The Stoufer Family: 12/03/10

Cookies!!! 11/5/10

On Saturday we fed the homeless and our job was to bring 8 dozen cookies and on Sunday it was our turn to bring 2 dozen cookies for church. So, in a 2 day period I had to make 10 dozen chocolate chip cookies! I enlisted 2 of the cutest little assistant chefs ever!

Samantha and I made a few batches during the day. She liked dumping and mixing all the ingredients.

I let her attempt to put blobs of dough on the cookie sheet but the dough was a little gooey so it didn't fall off the spoon.

After dinner Marc helped me make a few more batches. He has always liked helping in the kitchen, and this time was no different.

What better dessert is there than a fresh-baked, home-made chocolate chip cookie???? Do you think Samantha enjoyed it? ;-)

The day after we made the cookies we took Marc downtown with other families from our church. Our church is in a rotation of several church that take part in a program called Jesus on the Streets. Every Saturday 11-1 people from one of the churches goes to a specific spot an feeds the homeless. We were there for 2 hours. I was amazed at the range of need. Some people obviously lived on the streets, other had enough money to have a place to sleep but not enough money to buy food. The other thing I was surprised by was the range of gratitude. Some people were falling all over themselves thanking us for feeding them while other people complained that the pizza was cold and not hot. It was a very moving experience to say the least. it makes me very Thankful for everything we have!

Trick-or-Treat - 10/31/10

Happy Halloween!! It's time for trick-or-treating!! Marc wore a hand-me-down Sulley (from Monsters Inc) costume from some friends. Samantha wore her Cinderella dress she got for making a potty training goal.

I love how much Marc takes care of his little sister. (I type that as they are arguing in the background right now). He made sure she was keeping up walking and getting her candy from the houses (for awhile at least ;-) )

We id the loop around our neighborhood. Samantha didn't quite get why we were going up to strangers and asking for candy. She wanted to look at each piece as she got it. If she id that, she would get run over! ;-) They were so cute when we got back, sitting in their costumes, holding their candy-filled pumpkins.

They made a pretty good haul! We still have a lot of it let!

After Marc got done looking at his loot, he came outside and helped me hand out candy. He was a very good helper!

It was a very happy Halloween!!

Neighborhood Halloween Party - 10/30/10

Our neighborhood has a ton of kids in it. We also get HUNDREDS of kids through our neighborhood on Halloween night. So, one of my neighbors decided to have a Halloween party at their house the night before Halloween. That way we actually got to see the neighborhood kids in their costumes and give the good candy.

One of the guests brought pumpkin cookies that Samantha loved!

The turn out ended up being kinda small, which was nice and cozy. We decided to venture outside to their cold deck and let the kids bob for apples.

The kids had never bobbed for apples before and they both thought it was the coolest thing ever!
We did a pot-luck so we munched on munchies for dinner an snacked on Halloween candy all night with great neighbors, what more can you ask for?!

Monster Mash 10/28/10

Last year we went trick-or-treating at "The Zoo Goes Boo". This year the zoo announced they were going to have a members-only trick-or-treating called "Monster Mash". The advertising for it said it would be better entertainment, less people, and "premium" treats. So, we decided to give it a try. By doing both we would be able to know which was better for future years.

As you have seen in previous posts, every time we go to the zoo, we take a picture with the statue of John Ball.

In addition to the normal statue picture, there was a inflatable Halloween sign.

We got to walk the "Not So Spooky Trail". We happened upon a grave yard....seems spooky to me. ;-)

There is a fun train at the end of the trail. Usually when we are there during the summer, there are too many kids on it for Marc & Samantha to be able to have much fun on it. Since there weren't many people there dung this event, the kids got to play, run, and climb all over it. Someone was nice enough to offer to take out family's picture on it.

I would say the kids got a good loot. :-)

The Monster Mash was a few dollars per ticket more expensive then The Zoo goes Boo. The "premium" treats were more trinkets like from Oriental Trading Company than edible treat. We think in the future we will probably do the Zoo Goes Boo instead of the Monster Mash. More expensive, but still lots of fun!

St Peter's Preschool Harvest Festival

Every year my preschool and the church host a Harvest Festival for all church and preschool families. There are always fun things for the kids to so. The kids are encouraged to wear their costumes for added fun.

One of Marc's favorite thing is the estimation jars. He made an educated guess for all of them, and there were several!! He counted how many items there were on the bottom row, then counted how many rows there were, then Daddy added them on his phone calculator. Marc guessed that there were 392 mini marshmallows in the jar in the picture below, there were actually 398. Great guess!

Last year I think Marc did the cupcake walk like 8 times without winning, so after the 9th time, I let him pick one out, he did his time. ;-) This year he was excited to try it again. This year it was a cookie walk and both kids won. :-)

Every time Marc goes back to the preschool he gets very excited that he gets to see his old 5's teacher, Mrs. Street. :-)

One of Marc's other favorite games is the "Fishing for Worms" game. There is a gummy worm tied to the end of a piece of yarn. You have to catch the worm in your mouth using only your mouth.