Pumpkin Bites

If you're looking for a new yummy treat to serve during the holidays, I highly recommend pumpkin pie bites! I found the recipe at Bakerella last week and made the little treats for a church gathering on Sunday. My family LOVED these...even Emily who is my picky child! My pumpkin bites looked different than Bakerella's as I used a flower cookie cutter instead of a pumpkin shape. The family thought the mini pies were adorable because the flower shape cutter gave the crust a little scalloped edge. I was also able to fill every hole in the muffin tin since I didn't have to worry about a "pumpkin stem" on the crust.
I would post a picture of our little pies but unfortunately, they didn't last long enough. Trust me though - make these and they will be eaten! ;-) Oh and you can even serve them warm (they just melt in your mouth!). Now...get thee to Bakerella and start baking! :-)

His "Good" Side

Just thought I'd post a pic of Max's "good side". :-) The boy thought it was SO much fun to slide head-first off the chair and get stuck between the chair and ottoman.

It wasn't long before he discovered it was even MORE fun to slide backwards off the ottoman. It's a good thing he has such a hard head!

Flu Shots

Our schools gave free shots for both the H1N1 and seasonal flu, so we took advantage of the offer (just wish they had done this before Emily and I got the flu!). Claire wasn't very happy when she came home last week after her shots though. Apparently, they ran out of the nasal mist, so she had to have TWO shots, and THIS one hurt the most! I told her I would take a pic of her battle scar and put it in her scrapbook, so she was willing to pose for me. :-)

Pool - Week 2

Our girls were SO excited at the end of week #2...the 'cement pond' was finally looking like a pool. The water started going in on Friday, and the girls just HAD to try it out when they came home from school. It was a bit cold, but they didn't seem to mind much....well, only for a little wading in the shallow end.

The squirrels decided to check out the pool too....

I like Pink!

Daddy's biggest fear has happened....Max likes pink! LOL We have a rug near the garage door where the girls in our house drop our shoes when we come home. (Haven't managed to train the boys yet - doubt we ever will.) Last week, Max perused the pile of shoes for awhile and then chose a favorite....the pink ones! He wanted to wear these shoes constantly. No matter which room I went to, I could hear Max "clomping" after me in his pretty pink shoes. They caused quite a few falls and ouchies, but Max didn't seem to mind much. He looks pretty good in pink!

Pool - Week 1

I think we've gone too far to turn back now. Our front yard is torn up from the dump trucks and cement trucks plowing through...and we also have a big hole in the back yard. Yes, maybe a little too late to turn back now. Since I was sick with the flu, I took the photo from inside - this is the view from our formal living room window.
Amazed at how quickly it's taking shape....

Deep End

What are these silly kids doing? Swimming in the deep end of course!

We've talked about putting in a pool for several years, and we finally took the plunge (pun intended). The girls are "swimming" where the deep end will be. This is what our yard looked like at the beginning of the week before the digging began. We had to remove one tree (where the corner of the pool will be). And yes, we will be fighting the leaves every year.

Honor Society

So proud of our girl.

Earlier this week, Emily was inducted into the National Jr. Honor Society at her school. It was a formal event, so she had to wear a dress (thank goodness she's changed her mind about wearing dresses!). When I was in school ("back in the old days" according to the kids!), we were automatically put into the honor society if we had really good grades. Not so anymore. Emily had to fill out a 4 page application, and get signatures from former teachers, activity sponsors, etc. - quite an ordeal. There were only 41 students (out of the 1,000 at her school) who made the Honor Society this year, so this is truly an accomplishment for her.

October Round-up

Someone please stop this train...I want to get off! Life is moving WAY too fast for me. I can't believe that October is gone. I think I missed a couple of weeks - I'm sure they're around here somewhere! October was a hard month for us. Emily first had strep, then the flu so she missed quite a bit of school. Claire then became ill and missed several days. Just when I thought everyone was good, *I* became sick too...the flu...hooray! Max now has a cough and runny nose, but I think it's only allergies. Whew!

I missed posting during most of the month, so I'm just doing a recap of some things I missed (& can still remember! LOL).

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Allyson's orchestra teacher hasn't allowed the class to use their bows until recently. Allyson was so proud to show us how much she has learned.

The 3rd grade performance at school this year was "I Have a Dream". The students were asked to dress in clothing that represented their ancestry. The music teacher suggested that Claire wear one of her Chinese dresses, and Claire was more than happy to oblige. Claire was so happy that all of the other little girls just LOVED her dress. Even some of the boys told her how pretty she was...they even went so far to ask what it was made from. All was well until Claire told them she thought it was silk...that's when the boys went "Ewwww, that's worms!" LOL Kids are SO funny! When it came time for the program, our hearts filled with pride as our little girlie opened the show with her speaking part.

Now, let's zoom all the way to the end of the month for Halloween. As usual, we went to daddy's office for trick-or-treating (I don't think our kids have EVER gone door to door for candy). The office staff goes all out for Halloween. They have a competition for best costumes and office decorations. I'm always amazed at their creativity. These are just a few of the themes/costumes from this year:

Looney Tunes Characters

The Beatles

Yosemite Sam (anyone else remember him?)

Wylie Coyote

DH's group - the doctors

Our kiddos dressed as a doctor (Emily), nurse (Ally), Raggedy Ann (Claire), and a spider (Max).

And finally, our display for our church's trunk-or-treat event. Since dh had to dress as a doctor at work, we decided to go with a hospital theme for our car. I painted a simple backdrop of medical staff and then pasted pics of our church staff onto that (with the staff's permission of course). We hung white sheets from the sides of the van and put red crosses on it. Then we just used various medical items from around the house (cotton balls, peroxide, alcohol, etc.). We were blessed to win the grand prize for decorated cars!