Happy Halloween

Do you like our pumpkin? I will send you a box full of leftover Halloween candy if you can guess what it is. (No scrolling down to cheat).


Pretty hard if you don't watch a certain Disney cartoon. Here's a hint:

It's Rocket from Little Einsteins. Can you see it? Tyler requested it, and Daddy delivered. Now that's a good dad, and master pumpkin carver.

Candy Lovers

At tonight's Trunk-or-Treat. They scored a lot of candy. Audrey died and went to heaven trying her first Three Musketeers. Tyler stuck to his favorites: Skittles, M&Ms, and Twizzlers. One more night to go!

Parade

Today we hit the first of three parties we have going on this Halloween weekend. The preschool party was pretty funny. I worked my "mommy charm" and somehow got Tyler in his costume because he was not having it when we got to school. Let's just say he was a little um, nervous, about all the craziness surrounding this morning's parade. But once we picked him up after the party, he couldn't stop talking about trick-or-treating at Pastor Paul's office, that he and JP were both train conductors, and his yummy goody bag.

Tyler in the parade with his teacher. His buddy Kien is the fireman.

The two train conductors. JP is one of Tyler's school buddies that he talks about a lot. I can see why... they look like two peas in a pod.

A little unsure

Tyler's preschool class. Seriously, how cute are these kids all dressed up.

Let the Halloweening begin!

Farm Kids

We spent the morning at Underwood Family Farms, our last pumpkin patch stop of the season. The main event was the hayride. Tyler's been talking about it for three weeks straight. I think the ride lived up to his expectations.

Playground fun

Feeding carrots to the sheep

Tractor ride

Audrey and I shopped the farm stand and picked up some heirloom tomatoes, peppers, salad greens, snap peas, and strawberries for a dinner salad. I also ended up with the apples she grabbed and took a bite of.

My little apple lover

Breakfast for Dinner

We have a stalemate at our house when it comes to breakfast for dinner. I like it. Adam doesn't. Tonight I won. Primarily because of Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix. This stuff is good! It's seasonal, so I highly suggest running to your nearest TJs and grabbing several boxes. (If you don't have one nearby, I need to send you a care package). We made the waffles (mostly because I am a terrible pancake maker), with sausage, turkey bacon, fruit salad, and plenty of butter and syrup. Delicious. And PS - My pumpkin butter is on the stove right now. Can you imagine how amazing my house smells?

Gallery

Like every kid in preschool Tyler comes home with a lot of artwork. Which is awesome... and I love it... but really, what do you save, what do you throw out? I've been wanting to find a creative way to display some of his stuff (at least temporarily give them their moment to shine). Our fridge is hiding in the corner of the kitchen, covered in ABC and dinosaur magnets - not ideal for artwork. Thanks to my friend Carrie, who guest-posted on Design Mom, I found these clothesline clips.
This is exactly the sort of thing I was gonna try to create on my own, but not having a love for crafting, I was happy to order on line. We got the Bird Art Clips and they are adorable. Going up in the kids room this weekend. Tyler is already excited to display his latest masterpieces. And PS - if you're interested in ordering, they're offering free shipping right now - and what a great website.

Spooky Reading

Emily posted about Halloween traditions and it got me thinking about one of ours. Books. I didn't start out trying to make holiday books a tradition necessarily, but since I've had my kids our holiday book collection has grown... well, namely for Christmas and Halloween. Every year I add two or three books to these collections. When the holiday is over I put the books away for next year, that way we always look forward to pulling them out - and I think it keeps them special. Here are some of our favorite Halloween books:

Happy Halloween Little Critter

Little Critter The Fall Festival (Obviously we are fans of Little Critter)

For the truck-loving boys, Danny Dozer and the Haunted House

The Teeny Tiny Ghost This is a new one we just bought. I especially love the illustrations.

Happy Halloween Curious George (Big Curious George fans over here, too.)

For the babies and toddlers, Little Spider

And this one is not my favorite read, but Tyler loves it and picked it out all by himself. Little Einsteins: The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle.

Happy Halloween reading! Please add your favorites to our list. Maybe we will pick them up to add to our collection!

I want to...

Go back-to-school shopping. (You don't have to be in school to do that, right?)
Buy this book.
Make this pumpkin butter.
Take a long bath and enjoy the yumminess of my new soap. (That's right, I won a giveaway people!)
Drink some tea.
Cuddle up on the couch, catch up with my DVR, and enjoy a day just for me.
Now to try to make that a reality.

Mmmmm Vanilla

I am not a huge vanilla person, so I'm not sure why I'm totally into this stuff right now, but I am. It is making me and my house smell quite yummy. It also reminds me of this gift idea from last holiday season. I love it. Not sure if I have it in me to dedicate the time, but definitely a contender for some holiday gifts this year.

Just when I said I wasn't gonna post

It's raining in LA today. In case you're wondering, that's a big deal. It never rains here. Ever. This is what a kid does when it's raining in LA. Stares out the window. Well that and splashes in puddles, and gets soaked (since clearly we don't own an umbrella). I've never loved rainy days more.

Blogging Slow

Things have gotten a little busy around here, so posts might be sparse. I'm also trying to cut back on computer time a bit, plug in with my kids (I've been bad about that lately). Maybe I'll read a book, too. Who am I kidding, I'm more likely catch up on the shows I'm trying to watch this season. In the meantime I'll leave you with some random photos of what we've been doing these past few days.

Pumpkin Patch #2

Every now and then you need to go to the Dollar Store and get a treat. The other day we stopped and cleaned out my wallet. Tyler got a race car and I picked out these high heels for Audrey not knowing if she would even wear them. She won't take them off her feet.

This is crazy life with a 17 month old. Audrey walked around last night with two whisks in her hands and a jacket over her head. I'm sure in her world this sort of thing makes sense.

Peek-a-boo

Clearly Tyler has to peek-a-boo, too.

Peek-a-boo Mommy (photo taken by Tyler)

And how about this picture? Crazy Audrey. (Also taken by Tyler).

Like I said, random photos... but these are fun times with my kids. PS - It's maybe, sort of raining here. Can't remember the last time that happened. So nice.

Silly

The latest with Tyler is he finds me in the house and says, "Hey Mommy, do you want to see something silly?", and then does something only a three year old thinks is funny - like make a strange noise, speak jibberish, jump up and down. Of course I pretend this is the funniest thing I've seen all day, (one reason why I knew it was time for preschool - he could find fellow three year old friends who truly think he is hilarious). Today he said, "Mommy take a picture of something silly". Then he posed. This was that something:

Nothing like being three.

Fall Food

I am definitely a fall foodie. Sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin, apples in season. These are some of my favorite foods and flavors. Yummm... I'm hungry just thinking about it. Here are a few favorite fall recipes:

Butternut Squash Soup. This one is really healthy so feel free to go back for seconds and thirds.

The other night I roasted some homemade sweet potato fries and was reminded of this recipe. Your basic roasted vegetables, but I love this combination for fall. I don't do the flat leaf parsley, mostly because I'm too lazy for the chopping. A great side dish to a grocery store roast chicken and a little whole cranberry sauce.

Stuffed Acorn Squash. This is a first time recipe I'm making this week, so I can't quite put my stamp of approval on it yet, but acorn squash stuffed with wild rice, roasted pears, and dried cranberries - I don't think you can go wrong here.

And for the sweet tooth. Come over to our place this time of year and you will find a pot of Spiced Apple Cider on the stove a lot. I love the way it smells our house up yummy all day long. Here's my recipe:

1 Gallon Apple Cider - really hard to find the good stuff here in LA, by the way.
4 Stick Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. all spice
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 Orange, sliced with rind
1 Lemon, sliced with rind

Combine in a large kettle. Steep below boiling for two hours. Remove cinnamon sticks and serve. This recipe also says to add 1 cup sugar, but I never do. It's sweet enough in my opinion, but you can play with it.

If you don't feel like bothering with all the ingredients, just go grab a jug of Trader Joe's Spiced Cider and throw that on the stove. Equally delicious.

Oh, and don't forget the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.

These are the foods that mean fall to me. There are a couple more, like my grandma's Sweet Potato Casserole, and her Apple Crisp, but I'll save those for another post. Happy eating, and if you have a second pass along some of your favorite fall foods.

Happy October

We hit our first pumpkin patch of the season tonight.

Me Today

It's not the best picture, but can you tell I've gone shorter? It's a great cut and I'm getting used to it. Thanks Kelly!