Happy Halloween!

Hope you all have a 'spooklacutar' Halloween!!

 

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkins this afternoon. The kids loved it. All except the getting your hands dirty part.
"Please don't make me put my hand in there!"

Pappa's is a very complex ghost carving. Christian's is the crazy crooked smile guy. And Campbelle's is a princess pumpkin - earrings, crown and all (go figure!) 

Campbelle's Pumpkin

 

Searching for a great Pumpkin

 

It's a bird, it's a plane,.....

It's Super Girl!!
or.....
It's SUPER MAN!! (??)
or.....
......It's Super DAD!!!! 

"One of life's best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire-then you have a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference." ~Robert Fulghum

New Art Studio

We've created this great new space for the kids in the garage... we call it the Art Studio. They have a blast painting and this way it makes the clean up so much easier (which makes it all the more likely that I'll let them paint!) Campbelle is very imaginative as she tells me the stories behind her paintings... lately a lot of them have to do with the Chinese New Year (?!?!?)
"Hmmmm, maybe it needs a touch more orange."
Christian really does like the art studio more than this picture shows.... I think I just offended the next up and coming Picaso by even suggesting the idea going in the house!! One musn't disturb an artist in the midst of creative genius, I guess.

Bouncy Morning

The kids and I had a fun morning checking out a new bouncy place. They have drop in hours a few mornings a week. Christian took a little while to warm up to the idea of going inside one of these tents, but by the end of the hour he was bouncing with the best of them. Campbelle was so sweet to him as she took his hand and helped him figure things out... like going down the slide. 

Bedtime Dialogue.... oh the power of Santa

Campbelle: I'd like to talk about what I'm going to ask Santa to bring me for Christmas.

Mom: Ok, but this is the last conversation...then it's bedtime. What should we tell Santa?

Campbelle: I'd like to tell him that I want a kids camera that takes real pictures so that I could just go around all day and take pictures. Oh, and I'll take a pink scooter.

Mom: You can't just say "I'll take a pink scooter" that's not how this Santa thing works. You tell Santa the things you would really wish for, then Santa decides if you've been a good girl and if you should get those things.

Campbelle: But how will he know if I've been good or naughty?

Mom: Well, Santa sets up a conference with mom and pappa to discuss your behavior. And pappa and I tell them just how you've been acting... whether good or naughty. He might even set up meetings with your teachers at school and find out from them how you've been. So it's a good idea to always act very kindly.

Campbelle: (looking suprisingly confident) Oh, I get it. But do you remember today when Christian threw his book down the stairs and you made him sit on the naughtly mat.... well are you going to tell Santa about that when you meet with him to discuss Christian's behavior? Because that wasn't very kind of him at all. And maybe Santa just shouldn't bring him anything.

Mom: Campbelle, whose behavior should you be concerned about?

Campbelle: I know... my own. Christian should worry about himself.

Mom: That's right. Good night.

Campbelle: But I just thought I would remind you for your meeting with Santa in case you forget all the things Christian has done.

Mom: Goodnight Campbelle

Campbelle: When do you meet with him?

Mom: Goodnight Campbelle

Campbelle: (Bedroom door closed) Could you just tell me when you are going to meet with him? Pleeeeeasssssse.

Campbelle's New Do

Campbelle had a haircut today.... her first trip to a 'Big Girl Salon'. She thought she was pretty big stuff and asked her hairdresser if this "is where grownup princess cut their hair?" It's really cute on her (short in the back and longer at the sides). 

Tulip Time

We planted tulip bulbs this morning... the kids had fun, especially the shoveling dirt part! We planted them a few hours ago, and we've had to look out the window a few times already to see if they've grown any.... could be a long wait through the winter!! 

I think someone wants PUDDING!

Computer Nerd

Campbelle has really been into computer games lately... her favorite games is a connect the dot one. She is really quite clever to navigate around, but she told me the other day that she is so frustrated that she can't read yet. It really troubles her that she knows all her letters, but still can't read!! Next step... hooked on phonics! ha 

Bookworm

A lazy afternoon of play

Video: Test Video

Princess and the Pea

Yesterday we went to Molbaks (which is a huge, very cool garden center) for their Fall Festival activities. They had a production of Princess and the Pea, kids got to plant little pea plants, and all sorts of other fall stuff. Christian could not bring himself to face any of the actors, he spent the whole play on Leif's lap looking at the people sitting behind us. Campbelle sat on the floor right next to the stage and didn't hardly blink. (Although afterwards she told us she only liked it a little.)
 

Salmon Days - Issaquah

This weekend was Salmon Days festival in Issaquah. It was a beautiful day to be outside! We enjoyed the parade, and Campbelle especially was enamored with all the princesses, and the gymnists, and the cheerleaders, and the drama kids, and the drummers. Christian really just liked the trucks and the horses - go figure.

The kids loved all the other activities from being in an animal parade (Campbelle was a bird), reading stories inside a giant salmon, art projects and visiting with all our local law enforcement personal. The kids had a blast.

Salmon Days cont'

Campbelle got to ride on a highway patrol motorcyle (although she told me it wasn't her best thing, riding on the school bus that shuttled us to the event, was the highlight of the day for her.)

And Christian got to 'drive' a fire truck. It was the highlight of his day, can't you tell by the excitment on his face!! :-)

Project Shaving Cream

At first, they didn't really know what they should do, but it didn't take them long....


 

October Book

Next month's book club is The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. My friend Susan recommended it to me and says she loved it. I'm anxious to get started. Here is what Barnes and Nobel have to say:

"Once upon a time a man who had become invisible arrived in America." An unlikely and unforgettable hero, Leo Gursky is a survivor -- of war, of love, and of loneliness. A retired locksmith, Leo does his best to get by. He measures the passage of days by the nightly arrival of the delivery boy from the Chinese restaurant and has arranged a code with his upstairs neighbor: Three taps on the radiator means, "ARE YOU ALIVE?, two means YES, one NO." But it wasn't always so. Sixty years earlier, before he fled Poland for New York, Leo met a girl named Alma and fell in love. He wrote a book and named the character in it after his beloved. Years passed, lives changed, and unbeknownst to Leo, the book survived. And it provides Leo -- in the eighth decade of his life -- with a link to the son he's never known. How this long-lost book makes an extraordinary reappearance and connects the lives of disparate characters is only one of the small miracles The History of Love offers its readers. Rich, inventive, and continually surprising, this is a novel about lost love, found love, and rediscovered love; it is about where we find love when it seems all too elusive and what happens when we do. In short, it is a triumph. 

Book Club recipes

Here are the recipes that I made for book club this evening. I highly recommend the white spiced coffee... it sounds complicated, and frankly it is, but it is definately worth the work!

For book club, I made the coffee recipe in advance so I only had to reheat it for dessert time. I actually laughed out loud this afternoon while I'm straining the coffee through cheesecloth thinking 'there's no way in hell my sister Tammy would ever go through this trouble... then again, I'm not sure about any other sane person spending all this time on a coffee drink..." But the bummer part of it was, after all that work, I burned it while reheating it for my book club girls tonight.... rats!! Better luck next time....(all recipes from Bon Appétit)


Chicken and White Bean Chili
1 pound dried small white beans
8 fresh Anaheim chilies (about 1 pound)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
2 large onions, chopped
1/3 cup all purpose flour
4 cups low-salt chicken broth
3 cups half and half
4 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1 1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese (about 6 ounces)
1 cup sour cream
Chopped fresh cilantro
green chili salsa


Place beans in heavy large pot with enough cold water to cover by at least 3 inches. Let stand overnight.
Char chilies over gas flame or in broiler until blackened on all sides. Enclose in paper bag; let stand 10 minutes. Peel, seed, and chop chilies. Set aside.

Drain beans. Return to pot. Add enough cold water to pot to cover beans by 3 inches. Simmer until beans are almost tender, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour. Drain well.

Melt butter in clean heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until tender, about 15 minutes. Add flour and stir 5 minutes (do not brown). Gradually whisk in chicken broth and half and half. Simmer gently until thickened, about 10 minutes. Add reserved white beans and roasted chilies, shredded chicken, and next 5 ingredients. Simmer gently to blend flavors, about 20 minutes. (Chili can be made 1 day ahead. Chill until cold, then cover and keep chilled. Rewarm before continuing.)

Add grated cheese and sour cream to chili; stir just until chili is heated through and cheese melts (do not boil). Ladle chili into bowls and garnish with cilantro and green salsa. Serve.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.



Broiled Apples with Maple Calvados Sauce
4 Fuji or Royal Gala apples, peeled, cored, and each cut into 16 wedges
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons Calvados

Accompaniment: premium-quality vanilla ice cream
Preheat broiler.
Toss apples with lemon juice and 2 tablespoons sugar. Melt butter in a shallow baking pan 6 inches from heat. Remove from oven and tilt pan back and forth to coat bottom completely with butter. Arrange apples in 1 layer in pan. Broil apples 6 inches from heat until edges are pale golden and apples are just tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over apples and broil until sugar is melted, 1 to 2 minutes.

While apples are broiling, boil maple syrup and Calvados 2 minutes.

Serve apples and ice cream topped with sauce.

Makes 4 servings.

White Spiced Coffee
3 cups whole milk
1 cup whole coffee beans, lightly cracked
1 1/2 3-inch cinnamon sticks, broken
4 whole green cardamom pods (I used the cardomon seeds and used about 2 tsp)
1/4 cup honey
2 tbls rum (optional)

Place the milk and crushed coffee beans in a saucepan. Heat the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat - about 7 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat and let the beans steep in the milk for 15 minutes. Strain the coffee mixture and transfer to blender. (Discard beans) Add the cinnamon sticks, cardamom, and honey to the steeped milk and blend on high speed until the spices are coarsely ground - 30 seconds. Strain the liquid back in to the saucepan and discard the ground spices. Rewarm the coffee over medium-high until hot and steaming. Add rum, if desired.

Fun clips

I guess you can’t hold the camera vertical when taking videos… I don’t think you can flip the image (at least when I am posting this my personal help desk guy is not answering my phone calls!!). I'm having so much fun posting these videos... I feel like a real computer geek when I'm in messing with computer code!! Maybe I have a career in development!