Oh So Yummy Artichoke Dip

I had another B-Charmed party for my friend, Kim, yesterday afternoon.  It was lots of fun and everybody who attended is getting some fun and fabulous jewelry!  But this post is not about jewelry.  It's about the artichoke dip that I made for the party.  And when I say "I made" I mean that I intended to make it but Jay ended up making it since he was at the house : )  It was soooo delicious and this is all that was left at the end:

Ya, so good.  Mom, I will make you try this.  So this recipe is courtesy of the Costco magazine that they send out every month.  I actually opened it this month and I'm so glad that I did!

Hot Artichoke-Parmesan Dip

Prep Time: 5 min
Total Time: 20 min
Makes: 560 mL (2 1/4 cups) or 18 servings, 30 mL (2 Tbsp) each

250 mL (1 cup) Miracle Whip Dressing
250 mL ( 1 cup)  Kraft 100% Parmesan Grated Cheese
1 can (398 mL) artichoke hearts, drained, coarsely chopped
2 green onions, chopped

Heat oven to 180 C (350 F)
Mix ingredients
Spoon into shallow, ovenproof dish.
Bake 15 min. or until hot and bubbly

Easy, right?  Now, instead of the Parmesan cheese, we used Kraft's parmesan, romano and asiago mix.  (It's still a "sprinkle" cheese that comes in a container.  The only place I've been able to find it is Sobeys.  So delicious!)  We also doubled the recipe for the party (which was definitely a smart idea).  We served it with Ciabatta baguettes from Costco.  Someone said that it was also pretty delicious on the crackers I had out.  I replied that I'm pretty sure it would taste equally as delicious on a spoon.  Holiday potlucks watch out.  This is what I'm gonna be bringing : )

Fun at Grandma & Grandpa's House

Grandma Daryl and Grandpa Dave had a shuffleboard in their basement.  While we were there last night Grandma showed him how to play.  I think he did pretty well for an almost 2-year-old.  Shuffleboard World Championships here we come!

Scariest Animal on the Planet

Kids are so weird.  According to Paxton, the scariest animal on the whole entire planet is ...

the Giraffe.  That's right, the Giraffe.  Seriously, Paxton?  I mean, they eat leaves, they have to do this

to drink water ... how scary could they possibly be?  Not as scary as the cougar skin in Grandpa Dave's basement that you call "kitty" if you ask me.  But apparently Paxton is convinced that these majestic creatures might just turn on you at any moment so you must have constant vigilence when they're around ... even if the one you're dealing with is just a stuffed animal that is shorter than a 2 years old.  *shaking head*

The Mighty Thor does Halloween

Well, we survived Halloween.  It was a pretty eventful holiday for us this time around.  And, as you probably guessed from this post's title, Paxton was dressed up as Thor.  But he almost wasn't!  I found the Thor costume on Wal-Mart's website and was determined that Paxton would be Thor.  I searched high and low all over Lethbridge and couldn't find the toddle size anywhere.  It wasn't until October 23rd when I'd given up on finding the Thor costume and was headed to peruse the costume section of the northside Wal-Mart that I found it ... complete with an awesome hammer!  Yay for small victories!!!  Anyway, here's how our Halloween weekend went down.  And yes, there are A LOT of pictures.

I've come to the conclusion that the reason I haven't been "in" to Halloween for my adult life was the lack of Trick-or-Treat aged children in our household.  This year we got to teach Paxton the age old art of candy hunting.  I made sure to tell Paxton repeatedly that Halloween is the one night of the year (or weekend as the case may be) where children go out and get their parents some candy!!!  Good times had by all : )

Paxton with his Trick-or-Treat bucket on his head.  He did this on his own.  Silly boy.

The initial try-on of the costume.

I was slightly concerned about the hammer.  The packaging said that it's for ages 4+ and Paxton's not quite there yet.  He did attempt to hit the dogs with it a few times, but that was about it.

We kicked things off on Saturday at my work where they were having a Tick-or-Treat event for the employees' children.  Since Jackie, Cristy and I (and Cristy's husband, Mark) all work together we decided to meet up and go through it together. 

**Fun Fact Break** Now I know that Christmas is usually the holiday that miracles are associated with, but we had some Halloween miracles this year.  For those of you who know us, Jay and I are late for pretty much everything.  95% of the time this is Jay's fault.  4.5% of the time this is Paxton's fault.  I will admit that 0.5% of the time it is my fault.  It does actually make me slightly psychotic though.  I absolutely hate being late (this is my parents' fault.  They are usually at least 5-10 minutes early for everything.)  Jay doesn't usually care, because as an only child he is used to everything revolving around him and he generally informs me that, "they won't start without us."  But I digress.  We decided to meet at work at 2 pm on Saturday so that we'd have time for other festivities afterward.  Jay, Paxton and I ended up arriving 10 minutes early ... and we were the first out of the 3 families to make it there!  I'm still fairly certain that we drove through a wormhole or something and that's how we got there so early.  I wasn't the only one who was shocked.  I texted Jackie and Cristy to let them know we were there to which Cristy replied, "Who are you and what did you do with the Christensens?"  Bahahahaha!

Anyway, once we were all there we headed around to the different rooms where employees were waiting to hand out candy.  Paxton was being super shy (despite the fact that we told him Thor's not afraid of anything)and made Jay carry him around to all the rooms.  

Ready to get his candy hunting on.

Alexander as "Wolverine" from X-Men

Carter as "Kermit the Frog"

Once we were done we headed to the lunch room for some cupcakes and juice. 

Being a superhero is thirsty work!

Also being a muppet is thirsty work : )

And then it was time to head back to our place.  Paxton made several people's day by running back and forth along the sidewalk with his hammer raised and his cape flying.  (Seriously, people were even still telling me how much they enjoyed it today.)  So back at our house we got down to the serious business of carving pumpkins and then had a barbeque.  My jack-o-lanters did not win the competition, but I loved them anyway.

Alexander was not impressed to be in the "pumpkin patch" with Carter.

"What'd I do?"

Paxton was laying low in the background with his cup of cheezies.

Everyone hard at work

I opened my first pumpkin and discovered that the insides were mouldy!!!  The outside of the pumpking was perfectly fine though.  Weird.  And gross.

Alexander feeling the pumpkin guts with Jackie.

Carter was none too impressed about the pumpkin guts.

Paxton keeping his distance from the pumpkin guts

Paxton and Alexander in the pumpkin patch

My completed jack-o-lantern. I was holding it up to the light so Cristy could get a picture of it "lit up."  I swear she took forever to take the picture and that sucker was heavy!!! (I weighed it after this picture and it was 15.2 lbs!)

All the completed Jack-o-Lanterns.  Skeleton = Cristy; Frankenstein = Jackie & Craig; Monster Face = Mark; Eyeball = Chris; Traditional Jack & Trick or Treat = Alisha

I have no idea why Paxton was sitting like this ... but this was his sexy pose while drinking juice.

Paxton and Alexander were "playing" together.  Alexander was putting the puff treats back in the can while Paxton was taking them out and putting them down the heat vent.  Good times indeed.

After the carving and barbequeing, we headed to Wes and Christina's house for a Halloween party. 

Cristy and Mark as "Waldo and Wenda"

Wes as "Edward Scissorhands"

Paul as "Beast" from X-Men (that's 14 tubes of blue body paint)

Craig as "Magneto" from X-Men

Everyone at Wes and Christina's place (where's Waldo and Wenda?)

After this party I dropped Jay off at home since he was really tired (I know, he's old) and I headed over to Ryan and Kaity's house for their party.  It was lots of fun, but apparently I didn't take any pictures :(

On Monday (actual Halloween) my parents and Auntie Kinsey stopped by to see Thor before we headed out for candy hunting.

First stop was Cristy and Mark's house.  We were meeting up there with Jackie and Craig so we could all go out together.  We didn't beat Cristy and Mark (since it was their house) but we did make it there before Jackie and Craig.  Surprisingly the world did not fall off it's axis after 2 occurances in one weekend.

Paxton is the worst sharer E-V-E-R.  He's stealing Carter's truck here and did not want the other 2 boys to touch it at all.

An attempt at getting a picture of the 3 boys together.  Slightly better than the one from Carter's birthday.  At least Paxton's not crying.

Jackie and Craig were singing so Alexander would smile ... 1 out of 3 ain't bad, right?

We even attempted to take the picture with Paxton in the back of the truck to keep him happy.  It didn't work.

Alexander was not impressed about having his mask over his eyes.  This super hero isn't concerned about keeping his identity a secret!

After the photo shoot we headed out to trick-or-treat Cristy and Mark's cul-de-sac.

Cutest Thor ever!

Auntie Cristy was kind enough to show Paxton how to bang on people's doors with his hammer.  Quite cute and hilarious ... until we encountered a glass door.  (Thankfully we didn't have to replace anyone's door afterwards.)

Paxton was pretty excited about the situation and was running everywhere.

After finishing up with the friends we headed over to Jay's Mom's house for a quick visit.

And Thor recharged on more cheezies

And some juice.

After Grandma's house we headed to Jay's Dad's house.  Chicken wanted to take Paxton out to see him bang on people's doors so we went down the street and back up the other side from their place.  Paxton cleaned house!  He ended up with a plastic grocery bag and a half of treats!  That's good hunting if I say so myself : )

And here's a video of us trick-or-treating.  It took a little bit for Paxton to get the hang of it, but by the end of the night he had it figured out: 1. Bang on the door with the hammer. 2. Wait for the door to open. 3. Hold up the bucket for the candy.  4. Go to the next house and repeat.