Good Cop Bad Cop Costumes!

Another Halloween has come and gone! This year Connie (my employee) and I tried to channel Pinterest for our costumes. Enumclaw Adventures had a booth at a local Halloween Carnival put on by Dance It Up and we wanted to wow the crowd! While I am not sure we accomplished WOW...we had a great time doing this project and thanks to the few who understood what we were, it was well worth it!

If you have not seen The Lego Movie this costume won't make sense, if you have, well we hope you enjoy...

Our final products!

Here's how to make it!

First you need a kitten...just kididng, but it did make the process more fun:)

Supplies (for 1 lego cop):
2 foam wreath forms
1 Yellow posterboard
Black sharpie
Hot glue gun and glue
Silver paint
White paint
Yellow paint
Black paint
Gold paint

We painted the faces after gluing but realized it would have been easier to paint the faces on the posterboard then glue it onto the wreath forms. 

We are not artists but we did OK hand drawing the faces and cutting out the mouths. We then used sharpie and paints to make the eyes and glasses. 

Connie clearly has more artistic ability than me, look at her work!

Meow..distractions.

It helped to have both of us gluing the posterboard to the wreath forms. One wreath form on the bottom and one on the top. 

Almost done!

We found a few wrinkles but were able to smooth them out.  

Half Lego!

We used yellow paint to paint the foam wreaths to make our posterboards. 

More kitty play....

We used yellow construction paper and taped it to the top of the head. We also used some Styrofoam cups, painted them yellow and taped them to the top of the head where we had taped construction paper to add the full lego affect. 

We just fond large boxes behind and opened them completely. Then we cut large round holes for our heads. 

We used this picture from online to draw and paint the bodies. 

After painting the bodies we were finished!

We had a great time at the carnival!

We made a pumpkin patch!

Oh how I love fall! Especially the sunny and warm fall we've been having so far, how much better could it get?

You know what goes perfectly with a sunny and warm fall day? NO SCHOOL! That's right, we had our first non-school day of the year and boy did we enjoy it!

We started our morning out with hot chocolates and made our way up to Mud Mountain Dam Park in Enumclaw (a very fun park if you have not been I highly recommend it).

After our park adventures we got to do something very special....

 Last May we visited The Mason Jar Farm and planted pumpkins!

We were able to come back this fall and get the pumpkins WE planted! How fun is that!?

What a fun way to learn about planting and growing things and supporting a small/local business. We are so thankful for our visits to this farm!

Back to school we go!

Hello everyone! It's a new school year and better yet it's the first Friday of the new school year! Who doesn't love a sunny Friday!?

We had a great first week of school, made new friends and we're loving the adventure of it all! 

Remember last year when we were so excited because we bought a bus? Well we're at it again! We bought a new, larger and much nicer bus! Can you believe it!? 

I think the kiddos approve too:)

Thankful for this great bus and the awesome kids riding in it!

Backpack Program

Giving can be a tricky thing. There is a wide variety of populations and places to give to and it can be overwhelming.

A few months ago I started volunteering for this program in the Enumclaw community called "The Backpack Program". This program is designed to help feed children that may not have access to food on weekends. There are a large number of children in the Enumclaw School District on the free and reduced breakfast and lunches plan. The goal of this program is to ensure that these children are not spending their weekends hungry. Through the Enumclaw Regional Healthcare Foundation we receive money to supply meals and snacks for children. The reason why we mainly receive money donations is because the items we can use are often times very specific (i.e. dietary needs, weight, etc).

The children participating in our program are given to us via recommendations through teachers, school staff and community members. 

Now through the end of March we will be raising money for this program. At the end of March the Enumclaw Adventures kids will go shopping for the food together. 

This fundraiser will be BOYS vs GIRLS. At the end of March, whichever team has raised the most money will be heading to Avalanche Delite for a special treat!

We are excited to be a part of this very great program and excited to help Enumclaw Adventure's kids learn more about this need in our community!

The $ Jars!

Christmas gifts

I know I know, the holidays are over, time to move on with the new year...but I just couldn't resist sharing the fun projects we did for Christmas! So check them out!

Polar Bear and Rudolph Ornaments

We got these ornament kits at Hobby Lobby for a fantastic price!

Easy to make and oh so cute!

Alcohol Ink Stained Glass

The alcohol ink. Purchased at Ben Franklin. A bit spendy, but a little goes a long way. 

You simply take the ink and spread little bits around the inside of the glass. 

Boys will be boys...:)

We put the candle holders in small gift bags and wrote notes to parents. 

Pretty!

 Rhoda's Peppermint Hot Fudge Sauce

Fun and easy gifts for Enumclaw Adventure's families!

Yields 4 cups
2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cups brown sugar
1/4 teaspoons Kosher salt
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 teaspoons peppermint extract (substitute vanilla, if you don't want the mint flavor)

Directions: In a double boiler over medium heat stir in cocoa, sugars and salt. Add the cream and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the butter is melted and the sauce comes together and is smooth and glossy. Bring to a boil for 1 minute. Then, remove the bowl from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Stir in the peppermint extract. Store in the fridge and re-heat when ready to use.

Storage notes: This sauce is great to packages in glass jars for gifts. When pouring the sauce from the bowl into the jar it is helpful to use a kitchen funnel if you have one available. This sauce will stay in the fridge for up to two weeks or more.

Serving ideas: In addition to ice-cream, this sauce is excellent drizzled over slices of pound cake, cheesecake or a meringue. The version made with vanilla extract is also delicious served with poached fruit.