Bieter's 2nd Annual Halloween Costume Party 2009

The day has now come and passed, the famous Bieter Halloween Party. In attendance were 90 devils, witches, vampires, vampiresses, fairies, cats, Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland characters, monks, cardinals, old ladies, and goblins just to name a few.

 

There was plenty of food, beer, and wine to go around. In fact, we still have several bottles of wine and candy left over. I created mummy hot dogs as part of my appetizer selection and they were an instant hit. We had deviled egg eyeballs, caramel apples, creepy witch and carrot fingers, maggot jello, as well as candy, carrot cake, cupcakes, assorted cakes, bacon wraps, finger sandwiches, vegetables, chips, apple cider, and soda.

The children enjoyed pumpkin bowling and bobbing for apples which were both an instant success last year. Each child was greeted at the downstairs entrance by Coretta and her two friends Melanie and Gabriel, and presented with a trick or treat bag filled with goodies. As the night progressed, the kids watched the Addams Family and one of the Simpsons Halloween specials.

Towards the end of the night, we had our awards ceremony. There were both kid and adult categories ranging from, most original, most scary, cutest, best, tackiest, most creative, best female adult, and best male adult. This years contest proved to be more difficult than last year, because the costumes were even better.

The winner of best female adult costume went to Ronnie Burkert for her old lady costume. The winner of best male costume went to Bob Willey for his tavern frau Heidi costume. Tackiest costume went to Daisy and Bruno Surace for their plug and outlet costume. Most original adult costume went again to Bob Willey. The scariest adult costume went to Tim and Perry who scared the hell out of adults and children alike.

The scariest costume in the kid category went to Melanie Hoffman for her Medieval vampire costume. The cutest costume went to Gianna Surace for her Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz Costume. Most original went to Ezra Boley for his Bubble Wrap costume. Most creative went to Luke Hove for his devil costume.

Each winner was presented with a trophy. The adults received gold skeleton trophies, and the children received monster trophies (created by me) with candy and a Halloween certificate.

Definitely was a success. Looking forward to next years event!

Coretta's School Halloween Party

Today Coretta will be celebrating Halloween at school and was able to put her costume on in the morning before leaving for school. They have a full day planned with several different Halloween festivities and later after school she will be taking the bus home with her friend Melanie where they will then go back to the school for Trunk and Treating. Coretta is very excited!

Geno's School Halloween Party

This morning, I dropped Geno off at school where all the children were dressed up for Halloween. There were children dressed as witches, princesses, bees, frogs, and even Spiderman and Zoro made an apperance. Parents were busily taking pictures of their children. Geno, however, refused to put his costume on. He apparently wanted to wear his Minnesota Vikings Favre Number 4 jersey instead. Geno calls this his football jersey. After much prodding and negotiating and me promising chocolate and popcorn later he reluctantly put it on. Here are some pictures of him in his devil costume at school today.

Fall Harvest

I have decided that it is time to start experimenting with cooking, and have done fairly well recently making home made potato soup, lentil soup, as well as several other main courses, so today I have decided to tackle the apple pie. I am actually quite disappointed in myself because I always thought that baking would be too hard or I wouldn't have the patience for it. To my surprise, I have been enjoying making new desserts as well as new entrees. Here are a couple of pictures of my pie. I sure hope it tastes as good as it looks!! If it does, I will be making these for Thanksgiving along with our 12 pound turkey.

Geno Baking Apple Pies at School

Today the Beehive Preschool Play Group spent the morning learning how to make and bake apple pies as part of their thematic unit titled Autumn and Harvest. Every child helped wash the table and then their hands making sure that they had a clean working surface. They then started out with singing a song about apples and reviewing the sounds apples make while eating them such as crunch and munch which are the some of the words they are learning this week. They also put wooden apples into a pan to practice counting.



The teacher then carefully explained the crust as she rolled out onto the baking sheet and pan. She explained how the baking sheet would help the apple pie so it would not stick to the pan. Each child then had the chance to feel the dough patting it as they sang:

Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Bakers Man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can. Pat and prick it and mark it with a B. Put it in the oven for the Beehive and Me.

The teacher then showed them how they needed to peel all of the apples before putting them in the pie and demonstrated what this looked like.

They then put the sugar, flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon into the bowl with each student having their turn to stir and pour in the ingredients. Once this was done, each child sampled an apple with the mixture on it. Some liked this better than others. They then hid the apples with the top of the crust while the teacher pinched the bottom and top together and putting slits at the top so the pie could breath.

This lesson used all of the senses such as seeing, feeling, and tasting and fit in perfectly as one of the fruits we eat during Autumn and the Harvest. The students really enjoyed this process, but I bet they will enjoy eating the final product even more. Below are a couple of videos from their day creating apple pies. Enjoy!

Geno makes Play Dough and Juice

Geno's therapist came for a visit today. They decided to make play dough and homemade orange juice. He loved being able to see that by adding certain ingredients you could create something completely different. These activities definitely keep him interested and motivated to learn.

He then fed his favorite puppet Neelie the wonderful ingredients he made. The best part was that he ws able to drink the fresh squeezed juice he made. Geno enjoyed each of these steps so much! Here is a picture collage from his session.

Part of Your World by Coretta

One of Coretta's many past times is music. She loves to listen to, play, or even sing all types of music. She has been practicing this song for the past two months, and asked me to record it for her. I apologize for the background noise. Enjoy!