Halloween night

Life has been crazy busy in our house during the month of October, so we hadn't gotten around to carving pumpkins yet. With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, it worked out perfectly for us to do it the afternoon of Halloween. So we turned on Nightmare Before Christmas, got out the carving tools, and got to work. The only problem was that all the stores were out of pumpkins, except these 3 "ornamental" pumpkins. Oh well, it gave them character!

We ended up with Pikachu, Jack Skellington, and a funny witch.

We then had a light snack, and got in our costumes. D had switched from Misty from Pokemon, to a much more weather appropriate Pikachu costume. The first 15 min of trick or treating was slightly rainy. The temps had dropped the night before, but were not too bad. We just made sure to wear layers, and grabbed umbrellas. Luckily the rain pretty much stopped until the last 10 minutes of trick or treating. We headed to the same neighborhood that we have gone too for the last few years. It really is the best, most of the houses are home and close together. Most years the neighborhood is packed, but this year it just didn't seem as busy. My kids were determined, and made it almost the entire 2 hours!

And of course as soon as we got home, while I was making the pizza, they both had to dump all the candy out and sort it. Both were excited that this was their biggest haul ever.

Pumpkin Carving 2013

Our entire family LOVES carving pumpkins! We have done it every single year since Adam and I met. Not only have we taught our children how to do it, but we also taught our exchange students how to years ago.

We have each of the kids draw a few options on paper before they get going on the actual pumpkin. Once they have the design they like best, they draw them on the pumpkin using a black Sharpie marker (or as the kids call them "Mommy markers").

Adam and I are made to cut the top off the pumpkin and scoop out the "guts". Honestly for scooping we have found that a metal soup spoon works the best. All the innards go into a big bowl where we can later roast the seeds. (We like leaving a little of the flesh on the seeds while roasting, they turn out the best that way!)

We then give the kids the Pampered Chef kid safe knives to carve out the face shapes. These are the best for the job! We don't have to worry about the kids accidentally cutting themselves and they saw through the pumpkin with ease.

D's pumpkin

My pumpkin

L's pumpkin

2011
2010
2009

Halloween Banner

Welcome to Day 3 of the Hoosier Horror Blog Hop! I hope you are enjoying these posts as much as I have enjoyed getting them ready for you all. This post was inspired by a banner that Organize Your Stuff Now did last year.  I had pinned it last year with all intentions of doing it, but time got away from me. This year, I had a quiet morning to myself, and motivation with this blog hop, to get it done. Originally I had intended on making this day's post about our fall bucket list, but realized that I did the exact same post already last year. Oops!

This was a fun craft for mommy, but the kids could easily do this one as well. In fact, as soon as the kids came home from school, they noticed it right away. D even was sad when I didn't have her do the craft, so it looks like I may have 2 of each of these by the end of the week.

Supplies needed:
ruler
pencil
scissors
glue stick
green, white, black, orange, and brown construction paper
markers (I used Sharpies)

I first decided which characters I wanted to make. I knew that I had to have a ghost, Frankenstein's monster, and a bat. The original post had made these as triangles, but I liked the rectangle better. I made mine 5"x7". There really are not any other instructions other than cutting out the shapes you would like for each rectangle, and gluing them all together. For now, I just used a small bit of masking tape on the back of each character and taped them directly to my "mantle" shelf. I think of the next week, I will transfer them to some yarn and string it up under the shelf. I may add more as the month goes on, we shall see.

Frank and Pumpkin

Upside down Bat, and Candy Corn

Ghost

The whole crew on the shelf

Frank and Pumpkins

If you couldn't tell, the kids and I love to do crafts. (Well, Adam does too)  And right now there are so many fun things to do, there just isn't enough time to do them all.  We started a count down to halloween, where we do something fun each night.  Last night we did crafts.  We made a pumpkin patch with orange bingo stampers, and footprint Frankenstein monsters.  The Monsters were made by painting the bottom of the foot (or hand) green, and then the toes (or fingers) black.  Stamp onto a piece of white paper, and let dry.  We let ours dry overnight.  Then this morning we used markers to finish the faces up.  The kids loved doing this.  Anytime they can paint their hands or feet, they are in.  We made sure to do this on the kitchen floor and I had wet wipes or a wet towel at the ready to wipe them down right away.  We really didn't have a mess at all!  I'll hang the pictures up in the living room and kitchen to help with the decorations!  Next week we are doing a HUGE craft day for the mom's group, and I will be sure to post pictures and instructions on all of those craft as well.

 L's pumpkin patch

 D's pumpkin patch

 Adam's, his is a little fancier then the others

 Adam and I did our hands.  Gee can you guess which one is Adam's?

 The kids frank'n'feet

 The paint said it was washable.  I don't think so.

 The kids finished monsters.  L's in on the top and D's is on the bottom.

My Frank'n'hand

Cookie of the Week!-Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

Can you tell where Adam grabbed a cookie of the plate?

So this week's cookie is from by dear friend Maryjane! No she didn't create this recipe, but she did post it on my facebook page and brought it to my attention. And for that, a big thank you! These are terrific! You really should check out Maryjane's blog too. She does tons of amazing things over there. And I'm really excited to say that next weekend I get to go visit her for the weekend, I will be kid free, and driving a rental car! Hurray for a mini mommy vacation! And now back to the cookies!

These are from Martha Stewart again. I sometimes can't stand the lady, but damn it if she has some great ideas. Here is a link to the recipe, but I will also post it below to make things easier for you.

• FOR THE COOKIES
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (14 ounces)
• 3/4 cup evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• FOR THE ICING
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon evaporated milk,
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Make cookies: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low. Add pumpkin, evaporated milk, and vanilla; mix until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; mix until combined.
3. Transfer 1 1/2 cups batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip (such as Ateco #806). Pipe 1 1/2-inch rounds onto parchment-lined baking sheets, (I used my trusty old ice cream scoop that I use for everything! It worked fantastically!) spacing 1 inch apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until tops spring back, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.
4. Make icing: Put confectioners' sugar in a large bowl; set aside. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling pan occasionally, until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Immediately add butter to confectioners' sugar, scraping any browned bits from sides and bottom of pan. Add evaporated milk and vanilla; stir until smooth. Spread about 1 teaspoon icing onto each cookie. If icing stiffens, stir in more evaporated milk, a little at a time. Cookies can be stored in single layers in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Halloween Goodies

This last week has been jam packed with Halloween festivities for the kids. It started with a mom's group Halloween party on Saturday. I made cupcakes. Half were decorated as pumpkins and the other half as bats. I had gotten the idea from this book, and tried my hardest to make them look like the ones in there. I got close, not exactly the same, but I think close. The bat wings were a bit too large and heavy, they pulled the tops off the cupcakes. But you live and learn right? Then Monday we had spooky cupcake decorating with the kids. Basically it was a mess of frosting, candy, and sanding sugar, but the kids had a blast! Then today I hosted a candy corn day at the library. I made triangle sugar cookies, and topped them with royal icing. I was going to use the candy corn cookies as my cookie of the week, but have something else up my sleeve. I was very happy with how they all turned out and will give you the recipe for the cookies and royal icing that I made.

Candy Corn cookies

The bats before the wings

Pumpkins (Tootsie Rolls used as the stem)

Bat with wings (the wings were melted candy melts)

Cut out sugar cookies:


12 tbsp. ( 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg yolk
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Using mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl as needed. Add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in egg yolk, and vanilla, and then flour and salt. Scrape dough onto a piece of wax paper, pat into a disc, and cover with another piece of wax. Roll out dough to 1/4" thick. Cut out with cookie cutters, and then place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until golden brown on the bottom and light golden on edges. (about 15 min) Let cool 5 min, and then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.


Royal Icing:
(combined from the joyofbaking.com and Alton Brown recipes)

2 large egg whites

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

1 tsp. vanilla extract

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the egg whites with the lemon juice. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use. I put them in plastic baggies and piped it onto the cookie.

Apple and Pumpkin picking

This morning we took the kids apple and pumpkin picking at this really neat farm in LaPorte. Garwood Farms is so cool. They have a u-pick section were you can get apples, pumpkins, raspberries, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. And then they have an indoor market with tons of fresh produce, amish noodles, jams, gelatto, fresh meat, and fresh baked goods. I can't wait to go back! We told L and D that we were going and that was all they could talk about the whole way there! It only took about 30 min to get there, and now that we know where it is we will totally be going there more often. They had tractors, and horse drawn wagons that take you into the fields. L was so excited that he ran the whole way to the pumpkin patch and didn't slow down. There was one point where he took off into the orchard and we couldn't find him. That was super scary! He was just too happy. We put D in the umbrella stroller to make it easier, and L, well all we had to do was give him an apple and he stayed put. The kids had a blast, and I think Adam and I did too. I have wanted to go apple picking for a super long time! Now we have 2 medium size pumpkins, and 1 bushel full of apples. Looks like I'll be making apple butter, maybe a pie, and tons of applesauce! Hurray! I love fall!!!


Adam and the kids riding on the horse drawn wagon taking us into the fields.

Miss D enjoying her fuji apple!

Mommy and L picking apples!

L showing us that he found the perfect pumpkin

He claimed his!

Mommy and the babies

Daddy, L and D getting excited about the tractor