Happy Halloween!

I started the morning off right with a batch of pumpkin cinnamon rolls. Yum! They were good, the dough was super light and fluffy.

Once Tyler and I had full bellies, it was time to start carving pumpkins. We too waited until the last minute to get the carving done.

I hate to admit it, but Tyler carved his own pumpkin this year. Actually he did everything himself, including cleaning out the guts. I let him use the big tool from our kit that is usually used for cutting the top off the pumpkin. It doesn't have a sharp edge, so he had to use a bit of elbow grease to get the job done. He did a good job, though.

How do you like our spooky pumpkin family?

After we finished carving our pumpkins, I took Tyler over to Toys 'R Us so he could participate in the trick or treat parade around the store.

He got a free trick or treat bag, some candy, coloring sheets and stickers. At the end of the parade we stopped to get a picture with Geoffrey. He's a tall one, that giraffe.

Back at the house, I started getting ready for the trick or treaters by filling up our basket with candy.

Hmmm, that's funny...there's not much in the way of chocolate. I wonder how that happened. I bought a mix of skittles, peanut m&m's, junior mints, twizzlers, gummie savers, and bags of pretzels.

For dinner, I took the easy route (since I already slaved in the kitchen for the cinnamon rolls) and bought the jack o'lantern pizza from papa murphy's.

It's a good thing too, because the trick or treaters come fast and furious in this neighborhood!

Halloween Carnival

Tyler's school had an early release today so that the everyone could go to the carnival at the ranch (the montessori school for older kids). School got out at noon and the carnival started at 1:00, so we had plenty of time to get there.

That's when I brilliantly threw a monkey wrench into our day. Neither Rick nor I knew exactly where the ranch was, since we've never been there before. So I looked up the directions online and thought I knew where we were going. Turns out I had bad directions and we ended up in the wrong place. To make a long story short, let's just say that we made it to the party a little late, maybe even more than a little bit late.

At least Tyler finally got to premiere his costume, even if most of the kids from his class had already left the party.

He's a red lego brick.

Then it was time to play a few games to win prizes and candy.

We quickly made the rounds, playing all the games before it was time to head back home for the afternoon.

One Big Bowl of Love

I've been making a lot of soup lately. Partly because Fall is here and it's cold outside and partly because I'm trying to clean out my vegetable drawer.

For dinner tonight I made a recipe that I saw on Rachael Ray's show last week called Vegetable Soup with Dumplings. I was pretty sure that it was going to be good, since the recipe is almost the same as her chicken and dumplings, but with more veggies and no chicken. So let me tell you...it was good.

I made my dumplings a little bit too big and they took almost twice as long to cook, but besides that tiny hitch, I have no complaints. I'll be making this one again real soon. Tyler said that he loved it and he even asked for seconds. He was kinda hesitant about the dumplings at first, but after trying them, he was asking for more of them too.

Oh, and one more thing....this recipe makes a ton! Wow, we're going to be having leftovers for awhile!

I also made Kielbasa Split Pea Soup this week, which was equally delicious. And the most surprising part was that Tyler loved it, and again asked for seconds. I always thought that split pea soup was an acquired taste. At least I know I didn't care for it much as a child. Anyway, I couldn't have been more pleased to see Tyler eating a bowl full of veggies.

Whoooo's Hungry?

Tyler's last issue of Your Big Backyard had a recipe that we were really excited to try out. The problem was that we kept forgetting about it....every single morning! So last night we left the magazine in the kitchen, so that we'd finally remember to make it.

I guess it's not so much of a recipe, just a dressed up english muffin. It sure is cute though!

I warmed up the english muffin, cut the banana slices and the triangular piece of cheese, but Tyler did all of the assembly himself.

We had a few extra cheerios, so Tyler added some to the cheeks to look like feathers.

All finished. Time to eat!

On Fire

Wow! My scrapbooking room has been on fire this week! I've never been able to complete multiple pages in a single day, so finishing 3 in a week is pretty good. And the most impressive part is that I didn't use a speck of BasicGrey paper.

This layout uses a combo of DCWV (green stripe) and Doodlebug (swiss dot) paper. The title and the cute hiking man symbol were cut with my Going Places cricut cartridge.

This one uses double sided Scenic Route paper and some new pink paislee alphabet stickers. I even put my notebook spiral punch to work for the first time.

Here I used some more DCWV paper and some purple Bazzill swiss dot cardstock.

Okay, now let me get back to work before I completely run out of steam.

Just Another Crazy Day

Tyler had his first field trip today to a pumpkin patch. The kids went in rounds, two classes at a time, to the other Montessori School, also known as "the ranch". Once there, the kids made caramel apples, visited the farm animals, and took a tractor wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin.

That was the fun part, but my anger comes from the unorganized details. Two classes went on Monday, two went on Tuesday, and Tyler was supposed to go on Wednesday, but the trip was postponed because of the rainy weather. At the end of the day, there was no information as to when the trip would be rescheduled. So today I took Tyler to school as normal, assuming that there was no field trip, and thus, did not drop off his car seat. At 9:30 I get a phone call from Tyler's teacher saying that they're trying to leave for the trip, but they don't have a car seat for Tyler. Huh?! Since when was the trip rescheduled? I was literally already on the way out the door because I had a 9:45 appointment, but now I had to race over to Tyler's school to drop off his car seat. Argh! Total nonsense! He did have a good time though, now if I could just put my griping aside.

So here's the pumpkin Tyler picked out at the ranch. Wait a minute...who is Tyler looking at? Is Mickey Mouse walking by? Hello Tyler...over here! I guess this shot is better than the over the shoulder red carpet look he was giving me before.

In other fall spirited events, I baked some delicious cookies that I saw in an ad in one of my cooking magazines. They're called Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

They came out slightly dry and a tad on the cakey side, but I still enjoyed them. I normally prefer oatmeal cookies that are more chewy, but these were nice and not overly sweet.

Five Months Worth

I'm still having a hard time getting out of my scrapbooking slump and so I haven't actually completed that many pages lately. In fact, these 5 are all I have to show for the last 5 months. It's not that great of a record. Susan was even starting to draw conclusions that I had given up scrapbooking completely, so I figured it was time to put up my work no matter how little.

This one I finished way back in May or June, but never got around to posting it.

I hope nobody else notices how bad I'm slouching in this Mother's Day picture. Ack!

This one still needs journaling, but at this late date, I'm not sure that I'll ever get it done.

Hot off the presses! I finished this one this morning.

So there you go....check back in another 5 months and maybe I'll have more.