Pattie's Place

Christmas Dance Recital 2014

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Marisa and Meg danced tonight at their winter recital at Corner Canyon High School last Saturday night. It was so sweet!

Tiffany Dance Company 2014 Recital at Corner Canyon High School 

 My granddaughters looked so pretty with their silver and black and white costumes and cute black gloves.

Marisa is perusing the crowd till she finds her row of fans! What a doll! 

They were so proud of themselves. I love watching dance in any form. I used to dance in Dance Company in high school. It was a fun memory. I tap danced in middle school. haha. I wasn’t very good. But I still love to see ballet and tap anytime, anywhere. 

Look at these crazy half slippers they wear. I had never seen them before.

Meg loves to perform. She may be an actress someday. 

Striking a pose. 

T

Then everybody had to get in the posing thing. lol. It was a fun Saturday night event. Happy holidays!

Hogle Zoo Zoolights Fun

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 We took our family to Hogle Zoo’s ZOOLIGHTS last night. It was an awesome family outing and it was one of the most fun outings we’ve had all year. It is SO WORTH the money. It is $7.00 for adults and I think it was $5.00 for kids over 3. Two and under are free.  My little grandkids all loved it. 

Zoo lights is so pretty! This is the first thing you see when you walk into the zoo! The wheels on the train spin and the people inside move! 

Hogle Zoo Zoolights had lights, music and zoo animals. We took the whole family Monday night for a really, really fun time! I highly recommend it! 

My son from Chicago came with his family. We saw tigers, seals and sea lions, turtles, bats and lots of other animals. Many were down for the night but they left a LOT of animals out for us to view. 

My hubs loves to do this crazy look in pictures lately. I promise he’s not that crazy though….lol. This cute little house was Santa’s Hut. Inside sits Santa Claus and a really cute backdrop. You can take as many pictures as you want in any combination with the kids in your party. I LOVED that. 

Santa’s Hut in Zoolights at Hogle Zoo 

They had a house with Santa and his helpers inside. Kids and even adults go sit on his lap and take pictures with a really cute background. They passed out color books and crayons too. They had paper to write Santa a letter and a giant, red mailbox to drop it in.

 Meg having a conversation about the drum set she wants for Christmas. lol

“Santa, I want that drumset. My mom and dad aren’t so sure about it. But Santa, I’ve been really GOOD this year!!” 
You can see the cute Santa mailbox in the background. The table with paper for writing and crayons was just to the left before you get into line to see Santa. Only there wasn’t a line! How great is that? 
Meg delivering her letter to Santa. 

“I hope I get that drum set!”

Notice she has drawn a picture of said drum set…..just in case Santa forgets what it is she is hoping for… lol. And her brother is not so happy to be on Santa’s lap. haha. Good picture for the album. Someday he’ll think this is funny. But not today. 

 Cute cousins sat on Santa’s lap together. You really don’t get this kind of time in any other Santa place that I know of. It was wonderful! It was not even crowded all either. We walked right up.  Every group got about 6 to 8 minutes alone with Santa to take pictures galore!

Cousins enjoying some time on Santa’s lap. I forgot to take pictures of the reindeer outside of Santa’s hut. They were neat to see. 

Other areas inside the Santa hut where pictures could be taken, for family groups. Here’s my son hanging out, waiting for all the kids to finish writing their Santa letters. The elves handed out crayons and color books too. 
Some more grandkids on Santa’s lap at Zoolights. We got gobs of great shots because we had time! 

Outside of Santa’s hut there were some real reindeer we could see inside a little gate. Did you know they lose their antlers every single year? They told the kids the male reindeer lose their antlers in November and the females in May. Very cool. I hope I run across a set of antlers around the hiking trails this spring! I bet they are hard to come by!

Santa’s Reindeer at Zoolights. 
My son from Chicago was visiting for a week so we planned some fun night time activities. Zoolights was one of them. 
It was fun to have the whole family together for a fun family night. 
We saw Lions, Tigers and Bears…mostly sleeping ones, but these guys were still awake! 
My son-in-law had the day off so we were all there for Zoolights at Hogle Zoo. It is from 5:30 to 8:00 most Mondays, but they were nice enough to leave it open till 9:00 the Monday we were there. Thursday, Friday and Saturdays Zoolights  is open till 9:00. 
We got a few pictures of almost all the family. But it is a big group! 
My grandkids were all there at Hogle Zoo’s Zoolights. It was a fun time for all of them. 

The zoo keeps some of the animals outside for Zoolights. We saw all the cats and tigers, etc. and they left the inside animals houses open. We saw bats and turtles and monkeys too. It was freaky seeing the bats all hanging around together. My son Devin turned on his phone light and held it up right near the lump of 25 bats and they all turned and looked at his light with their freaky red eyes. I think he scared them, because one of them shot a stream of pee right at the window where his face was. If they hadn’t been inside the glass, he would have been drenched. It was no accident. They did NOT like his light! But boy, was it funny! We were all cracking up!

My cute Chicago peeps (the bat whisperer….) taking selfies at Zoolights. They are in the tunnel of lights, just loving it!

 
Marisa in the monkey house. There was one set of 4 monkeys sleeping and all 4 tails were curled together. It was so darling! I should have taken a shot of it! 
Here we are in the tunnel. It was just starting the aqua blue light wave. Those columns of lights start up in a wave and when it gets to the end of the tunnel, it changes colors and whirls and spins colors. It is AWESOME! 

Zoolights has a beautiful tunnel of lights that moves colors with the Christmas songs on the speakers. It was fun to walk along inside and look up at the wave of colors changing as the music played pretty Christmas songs. It was a delightful experience!

I think my favorite animals we saw were the cute monkeys, the snow leopard and the sleeping bears and tigers. 

They had food booths  with snacks like popcorn and hot chocolate and hot dogs and stuff. Lots of kids were in wagons and they had lots of strollers and things  to rent for just a few bucks. It is such a fun and worthwhile evening of fun. I highly recommend Zoolights. It is open November 29th to December 31st. Closed on Christmas Day.  Here is all the information. Go see it! Plus, on Thursday’s December 4th, 11th, and 18th you’ll be able to get in to see ZooLights for $3.00 bucks with a vouch from any Utah’s Wendy’s. This just in! On Thursday’s December 4th, 11th, and 18th you’ll be able to get in to see ZooLights for $3.00 bucks with a vouch from any Utah’s Wendy’s. That is less than half price! Go for it people! 

Hogle Zoo Zoolights in Salt Lake City

Ugly Sweater Parties and a Funny Story

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Friday in my class we were doing turkeys for art. I was listening to the chit chat at one of the all-boy tables. It was quite hysterical. I just HAD to share the funny banter.  This is what it is like being a teacher. It will tickle your funny bone!

Downtown at Abravenal Hall to see the genius comic “Jim Gaffigan, Dad is FAT” show. 

“Hey Mrs. Moss did you know my mom is pregnant?” another child rebuts with “Hey MY dad is the President!!” another child “YOUR dad is American?” another child “My dad is the judge!” Another child, “Well, My dad works at McDonalds, I saw him there when I was a little kid!”

Funny Monkey stocking I saw yesterday at Hobby Lobby. It just cracked me up! 

I just HAD to stop and write it all down. 1 minute of kinder kid discussion. Unbelievable. These kids could be doing stand up comedy! They all stopped in awe of the lucky McDonald’s kid. Tee Hee. Oh this made me chuckle today! And #McDonalds, take note.

I was browsing around Hobby Lobby yesterday and these ugly sweater party invitations and decorations caught my eye. I want to have an Ugly Sweater Par-tay! I have plenty of them to decide between, that’s FOR SHORE! 
Ugly Sweaters are the BOMB! I Agree! 
Cute Snowman in his ugly sweater holding your cookies for your Ugly Sweater Party… tee hee. Gotta Love it! (And I could dress Mr. Moss up funny for the Par-tay!” Ha! 
Me and the hubs enjoyin’ life and laughing our guts out. Happy Holidays!!  And Happy Ugly Sweater Parties one and all!

Turkey and Scarecrow Cupcakes and Candy Pilgrim Hats for Thanksgiving

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How about making some Thanksgiving Cupcakes for the kids this year? If you want something different in addition to the pumpkin pies, how about Turkey or Scarecrow Cupcakes? Or a Pilgrim’s Hat from a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup? Yum. 
These Scarecrow Cupcakes were made from Orange Slices (and other colored gumdrop flavors) and candy corn and Chocolate chips or M and Ms for eyes. The hair is Chinese crunchy noodles. I just used chocolate icing and a writing tip to do the Scarecrow stitched smile and the stripe on the hat. Then I added a leaf cupcake pick I got onsale in the cake decoration section. 
I also bought a Wilton Package of Cupcake toppers in leaves and pumpkins. I added the leaves to the Scarecrow heads for a hat decoration on the Thanksgiving Scarecrow Cupcakes. On the Turkey Cupcakes I added the pumpkins for an added decoration. Check them out below. They were on clearance at Joannes Crafts in the Wilton Cake Decorating section. You could use a 40% off coupon to get the deal too.  

Turkey cupcakes have a jawbreaker or lemonhead for a head and candy corn beak and feathers. I like how the cupcake picks add some dimension to the turkeys and scarecrows. That’s always cool! 
These are really so easy to decorate a child aged 4 could do them. Just have an adult do the dab of icing for eyes. I just used a cake decorating tip and chocolate and vanilla icing. 
These turkey “heads” were leftover treats from Halloween. Giant Lemonheads or jaw breakers for a turkey face work great. You could also used Malt Balls, but they wouldn’t be as colorful. 
Then I added candy corn for the feathers and some icing eyes. Here is a Thanksgiving Buffet we set up for a School Party and this was my contribution, as well as some cheesy, twice baked potatoes. I added some silk flowers and fall leaves with ribbons to my serving plates.  
These Peanut Butter Cookies I added Reese’s Pieces to them for fall colors. They were gobbled right up on Thanksgiving Day!  
Easy Scarecrow Cupcakes. They were tasty and cute too! 

 And the Thanksgiving Cupcakes made a very cute dessert buffet table too! The kids in your family (big kids or little kids) will all love them. You could also use this as a fun activity after Thanksgiving dinner too. Kids would love to decorate their own cupcake with candy!

Last year we made gingerbread houses and these cute Cookie Pilgrim Hats from a Keebler striped cookie and a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. The “buckle” is a cut up gumdrop. 
I just added some Milk Chocolate chips to the Cupcake batter to make it a little bit richer and yummier. Sometimes I add a small chocolate pudding box to the dry mix and a cup of sour cream if I want them super rich and tasty. 

 Try adding some chocolate chips to your next batch of chocolate cupcakes. You will love it. If I use yellow cake mixes I might add butterscotch chips to the batter for cupcakes. And I’ll add a vanilla pudding small box (dry) and a cup of sour cream to the mix too.

 I frosted the cupcakes and used chocolate sprinkles on them before decorating them further. 
Cute little Turkey Cupcakes would be super easy for even 4 year olds to put together You would just have to add the frosting eyeballs. I just used a writing tip and made dots with white and chocolate icing. You could also buy the premade eyeball candies. 
Have some fun this Thanksgiving for your kiddos and grandkids; make Turkey Cupcakes! Or Scarecrow Cupcakes.  Or make both kinds on Thanksgiving Day for a fun activity after everybody has enjoyed the turkey dinner!  We have made gingerbread men and houses too. It’s a fun activity for kids and a sweet memory.

Then when you are all done eating. Play some Thanksgiving BINGO HERE FREE, or else play Pin the Hat on the Turkey. I got mine from the dollar store! 😀 Have more fun on Thanksgiving Day. 

Frozen Finger Puppets Made From Felt

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I have 5 granddaughters who all LOVE FROZEN, the movie. So when I saw some patterns for some cute, little, finger puppets of all of the characters, I knew we had to make them!

I went out and bought about $7.00 worth of felt squares of every color. I looked at this picture I saw on Facebook From The Idea Room and then I freehanded the puppets. It was pretty easy to also embellish with glitter, sequins, buttons and gems. And we made little faces out of fine, Sharpie markers.

All the Frozen Characters; Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Hans, Kristoff and Sven. 

Sven the Moose? Oops. I guess he’s a reindeer. My bad. 

We kept laughing at ourselves for putting what we called a “spork” on her head with felt. haha. Then we added glitter and a little earring and glittery button to her outfit. And Tiff got out her makeup and dabbed on some real blush. 

Elsa and Anna Finger Dolls from Frozen were the most fun to make of all the characters. We added eyelashes to the wiggly eyes. 

Olaf was super funny. Wendy came up with the design and made all the Olaf puppets for the girls. I crafted Hans and Kristoff adding a few little sequins for buttons. Tiff did all the hair and cut out just about all those clothes. Then we had an assembly line going with the glue gun. The girls picked out the buttons and beads and embellishments they wanted. 

I know we’ll be playing with these for a long time. I think Dylan just tolerated all the “dolls”. He would have rather had some Hot Wheels cars instead I think. lol. Tiff was nice enough to let us all come over and mess up her pretty house making crafts. Thanks Tiff. 

Frozen Finger Puppets made from Felt. Super Easy and so fun. I found these little Frozen tiny lunch box tins for the girls to keep the dolls in. They were at the Target Dollar section. I should have bought more of them. I found these cute playing cards there too. Only a buck! 
Frozen little Lunchpail tin mini with Frozen playing cards. We’ll keep the dolls in the tins. I scored these at the Target Dollar section. The tin was $3 and the cards were $1. 
Frozen Fingerpuppet patterns. 

Our Frozen Felt Finger Puppet patterns. I’ll make these into a PDF today after school. 

Here we all are after our FROZEN Finger puppets were all made! That was a fun crafting afternoon with almost all my granddaughters there.  

 Then one of the girls got out her mini boombox and they all started singing “Let It Go” together. It was pretty much like every other one you’ve seen on youtube. Funny only to us, probably. Lots of  pretty, off key singing while we were all laughing.

My granddaughters were two of millions who donned the Elsa and Anna costumes this Halloween. At my school there were dozens of them in every classroom! It was the MOST popular costume I’d seen in years! 
Frozen Trunk or Treating! Aren’t they just super cute? 

Family Shopping.com had some cute Frozen banners I liked with Olaf in the middle, great for a FROZEN kiddie party! It would be fun to have one in the dead of Utah Winter wouldn’t it? Maybe some little, powdered donut snowmen and hot chocolate in ice blue mugs with marshmallows?

For future crafts we will be making beaded bracelets in the Frozen colors of light and dark blue and pinkish purple and white. I got these cute charms to put in between the beads from Oriental Trading. The multicolor snowflake charms come in a package of 36 for $7.00. I think these will be awesome and sweet!

Fall Table and Mantle Decorating

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I’m starting to decorate my house for Thanksgiving now that Halloween is over. ( sounds of sniffling). I have ALMOST as much junk to decorate with for Thanksgiving as I do for Halloween. But not quite as much.

Fall Table and Mantle Decorating has begun! 

I do love the FALL SEASON best of any other. I love the colored leaves, the pumpkins and turkeys everywhere, and I love fall linens and tablescapes. If you want to know my Top 10 Reasons Why Fall is My Favorite, see my rant HERE.  Here are a few tablescapes I snapped recently.


Here is my placemats and china I used last year. But I got some really pretty placemats with a lemon branch on them from William Sonoma a few weeks ago. I’m going with a green and yellow color scheme.

I just got these beautiful placemats at William Sonoma when I was down in Provo from the Chalk the Block Festival. 

Mr. and Mrs. Pilgrim and the little tiny Thanksgiving peeps.  My grandkids love to play with this little table and the indians and pilgrims. 

You will NOT believe it but this scarecrow is made from a white mop. Yup. It’s a mopcrow…..or….a scaremop…..or…..a scrop! Yes, that’s IT! Or maybe it’s a mop-a-row. hmmm….

Kitchen counters with my leftover Halloween pumpkin and some glassware. 

Here is the coffee table decorated up with my cute scarecrow and those gross tasting but cute candy corns for Thanksgiving. They have some brown in them. 

This is the funniest looking turkey you ever saw. WE always laugh at it every stinkin year! 

Writing desk in the living room has some cute decor for fall now too! 
Here is the front entry table. I love the cute table runner I got a few years back. It has all the fall colors. The turkey is from Kohls. I got it on clearance last year. 
I made these little pilgrims out of a 2 x 4 and our bandsaw. The boy has a little wooden turkey on a piece of brown twine. The girl is holding a small basket of “apples” but they are kind of reddish orange so they could be pumpkins…who knows! The hair is twine and the bonnet and collars are felt. 

I printed up this Fall subway art and matted it in pumpkin colored paper with a cool mahogany colored wood frame. I got this printable from Simply Sweet Home. I love it. The free printable is so cute in a dark, 5 x 7 frame.

Kiddie table is cute and ready for Thanksgiving. I made this tablecloth from some clearance Thanksgiving fabric I scored. 

I added some butterscotch colored candles to the hurricane lamps on the piano and some silk florals to a ceramic watcr pitcher I found at Michaels. 

My daughter Tiffany had this pretty mantle made up for fall that I loved too. We both like decorating a little bit for each season. Happy Fall Ya’ll! 

Bridal Shower for My Niece Becky

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My daughter Tiff and I went to a really cute Bridal Shower for my Niece Becky and had a real fun time.

Besties Nikki, Becky and Elyse. All 3 have a foodie blog! All 3 grew up together. 

I loved this pretty invite to the Shower. It was designed on photo paper. Cute!  

The hostesses were 2 of her best friends who are also bloggers. One was Nikki, of Chef in Training, and another one was Elyse, one of the Six Sisters Stuff sisters.  As you can imagine, the food was delicously wonderful.

Here is a little bit of it. We had lots of fun and yummy party foods at the Bridal Shower. 

There were so many  things to choose from! Salads, sandwiches, finger foods and lots and lots of sweet treats!
This fruity salad with Asiago  cheese, apples and berries and sliced almonds was my favorite. 

Some kind of bruschetta. It looked yummy. 
I just really liked this water dispenser. Got to get me one of those. 

Lots of friends from the neighborhood and ward were there too. 
Some of these girls went to high school together. 

 The brownie treats on the top were my favorite. Yum. They were to DIE for! I was a good girl and only ate one. 

They are called “Samoa Brownies” and the recipe is HERE.  These are decadent and oozing with flavor! Mmm. I want one in my mouth right this minute! 
Mother of the bride, my pretty sister-in-law Robin, and her youngest daughter pretty Becky. 

She had lots of friends there who were already married so they really spoiled her. She got lots of good loot!

Just some of the loot from the party. 
Loot for the kitchen parked at the door. 

Lots of  girlfriends at the shower. Many of them had been married a while so she’ll have lots of peeps to go to for advice. 😀 

I thought this gift was wrapped up so pretty! Great idea for a Bridal Shower. 

Guess the Groceries Game was a great Bridal Shower Game! 

This was a fun game. We had to price all these items from Walmart. I was off by about 80 cents. I was pretty close. Yeah. I’m a Walmart rat.

 Okay back to the food! These cake bites were so pretty. Mine never turn out looking this good. I think I need cake bite lessons. I think these were lemon flavored. And I did love them.

These Swig Copycat cookies were so good too! Swig is a drive through in St. George Utah. It is a fun place to go get a treat when you are down there going to see a show at Tuacahn. They have chocolate ones too. I’ll have to try one of those. 

Real Swig Cookies come in all these varieties. 

Check Swig out next time you’re in St. George. It’s a fun stop! 
Yummy brownies. I didn’t try one but don’t they look so yummo? 

It was a really lovely bridal shower for Miss Becky.  She is such a pretty lady. And so is her mama. We are so happy for you Becky, Mrs. Secrist. Love you. 

Cute Hobby Lobby Fall Decoration Finds

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I got this CUTE tin sign the other day at Hobby Lobby for 50% off! AND I had a birthday gift card. Yay! I love this sign. It’s so colorful and bright. I am putting it in my yellow bathroom I think. 

Hobby Lobby had lots of these tin signs for 50% off. I saw lots of ladies buying “gifts” they said for relatives for Christmas. Lots of the signs had joke sayings too. There is something for everybody. I think this sign was $12.00 regularly, so I got it at a steal! 6 Bucks! 

I also found this neato, giant clock at Deseret Book over the weekend. It was only $12.50 if you bought some other things there. We were shopping with friends so I didn’t even have to buy anything but the clock! Woo Hoo!  It will look nice in my den where there is a space on the wall for it. It would also look great in the kitchen, come to think of it…..hmmm…….

Okay THEN I fell in love with this display at Hobby Lobby of black and white “Houndstooth” fabric animals and angels for Christmas. I especially loved this little snowman and the deer. They would make such a cute display during the winter months in my entry hall. 

Isn’t that the CUUUUtest thing? I love the pearl buttons and the jewelry snowflake too. Houndstooth is such a classic fabric too. It is in right now. Love the fur boa too. So cute. 

AND….you could use these angels at Valentines Day too if you got a pair of them. They would be darling in my classroom too. And they are dressed all warm and fuzzy for winter. I could keep them up for quite a while after February. It is COLD and WINTERY here in Utah sometimes till April and May! Brrr…. Get a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby online and get these for a deal! 
And my new greatroom is aqua and silver. I wanted to buy some of these sparkly silvery mirrored candleholders. They could be left up all year if you made careful choices. I love the holiday decor. 

I finished my living room and kitchen decorating for Halloween. I can’t think of Christmas yet! 

My glittery metal spider web and spider hanging above the kitchen table. My granddaughters love this because it is also a jingle bell spider. They shake it and try to hear it ring. (snicker) 

Kitchen table without any placemats this year. (I was lazy and didn’t get them out). 

Kitchen buffet all done with Halloween Decorations and all my favorite family pictures. I have one of each of the kids with their spouses and one of my son Danny too. 

This is the inside of the front door. It jingles anytime anybody comes or goes. Sometimes I hang the skeleton in the entry hall but the hubs hates bumping his head on it all the time…..haha…..I think that part is kind of funny, myself. 😀 

Outside on the front door is this pretty wispy spiderweb wreath I got last year at Gardner Village at a 75% off sale. The spiderweb in the middle is purple glittered metal. I love it. I should add a few more orange and purple balls to it though. It is a little sparse. 
Lots of Halloween doo dads in the front garden patch. I bought some fall yellow and rust colored and purple mums. I just have to get the shovel out and replant them in the garden ASAP.  Happy Fall Ya’ll! 

Gardner Village Witchfest and Witch Scavenger Hunt

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 One family tradition we have in the fall is to go visit Gardner Village during Witchfest or Witchapalooza or Witch Scavenger hunt. And we always visit this original water wheel at the Archibalds Restaurant and furniture store at Gardner Village shops. They put out all kinds of giant bigger-than-life witches in funny positions hanging from buildings, spiderwebs, and stirring pots of green goo. It’s a great photo op for kids. Check Witchfest out HERE.

See what I mean? Witchapalooza! My grandkids have loved it in years past. It is fun to go hang out and see what is new at the shops at Gardner Village too. My favorite place there is the 2 furniture stores and the Quilt Shop, and of course the candy and fudge shop. But caramel apples were like $6.95 now! WTHeck! Kinda pricey folks! 
They have these lovely covered bridges, a lake running through it with real ducks and geese you can feed breadcrumbs to, and witches, of course, sitting on rafts in firemen suits. (yeah, there is sometimes no logic to the witch surroundings). 
Sometimes you’ll see a witch sitting on suitcases going through security at an airport, and another time she is wrapped up in a spider’s web. It is very creative. I think this witch is in a gold mine. lol. Good luck with that, witch! They also have like 200 pumpkins all around the place. It is very festive. 
Then you have these real witches that tried out to play the witches of Witchapalooza. I tried out one year. But I never got a call. You have to put together over the top costumes like this one. And you have to have a very dramatic witchy voice and put on airs and stuff. This one was very weird and obnoxious. But she made me laugh. Dylan, my grandson, not so much. 😀 
She had this funny pumpkin rolling stroller she dragged around behind her everywhere she went. I felt like she was stalking us at one point.  She was a little freaky-deeky! These people have to have lots of craziness and personality. They make it fun, though, I have to admit. 

 You go throughout the outdoor shopping village and look for witches to match each of about 20 clues. Then if you find them all you get a cookie in the sweet shop bakery. The girls loved that part.

 This is my favorite witch scene. The witches are stirring a green brew in the steaming cauldron. Everybody loves this scene. They added a lot of new things this year like a giant trampoline, a corn maze and pony rides that go around the park, not just in a circle. The extra kiddie land was $6 bucks. Otherwise it’s free.

 It gets you in the mood for Halloween, and lots of kids dress up. We usually do. The parents sometimes dress like witches too. It is a fun community event. YOU have to try it.

I finished decorating the kitchen and living and dining rooms. My hubs was making fun of my “spooky kitchen!” because I plugged in a little string of skeletons and like 3 of them already won’t work or their heads fell off. Stupid lights from China!  sigh……I still think they are cute….headless skeletons and all…..

Gardner Village Witch Scavenger Hunt

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 One family tradition we have in the fall is to go visit Gardner Village during Witchfest or Witchapalooza or Witch Scavenger hunt. And we always visit this original water wheel at the Archibalds Restaurant and furniture store at Gardner Village shops. They put out all kinds of giant bigger-than-life witches in funny positions hanging from buildings, spiderwebs, and stirring pots of green goo. It’s a great photo op for kids. Check Witchfest out HERE.

See what I mean? Witchapalooza! My grandkids have loved it in years past. It is fun to go hang out and see what is new at the shops at Gardner Village too. My favorite place there is the 2 furniture stores and the Quilt Shop, and of course the candy and fudge shop. But caramel apples were like $6.95 now! WTHeck! Kinda pricey folks! 
They have these lovely covered bridges, a lake running through it with real ducks and geese you can feed breadcrumbs to, and witches, of course, sitting on rafts in firemen suits. (yeah, there is sometimes no logic to the witch surroundings). 
Sometimes you’ll see a witch sitting on suitcases going through security at an airport, and another time she is wrapped up in a spider’s web. It is very creative. I think this witch is in a gold mine. lol. Good luck with that, witch! They also have like 200 pumpkins all around the place. It is very festive. 
Then you have these real witches that tried out to play the witches of Witchapalooza. I tried out one year. But I never got a call. You have to put together over the top costumes like this one. And you have to have a very dramatic witchy voice and put on airs and stuff. This one was very weird and obnoxious. But she made me laugh. Dylan, my grandson, not so much. 😀 
She had this funny pumpkin rolling stroller she dragged around behind her everywhere she went. I felt like she was stalking us at one point.  She was a little freaky-deeky! These people have to have lots of craziness and personality. They make it fun, though, I have to admit. 

 You go throughout the outdoor shopping village and look for witches to match each of about 20 clues. Then if you find them all you get a cookie in the sweet shop bakery. The girls loved that part.

 This is my favorite witch scene. The witches are stirring a green brew in the steaming cauldron. Everybody loves this scene. They added a lot of new things this year like a giant trampoline, a corn maze and pony rides that go around the park, not just in a circle. The extra kiddie land was $6 bucks. Otherwise it’s free.

 It gets you in the mood for Halloween, and lots of kids dress up. We usually do. The parents sometimes dress like witches too. It is a fun community event. YOU have to try it.

I finished decorating the kitchen and living and dining rooms. My hubs was making fun of my “spooky kitchen!” because I plugged in a little string of skeletons and like 3 of them already won’t work or their heads fell off. Stupid lights from China!  sigh……I still think they are cute….headless skeletons and all…..