A Couple Cute Ones

Thanks Casey...a couple more cute ones from Halloween.

The Kitsap Kittens

We had two of the cutest ever kittens in Kitsap County the other night for Halloween. Angelica and Emma wore costumes that my Meme (their Great Meme) made for me and my sister when we were little...so special. I will have to try and find a picture of me to compare. The girls were so excited to go trick or treating and came back with a ton of candy which they were eager to dump out, inspect and devour! Emma loved saying Meow and Angelica informed me that she said thank you to everyone. Now to ration out the candy over the next several weeks...it does come in handy for some bribery when necessary! Thanks Meme for the costumes...maybe next year they can be the bees or cabbage patch kids!

Decorating Disaster?

Start with a nice clean table and clean supplies....give some cookies, icing and candy and end up with black-fingered, icing crusted mouths but very HAPPY kiddies. They loved decorating their Halloween cookies and I think their strategy was...decorate some, eat some, play some and repeat. I used this Royal Icing recipe again for the second year and love it!!! If anyone wants a cookie....stop by!

My Little Cookie Helper

For the second year now, I have used this recipe (Brown Sugar Cutouts) to make our Halloween cookies. It is very easy and quite tasty!! Angelica loves to "help" in the kitchen and this year she actually did all the cookie shapes herself and even tried to help roll out the dough...although she did enjoy some nibbles along the way!

Pumpkin Time

This year we had three pumpkins to carve....the girls painted their little pumpkins. We decided to let Angelica help draw face ideas on her doodle board for two of the pumpkins and then we used the pro-life template from American Life League to do the third carving of the unborn baby. Appropriate for the month of October and for us as we eagerly await the arrival of our little one. So while Jason did most of the work, Angelica enjoyed using the little tools to carve her pieces as well...and loved the finished products. Emma slept and woke up excited to see pumpkins lit up and carved!!

Harvesting the Seeds

The girls had a really fun time this year helping scrape the pumpkins out and harvest all the seeds for cooking. Emma wasn't wild about the "squishy stuff" but did a good job helping. Even with as much work as it is, we LOVE eating the pumpkin seeds every year and I was shocked that both the girls like them too...and they are so healthy for you! I have put together my own recipe and it is a huge hit!! YUMMERS. Note to self: when you are drying the seeds though after rinsing before cooking, do not put on paper towels as they will stick and not be fun to pry apart! Recipe I use now: Separate and rinse seeds as clean from pulp as possible, let dry. Preheat oven to 350. Spray pan. Depending on how many seeds you have you adjust recipe to taste, sorry no real measurements. This year we had 3 pumpkins. I melted couple TBs of butter, bit of Worcestershire sauce, Season Salt, garlic powder and TB or so of brown sugar. Mix and then pour over seeds in bowl and coat. Then spread on pan and bake for at least 40 minutes or so, stirring occasionally and checking to see when they look nice and brown. Then I put on wax paper to dry and then snack all week long!! Enjoy.

Good Reads

This is a post that appeared on one of my favorite sites, Building Cathedrals. Click HERE to check it out, all about pros and cons and advice and opinions about celebrating Halloween, All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day etc. The post is great and all the comments are even better. For us, we enjoy celebrating both. We feel fortunate to live in a pretty good neighborhood and I have such fond memories of dressing up and going door to door with my pumpkin to receive goodies. It is even more fun now to have my girls wearing the costumes I wore when I was their age. The past couple of years we have always had some friends and my youngest sister over for soup and cider and they get ready and go trick or treating. Angel had a blast last year!! We do however realize the dangers out there, some worse for others and our plans might have to change along the years. On the other hand, we love to celebrate All Saints Day as well. How fun to learn more about them and dress up like your favorite etc. I am bummed as right now our church's All Saints Day party is held on Halloween so we have to choose which to go to, wish it was actually on All Saints Day. So we shall see and I am sure traditions will change but for now...keep your eyes peeled for a couple of very cute cats!!

Another GREAT read (in my opinion) is THIS LINK to an article and interview about the truths and myths and facts about the swine flu, vaccines etc. As many of you have read in my past posts about vaccinations (which are all on my sidebar under label vaccines) it is a topic we have heavily researched over the past couple of years and made lots of decisions about and continue to do so. I feel even more confident in our decision not to get the flu shot or H1N1 vaccine right now....and so glad to hear that the New York state supreme court put a hold on the mandate that all health care workers were forced to get the vaccine or get fired....finally some confirmation and support for informed consent and personal health decisions!!! Anyways, check it out, some good information and what you will not hear in most of our biased media that loves government regulation and providing only the extreme cases to us on the nightly news! Bottom line....do the research yourself and make decisions that are best for you and your family and do not penalize others for theirs!

Cute either way

Maybe it was due to the spirit of Halloween, but Jason decided the other night to name Emma "Franken-Baby" because how she walks and talks. I choose to call her the "Attacker", but either way we laugh when she starts to go!! AND SHE IS EVERYWHERE and getting much faster.

Happy Halloween...a little late

We had a nice Halloween.....We first went to see PopPop that morning and bring him some decorated cookies and pumpkin seeds. He loved the girls Halloween outfits especially Angel's boots and striped tights!! Then later my sister Alli and her friends came over to get dressed up as Candy Land characters and my parents came over and we all had dinner. Then Jason and dad took Angel out to get some candy....she was so excited and had been practicing saying "Happy Halloween" all day. The whole time I was getting her dressed in her ladybug costume (Emma was one too) she kept telling me, "Mama, I love this stuff!" So cute. I think she loved watching her Aunt Alli get all dressed up too. She was very excited to do what the big girls did and dump all the candy out on the floor when they got home and eat and look at all the acquired goodies!! There were not that many kids trick or treating anymore....which I think has a lot to do with the loss of a sense of neighborhood these days. Last year we went to the Church's Saints Party...but Angel is still a bit young to participate in a lot of the activities.....maybe in a couple years! Poor Emma was still having a rough time with her cold (although I think it is all teething related now as I see a tooth coming in) so she made a very cute, but sick ladybug!! Angel had to end the night with dancing of course and getting all the other girls to join in. Hope you had a Happy Halloween too!!