Haunted Hayride Anyone?

Every year my Parents' church has a hayride and wiener roast.  We love going to it.  This year was no exception.  Nana and Pawpaw are always great help for my boys at the wiener roast.

Elon Baptist does wiener roasts the old fashioned way . . . with sharpened sticks!  Most of them had multiple pointed ends which made roasting multiple wieners so much easier!  I just bummed a roasted hotdog from Nana for my supper.  :)

Isn't this picture of Alex with Pawpaw so cute?

While I was enjoying my delicious frito chili pie waiting for the hayride to begin, I got to give my sweet Shane a hug and kiss.  Don't you just love my cowboy hat and braids!

Time for the hayride!  Nana and Shane!

Zach and Alex!

When we got back to the church after the hayride . . . Shane had a new girlfriend!  :)

After the Elon Baptist Church hayride and wiener roast, we stopped at the Lazy U Farm for their Haunted Hayride.  (Shane went home with Nana)

Laycee and Kaylee also went to the Elon hayride and followed us to the haunted hayride too!  Thank goodness!  I would have been too intimidated to go on the haunted hayride without them!  

These three are ready to be scared!

So it was pitch black out in the woods . . . eerie sounds everywhere . . . and then you hear the sound of a chain saw!  

(These pictures aren't great because it was so dark out there, and I couldn't even see what I had my camera pointed towards.)

Freaky!

Oops!  Did someone lose a coffin?!?

Laycee has a tight grip on Kaylee!

Oh my goodness. . . . what is that following us in the woods . . .

Oh no!  It's jumped up in the hayride with us!  

And then mysteriously disappeared!

There were all kinds of creatures jumping out at us and jumping up on the hayride . . . I couldn't get pictures of everything!  

This was a very disturbing fall arrangement!

When the hayride was over . . . and we had survived . . . they dropped us off at the corn maze and basically said find your way back to the farm . . . through the corn maze . . . in the dark!

Uh which way do we go?

We made it out!  But not before hearing lots of creepy noises in the corn . . .  and not before a couple of scary creatures jumped out at us and chased us!  

Actually, one scary creature in particular grabbed me!  Scared me to death!  When he released me . . . this is what had me!  The chainsaw guy!

Apparently my terror was quite humorous because he got to laughing at me and then revealed himself to me.  Turns out most of the creatures in the forest were people I go to church with!  Funny.  Not!

But actually we had a great time.  It's supposed to be serious thunderstorms tonight or I would probably go again!  

But even though we love going on a hayride, whether it's haunted or not, there's nothing we love more than going home to the comfort of our own beds at Ferrell Farm where there are no creatures hiding in the dark except for . . .

                              the Ferrell boys and me!

Check out my other posts from my 31 Day Writing Challenge in October on the topic of "Comfort and Home"  HERE.

I'm linking up to these great parties!  Come join me!

Harvest Carnival Fun & Mummy Cupcakes

Tonight was the Harvest Carnival at my boys' school.  I worked the Cake Walk since I'm a Homeroom mom for Alex's class, and we were assigned that booth for the carnival.  Here I am with "Cotton Candy" working the booth.

I made Owl Cupcakes and Mummy Cupcakes for the cake walk.  You can read about how to make the Owl Cupcakes HERE.

The Mummy Cupcakes were easy to decorate.  I started with chocolate cupcakes.  I put a little squirt of buttercream icing on the cupcakes and stuck an m&m candy on it to make the eyes.

Then I used a flat tip on a decorating bag filled with buttercream icing  . . .

to squirt the mummy's "wrap" across the cupcake leaving a space for the mouth and not covering the "eyes".

At this point, the recipe (which you can click HERE for the recipe) says to use black gel icing to make a dot on the mummy's eyes.  My grocery had every color but black!  :)  

Oh well.  No biggie!  Mummies are dead anyway.  Why do they need a pupil?  I made 18 Mummy cupcakes.  And then I decorated the remaining 12 cupcakes with buttercream icing and sprinkles.

Shane had a great time at the carnival.  He won two toys at the Toy Walk, not to mention all the other prizes he won at the duck pond . . . or dry duck pond . . .

At the Feed the Elephant booth . . .

and at the Go Fish booth . . .

There were other carnival booths, but these were the only ones I got to see Shane play because I needed to help at the cake walk.   Nana (my mother) and Aunt Carolyn walked Shane around the carnival while I worked my shift.

We had a lot of fun at the Carnival, but it sure was nice when we finally got back to the comfort of our home . . . 

Only two more days of October and Halloween fun for . . . 

                          the Ferrell boys and me!

Check out my other posts from my 31 Day Writing Challenge in October on the topic of "Comfort and Home"  HERE.

How To Make Owl Cupcakes

So I got busy and made the cupcakes for the Harvest Carnival Cake Walk.  I made 18 chocolate cupcakes and 18 yellow cupcakes.

In an earlier post, Harvest Carnival - It's a Piece of Cake!, I highlighted some of my favorite Halloween cupcakes that I had spotted on Pinterest.  I picked one of the Mummy versions and one of the Owl versions to make.

The most complicated of the cupcakes I chose were the Owl cupcakes.  A lot of steps!  I made Homemade Buttercream frosting using butter - no shortening.  And then I used the yellow cupcakes to make the Owls.

Here is the Link for the instructions and recipe for making the Owl Cupcakes.  

First I separated the Oreo cookies.  You use one of the cookie halves with the cream on it and press an m&m in the cream to make the eye.  You obviously need 2 for each cupcake.  I prepared all the eyes for the cupcakes first.

Then you take the other half of the Oreo cookie - the one that doesn't have the cream on it - and crush it up.  But not all the plain cookies!  You need to set aside some of the plain cookies for the Owl ears too!  You'll need one plain cookie for each cupcake.  All the rest of the plain cookies you can crush.  I used a zip lock bag and a meat tenderizer.  

Then take the reserved plain chocolate cookie halves and cut them in half for the ears.  Sorry.  No picture of that step.

So all the prep work is done.  Now it's time to decorate the cupcakes!  First ice the cupcakes with the buttercream icing.  

I used a pretty tip to make a swirl, but it doesn't matter cause it's fixing to get smushed!  :)  Put the chocolate cookie crumbs from the ziplock bag into a nice little bowl . . . and dip the cupcake - icing down into the crumbs.

And here is what it looks like at this stage:  messy crumbs everywhere!  Ha!

Then you stick in the chocolate halves for the ears . . .

And then you add the eyes . . .

I had to squeeze a little buttercream icing on the back of the eyes to make them stick to the cupcake.

Then I used a yellow m&m for the beak.  The recipe called for something else, but I think the m&m looks fine.

Whew!  Those 6 cupcakes took more time to put together than the other 30 cupcakes I decorated!  And a sweet girl in Zach's class (AMK) won my owl cupcakes at the cake walk!  So glad they went home with her.  :)

Cupcakes are a favorite here at our home . . . but my boys prefer that I don't put any icing on them!  But that's the best part!  Ha!

But iced or plain . . . there's nothing quite like the comfort of a cupcake to bring a little joy to  . . .

                               the Ferrell boys and me!

Check out my other posts from my 31 Day Writing Challenge in October on the topic of "Comfort and Home"  HERE.

I'm linking up to these awesome parties!  Come join me!