Happy Halloween!!

Halloween eve we went to the “Trunk-or-Treat” @ church, which I regretfully didn’t get any pictures at :(. Then rushed home to get a Halloween carnival set up for the neighborhood and friends. :) A friend helped me put it on..It was a blast! We had a pretty good turn out too!

Fishing Pond, Donuts on a String, Cupcake Walk, Ball-Cup-throwing, Dry Ice Bubbles, Bobbing for Apples, GAK, Homemade Rootbeer and Hot Chocolate, Parade, Costume Contest..Lots and Lots of fun!! Can’t wait to do it again next year! Thanks for all the friends that came..you made it the success it was!

G was being a little timid and shy about other people helping him bob for apples. Check out that face..He’s like..’I’m just not sure why they..want ..me to..!’.. He just stared!

     

G kept going back for more Hot Chocolate and Rootbeer!

Can you see the labels? found HERE!

Carnival Parade

Dry Ice Bubbles were a HUGE hit!

(I forgot to get pics. of the GAK..but HERE is the recipe.! I found it @ Steve Spangler Science which is a website with LOTS of cool things you should DEFFINITELY check out..or look him up on youtube!!)

  

Meow!

  

Halloween night we didn’t go trick or treating, but I did let the kids dress up and wait for trick-or-treaters with me!  We shot a few pics before baby got too tired and went to bed early. I had to give her some candy to get her to hold still!.. can you tell G was D.O.N.E. with the taking of pics..lol!!  After they went to bed we popped popcorn and watched Ghostbusters! ..for my first time.

  

He wanted to wait right by the door for the Trick-Or-Treaters!

GOOD NIGT Baby E!

I’m SOO sad Halloween is over. It is possibly my favorite holiday, well, it’s up there! We had a fun year anyway! Looking forward to next year and another Carnival! :D

Almost Done

So, we decided to go ahead and paint it.. that way it would cover up my mistakes imperfect handiwork. G LOVE’S it! I still have to finish the side rail and ladder, cover the bunkie board with fabric and buy a mattress..but he is excited, and so am I!! We’ve had a couple of nice days..but a little cold, and i didn’t want to leave the wet paint out for the neighborhood kids to mess with while I ran errands, etc., so I ended up painting it in the room. (Thank you to my mother-in-law who took the kids for a couple days!) I had to take nearly everything else out of the room to be able to get it set up and get around it to paint it.  It’s a lot bigger in the room than it looked outside..it’ll be good though, I am excited and glad the kids will still have the floor space to play!

Loft Bed Still in Progress

Not done, but closer. So, Gid is voting for ORANGE.. ‘cause it is his FAVORITE color! But I have a lot of Black paint leftover from another project. But if I put a coat of paint..it will be harder to slide the boards in and out to put together, and it’s already quite hard enough..I don’t favor the idea of staining it though.. hmmm..To paint, or not to paint..that is my question! What do YOU think!??!!!

Soccer

G is in a little soccer class called “Happy Feet”. It is SO fun to watch him practicing..well, most of the time he stands and watches all the other kids doing the activities. He has been really shy..but occasionally he’ll jump in and participate. They do ‘tippy toes’ and ‘tick tocks’ and go on trips to the zoo and fly to the moon and squish the baby bumblebee.. all working on foot work..dribbling, kicking, rolling, etc. Its so cute. I took a video last week, I’ll see if I can get it on the blog, but I’m not sure how it works putting it on you tube..so it may take a few days to figure out. Anwyay.. they do this for about 20 minutes, then have about 10 to run up and down the field and shoot the goals. G has LOVED it. And Yaya got him some soccer shoes and shin guards from a garage sale, so he thinks he is pretty cool! :D

E has quite a bit of fun running up and down the field too!

Tasty Tuesday

My friend gave me this recipe and it is DELICIOUS! She didn't puree it..just left the potatoes and squash cubed which was delicious. I did puree it and it was good all the same, but I would like to have left some of it cubed.

Butternut and Ham Bisque

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 very large sweet onion, chopped(Vidalia or other sweet onion)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 cups peeled, diced butternut squash
• 1 cup peeled, diced all-purpose potatoes
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup light or heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups diced cooked ham

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a medium soup pot or a large saucepan. Stir in the onion and rosemary. Partially cover the pan and cook the onion over moderate heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the garlic and cook another minute.

2. Add the squash, potatoes, chicken stock, and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cover the pot. Cook the soup at a low boil for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are very soft. Remove the pan from the heat.

3. Using a large slotted spoon, transfer the soup solids and a ladleful of broth to a food processor (do this in batches if your processor is small). Puree the vegetables, then stir them back into the broth. Stir in the pepper, the cream, and the ham, heating for several minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings.

**recipe f/Taste of Homes

Tasty Tuesday

Peanut Butter Vegetable Chicken Soup

Here is the recipe I got mine from. http://allrecipes.com/

It is good the way it is, but I like to change it up a little… here’s my version:

Ingredients

• 3 chicken breasts diced, cooked
• 2 tsp. garlic, minced
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 3 cup peeled and cubed potatoes
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 1/2 cup broccoli florets
• 1 (15oz.) can diced tomatoes with Basil, Garlic and Oregano
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons parsley flakes
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste

Cook chicken breasts with garlic and dice. Meanwhile, add chicken broth, potato, and carrots to pot and simmer for 10 minutes to soften veggies. Add Broccoli and simmer about 5 minutes more. Add chicken, tomatoes, parsley, salt and pepper. Add PB and stir in until dissolved. Enjoy!

So, you see, I left a few things out of the original recipe because I didn’t have them on hand. I probably would have added the onion, but I’’m not fond of ..soggy celery myself. My son enjoyed it..baby is too little to eat PB. My husband and I loved it. He added some Sriracha Sauce to spice it up.. I enjoyed some Red Thai Chili Paste I added to my bowl.

Oh, and the baby was helping me do dishes today! :)

Zoo Trip

It’s only taken us 4 years of living here to make a zoo trip! We were lucky to arrive and find that Tuesday is discount day + my friend had a couple coupons, so G was FREE w/an adult purchase and E was free anyway!! Next time we WILL take the Tram and train..it is TOTALLY worth it!

The Polar Bear kept swimming around and kicking off this glass to swim back. It was fun to watch! HUGE feet btw!

Giggling at the monkeys playing tag:

 

NOT wanting to cooperate for a picture:

Best Friends

E LOVES when G pushes her around! She gets all giggly. and G loves to hear her laugh! He says “Mom, she’s laughing at me!” It’s so cute. He also LOVES his BOOTS!!

Happy Birthday Noah

Our neighbors have a little girl that is just about 3 weeks younger than E. This was her little Birthday party. G’s first experience with a pinata.

 

**jealous of that hair..wishing E would GROW SOME!

And after ALL the other kids are done..our G is still eating his cake!

Fall Festival & Craft Fair

The next morning we woke up to this in our living room:

J said it landed on him when he went running late the night before and it came in with him..Hmmm..I wonder if it’s that same caterpillar we saw a few weeks ago!

We went to the Fall Festival later that day. They had a Parade..which I didn’t get any pictures of..but at this point..they’re all the same to me! Then we headed over to the craft show. They had a kids area with a puppet show and other acts going on.

E got a little purse from Yaya and wouldn’t let anyone touch it..she was very proud of it, it was so cute! She’d tease you by handing it to you…and as you reach out to take it, she’d pull it back and walk away.lol..she has such a BIG personality and thinks she is just HILARIOUS! I hope I can get it on video for you sometime! It just cracks me up that she thinks she is so funny!

 

G got to meet the REAL Firemen and got a hat and badge! He also got a ..um..Dragon? painted on his face..He like it anyway!