Halloween 2013

This year I tried to put a lot of veggies in our day to help negate all the inevitable candy. 

We started our day with Jack O' Lantern pancakes. 

Originally, I had wanted to make pumpkin pancakes, but I can't find my case of organic pumpkin purée, so I defaulted to spinach spelt pancake batter. They were delicious! 

We spent the morning tidying the house and practicing music. Then we visited the grocery store to pick up some pumpkin for a snack I saw in a Mama Natural post. We did calculator math at the store (addition and decimals). 

A quick lesson on nutrition followed at home. 

Here's a plate that has been divided into three sections. What you see drawn is pasta. I swear. 

The baby went down for her nap and the bigs and I headed out on bikes to find a salon. They both got hair cuts and look much improved. 

When we got home, they helped make dinner. 

Bacon wrapped meatloaf is so much better when mummy shaped. Oh wait, no. It was just really good because, bacon. 

I think it's even creaper cooked. This is the first time I've ever put spinach in meatloaf. It was quite good. You can add quite a bit! I had no idea. 

My ToT pictures are on my phone so I can't include them just yet.  

For dessert, we had pumpkin smoothies. They were great!

No picture, but here's the recipe.

 1 cup frozen pumpkin purée

1 frozen banana

1 cup coconut milk 

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp vanilla

2T pecans

1 1/2 T maple syrup

Toss it in the blender, enjoy. 

Happy Halloween! 

Now I need to run to the store and find a toy for the Switch Witch to trade for all the loot my kiddos ended up with. 0.0

Halloween Part 1

We should first get out in the open the fact that I think Halloween is the most pointless "holiday" ever. 

I think it should be renamed "punish the moms day" because that's what it really is. 

That being said, some awesome things did happen tonight. 

At our ward party I volunteered for the cake walk, which was totally micromanaged. I just had to sit back and laugh. What type of person thinks a cakewalk needs that level of oversight? The worst that could possibly happen is the seven year olds mob the cake table and suddenly you're out of cake. And really, isn't that a GOOD thing because then nobody has to run the game, right? Anyway. 

The Trunk R Treat part made me giggle, too. I handed out glow sticks and pencils. (Just trying to do my part to support China.) 

Did you know kids these days don't even say "trick r treat!"? They just hold out their bags. And if you aren't fast enough, they shake them at you. Seriously? Who is raising these hooligans? 

I ignored the kids who did this until they either went away or spoke the magic words. 

After I ran out of glow sticks and just had pencils, kids were trying to take my $20 vanilla scented flameless candles and LED balloons. Um, no. Those are my trunk decorations. I'm kinda surprised nobody tried to walk off with the pumpkins. 

After our ward's totally lame party, we went to the ward party hosted by my in-laws. These people know how to throw a party. There was a bounce house, cotton candy, train rides, and a REAL haunted house. Plus, it was all outside (except for the haunted house, which was in the barn) and there wasn't any lame music too loud to talk over. Also, the people who go to my in-laws ward are WAY more friendly than the people in my own ward. 

While I was there I fell into conversation with a woman who was wearing her baby. Clearly, we had loads in common. At some point her husband comes up to us and randomly joins the conversation with this,

"and if you have a hysterectomy, you can't have the big orgasms any more. You can still have the small ones, but not the big ones". At which point MY husband walks up and wants to know why I just said, "oh wow". 

Some people can't tell the difference between first and second date material. That was CLEARLY second date territory. Alternately, I could have gone my whole life without hearing about female orgasms from a man I've never met. But it was totally the highlight of my evening, because I got to come home and tell you. You're welcome. 

PS I will get the kids' costume pictures, I promise. My "good" camera was out of batteries tonight and I didn't have time to get them replaced, what with running to the costume store 30 minutes before our party started. I super don't recommend that. The line for checkout was INSANE.

Independence Day 2011

We started out the morning with Red White and Blue pancakes. (recipe to follow) It just seemed like the thing to do on the Fourth of July. The Hubs even volunteered to run to the store first thing to grab the fruit we needed.

Then we waited around for my sister and her husband to show up for our planned 8:30am walk around the lake. At 9:30 I called. At 10:30 we gave up and drove to the lake ourselves. At the end of the trail we ran into them coming the other direction. Zsa Zsa walked at least half of it on her own.

 She was fascinated by dragon flies, and thought they might eat her.

 The Boy is simply not as ambitious as my baby girl, and ended up being carried for quite a bit of the hike. We're working on effort with that kid. He's not internally motivated.  Like, at all.

The children both took glorious three hour naps during which the adults played cards. It was AWESOME. I can't remember the last time my oldest took a nap intentionally. We told him he had to rest if he wanted to go see the fireworks that night. I think it helped that we wore them out on our hike. :)

After dinner, I cleaned up the mess and collapsed into bed. Hubs and a couple sisters took the wee ones to the city fireworks display.

Happy Birthday, America. I hope you're still around when my kids are having kids, and that you're worth living in. It's kinda sketchy right now, to be honest.

Blender Pancakes
1 Cup whole grain stuff (I used oat groats and wheat berries)
1 1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup oil or some oil/applesauce combo
2 Tbls sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
Blend whole grain and one cup milk on high, three minutes. Add remainder of milk and blend two more minutes (you can just blend for 20 seconds if you have a Vitamix) add the rest of the ingredients and blend. Cook per usual.
Topping
1 lb strawberries, sliced
1 clam shell blue berries
2 bananas sliced
toss gently with a tablespoon or two of sugar or agave

How are You? We're all Sick

This morning The Boy woke up in a pool of vomit and Zsa Zsa had the squirts all over her bed (and "Bankie" and favorite stuffed dog...). I didn't find out about it until after The Hubs had cleaned it all up. Well, not the Bankie or dog, but he's a guy. Details? Not so much.

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE The Hubs? Seriously, he's the best. Bodily excretions are so NOT his thing.

We've been passing around this stomach virus for over a week now. I'm ready to give it the boot.
Along that vein, I've purchased some heavy duty help.
I like to call them Lysol and Bleach. Since, you know, that's what's on the label.


The upside of this whole fiasco is that I've finally lost my Holiday Pounds. Let's hear it for viral gastroenteritis! The official weight loss plan of 2011.

My Birthday

This year my birthday has really snuck up on me.
I think that means I'm getting old.
I had come to terms with the 6 gray hairs in my part, even.
Then...
I found a gray hair in my EYEBROW (which I promptly plucked, because, hello gray eyebrow hairs and chasing toddlers don't go together)
This new discovery made me re-count the gray hairs in my part.

TWELVE.

GASP!  

When did this happen? I'm willing to bet half are child-caused and the other half are school related. 

Ms. Clairol and I need to have a serious discussion.
I'm fine with being mature but I am NOT OK with gray eyebrows.
Back to my birthday, or lack thereof.
This year the presents are kinda boring.
The Hubs got me prescription sunglasses. I'd say I need these because I'm old, but I've worn glasses since 3rd grade. I REALLY need these because my current sunglasses are SO last decade...and three prescriptions old. I get headaches switching back and forth. Eves Saint Laurent frames, normally $250, but I got them for $18, because I'm awesome like that. And they were discontinued. :)
We were going to try cross country skiing this week, but alas! Time, money and motivation were all in seriously short supply over the weekend. Instead, I'm going to take a math final for my birthday.
Hooray.

Thanksgiving

It's just not a family gathering until someone cries. Luckily, this Thanksgiving totally qualified.

Also, nearly everyone ended up all upset at some point (and by nearly every one I mean at least two of us) because, hello, it's a family of girls. Opinionated, stubborn girls. Good times!

Seriously though, I love my family. This was the first year I got to be in control of the kitchen. <cue evil laughter> The mashed potatoes were too salty, the cranberry relish languished, forgotten, in the back of the fridge, but the bird. Oh the bird was MAG-NIF-I-CENT. My goodness. From now on I will always, ALWAYS brine the bird. I've had turkey roasted, deep pitted and fried. My friends, I'm here to testify that brining is the only way to go when it comes to turkey. Well, unless you are in Disneyland, in which case I highly recommend the fried turkey legs, but skip the churros. Just get in your car and zip down to Costco. $7 cheaper, bigger, and dare I say, tastier.
If you DO happen to find yourself in Disneyland, do your inner gastronomic explorer a favor and visit the French Quarter. Pick up a Monte Cristo sandwich. I'm not normally a proponent of fried food. Or salty nitrate soaked fried food. This sandwich is totally the exception.
Ohhhh. Chocolate-pecan-pie-induced sugar rush is making my ADD go into hyper drive. Sorry about that.
Back to your regularly scheduled Thanksgiving report....
After dinner we bundled up the kids in snow suits and took our 20 minute walk around the block. Some day, when I get over being lazy, I'll post the picture of Zsa Zsa in her snow suit. She looks like a cross between the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man and the little brother from A Christmas Story.
Then we all walked the mile to the movie theater and availed ourselves of Disney's new flick: Tangled. It's cute. Save your $30 bucks ( or however much it costs to take the fam to a show these days) and just buy it when in comes out on DVD. :)
One of my sisters made my mom an early Christmas present of pipes cut to varying lengths that, when struck, create a bell-like tone. After pie we all gathered round the one song book and played with the new toy. It was pretty fun, except I don't think The Boy really caught the vision of only playing his note when it was his turn. he pretty much just banged the B flat for the entire song.
All in all the meal was a success, which means *I* was a success. So this was a good day, crying bits excepted.