Witches Brew 2011

I had the cutest ladies come to my witches brew this year - despite the showing of my poor quality low-light photos! Steph gave me the original idea for a witches brew and did tons to help me clean up. Deb won "The Hat you wish you could take credit for making," she crocheted it herself. Danyelle rocked lime green tights and made me laugh all night. And Christy won "The Hat that best represents the person wearing it," with all her racing medals and running gear!

The old presidency, and some of my BFFs - Andrea, Karyn, Andrea - brought their moms! I love that we are good enough friends that they brought them!! Aren't all of their hats FABULOUS?!
Look at my adorable family! Jen won "The hat that makes you giggle" award. Missy braved a group of family women and rocked the party. My mom won "spookiest hat" and was an enormous help in getting me set up for the party! Tana's purple sorting hat was Sara's favorite! Heather came and showed me support despite being sick. Linda, my MIL, stayed until the bitter end to get me all cleaned up!

I think my tables turned out great this year. My favorite additions were the personal soup cauldrons and the bloody goblets.

My menu this year was very similar to last year's brew. I had squash soup, homemade chicken noodle soup (yes, there was no canned broth in site), a fall salad, yummy rolls, pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes, and wassail!

I also sent each of my witches (non-winners) home with a little pumpkin parting gift. Thank you ladies for such a WONDERFUL evening!

Cupcake Tester

Eliza takes one for the team around here. Every time I make cupcakes for an occasion - birthdays, parties, etc. - Eliza makes sure they are tasty. She tested for Laura's birthday.

Then I learned that she was an all-encompassing taster and changed her outfit for Witches Brew testing.

I love having my little buddy help me while sisters are at school!

Quick Trip: Boise, ID Area

Jason and I decided that now that I am feeling better and Eliza is sleeping better, to take more quick trips as a family. Yes, we can successfully sleep in a standard 2 Queen hotel room. We decided to go to Boise first, because we had a free hotel stay there. We looked up activities online and this is what we selected:

Old Penitentiary & Armament Exhibit

The girls learned that they never want to do anything that makes them have to go to jail. We also learned quite a bit about Idaho's history.

I saw where they developed my favorite rose: J&Ps Tropicana.

Jason adored the gun exhibit and got to see a Colt .45, a Gatling Gun, and a Luger in person!

Swimming

The girls spent so much time in the hotel pool that we didn't get to DCI like we wanted to. It was a good tradeoff. They loved practicing their skills and having fun in the water.Three Island Crossing State Park

We learned so much about Native American traditions and the history of the Oregon trail here. The Trail Center was fantastic and the views were pretty.

Shoshone Falls

Breathtaking. Jason and I have both been to Niagra and agreed this was almost equally awe-inspiring. We spent hours looking at the waterfalls and the gorge.Idaho State Capitol

We ended up looking all around the capitol building while waiting for breakfast. It was a GREAT use of time. We enjoyed the building, the state seal, the state bell, and a replica of the Liberty Bell.

Park

DCI looked small so we stopped to play here for a few minutes after deciding not to spend the money for only a few minutes there and to spend that time at the pool. The girls loved the wildlife that surrounded us there.

Food!!

Most of the food was excellent - we had two bummer lunches, but other than that, we ate like kings. Dinner at Rick's Press Room was excellent - such good salmon, great service, and good for the kids! Goldy's breakfast was heavenly- the BEST Eggs Benedict we've ever had and they were good with kids too. Dessert at The Creperie was amazing - we tried 4 kinds and ALL were delicious. We also picked up some of the girls favorite lunch beverage (Rootbeer Milk and Strawberry Milk) at the Gossner outlet in on our drive up.

Family Pictures: Jason's Side

We had Tyler and Lisa take family pictures for Jason's side of the family just recently. We really needed updated ones. Once again they did an amazing job. They did formals and candids for us. Here are the ones we printed out and have hanging in our house.

We also printed out several others and got them hung in Mom & Dad B's house for them. They look great. More can be seen for a while on the photoshop site.