Zoo Lights

For Christmas, our family got taken to the Hogle Zoo Lights! The children were very excited to see the animals, and the zoo lights were very impressive. The weather played nice, and we enjoyed ourselves (staying warm with lots of hot cocoa/cider). Unfortunately the pictures did not turn out very well. Here are three of the best.

Santa Statements

At a recent party, our children decided they were experts on Santa, we forgot the funniest lines, but here are a couple:

"Santa could use penguins if he wanted to." -Tim

"Fireman Santa gives candy!" - Tim

"Santa is the guy who is kind. He gives everyone gifts." -Maggie

Projects

I've been busy through the summer with several Crochet projects. Much of it has been learning as I go but here are two of the big afghans I made. I have just one more I'm working on then maybe I'll take a break from the hook for a while. Or maybe I'll do one more for the baby coming 7 weeks after Christmas. We'll see. I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of creating and seeing the end results.


From the Musical Wicked


The logo for Geocaching.

Insert your own caption in comments

Oh, and with the .308 sniper rifle, at 120 yards, Gary missed dead center by 10 mm. Richard by 12mm. David by a couple inches (needed to wear glasses). With the handguns, Gary missed 90% of his shots a foot low... which could be worse than death...

Worth the watch.

3 Minutes, 50 seconds, none wasted

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=G44NCvNDLfc

A New Recipe

Have you ever had Hershey's version of the candy corn? David actually liked them. Real candy corns? No thank you for him.

In preparing for Maggie's class party, I found great ideas on Hershey's website, including a "Candy Corn Pudding Parfait" (http://www.hersheys.com/trickortreats/treats/recipe.asp?id=8469). We finally had a chance to make it Halloween morning.

Here, Ami has finished peeling wrappers off all the candy. It was a tough project with the instruction to not eat them. She got the first one to her mouth but after a reminder to just peel, not eat, she did great and no more were slobbered on.


Maggie's responsibility was to wash the parfait and dessert containers after they came out of basement hiding. She had a great time. And she is sure to show off her toothless grin every chance she gets.


Once the pudding was mixed and partially divided, Tim stirred in the candy corns. (Note the new Spider man clothes. They were his apparel as often as he could get away with it for 3 days).



We had a couple spare candy corns after letting the kids eat one so I grated them down and sprinkled it on top. It was a nice touch.

Just a side note, be sure the pudding completely cools before feasting. It tastes much, much, MUCH better when cold:-).

Hallowhine Part II: Payback

I am being haunted by David's mad cooking skills...

After (finally) making a really, really good noodle soup (hey not everyone had David's mom to teach them how to cook) we sat down for dinner. After the first bite Maggie exclaimed:

"Hey! *chew chew*

"This is really good!" *Chew, swallow*

"Dad, did you help make it or something?"

David laughed and snorted a noodle.

I guess that's payback for the trick or treating comment last Saturday.

P.S. He did not help. I did do it on my own. And he loved it. We're used to leftovers. None on this meal. Guess he gets plain bread for lunch.

Hallowhine

After crapping out after two hours of trick-or-treating with David, the following conversation occurred:

"I wish Mom would have taken us trick-or-treating."

"Why?"

"You made us walk, Mom would have taken us on the bike, and that way we would not have to go up to the doors, Mom would get the candy for us."

"That's not how it works Maggie. You do not use bikes for trick-or-treating."

"It still would have been nicer to go with Mom, I miss her."

"Whatever. It's time for bed."

Below are this year's pumpkins and the home-sewn witch outfits (following the tradition of matching the pumpkins to the kid's costumes):