happy halloween!

Carving punkins the night before:

The proud sculptor (the winking one is my family tradition):

A cool punkin picture:

Soren wanted the talking "tombstone" (behind the punkins) from Nana in the picture:

Dressed up for a party on Wednesday night (a friend made Anna Clara's bear costume and Mommy made Soren's):

Dressed up for trick or treating! (A neighbor was dying to see AC in the lion costume -- so of course I had to oblige!)

With the ghost necklace lit up:

Goofing around waiting for daddy to come home:

...and waiting....

...and waiting....

...and waiting....(check out AC's curls in the mane)

...and off they go!

The Halloween Booty!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

we be jammin'

Last week my "Project of the Week" was turning grapes into jelly and juice. The four of us picked two boxes worth of grapes at a friend's vineyard, and then the real work began....

Here are the sweet delights before their transformation:


My wonderful wee helpers are picking the grapes from the stems:



While working so diligently, Soren said, "Mommy, this is a LOT of work just to get a drink!"

Here is the "processing phase" of straining the cooked grapes through cheese cloth for the incredibly delicious jelly. I think it took about a week for the purple to leave my fingernails...and I am still finding juice splatters on my kitchen cabinets.


The finished products! With Soren expressing exactly how I felt...very tired of canning. But boy do I have some YUMMY jelly and juice to enjoy -- and share!!



A huge shout out of thanks to my friends for sharing their grape harvest!!

what we do

Not that you asked, but below are a few things that keep us all occupied on a daily basis:

~ The man is obsessed.



Note the perfectly manicured lawn and garden:

The fruits (and veggies) of his obsession:










~ My little man leads and guides her in all things....


and she loves every minute of it....

He also loves to draw and draw and draw and draw....



~ She plays with her furry friend...constantly....




And....she put Vaseline all over her (and the carpet...) this past Sunday. I don't know what look the budding hairdresser was goin' for, but JoiVie sure didn't seem happy with it (nor did I, for that matter -- the stuff does not come out of dog hair!).

When not making mischief with her greasy friend, she "reads" -- hopefully some day soon she will learn to put the books back....


~ I COOK, CLEAN, CREATE, FIX, SOOTHE, COMMAND, PHOTOGRAPH, TEACH, SING, DANCE, REPRIMAND, LAUGH, HUG, KISS, SNUGGLE....
More often than not, I am in the kitchen cookin' something up. My next blog will show last weeks' Big Project.

googly eyes

A friend recently gave me some glass eyes to put in food -- knowing all too well that I would do just that any chance I could get.... Well, I put them in the rice crispy treats I made last week and after eating the treats, Jim did some funny tricks..... We were all laughing so dang hard it was hard to keep the eyes in.







You couldn't really see the eyeballs in the crispy treats, so I made jello....

Thank you to my oh so thoughtful friend for providing us with a much needed evening of goofiness and laughter!