Playdate

We hosted a very fun Turkey craft playdate today.  C was the only little boy w/6 other little girls.  They made cute turkeys with paper plates, scratch color leaves (didn't photo), and pinwheels (didn't photo). So cute. We're doing the same thing tomorrow b/c my house doesn't have room for that many kiddos to craft at one time, but tons of people wanted to do it.  So part two happens tomorrow so I'll take some photos of the other 2 crafts.  The girls loved it.  C mostly liked to play w/the pencils for the pinwheels and smear glue all over his paper plate.  His behavior was 100% improved over last time.  He didn't hit anyone.  Do you think it's b/c they were all girls? 

I had a lot of fun planning/making the food for this event: fall/thanksgiving inspired.

Turkey fruit gobbler (idea courtesy of Family Fun)

Homemade pumpkin bread (awesome recipe I'll share later), grapes and cheese, hummus w/sweet yellow and orange peppers and carrots, acorns

(mini-donuts w/tops dipped in chocolate then rolled in pretzel/cookie crumbs and then a piece of pretzel in the top (again Family Fun idea)

Making the turkeys

The kids were great!

What's For Dinner this week

We did well sticking to our menu last week.  C and Scott and I have all been a bit under the weather, so we didn't eat as many leftovers as I'd hoped and caved and got Chinese food Friday night (along w/have of Normal, IL--the place was so crowded for takeout).

Mon: baked rigatoni at pastor's house.  I made a vanilla tart w/spiced apples to take.

Tues: leftover soup

Wed: Spinach and red pepper frittata

Thurs: Chicken Pasta (maybe buffalo w/peppers--not sure yet)

Fri: Quiche

Sat: Black bean and pinto Bean burgers with some vegetable--not sure yet

Sun: leftovers or potato soup

Have you met my new bulldog?

Whenever he's especially mischevious he likes to show this face.  He juts that lower jaw out as far as possible. 

What's for dinner

I'm always curious about what other people are eating, and looking for new ideas, so link up if you want, and tell me what's for dinner this week.  I'll try to do this on Sundays in the future since that makes more sense.

Sun: smoked sausage and cabbage (quickie for Halloween)--but I wish I'd made white chicken chili (but didn't think about it until last minute and didn't have the ingredients) 

Mon: Pecan crusted, baked chicken tenderloins w/BBQ sauce Bourbon (didn't do the BBQ sauce but it sounded good since you marinated the chicken in bourbon and hot sauce at first); cooked carrots w/pumpkin pie spice and brown sugar; angel hair noodles w/seasoned salt, butter, and parmesan.

Tues: Spicy Chili-Cheese, Hashbrown Cheesy Bake

Wed: Split Pea soup garnished w/bacon, fresh lime, and tomatoes

Thurs: leftovers

Fri: probably leftovers again (you should see the size of this Chili cheese stuff). maybe I'll make baked apples to liven things up since it's leftovers again.  Any bake left after this will be headed to the freezer

Sat: Italian sausage, steak, kidney bean, potato and pepper stew/casserole (this is an oldie but goodie my mom made growing up and I love it--it's like a gravy constistency instead of stewish), homemade beer bread w/jalapenos, and pumpkin spice bread

Sun: Mahi Mahi Burgers, cajun sweet potato fries

I have next weeks planned, but I'll keep you in some suspense.

Link up if you like and tell me what's for dinner in your home.

Who wants a giveaway?

I've never done this before, but I thought it might be fun.  I'm going to give one of these cuties to a lucky reader.  I love comments on my blog, and they've really slowed down, so to enter in the giveaway you have to comment which one is your favorite.  These are all girly ones, but I'm hoping to go to the thrift store and find some wool sweaters to felt for manly ones.


Introducing my take on the coffee cozy.  Tell that barista to skip the cardboard snuggy (I just saw this commercial, so the snuggy is on my mind), you've got your own.  These are washable, so if you're like me that's a plus--I swear those baristas are out to personally make me look like a mess.  I spill a lot.

I had 8, but already gave my brown and blue one away.  Here they are waiting for me to sew on the buttons-- boring.

Complete

And just in case you still weren't sure how they work or what the heck they are.

This is a Starbucks grande cup, and they fit perfectly.  I'm pretty sure they will fit other sizes, but I need to try them out.  Can you say stocking stuffers?  Here's the link to the tutorial I followed.  I used felt and iron on stabilizer in mine to make sure your hand doesn't burn, plus I used much smaller buttons b/c that's what I had.   I made all 8 of these out of scraps and such I already had in my scrap pack. 

Halloween and other Tall Tales

Halloween ended up being a blast for C.  We didn't do anything Saturday, but he was ready for some trick or treating when he got up from his nap Sunday.  First he told me he didn't want to wear his costume, so I told him, fine...tell me when you're ready.  I started making dinner and Scott was on the phone.  Five minutes later the little guy was in the kitchen telling me he was ready for the "party."  I said hold on.  Three minutes later he was back in the kitchen with his entire costume in his hands, again saying he was ready for the party.  I made him wait a few more minutes since it still wasn't dark.  We got him all costumed and then we waited for dusk.  The trick or treaters started a little after 5, so he was excited to see all the "kids" (some of them were way to old to be "kids".  We went up and down our street for him to gather some candy, and he did great.  He loved it.  He held his own bag (which astonished me), and he held our hands.  Our first trick or treating experience was a success.  He remembered to say "trick or treat" at most houses and "thank you."  I was shocked how few even said "trick or treat."  The costumes have been put away for the year.  I bought some stuff on clearance yesterday for future costumes. 

In other events, we signed up for a month of story times at our library for Tuesday evenings.  Last night was our first night.  C didn't want to go (b/c he wanted to play with his new airplane--seriously).  I literally dragged/carried him in kicking and screaming (and hitting me).  I got him into the story room and hugged him until he sort of calmed down--then he coughed and choked, almost puking.  That would have been thrilling.  They had the story/song sheet out with cute graphics, and that calmed him down, so we looked at it together.  Then we read a book while we waited.  Then he was pumped and attentive for the story hour to begin.  He was a good helper for the story leader, holding a basket to pick up pieces for her after a game.  They had these name tags that went over their heads, and this is how I discovered I have the "goof off" child.  C has a good attention span, but he likes to do more than one thing at a time.  So when we read, he often plays, but he's listening b/c he will finish the lines for you.  Well, this issue came into effect last night.  He kept playing w/his name tag.  He had it over his neck AND hanging over his ears--he looked ridiculous.  He would stand and sway, and if the leader wasn't actively reading he kept saying "tck-tck-tck" (like Dr. Evil doing the Macarena).  All the other moms kept laughing b/c he was ridiculous looking/sounding and b/c he talked to the librarian constantly about the stories and everything else.  It was a bit embarrassing.  I'm going to have the kid who the teachers think isn't paying attention and will spend a lot of time in time out even if he really is paying attention.  School will be interesting.  I have visions of a first grader making glue boogers during art time and then as a 7th grader in science lab using anything he can find as boogers dangling from his nose.  I have a brother that was that kid, and I think C is going to be like that.  Scary thought.

Its a bird. Its a plane. No its Superman and Supergirl

We went to my mom's group Halloween party tonight.  It was fun, but Scott got to see how most of the time is just spent chasing after C and very little socializing. 

Since C was SuperWhy and I just couldn't get pumped about being other characters from the show, Scott and I decided to go as superheroes as well. 

Scott was Clark Kent (I loved his costume). I even made a "press pass" for him as Clark Kent.

 I was SuperGirl (I started making my costume last night, so it's not the best ever--my cape especially didn't really work. It was a good cape, but I didn't have it affixed in a good way to my shirt--my velcro sticky tabs kept moving).

My skirt (first effort at a skirt) was a bit of a disaster, my elastic didn't work  (I think it was too small and I tried to put it in out of order--any way it sucked) so I had to sort of pin it up.  I just ran out of time.  But my boots were AWESOME!

These are my black boots that I covered in the red material.  I had to make three panels and attach them to each other b/c I didn't have enough fabric pieces big enough.  Then with the bottom panel I slit it over the back to fit it over the heel and then sewed it together underneath leaving no damage to the shoe.  I slipped them on, and they're (the boots and the covers) tight enough that the fabric up top just stayed tucked in against my skin. 

Pretty Heroic