halloweening with the littles

some shareable ideas we had fun with today in D's little school:

Candy Corn Cookies

How-To:

1. Make your favorite sugar cookie recipe. 
2. Divide the dough into three equal portions.  One portion stays white, color one portion orange, and melt 1-2 squares of unsweetened chocolate to mix with one portion to make it chocolate. 
3. Line small bread loaf pans with parchment or waxed paper.  Fill with chocolate, then orange, then white dough.  My recipe (which is fairly large) filled 3 mini loaf pans.
4. Place dough in freezer for about 20 minutes.
5. Remove from freezer and from bread pans.  Then slice to desired cookie thickness (it will vary with your sugar cookie recipe, but I found that my cookies spread more than I liked unless I kept them about the thickness of this picture). 
6. Cut dough slab into triangles (I had little vultures gobbling up the excess from the edges). 
7. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes (or according to the directions of your own recipe). 

Ghost Bag

I'm all about keeping control when it comes to the combo of paint & kids (despite Kay's more fun example), so I lifted each child (one at a time) to sit by the kitchen sink, painted white on the bottom of their foot, stamped it onto the bag, then swiveled said foot straight into the sink for washing.  It worked well and they reveled in the tickly nature of the task.  And the eye gluing.  There was much consternation in the choosing of eyes.

I also loved these ideas:

Dip Nutter Butter cookies into white chocolate, then make eyes & spooky mouth with dark chocolate...so simple & cute.  The idea comes from KidCuisine.

Jim thought these owls looked creepy, but I loved them (and I guess creepy is the point!).  Kudos to The Custom Cakery for such originality.

And I couldn't find who to give credit to for this one, but loved these stacked sugar cookie pumpkins.  I'm not sure who would need to eat a six-stack of sweetness, but they are so unique & well-done.

spt: 100 list

I missed last week, so here’s a double post…

14. I love office supplies.

Still true. It gives me great joy to have staples, push-pins, a variety of envelopes, file folders, even empty binders on hand. Just in case. And I’m not sure it falls precisely under the definition of office supplies, but it’s no small secret amongst those who know me well that I’m desperately attached to my laminator. As in, it just might make the short list of things I’d rush to retrieve from a burning building. Having the ability to laminate at a moment’s notice brings endless delight. It makes paper, words, a picture last forever.

21. My bed is never made.

I’m having an angry day (please tell me that you have them too!). And when this item popped up as 21 on my list, I wanted to protest. Because at this precise moment my bed looks like this:

Let me point out some gruesome details. First, those pillows are caseless (and have been since the end of last week). Where are the cases?  In a stack of laundry still awaiting my attention.  It's an all-around sorry situation.  And, for clarification, the black spot in the middle is a ponytailer. And, yes,  I do realize that the fitted sheet is inching its way off the mattress.

This whole scenario would not be so frustrating had I not declared myself a changed woman eight short months ago.  I boldly eschewed my bad bed attitude last February. Remembering this, I went off to search for that post this afternoon, to read my very own "hallelujah, changed forever" words with spite. Because I’m not changed forever. And it hardly matters that I truly meant it at the time.  Because the improvement of now making my bed 50% of the time is still a solid F in nearly any grading system.

Yet.  I do love a tidy room.  With a love that wrestles deep-seated and long-held issues (of both cleaning & avoidance).

Issues are hard to reckon with on an Angry day.

Or any day.

Which leads me back to #7.  

Because I really like to laminate.

And now I'll have this "clean bed" picture for always.  Not an A+, but enough (for now!) to assuage some afternoon anger.

JOY school

We do a little joy school with friends in the neighborhood.  This is my week and I called Kay (Jim's mom) to ask for craft help.  Because she's a kids' craft pro...because it would be D's dream come true...

And because I have the built-in best thank you in the world:these little arms around the neck are plain, pure magic.

almost as good as his dad's.

thank you Kay for the possibility of both (and for an hour and a half of craftiness, of course).

fall break: day five

Imagine you are a small boy.  It's Friday, late morning, and your dad has taken the day off work.  A giant dump truck appears on your street, stopping directly in front of YOUR house.  Your parents scurry you out of the way as the truck "beep beep"'s its way into your driveway, and then drops an enormous pile of dirt.  Brother beats you to the top, and by the time you catch up he reaches to wrestle you down the dirt. THIS is the high life.

One huge pile of dirt from Dad outdoes an entire week of planned fun from Mom.  Irrevocably confirming Papa's longheld theory about the best toy in the world.  I'm definitely a believer.

Tomorrow's agenda:  500 wheelbarrow loads to the backyard.  And lots of cursing.  The little boys may be excited about the pile, but the big boy only sees work.

The big girl?  Well, she sees a garden.  

Special thanks to SDC for dirt.  Super special thanks to Jim for labor.  As he was carving away at the pile tonight, I yelled out a "do you love me?", half expecting him to simply flip me off (just keeping it real).  He didn't smile, but did reply with:  "a ton"...then smartly corrected himself:  "many yards".  Because that's how you measure dirt.  And I'm proud to be an Eight Yard Wife. 

fall break: day four

today's destination:  Schnepf Farms

where there were enough pumpkins to make it look like October, but too much heat to feel like Fall.  I'm not blaming the destination..just the fickle weather.  Because we have had some enviable weather of late.  But not today.  Luckily, the day's company more than made up for the uncomfortable heat. 

I can hardly believe I haven't dedicated a post to the subject yet, but I LOVE having Kelly live here.  Times have definitely changed since our inseparable college days.  The days of ditching classes were far easier than the possibility of ditching children so our excursions are always cut short by school pick up times.  Even so, just being able to casually get together is a treat.  And I've wanted these littles to become friends ever since...well, forever really.  

A few pictures from the day: