Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween - California style

Halloween Pre-Party

Yesterday, the kiddos and I went to a Halloween party playdate. There was pumpkin carving, hot cocoa, apple cider, treats, they played games like hot potato, hide & seek, bean bag toss,
and feed the animals,
and had a fun time playing with friends. This was a great way to get them all hyped up for Halloween tomorrow…oh, and let Mom & Dad get some well earned sleep. When it comes to putting the kids to bed easily – playdates ROCK!

Patriotism

I came across some quotes on patriotism that I found particularly thought provoking today and thought I would share them:

The government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. ~Mark Twain

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. ~Theodore Roosevelt

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. ~Mark Twain

If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin. ~Samuel Adams

I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice. ~Fredrich August von Hayek, Nobel Laureate of Economic Sciences 1974 (you know, back when they gave them for doing something of value)

Our Budding Barber

Daddy & our little man needed their heads shaved and who better to do it than our 3-year-old...okay, probably lots of people, but none of them would have appreciated the opportunity nearly as much. Lucky for Daddy, Mommy was there to clean up the job once his daughter was done with him!

Ooey Gooey Fun

The kids relished their pumpkin carving experience this year. Both picked out their own faces and our oldest even helped to carve hers (thanks to a kid-friendly carver). Both had silly faces when they took their first handful of pumpkin guts but were excited to get to clean out their own jack-o-lanterns. Daddy did a great job helping them out.The final products were great and they were so excited about their masterpieces that it was all I could do to get the kiddos back in the house once they were lit.

Enjoying Fall

The colors in the trees around here are just amazing right now. Here's a shot of what the lake looks like on our walks:
We were so inspired by the nice weather and beautiful scenery that we drove the jeep out into the forest a few days ago in the evening for a small hike and took the little barbecue to make tacos when we got back to the car. It was kind of a campfire, without the fire (which we're not allowed to make here right now). Apparently our little guy wasn't as impressed by the scenery as we were. He took the opportunity to sleep in the backpack the whole time :)

Take a Hike

The kids requested last week that we go for a walk in the forest and along the way each picked out a "walking stick". My little girl's stick was barely tall enough to reach her waistline and my little man's stick was twice his height. I felt like I was in a remake of "The Three Bears". Then my little acrobat decided that she would show off her balancing skills. I'm not sure if it was our recent trip to the circus that inspired her or if she was showing off for her little brother but who needs fancy gymnastics classes when we have everything we need right here?

What to Make

The fall season always gets me in the mood for baking. This is good for the smell of my house but not so much for my waistline! Here's a really simple tart recipe that you can use to make mini-tarts in a mini muffin pan or spread out in a large tart pan. Either way you can fill it with whatever you wish (I suggest either pudding or apples with crumble topping).

Start with a cube of butter, add about 1/2 (3 oz) a cube cream cheese and a cup of flour. Mix, refrigerate for an hour, press into the pan and bake at 45o until lightly browned. This is a very versatile recipe that I got with my pampered chef mini muffin pan and have used to make yummy bite sized apple tarts - perfect for a fall dessert.

Almost a TEEN!

Happy 12th Birthday to my sweet niece, Meg. Soak it in honey, because next year you'll be a teen and then expected to grow up and all that nasty stuff. Take advantage of being a "kid" as long as possible. I love you very much.

Dress Rehearsal

The kids have been admiring their costumes in the closet for quite some time now, so last week I let them do a little dress rehearsal of their outfits, you know, just to make sure they fit right of course!

My little man will be Clifford, the big red dog (thanks M for the hand-me-down):And my little princess is going to be...well, ....a princess. Cinderella to be specific:
It looks like the costumes fit!

Why buy the ___ when the ___ is free?

No, not milk & cows....I'm talking about green onions! I'm sure you read my post from yesterday and know by now that I grow my own green onions (aka chives), but did you know that you can do it for super cheap and SUPER easy? Here's what you do:

Buy a bunch of green onions from your local grocery store (stay with me here), use what you want of the tops for potatoes or salads or whatever and then when all that is left is about an inch of green above the bulb, bury it somewhere so that the greens are all that stick up from the ground. Water regularly. As anyone who knows me already knows, I HATE to water things and in fact, am worthless without my sprinkler system (with the few exceptions of plants on my deck that stare at me every morning). So I just put my chive bulbs in a small planter and plopped it down in the middle of my vinca (which is already on sprinkler timers) and VOILA! I bought ONE bunch of chives last spring and have not had to buy another since. They grow back super fast so you always have a plentiful supply and we should know because we use them on everything. I just go out and harvest some with scizzors any time a recipe calls for them and it regrows itself for the next recipe. Why buy chives when the ones in your garden are free?

What to Make

I'm always looking for a new way to make chicken and this time I found it in the most unexpected place: My husband.

We were gone for a week to Oregon and he was forced to fend for himself for dinner and to my surprise, he went online and searched for chicken marinade recipes and made the following one from things we usually already have around the house(so easy a daddy could do it - haha):

Mix together sliced ginger (he used powdered), minced garlic (we have it jarred), the juice of one lemon (we keep it in a bottle), brown sugar (he used the last of the bag and didn't tell me), olive oil (he used the last of my bottle & didn't tell me), soy sauce (he used the last of the bottle and didn't tell me) and sliced green onion (from my garden - YAY!). Just mix all of that together and let it sit on the chicken for about 4 hours or overnight then grill.

So when I made it the week we got back, because he claimed it was the "best chicken I ever had", I had to go out and buy all of the ingredients because we were out of brown sugar, soy sauce, olive oil, fresh garlic, and fresh lemons, but I have to say, it really was spectacular. I chopped up some vegis and skewered it with the chicken for some shish-ka-bobs that were uber-yum.

Cabo Wabo

WOOO HOOO!

I can't wait! Looking forward to having my "TOES" in the sand!

Spooktacular Dancing

The kids got a singing witch a couple of years ago for Halloween and it has become an annual event that when we take her out of storage to decorate for the season, the rest of the day (read: week) is spent listening to "Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun". Although my little man wasn't quite sure about this witch, he decided that she was nice and offered her his pumpkin (however fleetingly). This year my little ballerina was in rare form:

Falling all around us

Just before we left last month, the kids, hubby and I went for a walk in the neighboring national forest. Unfortunately, we wound up leaving shortly thereafter and I never got a chance to post the pictures. So here goes:

Just around the Bend

We spent several days while we were up North, visiting with friends and tromping around in our old stomping ground. While we were there, we stayed in a Yurt the first night, then in a cabin the other nights. Both were new experiences for all of us.

The highlight for me was the hike we took out the the spot where my sweetheart proposed to me. To mark the spot by the river, he took a huge rock and shoved it down into a split tree. Over the last seven years, the tree has grown around the rock and has, in fact, crushed it in half. The rock is so stuck now that there is no way that it will ever come out without chopping all or part of the tree down. What an amazing reminder.

The highlight for our little guy was the first time he peed, standing up, in the forest. I am sure it was a much more exciting experience than using the training toilet that mommy has for him at home.

Here's photos of some of our highlights:

So much for staying home!

Well, I thought we'd try to stay home until Halloween, but as usual, fate had other plans for us. Great-Grandma & Grandpa Tanyon have been planning on going out to Oceanside to camp in their RV for a while now and finally got time this weekend to go out. Well, we had promised to go out and visit them when they went, so Saturday morning bright and early we headed to the train station and spent the weekend with them, playing in the sand. The kids had a great time and it was a nice relaxing break for hubby and I as well.
Our little darling girl said that her favorite part of the weekend was playing with Great-Grandma in the waves (which apparently, she is no longer afraid of) but both our little guy's and my favorite part of the weekend was building sandcastles and getting dirty. I have to say though, if I had gotten as dirty as he did, it probably wouldn't have been my favorite part anymore.

Where've We BEEN?

I know you're wondering why in the world it's been so long since I've posted. Well, we have a very good reason. On September 21 my grandmother's husband of 30 years passed away. The very next day we headed north in the minivan to be there for grandma. It took more than 26 hours for us to get there, but it was entirely worth the drive to see how grandma's eyes lit up when she saw us. I could tell she was having a hard time of things and it was nice to be able to take her mind off of things, if only for a little while. We got to see here four days while we were up there so that was fun.Another unexpected advantage was that I got to see my first military funeral (her husband was a Lieutenant in the Navy). The service was very moving and included the flag ceremony & presentation and the playing of taps on the bugle. I went to thank the military men after the ceremony but was so touched that of the whole speech I had prepared all I could get out was a little sniffle and "thanks". To make things even more impressive, the bugle player, as he shook my hand, said "Oh ma'am, you have no idea. It is my honor." What an incredible bunch of guys. I have so much admiration for those serving in the military.
But we are home now, hopefully for a while, and I'll try to catch up on my posts.

Bump Set Spike!

My oldest niece is learning to play basketball and getting used to making her kneepads meet wood. She's got all of the spunk you'd expect from a girl her age and she shows lots of potential play varsity when she gets into high school.

Here's a shot of her follow-through after whaling on the ball to serve it (they aren't allowed to underhand it anymore so they're all learning to serve overhand):Here she is in action, diving and to return a serve:Of course, at this age, the best reward for their win is getting to load up on insanity-invoking candy after the game:

What to Make

Since Fall is just around the corner, I thought a yummy pumpkin spice bread would set the mood for the upcoming season. Now, when I call it "bread", I'm not sure it fits the exact definition of bread, but whatever it is, it's good. I mostly got this recipe from a friend (thanks SG) but then adjusted it to fit what I have in my pantry. It is SUPER SIMPLE. You need a can (29 oz) of smashed pumpkin, two cake mixes (I used one spice & one chocolate), 2/3 cup of water and a few handfulls of dried fruit (I used blueberries). Mix all four things together and bake at 375 until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. This recipe makes a BIG batch (4 mini loafs and two trays of mini muffins), but it also freezes well so I just tossed all the loafs into the freezer to eat in October....or probably sooner since they're so good.

I was told that you could frost them for those with a sweet tooth (which I have), but my kiddos gobble them up just as they are out of the oven, as does my husband, as do I. The chocolate makes it taste like you're totally cheating when really you're getting loads of good stuff in them.

Where Does the Time Go?

Not only has my little man learned to ride his tricycle, but recently, while camping, I was witness to the following series of events (click on it and it's clearer):
She's getting SO big.

Remember

I watched this first one with my little girl this morning and it still brings tears to my eyes.

6 Year Anniversary

Another Good Reminder

A Visit with Mr Cheese

To beat the heat, we recently enjoyed a lunch at the air conditioned home of Mr Charles Edmund Cheese (known as Chuck E. to his friends). The kids not only got to share their lunch hour (or two) with some friends who joined us there, but also got to play lots of games: Ride on lots of rides:Climb around in the play structure:And also at the end of it all they got some nifty prizes:The highlight for mommy, however, was watching the kids play skeeball. My little man couldn't catch a break trying to share balls with the girls so he figured out where he could get some of his own....
I found myself muttering out loud "Who's kid is that? someone should be watching him..." They're kids, so whatta ya gunna do? I'm sure he wasn't the first one ever to climb up there in search of where the balls were going. Thanks Mr Cheese for a fun afternoon.

Forces of Nature

It's kind of a family tradition that we spend Labor Day weekend (or the weekend after) at Silver Lake up in Northern California. This year was no exception. Here's a picture of our campsite the day we got there. Notice that there are two tents. The blue one is the one we were sleeping in and the red one is the one that we had the kiddos toys set up in so that they had a cleanish safeish place to play.
We got there late Wednesday night and everything went smoothly until Friday night when we had a bit of a hard time sleeping due to the tent flapping in the wind. Undeterred, we spent all of Saturday fishing on the lake and were served a hard lesson by mother nature Saturday night. At some point around 1 AM we decided to switch tents because the red tent was made of a less noisy material. We uprooted the kids and all bedding and headed to the red tent. At about 2 AM I could take it no longer and got up having not slept for the previous few hours and needing to use the facilities. I was shocked by what I found. The majority of our campsite had been carried by the wind into the neighboring bushes and campsites. I spent a while searching for our items and battoning down the hatches. After about an hour of picking up and leaning into the wind, hubby came out to meet me and we agreed to move the kids (and ourselves) into great-grandma & great-grandpa's RV.
Here's a shot of what our red tent looked like with 200+ pounds of hubby & kids in it plus another 200+ pounds of firewood (used to hold down the corners inside).
Here's a shot of what happened to our blue tent after we got out of it. Keep in mind that there was still 100+ pounds of firewood (in the hopes of the tent not blowing away) and all four of our bags full of clothes and shoes and other miscellaneous items. It was blown in the air several feet along the bushes.
I guess we should have paid attention when mother nature tried to warn us on Friday night that winds are coming.

Pros & Cons

Labor Day was spent mostly unpacking from our camping trip and washing then waxing all of the cars. We were done in good time and Daddy had the great idea to go out into the national forest and barbeque our dinner. This is one of the pros of living literally across the street from the national forest. We can do things like that on a whim and since it was late on Labor Day, most of the flatlanders had gone home already. We only saw a few hunters looking for dove on our way out there.Unfortunately, the con of the plan is that they don't let you have campfires up here due to the threat of wildfires. SO we packed up the hibachi, some burger fixin's and marshmellos then headed to the trees. All things considered, it was worth not having the campfire though. The kids got REAL dirty (which is good for them), we spent a bunch of time together (which is always good), and we got to do "going - going - gone" while watching the sun go down.

What to Make

First, for those of you who like sushi, but think plain 'ol rolls are kinda bland, buy some premade California or tuna rolls (like the ones Costco sells), take a frying pan and heat it up with a small layer of vegetable oil on the bottom. Dip your rolls into a mixture of breadcrumbs or cornmeal with seasonings (any will do), then set in the oil very shortly just to brown the breaded side of the roll. Voila, you get the texture and taste of a crunchy roll without the calories, cost or time taken to make them. It makes rolls that are merely "good" taste "great".

Second, I did a twist on a previously posted recipe. I took gingersnaps and put them in a food processor with mixed nuts (I used almonds & cashews) and a VERY little bit of margerine, just enough to make it crumbly. I processed the mixture then put it into oven safe dishes, smashed onto the bottom and lower edges. Then I cooked it at 350 for 15 minutes. Finally, remove it from the oven and add sliced fruit (I used banana) and fat free chocolate pudding. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

SD Weekend

I convinced Hubby to take us on the train last weekend to San Diego to visit Uncle Brendan and go to the Del Mar Racetrack. We had a great time. The kids loved riding the train and it was way less stress for us than driving. We got to go out to lunch, ride the double-decker bus, got pretty much the best seats in the house (Thanks uncle B), then spent the evening on the beach, playing in the waves. The next day we got up and rode home with a layover in Oceanside so we rented a 5-person cart and wheeled around the harbor for a bit and hung out at the pier. What a fun way to spend time together.

Okay, yes, I AM procrastinating. I don't usually read the newspaper but was on the train with nothing to do last weekend and found the comics in a newspaper someone left behind. I haven't read them in a while and this one gave me a chuckle. I think having a toddler who loves bubbles and one still in diapers made it all the more funny for me.

Standing Guard

This is a warning to all of you stupid ground squirrels who feel the need to eat my watermelon plants, basil, strawberries, beans, pansies, etc etc.... My garden is not your salad bar. I saw one of your buddies today gettin' into my roses for his meal and fed him a lead after dinner mint. One shot suckers. I'm watchin' so stay off of my garden!

Family portraits

Every year for our anniversary we go down to the local portrait studio and have a family picture taken. Since the kids have gotten older we don't do a monthly picture of them anymore so this is also a good excuse to get recent shots of them as well. As it turns out this year, we have been so busy all summer that we didn't get around to having the pictures taken until over a month later. Early in August we got our sitting appointment and went down to experience our annual "Kids-can't-smile-simultaneously-and-mom's-pulling-her-hair-out-while-Daddy's-rolling-his-eyes-and-asking-are-we-done-yet" event. It went rather smoothly this year (relatively to the angry badger den that was two years ago) and the pictures were good enough to buy. Of course, my favorites are of the kids by themselves. They can't seem to take a bad picture at this age.The photographer had an elmo toy that my little man was all fired up about for his picture and can you tell my little girl wants to be a princess?

A day with the girlz

Daddy was great and watched the kiddos while I got to take a 4 hour train up north last Friday night to visit with a couple girlfriends. We played some games, scrapbooked, went to a farmers' market, went out to sushi, went line dancing, and all-in-all had a very fun time. Then I turned around and took the same train back Sunday. We got lots of things done and had a chance to relax among friends. Not bad for just over a day spent away. Now my batteries have been refreshed again. It's perfect timing too because we're trying to work on this potty training thing and it's taking a lot of energy :)

Another week gone by

It's amazing how the time is flying these days. We have been so busy this summer that it seems like I'm just barely blinking and now it's almost over. Last weekend was another fun one. Hubby & I joined several friends at the river for a 6 hour raft barge trip. Here's a couple highlights:
1) The theme was patriotism so we encouraged all such things accordingly
2) It was really nice to see some friends that we haven't seen in a while3) It was hot and several people got burned, but the cool water kept us happy
4) Probably the biggest highlight however, was feeding a herd of wild burros
Another memorable weekend in a very memorable summer. Thanks Nana & Grandpa for watching the kiddos so we could take some time together. We had a great time.