! I KNOW WHO SHE IS! MY ART TEACHER TOLD ME! HER PICTURE IS HANGING UP IN OUR ART CLASS!!"
"Mom, Mom, that's MAMA LISA!"
Do you know how hard it was to NOT bust out laughing in that kids face? Oh my. I did grin and giggle a little. I told him I was glad he had such a great teacher who taught them all about art and that he liked the Mona Lisa painting and recognized her in the movie. He felt VERY proud of himself that he KNEW who that woman was in the movie.
Mama Lisa.
I will never look at the Mona Lisa portrait the same again.
Mom Circus.
