October 31

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year. The kids are super excited to get their sugar buzz on! Last night we carved our pumpkins. Better late than never, right? I actually cooked one large pumpkin and made puree out of the meat. This morning we had pumpkin pancakes from scratch. Move over Martha Stewart! 

We are taking the day off school and just letting the kids play. They have recently started watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on TV, and as I type this, they are playing Ninja Turtles. Sword fighting with gymnastics - what's not to love!?!

 

 

 Lucy was not too crazy about feeling the pumpkin "guts".

 She really, really didn't like it.

 This is Clay working on Elliott's Spiderman jack-o-lantern an hour later. Notice the kids are not around. They moved on after about 20 minutes!

 Lucy preferred supervising the activities.

 Our finished pumpkins

 Julia playing dress-up.

Enjoying our ghost pumpkin pancakes this morning.

Pumpkin Puree:

Cut open the top, scoop out the slimy part and seeds. Discard the slime, rinse and save the seeds to roast. Place pumpkin on sturdy cookie sheet and bake at 325 until the meat is tender (poke it with a fork to see if it is soft). Cooking time depends on the size of the pumpkin. Mine took about 90 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes. Then, scoop out the meat, purée it in a food processor, and store, covered, in the refrigerator. It will last about two weeks in the fridge. Just scoop out what you need for individual recipes and put bowl back in fridge. My pumpkin yielded more than 12 cups of puréed pumpkin.

Pumpkin Pancakes:

In large bowl mix:2 c. Flour, 1 Tbsp. baking powder, 1/2 teas. Ginger, 1/2 teas. Nutmeg, 1/2 teas salt, 1 teas. Cinnamon, and 2 Tbsp. brown sugar. In small bowl mix: 2 slightly beaten egg whites, 1&1/2 c. Milk, 2 tbsp. oil, and 1/2 c. puréed pumpkin. Add small bowl to large bowl. Stir just until moistened. Heat skillet to medium heat. If nonstick, spray with cooking spray. Cook until golden brown on both sides.

October 30

 Kat can tie her own shoes!

  

The girls made felt leaf garlands - Kat's first sewing project (Mamaw Pat, she wanted to make sure you saw these pictures).

 

 

 We also made folk art pumpkins. Elliott sat in his seat and colored for 30 minutes - a first!

 

Can't even think of a caption for this picture, but it makes me laugh!

October 29

Hey guys! Whatcha doin'?

October 28

 We made some yummy Fall treats Friday. 

 Friday afternoon Nonna arrived for the weekend. We didn't get to do much because it was rainy and cold outside, but Nonna took Elliott o McDonald's yesterday for some 1x1 time. Later, she took the girls to the mall and let them each pick out a fancy church dress for Christmas. This was really the first time they have ever gotten to pick out a dress from the stores by themselves. Lets just say that their taste is more frilly than mine! :P

 Kat threw up last night, but we think it's from something she ate. She is back to her energetic little self this morning.

 Mmmm... Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast. The old-fashioned pumpkin spice ones were AWESOME! Of course, I don't know that I have ever had a donut I didn't like.  :P

Elliott wanted to help snap all of Nonna's buttons this morning before she headed home.

October 27

We met my friend Aimee at at a nature preserve Thursday and she took these pictures of the kids. I love them!!!

October 26

For a video of our fun in the leaves, click HERE.

October 25

I got the idea for this from Pinterest. Mine turned out a little busier than I would have liked, but I still like it. Next time I will try to go light with the polka dots.

October 24

 

Julia spent the night with Mamaw and Bapaw last night. We had a game night at home. It's interesting to see the different dynamics when one child is gone. Kat is usually happier when Julia is gone. I guess because there's not a competition between her and Julia?

PS - These pics are taken with my iPad. Love my iPad!

October 23

We had beautiful weather yesterday, so we spent awhile playing outside in the leaves.

 

 

October 22

I bought Elliott a preschool workbook at the grocery store and he loves it. It's neat to see how much better he is at using a pencil/crayon in just a few days time. He does not like to sit still and color a picture, but he enjoys tracing these lines in his "Handy Dandy Notebook". He constantly asks me if he can do his workbook.

October 21

We have had a fun weekend. Yesterday morning we joined our church in collecting canned goods/food donations for a food bank. I was so proud of the kids. The weather was pretty cool out and we were out for about 3 hours knocking on doors asking for donations. Julia went to alot of the houses herself (I was nearby keeping an eye on her). Thanks for your help Peggy!

Yesterday evening Mamaw and Bapaw took Julia and Kat to their church for a hayride and other fun Fall activities. Elliott didn't get to go because he got out of bed repeatedly during his nap time.This meant that Clay and I had to cancel our date night. Sometimes being a parent is just no fun!

Today we went to church. The girls sang in the children's choir and did a great job. Afterwards we grabbed a picnic lunch and headed to Colorfest at Bernheim Forest. Don't you just love Fall? The kids got their faces painted, made mud pies, played in a hay maze, etc. Unfortunately on the way home it was Kat's turn to be a stinker. She screamed and threw such a big whopper that she had to go to bed when we got home at 4:30pm. Have I mentioned that sometimes parenting isn't fun? Hopefully she will get caught up on some much-needed sleep and be a happier, sweeter girl tomorrow. Hopefully.

And you may have noticed that there aren't any pictures with this post. That's because I broke my camera. It fell out of my purse onto the counter and broke. It lasted almost 2 years before I broke it (a new record?). I managed to take nearly 10,000 pictures with it. We had a good run. Hopefully I can get one before Halloween!

October 20

We knocked out several leaf art projects yesterday afternoon. For some reason, they are all upside down. If you stand on your head, they will look better.  :P 

 

 

 

 

October 19

Lucy was so tired at co-op yesterday that she fell asleep in the bouncer (see video below)

The girls' World Cultures class studied China. As you cam see by Kat's scowl on the far right, she was not happy. Why? Because she didn't get her hat finished. Yep, she's pretty rotten.

October 18

 

 

 

 

 

We joined Tracy, Mathew, and Jonathan at the zoo yesterday and enjoyed the beautiful Fall weather!