NoTreatsForYou

We had a fun Halloween Day.
First I must say that yesterday, I was soooo sick. That achy, skin hurts, chills and then hot and sweaty, curled-into-a-fetal-position sick. And I was sad because I thought that it would zap any boo fun for today. But hoorah for modern medicine and my husbands degree... I picked up some drugs from him yesterday morning and was feeling much better today. Of course, I should be in bed instead of staying up to do this, but hey- don't judge- I am making up for not wasting my time doing this yesterday.
I agreed to help Jennie with a school treat for Elliet's class today. How she has time to be her room mom I will never know, but as I was making these cool cheesy fingers I was grateful for a creative and conscious room mother who wanted to give the kids sensible snacks, since they'll be eating candy the rest of the day.
I think she found this recipe on a family fun website. They turned out pretty cute, huh?! Great idea, Jennie. Did they get eaten???
Then after school we carved pumpkins while listening to the soundtrack to Nightmare Before Christmas (something we missed out on last night). It was fun. Elliet got the most out of it since Luke and Sadie just drew lines on their pumpkins so I eventually made faces of my own.
Once Dad got home, we ate dinner and started to put on costumes. Yes, you can see here how Elliet is NOT a mermaid. I think the previous school parties, church parties and other such social functions have made that novelty wear off so she preferred her old Aurora dress to her drab custom Andrea brand costume.
I can't work like this! I am going to my trailer!
The rejection was made up by Luke who actually WORE his. He has been all fidgety with his, but not tonight! I think he remembered said ward party and knew exactly what happens when he wears this around and says 'trick or treat'. Oh yeah- he'd wear anything for that heaven again! Maybe I should have put him in Elliet's costume... that would be good leverage for his teen years.
Bob and Mary Jane came over and went with Scott taking the kids around. I stayed and manned the house, which I liked doing since I took them around at trunk or treat. I had fun hearing the comments regarding the body chalk lines I drew on the sidewalk with commentary.
Then the kids came home and off with the costumes!
Sadie went right for the candy but Luke was down to his T-shirt and Elliet obviously was now into her 'evening wear' and her last Halloween costume for the night. Unfortunately, this is an actual uniform in this town. But I am sure she doesn't know that.
Hope you all had a great Halloween.
Time to take down the decorations!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

More Weekend Ketchup

Saturday was our ward Trunk or Treat party.
Our RS Presidency was put in charge again at the last minute, so we had been working all week to pull it together. It went off well enough, but I knew I'd need a reward. A few days before, I made post trunk-or-treat plans with some friends. We did this last year and it's working out to be a good tradition.
The night consisted of eating chili and too much cornbread, then out to the car to get it all decorated.
I know, I am a nerd. But I am having fun and I am apparently a novice because some people do super cool stuff to their cars! Next year....
At least I ran out and got one of those groovy outlet things for your cigarette lighters and plugged in some lights. We had the music going and aw yeah- our post was hoppin', yo.
Scott manned the car while I took the kids around. Luke was so funny- any time he got one little treat in his bag, he would jump and laugh. The free sugar from just saying "Trick or Treat" was too much for him. And while we would laugh at Luke, Sadie would come in at the pass and swipe a handful like a fox!
That girl is too smart for her own good. She seriously had the heaviest bag when we were done.
When we finished the rounds, they sat in the car and had a few.
I never got any great photos of them in their costumes- but that is fine. I am saving that for Halloween night! Of course, they will probably be so sick of dressing up by then that they may look like this anyway. Anyway, it was good fun. We got home and they went right to bed. Then we were off to the movies to see Dan in Real Life. Who else has seen this? I liked it. It was funny and not too annoying and kept me thinking for a few days. I would recommend it.
And lastly, made some of my Mom's Coconut Veggie soup recipe. Well, it's not her recipe, but I got it from her and have kept to her modifications and it's SOOOO good. It has a little Thai vibe with the coconut milk. Super good for you, loaded with veggies, so feed your faces my friends... because you can.
Recipe to follow below.
Hope everyone had a great weekend! Halloween in two days. Then I will have to retire my awesome coffin banner. Any suggestions for a Thanksgiving theme? Should I make a big turkey or tacky cornucopia? Suggest away.


Coconut Vegetable Soup

2 cups water
2 Tbs mushroom boullion
8 oz chopped mushrooms
1 large potato, diced
3 large carrots, sliced
1 onion, chopped (serve with Trident or use half like me)
2 medium zucchini or yellow squash, diced
1/2 lb. frozen corn
1/2 lb. frozen peas
1 cup cooked rice (I use the pre-cooked frozen brown rice from Trader Joes and drop in a bag)
1 can of beans (white, red, black, etc.) drained and rinsed
2 cans coconut milk
1-2 Tbs. pure maple syrup, honey or brown sugar (I use honey)
1/2 tsp. curry
1/4 tsp. tumeric

Add all ingredients to pot except peas, rice and beans and heat until vegetables are tender.
Add remaining ingredients. Cook until heated through. Serve.
(This all takes about 20-25 minutes. Nice and fast!)

Faster Santa!

Is it wrong that I want one of these?
From my early days of youth, I remember we had this HUGE roll of vintage looking brown Christmas wrapping paper- it had old Charles Dickens looking illustrations repeated throughout... a Toile-like print. It was like, 1000 yards long or something ridiculous like that and so heavy! It was a chore just rolling the thing out on the table to free a yard or two.
Every Christmas season we would make an effort to wrap a few presents in that paper so we would finally use it up. You'd see the sad pressies in their old hand-me-down paper, sitting there under the tree next to all the shiny fancy new papered gifts. Poor little guys.
Anyway, I swear we probably didn't get through that thing until I moved out for college (or did we ever?).
But maybe if we'd had a cool cutter like this! We would have been whistling a holiday tune and anxious as an elf to wrap our goodies in that cursed paper. Plus, no print to tire of. You can get these endless rolls in red or a cool silver/white stripe. Hmmmmm......

Weekend Ketchup (Catch Up)

This week has been full.
The kids were exhibiting some cold symptoms, catching what I had, which meant they didn't go to school on Monday. That makes for a long day. Elliet was fine for the rest of the week, the twins improved faster than me, but the twins didn't have school Wed or Thurs and Elliet didn't have school on Friday. This really cut back on my time to get extra things done. So we made the best of it.
The weather was FABULOUS all week long. Nice days in the 80's. We swam and played outside a lot.
I think it's time to retire the summer swimming suits- as you can see, Sadie was having lots of fun with the "chest bubble" she could create with the outer layer of her suit.
On Thursday, the twins preschool had a day at the Pumpkin Patch. My camera battery went dead before I got a photo with pumpkins, but I did get them doing other unimportant fun stuff. Here they are swinging on the mechanical swings. They thought it was great fun until I walked away to the cooler to grab a water and they shouted "Mom! Don't Leave! Help me, Help me!!" So that was fun to be spotlighted in front of the other parents with screams of false distress...
Their favorite thing was this huge inflatable slide. It was SO funny because Luke would climb to the top and jump up so he would land about 1/3 the way down the slide and roll to the bottom. His arms and legs would be flailing all over. He would do it again and again. You can see his air in the picture.
Then we looked at the petting zoo.
Sadie was talking to the rabbits here and saying goodbye.
We rode the little train and they each picked a pumpkin. It was a fun morning. We hurried and ate lunch before we headed over to Elliets school for her Halloween parade.











This was a fun event. Mary Jane joined me experiencing this for the first time. The school had a bunch of teachers or volunteers doing a trunk or treat on the big playground area. Their cars were all around the edges and the kids would rotate through each post every few minutes. We brought folding chairs and watched everyone for a while. They had a radio van in the middle playing Halloween songs. There were some great costumes! Elliet was getting a little hot and tired, so she didn't do any fancy Mermaid poses here, but you can get a glimpse of her costume. We walked around and checked out some of the 'stations'. Luke and Sadie were mesmerized by the bubbles at this one. They just stood there and let them spurt at them. It was kind of funny.
I had to take a picture of this car. They wrapped it all in black plastic and cut out these slits where the masked person inside would peek out and distribute candy. It was such a cool/spooky idea..."Candy, if you dare" spray painted on the outside.
It was a great day of Halloween fun.
Next I'll post the rest of the weekend.

One Big Weird Circle

What goes around, comes around and this is proof.
While growing up, my parents were constantly remodeling our house. My Dad was Mr. Handy and they both always had funky ideas. I mean, we had neon lights in my house so, needless to say, a little 'out there'. It was really fun and they were very creative.
After ripping the drywall off of a wall on our back porch/dining room, they exposed this beautiful pinkish brick. I remember them liking it so much that they left it (Mom- am I remembering that correctly?). We had a desk/computer area against that wall and hanging from that wall was a large birdcage held with a hand just like this one. I can't remember where they got it- it was some old mannequin hand... probably discarded from some department store or something. Anyway, it was a fun conversation starter when friends would be over and see this white arm coming out of the wall, holding the birdies. Now you can buy these for $75. Who knew! Patch parents, you made our house a fun place to grow up in. Thanks.

Stupid Stuff

Not much has been going on around here. Now that our party is over, we have a little time to enjoy the remaining October days. I already feel the presence of Thanksgiving and Christmas, though. I am trying to resist the urge of jumping into that mindset and at least get through next Wednesday. So the past few days I have been catching up on things neglected. We had the kids rooms painted two weeks ago and I went through the closets and clothes. That always takes SO long. Took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill. We will probably get pregnant soon since I have officially gotten rid of all our baby stuff. Now I need to start hanging shelves and get a few pieces of furniture. We painted Luke's room this cool dark grey charcoal color and Sadie's room is a deep pink/faded red. It's great! I remember seeing a wall that color in a Jcrew years ago. Didn't think I'd be able to have it in my house. Aw yeah.
We have had some crazy wind here the past few days. Today was calm and beautiful! This afternoon it was about 80 degrees by the time I picked up Elliet from school. As soon as we got home, we celebrated by having snow cones one last time. Then the kids did their usual routine and all removed their pants and followed the leader around the pool, marching in their underwear. Hey, man- It wasn't TV and keeps them happy, right?
Tonight I needed to sew Elliet's Halloween costume. Her school party/parade is on Thursday. I wasn't sure how long it would take...luckily I whipped it out toot sweet. She is going to be a mermaid so all I really had to do was make a skirt.
I was having fond memories of my Mom making my costumes as a kid. She was always so creative and did a great job. I felt so proud going to school in the stuff she would make. It's dorky, but I was happy to be doing this- it's fun being a Mom and finding joy in some of the daily-ness that we do. At least, until she tells me I did it wrong or something.
The other night we made Bulgogi. It's a great recipe I have used for years and thought to my silly self, "I should take a picture of all this juicy meat and show everyone how gluttonous we are!". So here it is- a pic of just the meat. Of course, no, we did NOT just eat meat. You add some fresh green beans sauteed with olive oil, S&P and some brown rice and voila- it's FAB-O.
If you don't know what Bulgogi is, try it out, folks. Your tongue will thank me later. VERBALLY.




I also wanted to show off my cool cake I made for the Halloween Party. But you know what? This is just how things go. It looks cool, right? But no one ate it! Well, before the party I caught Sadie and Luke scraping the bottom end apart, but that doesn't count. So oh well. It was fun to try something new. This is why I like events- they give me a reason to try new things (yes, friends are guinea pigs. Big kiss! Loves!). This was a test of the meringue bones I made earlier. I put them between the layers of cake, hoping that when you cut the 'grave', you would cut through crunchy bones and get all creeped out and Happy Halloween! But no, the meringue bones are delicate creatures- afraid of commitment to crunchiness and dissolve like white wimps between cake. I suppose chocolate frosting makes me wimpy, too- I can't judge. It was yummy though- the meringue inside the chocolate reminded me of Hostess cupcakes.
But hey- the fingers look dope, right? Plus I used Martha's seven minute frosting recipe. It always looks so great, but I swear- give it an hour exposed to air and it's like a rubber tomb. I am still on the hunt for a good, 'whipped' frosting that isn't buttercream. I want that airy, whip cream kind that is on the store cakes. You know the kind? It holds shape great but isn't all greasy? What is that magical substance and how can I know the secret to it's goodness!?

New Nephew!

Marty And Jessica brought home their new baby boy on Friday. They have named him Graham Richard Patch. Oh he is so cute. I love the grumpy sleep face.
Congratulations! I can't WAIT to hold him.

Halloween Party 2007

Last night was our Annual Bash.
I must begin first by saying how much I love our friends.
We have GREAT friends! A fun party can only be as fun as the people make it and our friends make it so fun every year.
The costumes and creativity are always hilarious. No small effort is made and that, believe it or not, really means a lot to me. So any of you reading this... Thank You! You make our Halloween so fun every year!
Scott and I were some random 70's tennis couple. We won the costume contest for the Coolest Costume- but we were a close second for the Creepiest. I am sure you can understand.

Everyone gradually came over and mingled while we ate all the yummy food that was brought (and another thanks to all who helped with that- sooooo good). I lured people away to take individual photos of each costume. Those will be posted on our party website so I'll get that updated soon. In the meantime, here are some of our winners.




Our Creepiest winners ended up being the Polygs. Nice work, guys- so funny. Of course, you do live very close together so.... what does that really mean?
Jenny told me they considered bringing a 12 year old girl as the next wife. Ewwwwww....







Steve and Jen won for most original. The Vet and the Dog. I am sure the truth behind this one is Jen had to come up with a clever way to justify the real leash. Good thinking!









Our Most Humorous was Hugh and his Playboy Bunny for the evening.
Charles looks dashing in fishnets. I thought he had real heels on at first.










Our Spartans did not disappoint. They had cheers and everything!
And Avey was a fabulous Wicked Witch. It was just like she popped out of Oz. She even had these great long black fingernails... I wish I had caught that in the photo.













Here we are all sitting down watching the movies. For those reading who are new to our Halloween tradition, every year we have a video contest. Near the end of the party we watch the films made within the theme for that year. This year our theme was do make a movie or TV trailer. The one we are watching in the image here was a scene from "The Office" that a group made together. Very funny! My goal in the next few days is to get those loaded here so you can see them. We also did one and Scott was the star (no surprise- thank goodness he doesn't mind making a fool of himself) and played MacGuyver. Just wait- it was good. Mullet and all....
It was such a fun night. Parties are swell! Happy Halloween everyone!

Could it be... SATAN?

I couldn't resist swiping this image from a friends blog.
So funny since it took me a second to recognize them.
Can you?
(If not, you need to go see your bishop)

Zoo Escape and more news

Luke is a meticulous player. It is not uncommon for me to find him mesmerized for 20-3o minutes occupying himself with something like stringing beads onto twine. These are good activities unless it's something like removing all the paper from the crayons. Yeah, have fun picking THAT up after being tracked all over the house...
But most of the time it is good and I enjoy stumbling upon the fruits of his labors. Case in point- Today he arranged his animals around the Thomas track we set up the other day. I thought it looked funny to see the chaos in the town. What would the passengers do seeing this from their cabin window?

Other fun news, my sister in law went into labor today. We will have another new baby boy in the family within hours! This is Marty and Jessica's first. I am so excited for them.



So lately I have been enjoying "fries" with the kids using pre-cut sweet potatoes. They have them in small bags at Trader Joes. Lately they have had HUGE bags of them at Costco. Lucky me! They are super yummy and good for yeh.
Put the amount you want in a large bowl, add some olive oil, kosher salt and Spike seasoning (Whole Foods). Mix to coat evenly. If you want a little more flava-flave, add some Lawry's seasoning salt. Spread on a cookie sheet lined with foil (hello?! easy clean up!) sprayed with cooking spray and broil about 10-15 minutes. Take out when golden brown, flip over what you can (some are stubborn so don't waste your time turning individual fries over... you have better things to do) and put back in for another 5 or so minutes, or until toasty.
Remove from oven and serve. I am no food photographer, but I hope this image gives you an idea of their tantalizing tastiness. Try some today for a better tomorrow! :)

And I know better, but I couldn't resist sharing a fun baking craft. I have wanted to try this for years and finally whipped out the meringue bones recipe from Martha. I say I know better because I am revealing part of my food contribution for our Halloween party on Friday. I should be saving it for the surprise but couldn't resist! Successes must be shared.
So- if you think I am just serving bones, think again. You'll have to wait and see. But I must say, they are trés cool all by themselves. I started to have fun making fingers and others things. Pretty groovy, yes?!

Holiday Ten

Knock Knock has done it again. This is a real book!
They are one of my favorite companies and always so clever.
If you want a good laugh, click here and read the details.

They also have some good ones on acquiring road rage and getting into debt.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICHARD!

Today is my brothers Birthday. He is the youngest of the bunch and probably the youngest at heart, too. Can you tell?! Rich is such a great guy. He is one of my best friends. We are kindred spirits, he and I. Anytime I am home we will stay up late talking about all kinds of things. He is such a sensitive, feeling and wise person. Not to mention sooo so so funny. He has the best sense of humor (remember his want ad in the Lotoja post?) and is always having fun. He's also Mr. cool guy- doing way too much to his car or the boat, winning wake board competitions and being film production Ace.
We also share a great love for music and concerts, fashion, food, art and design, nature, athletics, ... you get the idea.
Oh yeah, and he is surprisingly still single. He's quite the catch, as you can see... so if you know of any worthy ladies in the UT Valley... :)
Rich, I love you! I hope you have a great Birthday!

Disneyland

A few days ago, Scott got a wild idea that we should just go to Disneyland. We have been waiting to go so our kids would be old enough to enjoy it and we would have energy enough to do it.
I was ready to give it a shot, so we booked the hotel.
I picked up Scott from work on Wednesday, we drove straight to LA, went to Disneyland on Thursday and then drove home Friday morning. It was a quick trip but surprisingly doable and it was SO MUCH FUN. Way more fun than I expected. I haven't been there since I was a young kid, so a lot of it was new for me. And experiencing everything with the kids made it one of the best days ever. We had a blast.
Upon entering the park, we headed straight for Cinderella's castle (Good advice, Emily!) and did all those rides first. The weather was perfect and after a couple of rides, I think the kids really started to have fun since they knew, now, what the day was going to be like.
Of course Elliet spotted the large Carousel in the center and immediately exclaimed that she wanted to ride the horses. She picked hers out particularly and grinned so big the whole time.






Then one of my faves, the teacups! The music is all quirky and flutey and spinning around and around makes it hard to control the giggles.
The first thing Scott said when we sat down was "Ok- no crazy spinning... just nice and easy..." but Elliet and I had another idea.
Then we spread all over the park. We never repeated a ride. The kids lasted really well walking all by them selves. It was fun checking out old memories.
I certainly remember 'Small World'. How can you not? They drill that song into your head over and over again. It's like a subliminal message from the government that you'll get called on a secret mission, hear that tune, and have a mental breakdown and destroy all things in sight.
But despite the relentless tune, I must say I quite enjoyed the whole 60's aesthetic that still remains. Cool designs and artwork inside as well as the outside. Sort of Alice in Wonderland, too.
As a Halloween freak, I have been told many times how great the Haunted Mansion is at this time of year. It did not disappoint. Loved the decorations and everything. I do need to go back and see it in it's normal form, since that was a ride I do remember well from my wee years.
The creativity they put into it all was amazing!
Scott took Elliet on a faster ride and she thought it was fun, so we decided to tackle the Matterhorn. Yes! Another old favorite as a kid, but I didn't think we could do it with our little ones. The crazy thing is this was the first time we encountered our outnumbered issue- only one or two riders per car. What were we going to do? We asked Elliet if she would ride by herself and she said she would. So I put her in the car in front of me and had Sadie in my lap. Then I realized that she was in the FRONT CAR of our whole train. I really started to worry now. I tried to talk fast and explain what was going to happen, that "it would be fast and a little crazy, but fun... here are the handles you hold on to, I'm right behind you!", etc. etc.... then it started. Oh man, I was nervous. And guess what?! She was great! She called out a couple of times and thought for sure I had damaged her, but by the end of the ride, she was like, "That was fun! It was a little spooky and scary but I was brave!". Does that invite a big hug, or what? I was so proud of her. She is such a big girl.
We ended up staying the entire day. Amazing the kids lasted that long, and even kept their good moods for most of it. We stayed long enough to see the parade at the end. The kids love that- kept shouting out the names of the princesses and other characters. Sadie's little waving hand was so cute! And a byproduct of living with girls is Luke being just as infatuated with the princesses as them. So he thought it was swell.
You'd think upon returning to the hotel that the kids would be wiped out. Not ours! We ate dinner and finally forced them to calm down by laying with us on the beds while Scott and I watched the Office. Then they were out cold in 5 minutes. It was a GREAT DAY!