Happy Halloween!!

Our Halloween morning began with a family photo session at Pioneers Park. It was a bit chilly, but we made due. You may notice a few red cheeks and noses when you see the pictures. The kids loved feeding the geese and ducks, and the scenery was beautiful.


Later in the day, I made dirt cups with Oreo cookies, pudding, and whipped cream. Yum yum! Evelyn was apparently really excited about them.




Sara and Travis brought the kids over to trick-or-treat with us. After our meal of Hallowienies (hot dogs) and festive orange-colored veggies(carrots and orange peppers), the kids got all dressed up.

Dade was a vampire. He went along mainly to help the other kids, but he came home with a bunch of candy, too. It's hard to believe he's too old to trick-or-treat!


Brody was Spiderman. It's a good thing we had the costume already on hand from a previous year because the Boba Fett we bought him was a little short in the legs and unsuitable to be worn outside in the cold.


Evelyn was a kitten again. We unsuccessfully tried to convince her to be Boba Fett.


Soren was a Ninja Turtle. She actually wore the shell for the whole trip out. I was very impressed.


Gavin was a hockey player. His missing teeth worked out just perfectly.


Little Miss Reese was a fairy. Her Grandma Cindy made the costume. Grandma Cindy was diagnosed with terminal cancer about a week ago, so it's a very special costume.


Here's our "little" group of trick-or-treaters.

Pumpkin Carving on a Lazy Saturday

For the first time in months we had a Saturday with nothing to do but watch a football game. It was spectacular.

Colby and the kids carved pumpkins, and I roasted the seeds. You can see in the photo that Brody had drawn up some designs, but we decided to go with a simple ghost and skeleton. We didn't think the Spongebob he designed would be very easy for novice carvers.

Of course the cats were more than happy to spend the lazy day doing what they do best: laying someplace where they could easily be stepped on or trip someone.

Trick-or-Treat at the "Shrinery"

Colby has some friends from work who are members of the Shriners, the guys who wear the red fez hats and drive around in the itty-bitty cars to raise money for their children's hospitals. It's a really nice bunch of guys, and they always invite us to their annual Halloween festival at the shrine, or as Evelyn called it, the "Shrinery". I don't know what it is with us and fringe religious groups. We just need a few friends who are Iraqi extremists or abortion clinic bombers to round out the collection.

The kids dressed in costume, and we headed to the Shrine where Brody was immediately freaked out and refused to participate at any level. Soren was a little scared, but Dade and Evelyn jumped right in and had a great time playing games and winning candy.

All the kids ready to go. Brody's Boba Fett costume ended up being a little too small, but it worked for indoor activities. The girls were both cats, and Dade was a vampire.


Evelyn popping balloons for candy.


Brody doing nothing and looking pissed off despite being surrounded by loads of games and candy. And, of course, I had to sneak the photo.


Colby and the three kids who will allow us to take their photo standing outside the Shrinery with their goods.

Bow Making with the Church Ladies

One of my new friends invited me to a little hair bow making session with some other ladies from her (brace yourselves) Church of Latter-Day Saints. Yes, my new friend is a regular church attendee who also happens to attend a rather odd church. But, hey, I think all religion is odd, so who am I to judge?

Anyway, the other 6 or 7 moms there didn't hold it against me that I'm not a Mormon, so I didn't hold anything against them. I have been on somewhat of a quest to learn the craft of bow making, so I jumped at the opportunity. Side note: they also invited me and the fam to the church's Halloween activities, but I respectfully declined. I wouldn't want to bring my heathenism into their 'hood, you know?

So, here are my first two bows. Sad little bows, but they are only the first.

Quick Beer Bread

Picture Soren and me at the market checkout. She is pushing one of those little kid shopping carts up to the cash register. I remove our items and place them on the conveyor belt: one yellow onion and a six pack of beer. I had to explain to the cashier for my own sense of self that I wasn't a drunk who needed an onion. I was a loving wife who wanted to make beer bread for her hubby, and all we had at home was cold beer that just wasn't suitable for baking. I'm sure the explanation wasn't needed, but it made me feel better.

So, this is a quick and really yummy beer-cheese bread from Cooking Light that my whole family loved.

First, Heat 1 TBL of olive oil over medium-low heat in a small skillet. Add 1/2 c. finely chopped yellow onion to pan and cook until nice and brown. I dislike onions, but they smell so good while caramelizing. Side note here: the cookbook said this should take 10 minutes. Um, no. Go ahead and preheat your oven part way into the onion-browning process to 375 degrees) Stir in 1/4 tsp black pepper and 1 minced garlic clove after the onions are brown, and cook for one more minute.


Lightly spoon 3 cups all-purpose flour into dry measuring cups and level with a knife. Combine flour, 3 TBL sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk; make a well in the center of the mixture. Add the onion mixture, 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I used Colby Jack because that's what I had), and one 12 oz bottle of lager-style beer to the flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

Okay, the recipe said to use a lager-style beer and specifically mentioned Budweiser. My hubby isn't hip to Budweiser, so I used his favorite locally brewed Empyrean Ales Third Stone Brown ale. It worked just fine.


Spoon batter into a 9x5 inch loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray. Drizzle batter with 1 TBL of melted butter. It will look like this:


Bake for 35 minutes at 375 degrees. Drizzle an additional 1 TBL of melted butter on the partially-cooked loaf, and let it bake for an additional 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes and then remove the loaf from the pan. Cool completely. Slice and enjoy!

Babysitting

One of Evie's classmate's mom needed a babysitter while she went to a doctor's appointment. Despite the fact that all four of my kids are home this week for Fall break, I said I would watch her three girls (ages 5 years, 3years, and 2 months).

Poor little baby Sophia was mobbed for about the first half an hour. All of my kids wanted to talk to her and hold her. Her own big sisters were also in her face. Little Sophia took it all in stride and didn't even fuss.


All of the kids were really good. My biggest worry was that poor Sophia would get kicked, stepped on, or otherwise injured by an overzealous big kid. She came through unscathed, so I might even get asked to babysit again.

I realized during my short time with the baby that there is no way on this earth that I could have another baby. It's been so long since I've had a child in the house that was totally defenseless against the accostings of daily family life that I forgot how much anxiety exists just in making sure a baby isn't squashed, shaken, trampled, or dropped.

I think I'll stick to my diaper less, baby gate-free, no-anxiety-while-peeing life.

Halloween Necklaces

My crafty ladies and I made some Halloween necklaces from a kit purchased at Hobby Lobby. It's hard to believe that I got out of there and only bought one holiday craft kit, but I did and I'm proud. Not only did the girls enjoy making the necklaces, but Annie enjoyed attempting to steal the twine from the necklaces as we strung beads on them.



Next Halloween project? Jack-o-lanterns and roasted pumpkin seeds.

Lots of Parties

Both Evelyn and Soren had Halloween celebrations today at their dance classes. We signed up to bring cookies, so I made them yesterday during my bake-a-thon. The girls got to wear their costumes to class. Soren was the cutest Ninja Turtle ever in her little pink ballet slippers.



Evelyn was Miss Pretty Kitty. She has a class of about 15 girls, so she had tons of treats to take home: Carmel apple, brownie, cookies, etc.



After dance, Evie and I headed to The Pink Flamingo where a birthday party for Evie's classmate was being held. All the girls got their hair, nails, and makeup done. One little girl has alopecia, which means she has absolutely no hair on her body at all, so her little sister got her hair done instead. It was total pink, squealing pandemonium.

Sitting pretty while getting her nails painted.


Nails and hair all done.


The birthday girl with some of the guests.


Opening presents - every single girl besides Evie said, "Open mine next!!" Evie was so patient.

It was surely nice to be home after two hours at a hair salon with nine little girls.

Baking Marathon

I love to have little get-togethers at the house, so when my friend asked me to have a Scentsy party for her I was all for it. I made cute invitations and decided that some yummy Autumn-inspired foods would be a great complement to an all girls party.

I started by making a Blueberry and Blackberry Galette around 9:30 am. It's basically a flat pie, I guess. I saw a photo in a cookbook and just knew I had to try it. The galette was yummy and had a touch of corn meal in the crust giving it a little something special.


Next came a caramel apple pie I found on The Pioneer Woman blog. I checked out The Pioneer Woman Cooks a few months ago from the library which in turn led me to her blog. Here's the thing: I made my own pie crust for only the second time. Though it's delicious, it's also really frustrating for a newbie like me. Plus, I had already made the crust for the aforementioned blueberry galette and was quite crusted-out by this point. The pie got rave reviews (one friend said it was the best apple pie she'd ever eaten) but was a bit sweet for me. I'm more of a straight-up apple pie girl, I guess. Check out the Pioneer Woman's blog for the pie crust and caramel apple pie recipes.


So, at this point in the baking marathon it's gotta be close to 1:00 pm. I've made galette and pie, Soren's requisite egg-in-a-basket for lunch (how many of these things can one girl eat? Answer: at least one a day), as well as homemade garden veggie cream cheese. But the show must go on, so I readied the kitchen for my famous chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. I can pretty much bake them with my eyes closed by now. Thanks to Colby's grandma for the recipe. They are always a hit, so I brought some to the girls' dance classes on Saturday morning for their Halloween parties. More on that in Saturday's blog entry.

Next came three loaves of Pumpkin Gingerbread. I haven't eaten any yet, but I can tell you this: those who ate it loved it, and it smells divine. My friend wanted a doggie bag of apple pie and pumpkin gingerbread, and I just happened to have a few extra plastic containers lying around. What are friends for?


Last but not least, I stirred together some Mulled Cider. Gala apple cider, cinnamon sticks, citrus, ginger, cloves, and honey simmered away in the crockpot for the afternoon. Mmmmmmm. Bar far my favorite creation of the day. I'm a total sucker for a good cider.


I finally hopped into the shower at 2:30 pm having baked and cleaned up after baking all day long. Soren was totally neglected but didn't seem to mind too much. As long as she had her daily egg-in-a-basket, edamame, chocolate milk, and Yo Gabba Gabba she was great. I hurried to pick the kids up from school at 3:30 pm, and was home in time to finish up my hair and makeup, get the rooms prepared for company, and ignore my children's supper requests (daddy took them to Amigos and then swimming).

The Scentsy party went really well. All the ladies had a great time and had lots of good things to eat and to smell.

Boring

I haven't posted anything this week because the week has been nothing more than a boring read. The days have basically been like this: gym, swimming lessons, cleaning, grocery store. Rinse and repeat. Boring.

The kitten finally appears to be healthy and is no longer target vomiting/pooping on the floor in the basement bathroom. Boring.

I fear we may have bedbugs or fleas since I have little bites on my torso. However, since I am the only one affected (pets included) I find it hard to believe that either is the case. Colby sleeps in the same bed as I do and has no little bites. I cleaned all the carpets, flea-sprayed the furniture, flea bathed the dogs (even though all 4 pets were already supposedly flea protected by the Frontline stuff), and washed all the sheets and bedding. I suppose since I sleep sans jammies I could've been attacked by those little black and white biting gnats that are all over outside. I was concerned, however, when I saw a house this morning with 4 mattresses placed at the curb for trash pick up wrapped in plastic and taped shut. Bedbugs I presume. Both gross boring.

Soren passed her swimming lessons today and will start the next session as an Eel. Tomorrow is my Scentsy party, and hopefully a little time with friends will perk this week right up. I will spend tomorrow baking and baking and baking in preparation for the Scentsy party (apple pie, pumpkin muffins, blueberry galette) and for bringing treats to the girls' dance classes (cookies).

Super Soren

Soren wanted a cape and mask for her birthday. Mommy happily obliged. Meet America's Next Top Superhero. My girls can really put the Tyra Banks spin on everything. *smiles*





Soren also likes to pretnd to talk to and text my sister-in-law's boyfriend Jacob. He's away at Marine boot camp, but she somehow has channeled him through her broken mp3 player "phone." She really is super, I guess. Note the Justin Bieber t-shirt. She would love to be the teen sensation for Halloween, but she's decided to be a Ninja Turtle instead.

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

It was a fantastic day to be outside, so we headed to the pumpkin patch to spend the day with Colby's brother and his wife and kids. Amber and I planned this trip weeks ago, and Kort's arrival 4 days beforehand (and the subsequent damage this caused to Amber's body) wasn't going to keep us from enjoying the beautiful day.

After being at dance for nearly three hours, Colby came to pick up Evelyn and me - and ended up stuck in traffic headed to Memorial Stadium for the Husker game. Seriously, people, this whole football thing is overrated and is very disruptive to my Saturday mornings. The interstate traffic headed into Lincoln was literally at a standstill at Ashland and was backed up all the way to Gretna - our stop for the pumpkin patch. It was nuts. And the Huskers lost.

Anyhoo, I don't think we could've asked for a nicer day to cook hot dogs over a fire, make s'mores, or walk through a corn maze. It was awesome. Colby and Scott spent most of the day chasing the kids, while I spent most of the day holding Kort and visiting with Amber (she's a trooper - she just had a baby...with the help of forceps...and has those wonderful milk-sodden new mom bosoms... need I go on? I won't. Sorry, Amber!).

Soren's obsession with maps was well fed during our trip. Although she can't read a map, she thinks she can, which in her mind is good enough.


Colby and Scott look ready to take on a day with 6 kids, right? I heard this phrase more than once from Colby, "Can you bring beer in this place?" Amber suggested sneaking wine into the place in soda cans. Alas, soda had to be sufficient.


All the kids (minus Kort) ready for some corn-pickin' good times.


Me and my girlies.


The kids had to stick their faces in every possible character cut-out or torture device.



The dads and Dade made sure everyone got a good view of the pig races.


Our nephew Ethan was happy to be with his cousins.


Dade with a mouthful of some goodie I'm sure I don't let him eat at home, hence the mouth FULL.


Brody wearing the garage sale Napa auto parts cap he got from his friend.


If only this were actually true sometimes...