The Biker and the Sheriff

This evening my friend, Laura, came over to help me take the kids out to Trick or Treat.  This was the first Halloween that the kids (or I) have ever been out Trick or Treating.  It was definitely a strange experience for me.  I don't like asking people for things.  Going door to door to ring the doorbell and ask for candy is really out of my comfort zone. 

Ryan's parents sent Aric the appropriate gear to turn him into a biker dude.  I originally debated between turning Aric into a pirate or a sheriff and was finally settled on sheriff when the biker gear arrived.  Aric fell in love with the biker gear until he saw the Buzz Lightyear costume at Target and told everyone he was going to be Buzz for Halloween.

We were undecided on whether Kellyn would go and figured we would turn her into a princess or have her wear her tutu if she accompanied us.  This evening Ryan suggested we turn her into a sheriff since I had purchased a sheriff's badge for Aric.  I scrounged around the house and came up with an appropriate cowgirl outfit for her.

At the first house, after ringing the doorbell, Kellyn thought she was supposed to go inside.  Some houses and costumed revelers were just too scary for the kids, but all in all they had a good time once they got the hang of it.  I was glad for Laura's company while walking about the neighborhood.

Now if I can just figure out how to take them on walks without having them think we need to stop at every one's house for candy.

And the best part of Ryan's night, besides getting to stay home and watch the Chiefs game, was having a little girl squeal and yell "Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh" to her mother as she pointed at Aric's Backson pumpkin.

Pumpkin Carving

Ryan was gone last weekend when the kids and I carved three of our pumpkins.  This morning he and the kids carved the remaining two pumpkins that we had saved. 

Ryan and Aric decided to turn Aric's pumpkin into a Backson complete with horns, red hair and a nose ring:

Kellyn's pumpkin was turned into a face with a big toothy grin:

The kids were not cooperating with the camera today:

Our pumpkins to include our two shriveled up, no longer smiling pumpkins from last weekend:

The real Backson:

Things Heard Around Here

Heard as Aric and Kellyn run around the house: Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock

Me: Aric, are you pretending to be a clock?

Aric: No, I'm a crocodile.

Translation:
Too much Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

Aric's Artwork

Lately Aric's drawings have become more recognizable.  Yesterday he drew this on our chalkboard wall:

When I asked him what it was he told me it was the "Backson" from Winnie the Pooh.  He and Kellyn watched the new Winnie the Pooh movie the other night.  Too bad it was on the chalkboard wall and it was only captured on my camera phone.

Pumpkins

This past weekend I took the kids to a harvest party.  We spent the evening carving pumpkins, roasting hot dogs, singing, going on a hay rack ride, conversing with friends, running around chasing other kids, playing with glow sticks (or glue sticks as Aric calls them) and roasting marshmallows.  The kids were up past their bedtime and had a wonderful time.  I am thankful to have friends who are thoughtful enough to include us in their activities.

One of the most exciting parts of the night was the pumpkin carving.  Aric and Kellyn were able to pick out their own pumpkins and request the type of face they wanted carved into it.  They aren't pumpkins that will win any kind of contests, but the kids were pleased to have their very own pumpkin.  We brought our pumpkins home and set them on our doorstep.

Since the party it has been unseasonably warm (in the 80's) and the pumpkins have shriveled up in the heat. Aric is quite upset every time he sees his pumpkin. He specifically requested his pumpkin have a smiley face and the newly shriveled up face looks scary not happy.  There is no way to explain to a three year old about pumpkins, heat, and rotting.

Thankfully we have two more pumpkins left to carve.  We're leaving them for this weekend.  Hopefully they will take his mind off the little, shriveled up, scary pumpkin sitting on our doorstep.

Things Heard Around Here

Mommy, can we play the goose game?

Translation:
Can we play duck, duck, goose?

Aric learned how to play "the goose game" this past week at church.  At the time that he asked this, Daddy was at work and Kellyn was sleeping.  I explained to Aric that we would need to wait until after Daddy came home to play.  After dinner we all went downstairs to play "the goose game", which is more running around in circles and squealing than actually trying to make it to the recently vacated spot.

The Help

This past weekend Ryan ran a marathon in the big city as part of a relay team.  His team came in first in the team division.  On his way home from the race, Ryan stopped at a furniture store to check out their selection of fireplaces.  (We've discussed installing one downstairs, because it gets so cold down there during the winter time.)  He didn't find a fireplace, but he found a TV on a too-good-to-pass-on-it-sale.  It was everything he had been looking for, since we realized we were going to have to eventually replace our TV upstairs.

Ryan spent the rest of the weekend moving TVs around, installing TV mounts, and rewiring the electronics.  He had a helper while he worked upstairs:

When he asked for a screw, she brought him every screw she could find.  Ran off with all of his tools and had a marvelous time helping Daddy. Seeing them like that reminded me of this picture:

I guess when you have little kids, you always have a helper at the ready.

A Recipe

Recently I've seen the following recipe in a couple of different places.  I don't always try recipes I've seen on other blogs, but I like pumpkin, chocolate, and spice cake.  I figured all three mixed together would be an amazing combination and I would give it a go. 

Easy Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:
1 can pumpkin
1 box spice cake
1 cup of water
chocolate chips if desired

Mix ingredients together and pour in muffin tins.  Bake at 350 for 18 to 20 minutes.  Makes 24 muffins.

They were moist and delicious.  The muffins were so good I decided I'm going to make them, top them with cream cheese frosting and bring them to a fall party this weekend.  I can't wait to have them again!

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Regarding my canning experience, I followed the instructions from this site.  I picked that recipe to follow because it had step by step instructions with pictures and I've never canned before.  If only I had poured more water into my jar and actually left it alone overnight then it may have worked a little better.

Canning

Yesterday I embarked on my first endeavor to can tomatoes.  I had everything I needed: mason jars, tomatoes from the garden, and a water bath canner that my aunt gave me when we visited her this summer.

Seventeen tomatoes seems like quite a bit, but it's not.  All that work and I only had one quart size jar of tomatoes.  The jar had to process in the water bath for 50 minutes.  That was a lot of water for one measly jar of tomatoes.  My upstairs turned into a sauna for the rest of the day.

After I pulled the jar out, I put it on the counter to cool down.  I was pretty worried because it hadn't sealed by last night.  I gave up on it and put it in the fridge, figuring that we would be making chili this week.  This morning I checked on the jar and it sealed overnight in the fridge.  I don't have great confidence in it and plan to leave it in the fridge until we make that batch of chili.

I think next time I'll make tomato sauce and use pint size jars.

Things Heard Around Here

Where's the bunny?

Translation:
Aric will ask this question randomly when we are at the grocery store.  He doesn't ask on every trip, but when he does it makes me laugh.  I laugh because the bunny he is referring to is actually the Easter bunny.  Aric saw the bunny walking around the store last Easter while we were in the produce department.  He was terrified of the giant bunny and refused to go anywhere near it.  It must have made a huge impression, though, for Aric to still be bringing it up six months later.

Why I Don't Craft Much

Whenever I decide to get crafty and replicate something I've seen disaster always seems to strike.  Things that I make just don't turn out quite like I think they should.  For instance I decided to make Kellyn a tutu.  Why spend $20 or $30 when I could spend less than half of that and make her one on my own?  I'll tell you why- those expensive tutus are much nicer than mine.

It's not that my tutu looks terrible:

It looks nice and Kellyn seemed to like it.  She pranced around the house for awhile.  The problem with my tutu is that it stretched out and won't go back in:

It's now too big for her and I need to take it in.  Sigh. 

...And this is why I don't craft much.

Books

One of the advantages of staying at home is that I am able to do things that I never would have the time to do before.  I never went to garage sales (though two garage sales doesn't count as an experienced garage-saler), or any sort of community event.  Two weeks ago I found out about a book sale at the library.  For $5 we could fill a paper grocery sack with books.  I was excited to go.  Not because I was looking for anything I might want to read, but because I wanted to get more books for Aric and Kellyn. 

Ryan had to take us to the book sale because I was still on crutches recovering from surgery.  It was a lot of effort on both of are parts, I was hobbling around on crutches and Ryan was trying to corral two children and carry everything.  Despite all of the effort, I think it was a success.

The books go quite well with Kellyn's birthday present:

Her books had been stacked on the floor between the wall and the dresser.  Now they are neatly displayed and easily accessible.

It's a good thing we all like to read.

Two

When I was pregnant and discovered Kellyn was a girl, I was terrified.  I had a boy and thought I wanted another one.  What was I going to do with a girl?  Gradually, as the pink began to arrive, the idea began to grow on me and after I had Kellyn I realized it wasn't so difficult to have a girl.  She's different from her brother, but just as easy to love.  Kellyn brings so much to our family, things I didn't know we were missing before we had her.

It is hard to believe how fast time has gone.  Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet little girl!

Warm Days of Fall

Lately, we have had some really nice, warm days.  In addition to caring for me, the kids and the house while I recover, my hard-working husband has taken advantage of those days and dug up our fence posts. 

After digging them out, he mixed up concrete and poured it in to reinforce the posts. 

At this point he has only reinforced the inside of the fence.  Right now our neighbor is reseeding their yard and we didn't want to upset them by digging up their grass seed.  Already the fence is much more solid than it was before, and we think this will be enough to keep it stable.

I have left our doors open to enjoy the fresh air and sunny days.  The view from my door makes me smile:

I like seeing the flowers blooming, the bees flying and the sun shining on everything.  The mums are now exploding with color.

This flowerpot I filled with half-dead, clearance flowers in the hottest part of the summer:

The flowers definitely came to life after they were fertilized and watered regularly.  The large red and yellow flowers have just started to bloom for the first time.  I really like them but can't remember what they were. 

We're all enjoying the warm, sunny days, because we know they won't last for long.

The Unicorn

We went to the grocery store the other night for some milk, bananas, and glucosamine for my knee.  We came home with something extra.  I give you two guesses as to what it was:

If you guessed a large, pink unicorn you win.  Kellyn squealed with delight when she saw it and didn't want to let it go.  She cried when the clerk had to take it to ring it up.

Since it came home, she has slept with it every night. Shocking, I know!  Kellyn sits on it, bounces on it and walks around the house pretending to ride it.  She is quite protective of it and won't allow anyone else to play with it or touch it.  She has tried to bring it with her to her high chair to eat, carried it along to diaper changes, and last night used it as her blanket while she was sleeping. 

I am just thankful she hasn't decided that it needs to go outside to play or along to the store.  Yet!

Things Heard Around Here

Pop, Awic.

Translation:
I hopped over Aric's clothes.  Can also be interchanged with Mommy, Daddy or Kellyn.

When I fold clothes I tend to sit on the living room floor to sort and fold them.  Kellyn likes to jump and tries to jump over the clothes.  Her jumps never seem to clear whatever is lying folded on the floor and she usually ends up jumping on the clothes or somewhat dragging the clothes with her.  It usually takes me twice as long to fold laundry when Kellyn decides she needs to "pop".

The Mark, Part II

In case you've been waiting on the edge of your seat to find out what the mark is, I have the answer:

The purple mark is the doctor's initials "BP".

Yeah, I don't think it looks like a "BP", and the doctor said he doesn't think it looks much like a "BP", either.  You have to love doctor's penmanship.

The Mohawk

It's every mother's dream to have a daughter with a mohawk, right?

It's not??

What if your daughter still has hair that can't be tamed?

Frequently when Kellyn wakes up in the morning her hair is somewhat flattened on the sides, but still sticking straight up.

 It's a pretty cute mohawk, but then I might be a bit biased.

The Mark

Tomorrow is my post-op appointment with my orthopedic surgeon.  One of many questions I have for him is this:

What did you draw on my leg?

Is it a 3? An M? An E? A weird arrow?  The Rebel Alliance symbol?

I just want to know what it is and when it will wash off.

Aric Vs. The Shopping Cart

Aric fell on Friday and hit his face on a shopping cart while at the Home Depot with Ryan and Kellyn.  Ryan called on the way home to let me know I needed to pull out the first aid kit.  Upon seeing Aric and Ryan's sweatshirt, I immediately realized Aric needed more than a band aid and some neosporin.  Off they went to the urgent care clinic to have Aric's cut glued shut.

Aric cried briefly after it happened, but was apparently pretty tough at the doctor's office.  He came home excited about how the doctor put purple glue on his face.

The next morning Aric woke up with a swollen, black eye.

He will wear band aids for the next week to keep him from touching the area and picking the glue off.

Aric 0
Shopping Cart 1

Until they meet again...