The Jones Girls

Today we attended the La Habra Moms Club Children’s Halloween and costume party at Vista Del Valle park.  I did most of the planning for the party.   My friend Angela did the decorations and my friend Corrie helped me plan the party as well as do some of the activities during the party.

The girls dressed in the bug costumes.  They were so cute, but Miranda kept tripping on her tutu and at the end of the party it was ripped, so I will have to fix that.  Poor Maryssa skirt was drooping so I will have to tighten the waist in her tutu.   Maryssa had a tough time during the whole party.  She cried during most of it.   She has been having a lot of meltdowns lately.

My friend Julie was hanging up the ghost pinata for us.    What a lifesaver Julie was!!

The first game we played was a age appropriate scavenger hunt.   WE had treat bags filled with goodies for the kids as their prizes.   The kids had to find certain things and then bring it back and trade it in for a treat bag.    We started with the 1-2 year olds.  They just had to find a little plastic pumpkin.  then we did the 3 year olds.  They had to find a little plastic pumpkin and a crayon.  then we did one for the 4-6 year olds.   They had to find a plastic pumpkin, a pencil,  and a crayon.  The older kids 7 and up had to find 2 plastic pumpkins, 2 pencils and 2 crayons.    All of the kids had a blast!!

We had lots of yummy snacks.  Angela made an incredible haunted cake!  I didn’t have time to eat it but my girls gobbled it down.   I made rice crispy treats with candy corn on top and I made homemade pumpkin pudding and brought whipping cream for the mommies to eat.  They loved that!

We did a pin the nose on the pumpkin.  The prize winner won a gift certificate at Red Robin for a free kids meal and a free sundae.  Corrie’s daughter Madeline won that.

Then the kids lined up and did a costumer parade around the park. All of us moms had candy and the kids accepted candy from all of us.   It was so cute.

They we all gathered around the pinata and the kids whacked away at the pinata.    It took all of the kids and then a couple of moms to finally break open the pinata.    We had about 40 kids there!!

What a fun Halloween party we had!!

Today I planned a really fun costume parade for the senior citizens at the La Habra Community Center.    

I baked over 70 peanut butter chocolate chip muffins yesterday.  I tell you, this is the easiest recipe and tastes like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in a muffin..totally delicious.  I put each muffin in a bag and put a personalized sticker that said Happy Halloween, Hugs from the Jones Bugs.   

It was a difficult morning for me .  I had to get all of the girls in their bug costumes and at the Community Center by 9:30am.  I was 10 minutes late.    There were other moms and kids from the La Habra Moms Club  joining us . 

We were introduced and the kids got a standing ovation from the senior citizens…there were so many smiles, laughter and true cheer beaming from not only our children, but from the senior citizens themselves.     It was so fun!!  I think my girls stole the hearts of everyone…their costumes were truly darling.

Tonight was Savannah’s school fundraiser at McDonald’s.    The truly neat thing about this was the teachers and principal were helping out in the kitchen cooking the food!!  Savannah’s teacher, Miss Tarbell, was cooking the French fries.    McDonald’s gave 15% of all proceeds of all sales to our school from 4pm-8pm.  Very generous of them!!

Thank goodness Cliff went with me.  There must have been over a hundred people in that restaurant and 50 of them were in the play area.    It was packed!

We were suprised and happy to see Vanessa and her mom with her girls there.   Her girls, Tiffany and Stacey also go to Savannah’s School, El Portal. So we all sat together.

 I ordered Happy Meals for the kiddos and got some food for Cliff and me too.    The girls were no way interested in food…they wanted to PLAY!!  And play they did!!   

We lasted about an hour there and then headed back home,,,with LOTS of uneaten food that was the girls lunch the next day.

Today we went to the Halloween Pumpkin Patch and Carnival at the Puente Hills Mall.    I negotiated a great discount rate with the owner for our La Habra Moms Club…$5 per kid for 5 rides and a free pumpkin.   Normally the prices are $3 per ride per kid and $2 for a pumpkin.  I basically saved $20 for each kid…a good deal for certain.  So all of the La Habra Moms were thrilled to go to this event.

All of my girls had way too much fun.  They went on a ferris wheel for toddlers, a couple of bouncy houses, the swings ride where 2 girls got to sit together for each swing, and feed and pet all sorts of animals at the petting zoo-baby pigs, a baby calf, goats, sheep, chickens, etc.    Then the girls picked out their pumpkins and we took lots of fun pictures with the cute Halloween backdrops around the pumpkin patch.  The weather was a perfect 78 degrees and we all had so much fun.  We will decorate the pumpkins next week at the park with all of our friends.

I found the EASIST recipe to make caramel popcorn.   Use 1 cup of brown sugar and melt in pan with 1 cup of sugar.  Drizzle over popcorn and mix.   Then make popcorn balls or just serve as is.

I had some friends and their kids over from my La Habra Moms Club and we all made this in my kitchen.  It was so much fun and tasted so GOOD!!!  YUM!!

We also melted caramels and made caramel apples.  Double YUM!!

There is nothing better than caramel popcorn during Halloween time!

I planned a fun activity for the moms and kids with my La Habra Moms Club at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  We had a huge turnout, about 30 kids and 15 moms.

This time it was mom’s turn to have fun – making caramel apples!! The kiddos got to do their all time favorite dip their marshmallows in chocolate.  Rocky Mountain as always, was very gracious to us and offered us a steal of a deal buy 2 caramel apples, get 1 free!!

Today we enrolled all 4 girls in Ballet classes at Adagio Dance.   Savannah used to have ballet classes here, but when Amanda’s surgeries came up in the past year and a half, and with the current economic crises, we put ballet on hold.

I got a letter from Adagio recently that waived registration fees for all girls and Miss Jennifer, the instructor, gave us an incredible deal to allow all 4 girls to take ballet lessons.   

The reason why I enrolled them in the class is to benefit each of them in the following way:

Miranda: to teach her to follow directions and sharpen her listening skills

Amanda:  to help her with her balancing issues and strengthen her overall core of her body

Maryssa:  to help her with her pigeon-toed-ness and to help her follow directions and sharpen her receptive language

Savannah: to help her with her mild muscle tone and coordination issues

The girls are having a blast and look forward to getting dressed up each week for class.   It is a lot of work for me, but a thousand times worth the effort!!

This is the true joy of having girls…seeing them float and prance like little princesses in their pink tutus and ballet slippers. There is nothing more precious…