Nursing Home Trick-or-Treat

Colleen came with the kids and me to go trick-or-treating at a nearby nursing home with MOMS Club. The residents were happy to see all the kids in their costumes, and the kids were excited to trick-or-treat! Oliver went around the room with Colleen and trick-or-treated with everyone. He was a little ham and just had the best time. Joanna liked the candy and trick-or-treating, but she wasn't sure what to make of the residents at the nursing home. She started to cry a couple of times, so we ended up hanging back quite a bit.

After trick-or-treating, Colleen treated us to lunch and then took us to Gigi's Cupcakes as a special birthday surprise for Oliver. We each got a Halloween cupcake! Joanna got a red velvet mummy. See her hand in this next photo? That's her pulling the cupcake down. The moment after this photo was taken, it landed with a big splat on the floor.

I got a wedding cake skeleton. It was the perfect cupcake.

Grandma Colleen got a chocolate chip monster cupcake, and Oliver ended up with some sort of chocolate werewolf. The cupcakes look fantastic, and they tasted just as good as they look!

It was a day of sweets for the birthday boy. Earlier in the day, he got monkey pancakes for breakfast. Pancakes, trick-or-treating, cupcakes... and now tomorrow is Halloween! Well, I suppose it's OK to go overboard once a year, right?!

Pinterest Challenge Day 22: Monkey Pancakes

My son loves monkeys. He has half a dozen stuffed monkey animals at our house, and he can't sleep without one of them. In fact, he woke up at 3am this morning. I was downstairs (already awake for the day), and, from over the monitor, I heard, "Monkey? Monkey?" I had to go unearth "Monkey" from his monkey blankets and give it back to him so he could go back to sleep.

So, when I saw a pin for monkey pancakes, I had to repin it to save for later.
http://pinterest.com/pin/216383957066132869/

That later day came today! As soon as Oliver was up for the day, we set to work. Oliver held Monkey in one arm while stirring with the other. He kept exclaiming excitedly, "Monkey pancakes!" even though he couldn't possibly know what monkey pancakes were.

We finished making the pancakes, and I built a monkey. I used a warm chocolate chip to draw in the mouth. I set a banana on the plate and proudly presented it to Oliver.

He loved them! He'd announce all of the facial parts before biting into them. Don't worry: he took care to make sure "Monkey" got some, too.