Happy Halloween!

A bunny and a clown are the only two things I ever remember being for Halloween when I was a child. The bunny costume had a store bought tail and ears that I wore with a white sweat suit. The clown was a hand me down from my sister. My mom had sewn the clown suit; the clown shoes were antiques that my grandpa had worn as a Shriner; and the clown painted face itched and turned my face a blotchy red when I tried to wash it off. I'm proud that my husband and I have come a long way from the bunny and clown. We made our son's costumes this year.

A couple of weeks ago I asked my sons what they wanted to be for Halloween. My 3-year old said he wanted to be Spider Man. As he said it he would hold his hand out and pretend to shoot webs. My 4-year old said he wanted to be a flying bat, not Batman. Every night at supper I would ask them that same question: what do you want to be for Halloween? My 3-year old changed his to a pirate with a sword. The sword was very important to him. My 4-year was adamant about being a flying bat.

We started with the flying bat costume. My husband went to the thrift store and bought a brown fuzzy blanket. That is what we used for the bat wings. We had my son lay down on the folded blanket so we could cut and mark the wings. My husband drew the scallops on the blanket with a crayon, cut them out, and then sewed them onto a black thermal long sleeved shirt. We had some Batman glasses that were in a Happy Meal, so I hot glued the same blanket material to the glasses. He wore black pants and black boots to finish off the costume. He also requested vampire teeth because he wanted to be a Vampire Bat. He was very specific.

The pirate was a little more difficult because the day of construction he just wanted to be a bad guy with a sword. I was a little frustrated because he said this after I had just sewed the eye patch. I took black felt material, cut the eye patch and sewed black elastic to each side of it. He was not impressed. I used the straw cowboy hat from his birthday party to make the pirate hat. I took off the star, stapled the sides up, spray painted it black, and I painted a skull and crossbones on the front. The sword and hook were much more involved. I'm not really sure the magic that my husband used for them. The sword is made out of thin wood and covered with silver shiny tape. The hook is made from the same wood and tape, but it has a ball on one end. The ball was stuck through the end of a white sock for him to hold onto. He wore black pants, white thermal shirt, black boots, and a belt to hold his sword. He loved the sword and hook.

My 10-month old girl was a pumpkin. Her costume was a hand me down from her brothers. Maybe she'll want to be a bat or pirate when she gets older.

Bring on the candy!

Happy Birthday!

When my husband and I were in our twenties, celebrating our birthdays meant an endless sleugh of drinking and eating. The different restaurants; the different cakes, cookies, and pies; the many drinks for the guest of honor; that's how I knew it was October. My birthday at the beginning of the month and my husbands at the end makes me exhausted just thinking about it. Our mature thirties has taught us a few things about birthdays:

1. After 25, if your birthday doesn't end in a 5 or a 0 it's not worth having a party.

2. Only 1 cake.

3. Surprises beat presents.

4. Two-three drinks maximum on the day of your birthday.

5. Family and friends might forget, but Facebook will remind everyone in the world.

Today is my husband's birthday, so this post is for him. This post is one of the stops on his birthday scavenger hunt. The boys and I set up clues around the house and his cubicle at work. Each clue has a little surprise with it. This is clue number 9.

We know you are great
You fix, clean, and mow
You are the best date
You even tow.

You have done so
Much for us
So wrapped with a bow
Look in the kids' bus.

Happy Birthday Jeff! You are the zig in my zag; the ag in my bag; the ying to my yang; the rock in my field; the fertilizer to my plant; the mustard to my ketchup. Have the best day!

Pumpkin Seeds

My son asked me if he could put his hand in a pumpkin. Both boys got to pull out the pumpkin goo in preschool. I guess by the middle of October it's expected that you've already put your hand in a pumpkin. With Halloween looming, we put our hands in pumpkins.

I cut the top off of the pumpkin and the boys pulled out the slime, seeds, and goo. The seeds run along the creases of the pumpkin, so we tried to save all the seeds. We put the seeds in one bowl, and the the fleshy tissue in another. We soaked the seeds in water to remove all the slime surrounding them. We took all the seeds out of the water and let them dry on a paper towel.

The dry seeds were put on two baking sheets. One for sweet and one for salty. We put 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt on the pumpkin seeds. The boys mixed everything. We made sure the seeds were all coated and spread them out. We baked them for 20-30 minutes at 350. The key is to make sure the sugar doesn't burn. 

The second baking sheet was the salty batch for my husband. We put 2 teaspoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of chili powder, and 1 teaspoon salt on top of the clean dry pumpkin seeds. We baked them for 30 minutes at 350.

If we could do it over again I probably wouldn't cook the sweet seeds so long. They were a little burnt. I would add more salt and chili powder to the second batch because the seasoning wasn't very strong.

We carved the pumpkins and put them on our front porch. We are starting our Halloween preparation.

Pie Stuffed Cake

The cherpumple, a cherry, pumpkin, and apple pie made in a layer cake, inspired me to stuff pies in cakes. I love cakes and I love pies, so it's a win-win. However, three layers was too much for our family, so we planned on making one layer. Our plans changed when the first try wasn't the homerun I expected, but the second try was out of the park.

I don't have time to be baking pies and cakes all day, so we used pre made pies and box cakes. So when the children were all asleep I baked a pumpkin and pecan pie. Cherry and apple pies are okay, but they don't hold a candle to pecan or pumpkin. The pies were ready for stuffing when they were cooled.

The boys and I made the chocolate box cake. After mixing it all together I poured some of the batter into the bottom of a spring pan. Use just enough to cover the bottom. Then I flipped the pumpkin pie out of it's tin and placed it on top of the cake batter. I used the rest of the cake batter to fill in around and on top of the pie. I baked it for 45 minutes at 350, which was the mistake. In the chaos, I took it out of the oven without really inspecting it, let it cool, and took it out of the spring pan. As I was taking it out of the spring pan I noticed it wasn't completely baked on the bottom. So I flopped the entire concoction onto on baking sheet and put it back in the oven. I baked it for an eternity, which made the outsides hard. We added frosting to combat the drier cake parts. Frosting makes everything better.

We tried again using a vanilla cake mix and the pecan pie. Pecan pie is my favorite, so I was pretty careful not to ruin it. We did the same process, but we cooked it at 350 for 90 minutes. The top was golden brown. Homerun! Now do we put frosting on it or add whipped cream on the plate?

The boys had a hard time waiting for the cakes to be done. My 3-year old took a bite out of the cake on the counter. He did it so fast, no one could stop him. In his defense, he had been waiting for 2 days to try some cake pie. It was on the edge of the counter which he is at eye level with. My 4-year old didn't want to eat the brown stuff inside of the cake. I guess he doesn't like pumpkin and chocolate mix.

Dessert just got serious.

 

 

 

 

Big Brothers

Many of my experiments and activities are for my sons, who are 3 and 4. However, my 9-month old daughter, Rosina, is always there to oversee these activities. In 9 short months I have come to realize and depend on the attitude my sons have towards my daughter. It's a dynamic relationship the three of them have.

1. She's the ticket to more positive attention. They can show other people how they can hold her, feed her, and even pick her up. Now if they would hurry up and learn to change her diaper.

2. She's the scapegoat. "Who dumped out all the blocks?" All fingers point to the baby, who just smiles.

3. Everyone is a comedian. "Please stop saying poop and potty." But I can't even keep a straight face when the baby laughs when they say it, which makes the boys laugh even harder.

4. What's going to work, teamwork. "How did Rosina get out of her crib?!" The boys were so proud, they showed me. My 3-year old gets in the crib and hands the baby to my 4-year old outside the crib. I was speechless.

5. They will not be outdone. They will take turns giving hugs and kisses until the cows come home because someone started the kissing and hugging.

I thought at first that the boys would be indifferent to the baby, but I can see that they interact and rely on each other. If the baby wants something she just squawks, and the boys give her what she wants to make her stop. The boys in tern feel so proud that they can take care of another human being. The terrific trifecta.

Egg in a Bottle

Getting an egg to fit into a bottle has always been one of my favorite experiments. I always thought it was impossible, which made it all the more amazing when it actually happened.

This experiment is pretty easy to do with household supplies. You will need the following: a peeled hard boiled egg, a wide mouth glass bottle (Starbucks Cappuccino bottle), matches, paper, and vegetable oil. I didn't use the vegetable oil, but it might help.

I put the egg on top of the glass bottle, narrow end down in the bottle. I showed the boys that the egg doesn't fit in the bottle. Then I lit a match, and started a piece of rolled paper on fire. I put it in the bottle and put the egg back in place. The bottle filled with smoke, and the egg slowly inched its way in the bottle.

Our egg was very slow to descend into the bottle for a couple of reasons: the inside of the bottle was still wet from rinsing it, the egg didn't create a tight seal on the bottle, and no vegetable oil was used. The vegetable oil is used to line the inside mouth of the bottle to make is slick for the egg.

We corrected this during the experiment. I added more paper on fire to offset the water in the bottle, and I put my finger over the leaky seal.

The experiment was still a success. The boys thought it was so cool, and the explanation was still there. The fire eats up all the oxygen in the bottle, and the unbalance of air pressure between the inside of the bottle and the outside pushes the egg in the bottle. I explained this to the boys, and my 3-year old said we should go outside where there is more air. He said that would make the egg go in the bottle faster. I was impressed with his logic. So we sat on the deck and watched the egg go into the bottle.

Make it Special

My 4-year old son likes to ask me to make things special. At first I started telling him that if I did it everyday then it wouldn't be special anymore.  Then I realized it's pretty easy to make things special for a 4-year old, so why can't things be special everyday?
If I ever tell my son that I don't know how to make it special, he tells me to think about it. So I have put some thought into making things special, and here is what I have found.

Breakfast: I usually hide a treat in their cereal like raisins, bananas, or a couple M&Ms. We buy plain Cheerios, so they get excited when I let them put honey on them. Sometimes I put food coloring in the cereal milk. Once in awhile I'll put cinnamon on their toast.

Lunch: I make a smiley face out of fruits and veggies on their plate; however, I've been told that's not special. I think they say that to try to get out of eating those veggies. I usually just light a couple of candles and put them on the table. If it's really special the boys shut off all the lights.

Dinner: I know when they ask me to make meals special they are really asking for treats, sugar, or desserts, so instead I make something else special. We've all used wine glasses with food coloring water for our special dinner. I've tried family style serving, which we usually don't do. This is special because they can scoop their own food.

When they asked me to make the day special I thought it would be a lot harder, but really you just have to show them things they haven't seen or done before. For example, my boys had never played musical chairs. The first time we played telephone (the whispering in each other's ears game) they were so excited. Blowing up a couple balloons is the easy way to make any day special. Going to the grocery store is special because I bribe them with treats for being good.

Getting something in the mail that isn't a bill, political propaganda, or advertisements is cause for a celebration. So when my mother-in-law wanted to mail the boys t-shirts even though we were at her house I said I would sneak them into the mailbox. This gave me the great idea to put some of their old toys in envelopes and put them in the mailbox. That's what I call a trick and a treat.

Today was made special by Travis Perich and family, an online friend of my husbands. They have been emailing and such for years. They met through a vintage car forum and stay connected through Text and Instagram. See Travis's blog here: http://perichbrothers.blogspot.com/2016/09/40-gets-stick.html  Travis mentions a part my husband made and sent to him to install on his 1940 Ford.

A box was sitting on our doorstep, and it was sent through the actual mail. The boys and I opened it to find it filled with cars, trucks, trailers, a bus, and a fire truck. They are the awesome ones with the metal bodies. If you are ranking toy cars, these would be the cream of the crop.

Unfortunately, I have never met Travis or his family that live in San Diego. My husband was able to meet him on our trip to LA last year. They spent a day working on cars while I went to the zoo with a friend of mine. I'm grateful that social media has connected us. Well, social media and cars.

Thanks Perich family. Come to Iowa in January for a visit.