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Dine and Dish

Food blog with family recipes

October 26, 2014

Hallmark: When The Neighborhood Grows Up

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Watching our neighborhood grow up… a Hallmark Life is a Special Occasion Post.

Halloween 2009 on Payne Street Boo in the Bubble

Boo in the Bubble 2010

Maybe it’s because the oldest “kid” on our block left us for college this year…

Or that my son no longer wants to dress up for Halloween…

Or that our group of “kids” at our annual Halloween “Boo in the Bubble” neighborhood party is dwindling more and more each year…

But I’m feeling so wistful lately.

The neighborhood is growing up.

Boo in the Bubble Neighborhood Halloween Party 2011

I see our neighborhood changing form…

In the lower voices that emit from our basement where the kids hangout.

In the increase in number of cars in the driveways, because those babies we once knew are driving now!

In the homecoming dresses, the dates being had, in the fewer bubbles being blown and driveways being covered with chalk, replaced by makeup, sports and cell phones.

Boo in the Bubble Neighborhood Halloween Party 2012

Our neighborhood is growing up…

And I’m thankful we’re growing up with them. Our neighbors are our family. Our tribe. Our people.

And as much as I’m wistful for the days of past…

Boo in the Bubble Neighborhood Halloween Party 2013

I am so thankful for the here and now… because these neighbors we have… they know us.

They are there for us.

They are family.

We are blessed.

Hallmark Life is a Special Occasion Blogger Badge

Just because everyone is growing up, doesn’t mean we’re too old for fun and Halloween decorating. My friends at Hallmark sent me some of the cutest Halloween decorations, available on their website as well as in stores. Decorating for us normally doesn’t go much beyond carving pumpkins, but my kids LOVED having some actual Halloween themed decorations up this year! They especially had fun with the Drop n’ Greet Spider and…
Hallmark-Halloween-Decor

Tricks the Toe-Tappin’ Treat Bag. He’s about as cute as they come, right?

Hallmakr-Dancing-Candy-Guy-2Hallmark-Dancing-Candy-Guy
We’re also super excited to send our friends Halloween Cards in the mail this year… how fun is that? I don’t usually think of Halloween as a “card sending” holiday, but imagine what a treat it would be for someone to receive a special note that you care when it’s not a typical card sending time of year. I think we should turn it in to a card sending time of year…how ’bout it?

We hope whatever your plans are this Halloween, you have a super sweet, spectacular time! Enjoy!

Disclosure: A special thanks to my friends at Hallmark for sponsoring this post. All opinions expressed are my own. For special discounts, product offerings and news about Hallmark, feel free to sign up for their newsletter. Thanks for supporting brands that help Dine & Dish to be possible. 

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Filed Under: Life, Parenting, Previous Tagged With: growing up, hallmark, Halloween, Kids, life, neighbors, parenting

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sues says

    October 27, 2014 at 8:03 am

    I love this! I hope when I have kids that my neighborhood is just like this 🙂

    Reply
    • Kristen says

      October 27, 2014 at 10:25 am

      It’s a great place to live!! Thanks, Sues!

      Reply
  2. Laurie Williams says

    October 27, 2014 at 11:53 am

    What a walk down memory lane!! They were all so cute… Just when did they get so big?? Boo in the Bubble were some of our best memories from living in KS. We miss you as neighbors, and most importantly, as dear friends. Happy Halloween to our KS friends!!

    Reply
    • Kristen says

      October 28, 2014 at 9:37 am

      I can’t believe how much they’ve grown, Laurie! Seems crazy.
      We miss you guys, especially this time of year! Give your family hugs from us!

      Reply
  3. Jennifer @ Show Me the Yummy says

    October 27, 2014 at 12:21 pm

    What a nice post 🙂 Watching people grow up is always bittersweet and filled with nostalgia! 🙂

    Reply
    • Kristen says

      October 28, 2014 at 9:38 am

      It really is bittersweet, isn’t it? Feeling a lot of that lately for some reason!

      Reply
  4. Michelle Rittler | Taste As You Go says

    October 28, 2014 at 9:02 am

    Halloween has never been a big holiday in our house, but now that Stephen and I are expecting a little one, I’m already imagining the ways we can dress up the baby next year. I hope we’re as lucky as you to have such a fabulous neighborhood in which to raise our family. Such wonderful memories, Kristen! <3

    Reply
    • Kristen says

      October 28, 2014 at 9:38 am

      I can’t wait to see your little one grow up!!

      Reply
  5. Carol at Wild Goose Tea says

    October 28, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    Fun post—-sigh, Kids do grow up. I think of my own kids—-I like them older, but sometimes I would like to go into the closet and pull out a 3 or 4 yr version who wants to cuddle and read stories.

    Reply
  6. Amanda says

    October 28, 2014 at 4:34 pm

    Love this post, the pictures are adorable!

    Reply
  7. Liz @ The Lemon Bowl says

    October 28, 2014 at 5:07 pm

    Stop it. You’re going to make me cry in a ball!

    Reply
  8. Aggie says

    October 30, 2014 at 9:51 am

    I want to cry…for a second I thought my son might not want to dress up this year. But SO GLAD he did. Not ready for that!! I feel like my job as a mom lately is to keep everyone young and fun! 🙂

    I love getting cards in the mail…and what a treat to get one for Halloween.

    Reply
  9. Les in NE says

    October 31, 2014 at 8:26 pm

    Beautiful post and photos, Kristen. {sniff, sniff}

    Reply

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Book Lovers Giveaway (read to the end)!!! ⬇️ ⬇️ 

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J is for...jam!
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My friend @wakschmale makes the best strawberry jam...and I completely forgot about a jar she gave me last year until this morning. Which then inspired me to make my favorite buttermilk biscuits. So so good. Are you a jam, honey, just butter or plain biscuit fan? I love biscuits allll the ways, except with gravy. I have super bad memories of biscuits and gravy growing up. 🤢
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It took me 2 months to get this Crispy Chickpea Pantry Pasta recipe up on the blog. 🤦‍♀️But it’s there now! You can find the link in my Instagram profile.
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Also, just noticed Instagram took away the like count on posts. I kind of like that...what do you think?
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I is for Inspiration!
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The “long haul” effects of having Covid back in December are really presenting themselves lately. The continuous persistent headaches are taking a toll and the connection between the brain fog and word retrieval function of my brain has been extra challenging. I had no idea a couple months out, the cognitive effects would still be hanging around.
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With that said, when I get a burst of inspiration I’m grabbing on for dear life. I made our favorite chocolate chip cookies recipe yesterday and felt the desire to update the blog post photos from 2007! We make these cookies all the time, so I’m not sure why it’s taken me so many years to give that poor post some new photos.
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If you’re interested in the recipe you can find the link currently in my profile. Enjoy!!
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@kimklassen_innercircle #kimklassen_innercircle #chocolatechipcookie #cookiestagram #foodphotography #feedfeedbaking #plateofcookies #cookiephotography #eatcaptureshare #recipeoftheweek
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H is for...high!
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It was so strange being on a plane again. I’m so thankful I have the antibodies because the flights were full, which seemed wrong, but everyone around me did seem to keep their masks on, so that was good.
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I can’t wait until travel becomes a regular part of life again. I’ve missed it so much!
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G is for...oh so grateful!

I flew to South Texas yesterday to visit my parents whom I haven’t seen in 2 years. They live around 17 hours away from us. We typical get to see each other a few times a year but with the pandemic and other health issues it just wasn’t able to happen and I’ve missed them soooo much.

Grateful to have had COVID last month. Although it was not at all fun, it gave me the antibodies to make this trip possible. My dad is having surgery tomorrow so I’m helping with my mom so my dad can recover without having to worry about her.

Kansas is enjoying frigid temperatures and snow. I picked a great week to head south.
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#palmtrees🌴 #palmtreesfordays #blueskiesandsunshine #wintersun #texasskies #kimklassen_innercircle @kimklassen_innercircle #silverlining
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F is for...food photography.
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This time of year especially, food photography (and I guess all photography actually) is a tug of war with time and light. I had planned on making and photographing a delicious pasta recipe, but my grocery delivery ran a couple of hours late because of snowstorm. So, at the eleventh hour I decided to make a cake...that took over an hour to bake and I had about 90 minutes of natural light left...leaving me with about 30 minutes of ok light to work with.
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Anyway, this wouldn't work for a client shoot because the cake, although delicious, didn't turn out looking so great. But it will work great for today's F photo for the @kimklassen_innercircle A-Z photo project:) Lemon Citrus Yogurt Cake from this weeks @cabotcheese newsletter. So good!
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#eatcake #eatcaptureshare #eatcakebehappy #lemoncake #cakecakecakecake #foodiegram #yahoofood #dessertsofinstagram #sweettooth #kimklassen_innercircle #fisforfood
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