Our patch is growing!!

We are adding another pumpkin to our little patch that we have!

Burke baby #5 is due to arrive on June 3rd. :)  But I am just positive he/she will come in May...being that it is my 5th, and that I just cannot have 2 kids with the same birthday month!  I am sure it will cooperate when the time comes.  

I am (surprisingly) leaning towards NOT FINDING OUT THE SEX OF THE BABY!  

But I am greatly outnumbered by Joe and the kids.  So we will see when the time gets closer. 

This sweet baby was NOT a surprise....4 kids, all planned, never taken birth control....we have this figured out to a tee....we don't have surprise babies around here.  

The kids are THRILLED!  (which is an understatment).  I have a video that is priceless of when we told them.  Maggie can't stop screaming, Owen is moved to tears (literally) and immedietly asks, "is it a boy?" , Josie joins maggie in the screaming once she realizes what is going on and Emmie Jayne looks right at us and says, "NOOOO!"  It is soooo cute and I am so thankful we thought to video them.  Neither Joe or myself had expected the reactions the kids had.  

I had told the kids a week or so ago that they could each tell one friend.  We later found out (through one of her friends parents) that she informed her entire class (of 10) during prayer time 

I asked her why she didn't just tell one friend like I had said, and she told me she just couldn't decide which one to tell so she just told them all.  

We are all so excited and can't wait to see this new addition. 

And are so thankful to God for another wonderful little blessing!

Trick or Treat.

Trick or Treat came up on us pretty quicly this year it seemed.  I had told the kids they could be what they wanted....but it had to be easy and cheap.  I always tend to want the kids to all match and have cute outfits that coordinate....and then I end up spending (wasting) WAY too much money on something they wear one night.  I am trying to do a better job about not wasting money on silly things and halloween costumes is definetly a waste of money!  

I had a really cute clown costume for emmie from last halloween. I had bought it for her to wear and ended up getting her the sheep costume.....of course so she could match with Josie's little bo peep! (see my problem., lol)

so thankfully it still fit her this year and looked adorable.  

Josie has talked about wanting to be a peacock for weeks...but every peacock costuem I saw was nearly 30 dollars, which I was not spending on a costume.  So we were walking through the party store one day and I told her to look around for something she liked.  Suddenly she comes running and says, "I found it, this is what I want to be!"  I look down and see in her hand a $5 cat ears and tail.  She says, " i can wear my black dance outfit and black pants"  And I ran with it....."Yes Josie, that is a great idea!!"  

Joe painted her face up and she was thrilled with her 5 dollar costume!  

Owen wanted to be Si from Duck Dynasty.  So I pulled out his camo pants, his duck dynasty shirt and hat and bought the beard from Walmart...

He looked so funny!  Which is always what Owen is going for.  

And Maggie decided to go as "Super Maggie" this year.  

Simple but she looked so cute and loved it!  

All ready to head to church to Trunk or Treat

Si, Super Maggie, clown, and black cat...

Josie was quite into the part of being a cat...

everytime I would pull out my camera this is the pose I would get! 

I love this girl....she is such the individual.  :)

And this is Emmie Jayne's classic trick she always shows people.  

So when I asked her if she knew any clown tricks this is what I got...

She took a ball with her and kept telling us she was going to juggle. 

but I am pretty sure she lost the ball before we ever got into the church. 

All ready to go get some candy!

We got to church early so thankfully we didn't have to wait in the line that we would have had to if we had gone later.  

And waiting in lines with friends is not so bad anyways.  

Emmie and her friend Gillian taking a break and eating some candy.  

Emmie ate the majority of her candy while still at church..

Maggie being silly with Bella..

Molly and Josie were running that place all evening...we couldn't keep tabs on them the whole time!

I have seen so much latley about the "dark" side of trick or treating and how Christians shouldn't participate in any form of trick or trunk or treat.  I have thought alot about this this year wondering if I am in the wrong for letting my kids each year.  I have never had a conviction about it....and always trick or treated as a child.  And I have never even really been aware about the "dark" side of trick or treat.  I understand that some people are strongly convicted about it, and respect their choice to not participate....I have strong convictions on things as well that others don't agree with (movies and TV being my HUGE one that so many christians don't seem to have a problem with....I don't get it but they are my convictions... and it seems we all have different ones that are stronger than others)  I guess I view it the same as buying my kids gifts at Christmas and an easter basket at Easter....I don't know that we really should do those things at all...I mean those days have nothing to do with my kids being given gifts if you really think about it. 

And at the end of the evening....when my kids had a bag of candy, had played with friends, got to dress up in cute fun costumes (I am NOT a fan of dressing up scary/goulish, etc)....and my kids have a prop that says this to have thier picture taken behind.... 

I don't see us as really participating in halloween at all...... More of a costume carnival at church where my kids had fun. :) 

Cutest Little Pumpkin

Emmie Jayne loves pumpkins.....

Pretty much anything to do with them.... she loves pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread...

And she loves going to the pumpkin patch to play....

but seriously..this little girl loves pretty much everything and everyone...

she is about the happiest, smiliest, little girl around. 

(and awfully stinking cute I must say!)

Cupcake Wars party!

Maggie had her 10th birthday party this weekend and she had decided she wanted a Cupcake Wars party a few weeks ago.  

This is one of my favorite shows and the kids would sometimes watch as well so we got to planning. 

This was quite an easy party for me....very little prep and she didn't want a cake since they would be making so  many cupcakes.  That part did make me a bit sad i must admit, and when I told her that the day of the party she said she didn't care she didn't have one, but really just didn't want me to have to go through making one when they would have lots of cake already!  

We decided on two teams....

Team purple..

And team pink..

I made cute tshirts for each team, these proved to be great aprons as well!

Since it was Maggie's birthday the theme of the cupcake wars was "Maggie"

So all of the cupcakes had to be made with food that Maggie likes.  

Here was the ingredient table..

After the girls got there Joe showed them a video that explained the show to them and how it worked...although most of them had already seen the show.  

We split them into teams and off they went baking...

Each team got a turn at the mixer making their batter..

while the other team made their cupcake plans...

Here is our team purple..

And the pink team...

There were some interesting items the girls could choose from which made me glad that I wasn't a judge!

But both teams picked pretty cupcake appropriate toppings overall...

Both teams were super serious about their baking and took the entier 2 hours to make them

Maggie didn't have enough work space to crush her candycanes so she went to the floor..

trying to be the first ones in the oven..

I made the girls take a quick smile break so i would have a few pictures of them looking at me!

Purple team was first in the oven..

pink team wasn't far behind..

Then the girls began on their icing....which proved to be quite messy!!  I think I should have given a "bagging icing" lessson before!

decorating time....

The birthday girl...

All finished and waiting to be judged!

Pink teams final product...

Purple and their cupcakes..

Both teams before the judging begins!  Such a fun group of girls.  

And the judges are ready!  

Joe and Owen dressed up for the judging

The girls had to name their cupcake and give descriptions of it to the judges 

Owen was in cupcake heaven!  Joe told him to just try a bit of each one but he ended up eating most of them.  He also played the part of Florien on the show who has a very strong French ( i think) accent and it was HYSTERICAL.  And spot on. 

Hearing the feedback..

I was afraid they would need to spit something out or get sick with a few of them but they thought all the cupcakes were really good overall!

Maggie hearing about her cupcake

Both teams awaiting the winner being annouonced..

And the purple team won....by a very short bit of sweetness.  :) 

Next Maggie opened her gifts while we got the kitchen clenaed up from the cupcake wars...

And then the girls came back in and made their own pizzas, baked those up and ate. 

After that it was pretty much free play until their parents picked them up, although they took a quick cupcake break while playing.  It turned out to be such a fun party and the girls all seemed to have fun inventing their own cupcakes!   So glad that Maggie had a wonderful 10th birthday!