All things Halloween! 2013

To kick off the Halloween season I hosted a Halloween playdate for a few of Teya and Brinley's little friends.

We started off by making Oreo bat cookies

 Lots of chocolatey fingers and faces!

Then we made paper plate ghost decorations.

After all that snacking and crafting the kiddos went downstairs to watch the Cat in the Hat Halloween movie.

And the mommies stayed upstairs for some much needed grown up time :)

Later in the month we went to Kuipers pumpkin farm to pick out a perfect pumpkin for carving.

These little pumpkins had a blast.

They jumped on the giant jumping pillow

and dug around in the corn pit

They slid down the giant slide, played on trains and tire horses, and sipped hot cocoa to stay warm.

Their favorite part though was the petting zoo. 

They loved all the cute little animals!

We didn't end up picking a pumpkin from there but we did go home with some freshly made hot apple cider donuts which were amazing!

Later we were gifted a few pumpkins so it was good we didn't buy any at the farm. 

For our family night before Halloween we got to work carving the pumpkins. Mommy traced out the patterns and Daddy did the carving. The kids did a great job pulling out the gunk and separating out the seeds.

 Taber and the girls with their finished masterpieces! They turned out great!

 We tried to get a picture with Cam in there too but his face pretty much sums up how he felt about that. 

He did however enjoy blowing out the pumpkin candle and yelling "Happy Bert-day!"

The weekend before Halloween we had a Trunk or Treat at church

Brinley dressed as a pumpkin princess, Cam was Jake, from Jake and the Neverland pirates, and Teya was a spooky Spider (my first attempt at a homemade costume for her)

On actual Halloween they switched things up a little. Brinley ditched her wig and Cam opted for the sock monkey costume Grandma Karen had sent him.

I also did some face paint on the girls to give their costumes a bit more pop.

 They looked darling :)

It was wet and rainy but that didn't stop us from trick or treating.

 Cam really had it down this year and was the cutest little monkey in the neighborhood .

 It was fun bumping into friends

 And trick or treating at our favorite neighbor's houses.

Brinley even got to trick or treat at her kindergarten teacher's house which was pretty exciting.

The kids pulled in a respectable loot, and after sorting and counting, they picked 25 pieces for themselves and surrendered the rest to be "donated" to someone who needed it more (aka, Mommy's emergency sugar stash) 

And that's it for Halloween! 

(well I still have to post about our costume party, but that's almost it anyway :)

Rigg's annual Halloween Costume Party: Chicago Edition

Back in October we held our 4th annual Halloween costume party for the first time in Chicago. 

We had a good turnout and the costumes were all so fun ! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

 As the host and hostess, Taber and I dressed up as Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) and Wilson (the volleyball) from the movie castaway. I had a blast making the costumes and loved the way baby bump got to be part of the ensemble too :) 

Here are all the other costumes:

Doomsday preppers, a Samoan royal couple, 

Elvis and hippie, Fear the beard Red Sox player and she devil. 

 Little Red Riding Hood and the Big bad wolf dressed as grandma, 80's couple

Lady bug and Gentlemen bug, Muldoon and the Velociraptor from Jurassic Park. 

Native American Couple, Robin Hood and Maid Marion

Justin Timberlake and Brittany Spears, Renaissance couple.

And the costume prize winners were:

4th place: Mary Poppins and Burt

3rd Place: Lion Tamer and Lion

Tied for 2nd Place: Piñata and Piñata breaker

 Tied for 2nd place: Gru, Agnes, and Fluffy Unicorn from Despicable Me

1st place: Fake Taber and Becca. 

(Thomas is bald and doesn't have facial hair so seeing him get all Tabered out was hilarious! Also Jolene's fake pregnant belly, black wig and hawaiian garb was awesome! Love these guys so much!)

We had a fun time eating, socializing and playing some warm up games. 

then it was on to Minute to Win It. 

 this year we played Suck it Up

 Stack Attack

Separation Anxiety

 Nervous Nelly (laughed my guts out during this one!)

 Hanky Panky

 Rapid Fire

 Junk in your Trunk

 And Face the Cookie, which was won by Gru, giant fake nose and all!

 then it was time for prizes. I put together some fun themed prize baskets this year and they seemed to be a big hit. 

 We took pics of the winners with their prizes and then it was time to go. 

Another awesome Halloween party down in the books. Hoping to make it even better next year!

The Best Apple Pie Muffins Ever Recipe

So I made these today and had to share because they are AWESOME!! and sharing is the right thing to do.

I would normally just link you to the recipe I found, but all the reviewers who gave it a 5 star rating had made several significant changes, and if you don't read the reviews, you won't know what changes to make. So I'm just going to make it easier for everyone and post the recipe WITH the changes that make it the best apple pie muffin recipe ever.

Ingredients:

Topping: ( I doubled what's written here because I love sugar like that ;)

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup butter (softened)
1 tsp cinnamon

Muffins:
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup applesauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups firm tart apples, peeled and grated

Directions:

Topping: In a small bowl mix together sugar, flour, oats, butter and cinnamon until crumbly. Set aside.

Muffins: In a large bowl whisk together brown sugar, applesauce, oil, egg and vanilla until smooth

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Stir wet mixture with flour mixture alternating with the buttermilk.

fold in apples, mixing just until combined

spoon into greased muffin cups filling 3/4 full.

sprinkle topping over evenly.

Bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and tops spring back.

My whole family loved these, even Cam the picky eater devoured 2 in like 5 minutes. Recipe made 24 muffins for us. happy baking!

October Phone Pics

Daddy's work party 10-5-13

At the beginning of October Taber's work hosted a little festival for employees and their families. 

 The girls loved getting their faces painted and jumping in the giant pumpkin bounce house

 Cam loved the hayride and thought it was the best thing ever sitting right behind the driver and the horsies!

 Yeah for Daddy and his fun work parties!

General Conference 10/6/13

 A highlight of October is always General Conference. We love listening to the prophet and apostles and having church at home in our jammies :)

We also love conference snuggles!

Weekend in Michigan 10/12/13

One of Taber's associate HR managers was getting married in Michigan an hour from where our besties the Hogges live, so we decided to make a weekend trip of it and use the wedding as a good excuse to visit our friends. 

Almost all of Taber's HR team made the drive out to support Allison and Dan.

It was fun to get dressed up and enjoy all the fanciness of a wedding. 

Allison was a beautiful bride and the wedding was gorgeous. 

 The highlight though was seeing the Hogges. 

Teya and Aspen were born on the same day, and Brinley and Rowan are just a year apart. 

So fun seeing these girls play together. 

 Also so fun seeing the kids interact with Taber's best friend Nate. They love him like an uncle. 

The kids had a blast paddling around on Grandma and Grandpa Hogge's lake in their back yard.

Cam liked it too but he was a little disappointed to be on Mommy and Daddy's boat and not on the "all kids" boat. 

One last shot of the Hogge and Rigg kids. Love these guys like family!

Other October Randoms…

Every few months we get to help clean the church, our whole family gets to help out, even little Cam man. (he's a vacuuming pro!)

Grandma Karen sent out a Halloween care package with fairy costumes for the girls. 

They were pretty excited :)

Taber taught Teya how to shoot hoops. She's actually pretty good for a small fry.

Look at that follow through in the wrist!

Nothing cuter than a ballerina baller :)

The kids also had crazy hair day in October (and apparently crazy face day too for Teya)

They were proud of their "crazy dos" but next year they want me to include multi colored hairspray.

And that's the phone pic wrap up for October. Still to come, Halloween play dates, Costume party, and pumping carving. Stay tuned...