Happy Halloween

After two days of secretive planning and preparations it was time for our annual Halloween party tonight and when it comes to gross foods I aim to please *grin*. 

I've been trolling the internet looking for new creepy foods to make and this year's menu consisted of brains, cockroaches, turds, a rotten cheese log (blue cheese & cream cheese with a touch of green food coloring)....

 

monster mouths which are just chocolate chip cookies cut in half with a little bit of red icing, marshmallows and almond slivers for fangs....

and swamp water which is a favorite of ours and is an orange juice spritzer with a touch of grenadine to darken up the color with black sanding sugar and twizzlers as garnish :)

 I found this pumpkin dip on pinterest and it is to die for!! Oh my goodness is this good :)

 

Of course every Halloween party has to have at least one food item that is totally over the top disgusting and this year my pièce de résistance was a worm dessert that I named the 'Nightcrawler Parfait' *grin*.

 You wouldn't believe how life like these things were! You make them in straws with the accordion necks so they get that ribbed center just like a real worm and they were cold and rubbery like they were actually alive. If you looped them around in the dish they actually moved and untwisted. Eek.

I made all of the children close their eyes when I brought the dishes of them to the table and then when they opened their eyes you should have seen the look they each had as I proceeded to tell them that they were fresh from the compost bin LOL.

 Not one of them would eat them!!

It was absolutely hilarious to see them turn a little green as they poked around at them in their bowls. My dad who loves a good joke grabbed a handful of the worms and stuffed them in his mouth so they were hanging out with some of the cookie crumble dirt hanging from them while the children looked at him in disbelief  :) In the end they all picked them off of the pudding beneath except for my oldest son who managed to eat some of his but it wasn't an easy task *grin*.

You know it was a great Halloween party when you make something that no one wants to eat!

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween :)

Hugs,

Rosina

Nine Times The Sun

Nine years old!!! Oh my how I remember her chubby little cheeks as they drooped down over the white swaddling blanket that the nurses handed her to me on the day that she was born. She was so tiny and she shocked us all with her jet black hair that covered her head *grin*. No longer does she have that black hair but she has replaced it with locks down to her bottom :) 

 Last year I made her a big rainbow layered cake and a few days before her birthday this year she mentioned how it was her favorite cake so I thought it would be fun to make it again but I didn't want it to be a repeat of the last one. So I made mini rainbow cakes using my all time favorite recipe.

 One for each of us and it was so much fun to see her smile from ear to ear when she got her very own. They were more work than I had anticipated and they gave me a little grief as I tried to ice them while they swayed dangerously from side to side like they would topple over but the end result made up for all of that. So cute :)

 We are all nuts about sushi around here so on the morning of her birthday L and I worked together to create a huge platter of california rolls, crunchy rolls, ones filled with smoked salmon and more to share at her birthday lunch :)

 We actually had to fend off some sneaky snackers that wanted desperately to sample our sushi before it was time *grin*.

 My mom made some amazing little salmon bites that she topped with a dill sauce and capers...

 and I had fun creating these fruit kabobs shaped like flowers :) Who knew miniature cookie cutters could do such a great job and I speared the skewers into an upside down half of a watermelon which provided the perfect sturdy base for all of the kabobs.

 

 The day couldn't have been any better as the sun shined down on us while we ate lunch in the garden :) We played croquet, had fun trying out her new hula hoop...

 

and you've got to love her fashion sense LOL.

Sneakers and a dress.... at least she left her gumboots at home this time *grin*. 

Oh how I love this little girl.

Hugs,

Rosina

Happy Valentine's Day

Oh did we have fun today!
We munched on our special candy apples...

stuffed ourselves silly with fruit and chocolate fondue...

enjoyed mini whole wheat pizzas...

and got really, really, really sticky *grin*.

Hope you all had a great Valentine's day to!

Hugs,
Rosina

Happy Halloween

Today was party day around here as we celebrated Hubby's birthday and had our Halloween party full of ghoulish foods :) There was monster mouths, rotten cheese logs and pumpkin vomit (homemade guacamole flowing out of my mini pumpkins mouth).

The Zombie intestines which were a huge hit! I love how these turned out and they are just puff pastry filled with sausage meat, a little pizza sauce and then some fake blood to really make them fun :) I found the recipe here.

And my grand finale of brains *grin*.
These were so easy to make with icing, cake and raspberry jam. I found the recipe here and the great labels for the top to with little sayings like 'Brains... they do a body good' and 'Brains... never hurts to have extra'. So fun!

Every year I treat the kids to special Halloween candy apples and we go to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory in the city where they have a giant display case full of candy apples with funny faces :)

They have giant granny smith apples in the centers and are so good. All that apple must counteract the sugar, right? LOL

After dinner we headed outside to let off some fireworks...

and then have cake to celebrate Hubby's birthday.
I hope you all had a great Halloween to and celebrated it your special way :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Happy Easter

Wow, it has been one crazy weekend and then some! Today is the first day since last Wednesday that I have been home all day and haven't had to travel into the city and it feels SO GOOD. Between swimming lessons, science group, picking up chicks, easter celebrations and an impromptu trip to Costco it's been go go go here :)

We had a lovely Easter though. On Saturday we had dinner with my sister and her husband and then my mom and I had a sleep over at their house so that we could go to the movies and catch a little retail therapy *grin* and today the kids and I went to my parent's house for an Easter lunch.

After the great success I had making ice cream cone cake pops last summer I thought I'd try making some Easter themed ones so last night I whipped up a cake for making the balls. Hubby thought I was nuts *grin*. Out came the fresh cake from the oven and I proceeded to smash it up making a gooey mess with icing LOL.

I love playing with these although rolling the balls in the chocolate was a little trickier as they had a habit of spinning on the sticks. Nothing a little stint in the freezer couldn't cure though and they were good to go *grin*.

We had all sorts of yummy finger sandwiches, vegetables and desserts...

my mom had plenty of treats for the kids...

and I think they ate enough cake pops and pez to induce a sugar overdose LOL. Thank goodness it's all over and tomorrow it's back to normal we go :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter to!

Hugs,
Rosina

Happy 5th Birthday

Yesterday my baby turned five... born in a snowstorm in 2006 and got his wish of having his fifth birthday in a snowstorm *grin*. All he really wanted was for it to snow on his birthday :)

I wish you could have seen the big ear to ear smile on his face when he pulled out 'snakey' from its wrapping paper :)

It was an instant hit as he started stuffing little felted mice into the snake's mouth and working them down the knitted body including munching sound effects...

followed by regurgitating noises as they all started to pop back out! It went totally crazy after that as the whoopie cushion was pulled and the snake had some bad indigestion resulting in very loud gas. LOL.

Boys... heehee.

He also got a wooden play castle with a few wooden knights and horses, a king and queen...

and it opens up wide so that it creates a great little play place inside with a dungeon and more :)

We wrapped up our little birthday party with a Thomas the train cake. His favorite :) Now if only I could bottle him up and he would stay 5 forever *grin*. I'm running out of babies!

Hugs,
Rosina

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We celebrated valentine's day yesterday, a day earlier because my daughter had a date with the dentist again today. So we thought it best to have our party ahead of time so that she could really enjoy it :)

We had egg sandwiches and little cucumber and cream cheese tea sandwiches, asparagus rolls, ants on a log (the kids love these)....

and of course loads of yummy sweets :)

My special treat for the kids was one of the yummy-licious candy apples that the Rocky Mountain chocolate factory makes :) When we were in the city on Friday I took them all into the shop and let them stand in front of the giant glass case full of them and let them pick any one their hearts desired *grin*.

You should have seen them agonizing over which one looked like it was going to be the very best one to take home LOL.

A sweet treat for such a sweet day :)

Hope you all had a wonderful valentine's day to :)

Hugs,
Rosina

New Years Baby

My dad is a new years baby so every year he gets completely spoiled with a new year's eve party and then the following day another birthday day with the kids :)

We don't actually go out or anything for new years. My sister and her husband come up every second year and we pig out on waaay to much good food, watch movies, play games and just enjoy family time all together with my parents which is exactly what we did today :)

This year for fun I got him a giant candy apple for his birthday cake :) It was so cute when the kids brought it to him with one lone candle burning in the top *grin*.

Nothing like a giant green apple coated in chocolate and caramel :) Well, at least it is partially nutritious with the apple center! LOL

For turning 68, beating cancer for the second time earlier this year and in the process of building his third house, I'd say he's doing pretty darn good for his age :)

Happy Birthday Daddy :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Happy Halloween

Oh boy did we have fun tonight!
Last night we celebrated Hubby's birthday which we usually do with him today as he's a trick or treat baby *grin* but with him having to leave for work we did it a day early and tonight we had our family ghouly food party :)

I spent the morning creating eyeballs out of radishes and olives, mixing up a pungent yet tasty 'rotten' cheese log, and figuring out how to make my own black sanding sugar :)

I always have a fun drink for the kids and this year it was an orange juice spritzer with a touch of grenadine to give it a nice red color and then added a couple extra touches with the black sanding sugar and black twizzler garnishes.

We had our rotten cheese spread with crackers and radish eyeballs for our appetizer and then a main course of eyeball soup for our entree *grin*. Oh my goodness was it hilarious! I didn't tell anyone that I had popped in some bocconcini cheese balls with little olive irises and as they slurped up their soup, one by one they discovered these odd little lumps in their soup bowls!

Everyone was brave enough to try them except for my daughter. Even though I assured her that they were just cheese she refused to eat them LOL. They actually were delicious in the soup as they sort of melted in the heat :)

It is a Halloween tradition for me to take the kids to the Rocky Mountain chocolate factory in the city just before Halloween and let them pick out their favorite candy apple. They make the most AMAZING apples with fun faces, sticky sweet caramel topped with chocolate and the perfect tart granny smith apples inside :)

Since we don't go out trick or treating this is my special little treat for them. Plus it's half healthy with that giant apple in there right?!

I hope you all had a wonderful evening whether you go out trick or treating, celebrate Samhain, honor the earth for the fall bounty it provides or don't do Halloween at all. Whichever you did I hope you had a lovely time :)

Hugs,
Rosina