Thursday, November 19, 2009

I thought I'd share


I thought I'd share the recipe for our new favorite pumpkin treat. Actually, it's not even complicated enough to be called a recipe. We love pumpkin chocolate chip cookies around here, but my recipe for those has like 14 different ingredients in it (including shortening - gag). Melanie told me about these muffins, and we tried them this week. They are SO GOOD. Definitely just as good as pumpkin cookies and SO easy. Here it is:

1 15-ounce can of pumpkin
1 spice cake mix
1/2 bag mini chocolate chips

Mix together, spoon into muffin tins, bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes. Now that's my kind of baking. Enjoy.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Halloween 2009

Kicking off the Halloween festivities this year was the annual Leatherwood party at Steve and Janelle's. Dave and I totally struggled in the costume department year. We just couldn't come up with anything. Well, it turns out that it comes in handy to have a son who is almost my size. I threw on his football uniform and Dave put on his mullet gear and headset and went as a redneck football coach. Works for me.

This year London agreed to a "girly" costume and got all dolled up (lipstick included) as Hannah Montana ... her favorite singer. After two years as a cowgirl and one year as a green Power Ranger, it was a nice change of pace. Austin agreed to fork out half the dough for an authentic werewolf costume since it was WAY out of our Halloween costume price range. Jackson went as a sneaky black ninja complete with nunchucks. And T.J. of course, fresh off a trip to visit the man himself, was dressed as ... Buzz Lightyear.


I have four Halloween fanatic kids and one Halloween loving husband ... I have to be a good sport about this holiday, and I did try. Good grief, I even used up half an eyeliner drawing hair on Austin's werewolf face for school since no masks were allowed.




The kids went to Grandma and Grandpa Morton's annual Halloween party, and this year Grandma and Grandpa got brave and hosted a sleepover Halloween party complete with pizza, treats, movies, and lots of fun for ..... NINE KIDS! Woah. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! The kids had a great time and can't wait until next year!


As of Halloween morning, we had no pumpkins at our house, so we went straight from Grandma's house to the pumpkin patch in Vineyard. T.J.'s preschool had gone on a field trip there while we were in California, so we decided to just take all of them to have fun and get some pumpkins to carve at home. It is a fun little place with a maze, animals to see, a playground, inflatables to jump and climb on, a "spook" alley, and lots and lots of pumpkins. And it it right next to the train tracks, and as luck would have it, a train came right by ... T.J. could not have been happier. It was the highlight of his day for sure.




We went to a couple's Halloween party at Aaron and Catey's Ball's home and had a great time laughing and eating lots of junk with our friends. Like I said, Dave and I were having such a hard time coming up with costumes this year, so we cheated and repeated our costumes from a few years ago. I know, we're lame. Maybe we'll be more creative next year. Or maybe we'll steal an idea from one of our friends:

The Monsen's came as an oven and a bread maker. Pretty funny considering she's six months pregnant. That's why the picture is blurry ... I was laughing too hard to hold still.

The Miller's came as crazy die-hard Jazz fans. Apparently Greg is quite the out-of-control fan and loves to dress up and act crazy at Jazz games. Haha!

Aaron came as a "Rockstar" ... hence the can of Rockstar taped to his shirt. I might have to steal that idea. MaryAnne came as Kate Hudson. She wore her Yankees gear in support of A-Rod just like a good little girlfriend should.

Rheanna came as the Swine Flu. Awesome! Justin came as her doctor and even had actual drugs in his pocket ... very interesting.

James and Lisa came as Fred and Wilma Flintstone. James even made their costumes. They looked great! His might have been a little too short, but we just learned not to look in his direction after a while.

Marion and Koki looked great! She was all dressed up in her student body sweater and glasses and misbuttoned shirt, and he was a referee complete with basketball.

Catey and Aaron were Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Can't say I've ever seen a guy in a nightgown before, but Aaron made a great Big Bad Wolf. Catey's Little Red Riding Hood was perfect. Thanks for the fun night you guys!

Steve went with a Rasta theme and Ashley came as a dead cat. Her shirt had tire tracks on it. Pretty funny. That's my kind of costume.

There's a lot of captions I could use here ... but I think I'll just leave it alone.



Heading out for trick-or-treating. That's Dave's department. I stay home and answer the door every five seconds.





Dave is trying to get as much use as he can out of that redneck wig and teeth. It's the one day a year when I let him wear whatever he wants ... and more often than not I end up regretting that decision. Ha ha!