Happy Halloween! It's Almost Time for Mr. Bones

In our family we have a fun tradition before we head trick or treating on Halloween night. We get to eat Mr. Bones! Yes, that's right, eat him. The kids LOVE this tradition and look forward to it every year. On the very first day of October the kids started asking about Mr. Bones--not Halloween candy. You gotta love that.

Last year, Mr. Bones was made out of pizza, pasta and bread sticks. The kids loved eating his spaghetti guts and olive tipped fingers. The asparagus hair and portabella mushroom nose--not so much.  But they sure added a nice touch.

The year before (our first year of enjoying the frightfully delicious Mr. Bones) we constructed Mr. Bones out of breakfast foods. He had a big pancake head with cherry eyes and sausage link ribs. (The kids always get to help making Mr. Bones. I love where they placed his toes on one of his pancake feet.)

This year we are making a breakfast Mr. Bones again, but changing a few things. I'll add the picture to the post later.

Happy Halloween!

Make Your Own Adventure: Visit a State Park

Tomorrow morning my family heads to a lodge in the mountains with four other great families. This is an annual trip for us and we love it! The state parks in Virginia are absolutely wonderful--and there are 35 of them to explore! You've read about how much I love First Landing State Park in the summer, well Douthat is the place to be in the fall. Not a camper? No worries. Did you know that many of the state parks offer cabins at reasonable rates throughout the year? And a number of them offer lodges that can accommodate more than one family.

Want to find out more? Visit Virginia State Parks and plan a fun adventure with your family.

Here's more about Douthat from the Virginia State Parks website:

The Outside Family Vacation Guide named Virginia’s Douthat State Park one of the nation's 10 best. The park, which straddles Bath and Alleghany counties, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Douthat is one of the original six Virginia State Parks that opened June 15, 1936. It's nestled in the Allegheny Mountains and features some of Virginia’s most outstanding scenery. In addition, a 50-acre lake offers swimming, boating and seasonal trout fishing.

When you're visiting Douthat State park it truly feels like you've stepped back in time and are living inside the original Parent Trap movie. It's hard for me to not walk the trails, holding hands with my sweet kiddos, and not sing that catchy ditty that Hailey Mills sings as they march off to camp. Do you know the one I'm thinking of? Love that show. Love ALL those classic Hayley Mills movies now that I think about it.

Anyway, while we're down that way we always spend a day at Virginia Safari Park in Natural Bridge. We LOVE this park and look forward to many laughs and photo ops here each and every year. I highly recommend you visit this park if you get a chance. It's a wonderful opportunity to get up close with a variety of animals.

I hope you all have a fabulous fall weekend and take advantage of spending time with the ones you love.

Don't live in Virgina? That's OK! Go HERE to find a state park near you and let the adventure begin.

Send an "I'm Grateful" Card

We've been working on expressing gratitude in our family. There is so much to be grateful for and I want my children to grow up with an understanding of what gratitude is instead of a sense of entitlement. I believe that it's important to be able to express gratitude to those around us as well as for those things which we have been given--such as our health and a home to live in.

William Arthur Ward stated, "Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." With that being said, when I ran across this offer I knew this would tie in perfectly for one of our family nights.

Snapfish just extended a great offer – get five (5) FREE 5×7 folded greeting cards for only $2.50 shipping when you use promo code TRY5CARDS at checkout.  That comes out to only $0.50 cents a card! You can do this promotion up to FIVE times per account (but you will need to do separate transactions each time). This promo code is only valid on cards $2.99 or less.

So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to order the number of cards needed and include a picture of my kids on the front. We are then going to send them to our loved ones that we do not get to visit with on a regular basis as well as those that live nearby. In each card we are each going to write why we are grateful for that person.  Miss G, being only 2 years old, can draw a pretty picture instead.

Even if you don't use Snapfish to order the cards, pull out your pen and paper and send a card of gratitude to someone. As Thomas S. Monson stated, "Have an Attitude of Gratitude".