Chicken Enchiladas. This is one of our faves (you can do a search for it here and can see I’ve made it plenty of times). I can now pretty much make this without having to look at the recipe. Brave isn’t much of a meat eater, so I made her a batch of cheese enchiladas. According to her, they were quite yummy too.

Crab Cakes and Lemon Aioli. Just realized I had this is the last family meal post, but we liked it so much, that I was itching to try it again. The first time was with canned crab meat (non-refrigerated) and it was good. This time, I got some refrigerated lump crab meat and it came out a lot better. I didn’t use hot sauce, but made two batches, one with 1 tbsp cayenne and one without. I also used a whole bundle of chopped parsley instead of the measly tablespoon the recipe calls for. Another change is that I lightly pan-fry instead of using a 1/2 cup of oil like the recipe suggests. True is allergic so she got a personal pan pizza that night; I want to try it next time with a batch of imitation crab just for her.

Week of 10/14 – 10/18
Monday: Spaghetti
Tuesday: Fish Tacos
Wednesday: Spring Minestrone with Chicken Meatballs
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Pizza/Sushi

We’ve been having our dinner clubs almost weekly and it’s about 10-12 of us. I’d love to hear some of your go-to meals for large groups! It’s been such a blessing to have this time with our friends (and new friends) who join us. Sharing meals together is pretty much always guaranteed to be filled with lots of laughs and encouragement!

Well, I’m going batty making all these batty things. Actually, I was probably batty to begin with, so this is just an outpour of who I am. No matter what came first, me being batty or the bat inspiration, this is our October garland for this year.

Supplies:
Bat template
Black card stock
Pencil
Scissors
Thread
Sewing Machine

Directions: Using your bat template, trace and cut out your bats from the black card stock. Then straight stitch down the center of all the bats connecting them together! There you go, now you’re probably pretty batty too!

We probably have a few more Halloween projects to do for fun in our house, but I think we’re pretty much done with our decor. We need to get to the fun projects that the kids can play with! Plus, having simple little touches throughout our home is good enough for us!

So now you’ve got two simple projects from the same template (see the bat mobile)… if you make it and share it, please leave a link to it in the comments! I would love to check it out!

If you’ve got a Batman lover… you must make them a bat mobile. Ha! This can go in a Batman themed room or up for Halloween, either way will definitely work! I was inspired by this pin, but I think my bats don’t look quite as scary.

Supplies:
Bat template (click to download and print)
Black card stock
Pencil
Scissors
Hole puncher
Thread
Sewing machine

Directions:
1. Using the bat template, trace 9 bats on the card stock and proceed to cut them out.
2. Arrange the bats (see picture above for bat arrangment).
3. Sew along the right wing of the top bat with a straight stitch, allow about 3″-4″ of stitching (with no bat attached), and then proceed to straight stitch the 4 bats on the right side. You will want to try and sew down the middle of the 4 bats to keep the mobile balanced. Repeat for the remaining side. Snip any excess thread.
4. Punch a small hole about 1/4″ in from the top bat head (center the hole on the bat head). String a piece of thread through (I used invisible thread), knot, and hang!

I’ve got another quick bat project for you tomorrow using the same template. We have our bat mobile hanging over our record player and we’re feeling ready for Halloween. I still have costumes to sew, so I better get started soon! It would also be cute to make a cat or ghost mobile and you could use this template to do so.

Do you get festive for Halloween? If so, what kinds of decor do you have up?

These rocks are my souvenirs from our summer vacation in New Mexico. I fell in love with so many rocks that I kind of took them home with me (Ben had to restrain me from taking more). The girls had their own collection going on while we were there, but really, they collect rocks everywhere we go. Some of these rocks are pretty massive and I spotted them on our way up the mountain (see here), but there was no way I was going to take them up, so on our way down is when I did my gathering. Ben also found a rock in the shape of a heart to commemorate the hike we did to celebrate our 8 year anniversary.

We aren’t much of souvenirs buyers, though we did let the girls each pick a little something, but these rocks are my souvenirs and I love them so much! Seeing them brings me a wave of memories from our time this summer. Some of them are displayed in our home, and some are just sitting in a basket waiting for a special spot. I think some of these pictures blown up might even make for a nice poster. There’s just so much beauty in something as simple as a rock!

Are you or your kids rock collectors too?

This black and white geometric banner would be cool for Halloween decorating (or just because decorating too!).

These scary eyes treats are perfect for a Halloween party.

My fave one is this black cats and friendly ghosts banner and lights!

This is just a little round up of some things we have done in the past that would be perfect for Halloween! There’s also this Halloween headband project and this easy “boo” sign on the mantle. I have a few new things to make too, so we I will be sharing those with you soon!

What are some of your other fave Halloween DIYs from around the web?

It’s back to summer weather here in SoCal and it has me missing our time in New Mexico. The crisp air, the cool morning and evenings, and the gorgeous views… oh, I want to go back to Taos Ski Valley so badly! This is the last of our 2013 summer vacation recap and we spent a lot of time out in the mountains, but we also spent a lot of time in our cabin too.

It was our first time renting an actual home (cabin) to stay in rather than a hotel. I was kind of nervous about it at first, but we had such a lovely time and the place was amazing. We had these large front windows that looked onto the mountains and the view was just breathtaking. We chose Snow Bear Inn to stay at and it was perfect for our group of 8. There were 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms, a full kitchen, dining and living room. It was nice to have a home away from home. We made all our meals (never ate out at all, but it took intense meal planning and packing!) and had a room of their own to go to bed at a proper time, and it gave us adult time to chat.

So many memories were made here. Mama, Ben’s mom, made wonderful breakfasts every morning; we were spoiled having waffles, pancakes, and french toast everyday. We had family dinners at the table and Ben’s sister, Suzy, would read from his mom’s old journal that she wrote when they would go on vacation when to New Mexico when Ben and Suzy were younger. That was an especially memorable night. The girls and Ben’s sister put on a show for us on the last night and the girls just loved that they had a new place to explore, everything was way cool to them! Another favorite memory were our family walks at night. They weren’t long, but they were just so peaceful and it was just wonderful to be surrounded by God’s creation under twilight. That blanket of stars above just left you in awe!

Snow Bear Inn was the perfect place to call home while we there and we were sad to leave. It made us dream of buying a cabin there one day. Donna, the manager, was especially helpful and always gave us the best suggestions of what to do and see. She went above and beyond and I was seriously calling her everyday for this or that and she was so great in answering my questions. I think Taos Ski Valley is quite popular in the winter since it’s known for skiing, so summer was a much more affordable time to go and stay there. Now that I think about it, it’s called Snow Bear Inn, but it isn’t really an inn, but more like a lot of cabin/condos put together. Most of them have individual owners that rent it out when they aren’t there and Donna manages it all. It would be fun to be one of those owners and have this little haven to go to every summer. A girl can dream, can’t she?!

If you could have another little place to call home anywhere in the world, where would you choose?