Halloween! Halloween! Trick or Treat!
Presenting Strawberry Shortcake:
and her little sister Apple Dumpling:
I originally had plans to be Plum Pudding to go along with the Strawberry Shortcake theme, but, due to lack of time and energy, that didn’t exactly pan out. Instead, I culled the house for everything pink/black/skeleton and came up with this rock star/punk rock/roller derby character. Also, I was the ONLY MOM who dressed up at Arwyn’s school, so I get some kind of bonus points for that.
I tried to get Arwyn to take my picture but she kept cutting off my head. Oops.
All of our Halloween photos can be seen here. Hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween! All treats no tricks.
Squash: It’s Not Just for Brits Anymore
Yesterday, in between mopping floors and tending to crying babies, I decided I desperately needed to roast a squash. Even though it wouldn’t go with our dinner, even though no one in the house would eat any but me (you should have seen Bubby’s face), even though I had 14 other things going on. Except for all the chopping and cleaning the pan afterwards (foil line your pans, people. learn from my mistakes.), it was really easy.
I used this recipe, but I only had one squash so I cut the recipe in half. After looking over the recipe again, I just realized that I halved the squash and pepper, but not the rest of the ingredients. Oops. It was still really yummy. See, you can even screw up and it’s still good. I only baked mine for about 30 minutes. It was very tender and brown. I’ll admit I ate a few forkfuls straight off the pan. Of course, it was cold by the time I had a chance to get a bite, so it might be even better hot, who knows. It also made the house smell very fragrant and fallish, which puts me in the mood to grab some apple cider and snuggle up.
Cindarella Dressed in Yella
Arwyn’s preschool class went on another field trip last week, this time to the pumpkin patch. We went there last year as well, and it was my favorite field trip of the year. Even though I was juggling a baby this time around, I was not pregnant and as I pushed the stroller over tractor ruts in the corn maze I tried to stay positive by telling myself, “Hey! At least you aren’t throwing up!” That’s me being all silver lining.
At the end of the tour we once again visited the farm market store to stock up on pumpkins and gourds for decorating purposes. I’ll have to try to remember to take some photos of the front porch. The squirrels haven’t started chowing down on them yet. Arwyn picked out her pumpkin and a little tiny one for Lokie. We also had to get one for Mommy and one for Daddy. Mommy’s is a Cinderella pumpkin. I haven’t decided yet if we are going to carve them. I might wait a couple of years before I begin that tradition.
I cannot believe it is almost Halloween! This month has flown by. I’m thinking about dressing up as a rock star for Arwyn’s Halloween party on Thursday. I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures, don’t you worry.
Birthday Buddy?
On Sunday there was a baby shower for Juju (my BFF) in our mutual hometown. Arwyn and I made a “girls day” of it and took a journey involving Sonic and many potty breaks. I was rather surprised that Arwyn wanted to go with me, as this meant that she would miss out on a Halloween party Sunday evening. After I explained that we wouldn’t return in time for the costumes and candy, she simply said, “I want to see Juju and Juju wants to see me.” I could hardly argue with that. She can have candy any old time, but we don’t get to see Juju very often.
Juju’s momma had asked me to make some thank you cards and after finding out that they had sent out 40 invitations, I decided to go ahead and make 40 cards. I made some of them with their initials or last name in case they had extras and wanted to use them for something other than baby gifts. Her nursery colors are black and white with a touch of hot pink and I love having a pre-planned color scheme to work with. It makes things so much easier.
Her baby is due on my birthday next month, so we’ll see if I get a special little someone to share my birthday with!
Pizza Day
When I was in high school, pizza day in the cafeteria was always on Friday. Pizza, corn, and combination salad. The school’s government-issue pizza looked nothing like this one, however. I’m fairly certain the lunch ladies didn’t make their own pizza dough.
Last Friday BJ and her kids came over for a playdate and lunch. I’d gotten a wild idea to attempt to make pizza dough (again) after reading about it over at Brenda’s. I followed the recipe she linked to in her post. I never seem to have much luck with yeasty baked goods, but I don’t think this one turned out too bad. I mixed up the dough the night before, set my oven on a low heat and cracked the oven door to warm up the kitchen. I ended up letting it rise for about twice as long as the recipe calls for. It only made enough for 5 small individual crusts (and 3 of the 5 eaters were kids). If you are feeding a larger group, you might want to double the recipe.
On Friday we set all the toppings on the table and let the kids decorate their dough however they wished. It was pretty tasty and I think the kids enjoyed making and then eating their own creations. I declare every Friday Pizza Day!
We Didn’t Start the Fire
Last weekend we went to a birthday party at a fire station. The birthday party was for a 3 year old and 1 year old brother and sister, but I think the adults had as much fun as the kids. Pizza, cupcakes and a ride on a real live firetruck. It doesn’t get much better than that. The assistant fire chief gave a presentation, let the kids try on the fireman gear, then took us all on a trip around the neighborhood, answering questions as we rode along. The kids brought home coloring books, stickers and plastic fireman hats. Arwyn has a thing about people dressed up in big costumes where you can’t tell who they are (such as the Chuck E. Cheese rat guy), and was scared of Sparky the giant Dalmation that came to greet us so she ran and hid under a trailer somewhere until another dad discovered her poor little dirty tear-stained face and brought her back to us. But other than that little blip, it was great fun.
The firetrucks had these huge headsets that the firemen wear so they can talk to each other over the noise/sirens/etc. of the firetruck. The adults got to wear them during the ride and I later proclaimed that every parent should have a set of these headsets so they can talk to each other without screaming over the kids, and the kids’ yakking is drowned out. They should be given to you at the hospital upon the birth of your child. What a gift that would be.
Budding Photog
Last week I let Arwyn play with my point & shoot camera for a couple of days. She snapped away until the batteries were dead. After I deleted about eleventy billion blurry photos of the ceiling, I found many that weren’t too bad. The ones of her feet on the sidewalk crack me up. I didn’t keep them all (who has that kind of storage space?), but several made it into the archives. If she’s ever a famous photographer, you can say you saw her work here first.
Bubby Had a B-day
Sunday was Bubby’s birthday. We didn’t do much this year (sorry, Bubby), but sometimes I think he prefers it that way. He doesn’t like to make a fuss, especially about himself. But he does deserve to be fussed over once in a while. And if I don’t do it, then who is going to? Bubby received: real wooden Tinker Toys, a real metal Slinky, homemade chocolate chip cookies, homemade cards (from me & Arwyn), a pencil (from Arwyn), a Starbucks gift card (from Juju) and a bottle of Knob Creek (from his brother, BW). Oh, and from his poor mom who tries so hard to buy things we all like, and finally gave up and just gave him money to go shopping.
Happy, happy birthday sweet Bubs. I love you to the moon and back. You’ll always be my shining star.
Don’t Forget Yer Munchie Map
Last week we indulged in a local activity known simply as the Fall Festival. Last year we went early in the week on Family Day, but we quickly learned from that mistake. You can’t buy a bracelet for the rides on Family Day, which means you have to buy tickets, which are ultimately more expensive than a bracelet. BUT! More importantly, you can’t purchase any food from the multitude of food booths, the main reason for braving the streets to attend the festival in the first place! Doh!
When attending the phenomenon known as the Fall Festival, the first obstacle you must cross is parking. You can pay to park in a parking lot, unless they are FULL. Then you are left to your own devices, free to wander aimlessly up and down streets until you find a space nine miles away and hoof it. Adding to this joy is a certain offspring moaning from the backseat, “Are we there yet? Why are we still driving around? Mom, stop the car! Can we get out yet? I want to ride some riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiides.” I really deserve some sort of prize for keeping my cool and finding a teensy tiny spot for us to park in. I totally should have whipped out my camera and taken a shot of my awesome parallel parking job. But I was too busy doing my proud peacock strut on the sidewalk.
Bubby gets the prize for carrying said offspring on his shoulders and patiently waiting in line with her to ride the giant slide six or fourteen times. Arwyn rode a bazillion rides, she didn’t fall apart until we got home (no nap + sugar crash = fun!), and we brought home a bag of cotton candy and two monster ears. You can’t miss it, but I’m so glad it’s only once a year.
12 Things in My Bag
I saw this tag yesterday while I was trying to catch up with my blog reading. I really don’t feel like looking back through all 150 blogs that I read to see where it was. SO if it was you, thanks for the idea! I kind of thought my bag contents would reveal something a bit more interesting about me, but apparently I’m pretty boring.
1 - Trident bubble gum. That I don’t share with my four year old. She thinks this is a travesty, I happen to think it’s pretty smart. I can only imagine gum in hair, gum being swallowed, gum on car upholstery, etc. So she’ll just have to wait until she’s older to drive her daddy crazy with her gum snapping (he HATES popping/snapping gum).
2 - Pampers diaper, size 3. Baby is currently wearing size 2, but this is an emergency diaper and will work in a pinch.
3 - Pampers wipes, sensitive. This package only holds six wipes. I think it came as a sample with some diapers. ‘Cause six wipes ain’t gonna cut it! Whatever happened to those hard travel cases that you could refill? I still have one left from Arwyn, but can’t find them in stores. I have recently come to the conclusion that I am never ever going to be able to stop buying wipes.
4 - Hello Kitty zippered pouch. Purchased at Target dollar bins for myself. See travesty above. This holds a multitude of items: lip balm, Tylenol, band aids, Rolaids, eye drops, Shout wipes, etc. All of those things that you think you should be able to leave the house without, but then invariably desperately need.
5 - Puffs travel package. You can’t leave the house without tissues. You just can’t.
6 - Aveeno lotion, travel size. I heart Aveeno.
7 - Phone. No this is not my cell phone, but wouldn’t that be funny? I think my first cell phone was about this size. My phone was not present for the photo op, so the landline stood in as a body double.
8 - Coupons. There are always several of these floating around in there.
9 - Sunglasses. Purchased at Target. These are indestructible. I’ve had them a long time.
10 - Wallet. It is actually a zippered pouch that I bought to go with another bag, but it works. I’d love an Orla Kiely one. Or a bag. Yummy.
11 - Tampon. Just keepin’ it real, folks.
12 - Pacifier. These days, I don’t leave the house without one.
Bag purchased here.
