Finger Lickin' Good

Another Halloween favorite of mine! These fingers are fun and actually taste good too! Of course, they are certainly not good for you. I guess two out of three ain't bad.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup softened butter

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

green food coloring

red decorating gel

1/4 cup slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease baking sheet.

Beat together butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract. Slowly beat in flour, baking powder and salt. Add green food coloring to dough until deep green.

Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Cover and refrigerate 30 mins. Remove from the refrigerator and work with only one portion of dough at a time.

Break off one heading teaspoonful and roll into finger shape. Squeeze in around the middle of the finger to create knuckle shape. Then, using butter knife, make indents in several places to resemble a finger. Repeat with rest of dough.

Place cookies on prepared baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven 20-25 mins. Loosen and let cool on baking sheet.

Squeeze red decorating gel onto tip of each finger and gently press almond sliver on top so gel oozes out from underneath. Let set.

Someone's Watching Me!

I swear I do more "baking" at Halloween time than at Christmas time. I use the word baking quite loosely, since two of the three cookies I made for Halloween this year are more assembling and less baking (actually, no baking at all).

I love these eyeball cookies! I've made them every Halloween since Amelia was born (that makes 3!). They are always a hit around here and it's tradition to take a picture with the cookies covering her eyes (which I will have to post later since I haven't actually let her have any of the cookies yet).

I realize it is probably a little late to make for this year, but I am going to post the recipe anyway. If nothing else, it will keep me from having to search through all of my recipes next year to find the one I need to make these (a task that takes a minimum of 20 minutes), I can just click on the ol' blog instead.

Scary Eyeball Cookies:

about 3 oz. of vanilla almond bark

50 Nilla wafers

50 chocolate chips

blue food coloring

red food coloring

toothpick

Melt 2 oz. of the almond bark in microwave for 90 seconds followed by 15 second intervals until it is completely melted and free of lumps. Dip each wafer into almond bark (I just covered the top) and set aside on waxed paper or a plate.

Melt remaining ounce of almond bark following above directions. When fully melted, tint with blue food coloring. Put into ziploc bag and snip off a tiny corner. Put a small blue dot in the center of the wafer (pupil). After the blue has cooled, but before it has hardened completely, place one chocolate chip into the center of the blue dot.

Lastly, put a few drops of red food coloring into a bowl. Dip a toothpick into the food coloring and draw "veins" onto the eyeballs. You will have to re-dip the toothpick several times.

Yields approximately 50 cookies.

It's the Little Things..

For nearly an entire summer while home from college one year, I lived with my aunt, uncle, and cousin.  My parents had decided to build a house and were prepared to wait awhile for their old house to sell.  However, two days after putting it on the market, the house had two offers and my parents (and myself!) were homeless.  They moved in with a single friend of theirs that had a spare bedroom and I was shuffled off to live with my extended family.

Aside from having my own phone line (my bedroom was in the office that they used on occasion to work from home), the thing I remember most about my time living with them is something that happened each night at the dinner table.  Not only would they all sit down together to a home cooked meal each night, but during the meal, each member of the family would go around the table and talk about the best thing that happened that day.  Since I often joined them for dinner, I would participate too.  It was a great exercise to force me to stop and think about my day (regardless of my current mood) and find something good that happened.  Some days it was easy and I wanted to mention two or three things.  But, some days it was very, very hard and my "thing" might be, "the soda machine gave me an extra quarter back".  

Since we've been taking it super easy this week (in the hopes of recovering by Halloween), I have been able to sit back and absorb all of the wonderful things going on in my life.  We've slowed down quite a bit and because most of my time with Amelia has been spent playing on the floor and reading ridiculous amounts of books, I've noticed some very interesting things coming from Amelia's mouth.  

Case in point:

(While trying on one of the way too many pairs of winter boots Amelia owns):

Me: Are those too tight?

A: No

Me: Are they too loose?

A: No, me like them.

Me: Can you walk in them okay?

A: Yes, Mommy!  They are just fine!

(While doctoring "sick" GG--one of Amelia's favorite pastimes):

A: GG very sick. Me take temperature.  GG have fever.

GG:  Do I need to go to the doctor?

A:  No, that not necessary.

(While playing with Amelia's farm animals, a goat comes trotting very quickly in my direction):

Me:  AHHHH, please don't get me goat!  Slow down!

A: Its only pretend, mommy.  This goat no hurt you.  Just pretend.

Me: Oh, okay.

A:  See mommy?  This goat be nice to you. 

(At this point the goat is stroking my face and hair very gently and this is gives me a "smoocher").

But, my "best thing that happened today" for Monday occured when Amelia was drawing on the counter near where I was preparing dinner.  She was on her third sheet of paper and chatting away about all of the things she was drawing.  A long squiggly line was a snake.  A jagged line with a few loops was her name, then my name, then "dad's name", then Truman's name.  Then, I said, why don't you draw the Winking Guy.  

(Note: this is the term we use to refer to a smiley face of any sort.  Mostly, this term came from the gigantic "winking guy" that is painted on a shed near our house---Zumbehl and highway 94 for you locals--that Amelia loves to point out each time we drive by.  The "winking guy" phenomenon has also been intensified during our Costco visits.  Amelia is always in charge of the receipt that gets checked at the door and without fail, every time the receipt checker draws a smiley face before handing it back to her).

So anyway, I turned my back for a few minutes to start sauteing some vegetables and next thing I know, Amelia is squealing with delight over her creation.  When, I turned around, this is what I saw:

"winking guy" through the eyes of Amelia Ward

It may not look like much to you, but I was so proud of my little girl and she was awfully proud of herself too! She pointed out his hair and he even has teeth (located about 1/2 inch under his chin).

Oh yes, life is good.

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired

I was hoping to be able to blog about some fun, fall outings from this weekend, but unfortunately, that's not going to happen.  On Thursday, Amelia's nose began to run like a faucet.  On Friday, her apparent cold seemed to settle in her eyes leaving them red and watery.  By Saturday morning, she added a cough and by Saturday evening Jason and I were taking Nyquil shots before heading to bed.  

So, here it is Sunday afternoon.  Amelia's mucous has turned an alarming shade of green and Jason and I are walking around like cloudy-headed zombies.  Needless to say, we didn't get to do many fun things this weekend.  In fact, Amelia has barely been out of the house since Thursday.  We're hoping to get in to see the dr. tomorrow, as I am pretty sure she her cold has developed into a sinus infection.  

If we are all feeling better this evening, we may try to carve our pumpkins or we may just retire early and save activities that require knife skills for when we aren't doped up on cold medicine.

Either way, here are a couple of new pictures of the little one taken before the cold really set in:

if the Belle costume doesn't work out, she could always be Elton John

Amelia is pleased to share her breakfast table with E.T. (from Jason's youth)

E.T. snags some Cheerios

thank goodness Amelia falls for these food creatures like this octopus turkey dog

With a Week to Spare!

After much worry and anticipation, I am delighted to say that Amelia's costume is finished! Not only does the zipper work, but the dress fits properly and resembles what we started out to make. This is my first official sewing project that I did from start to finish, with a few exceptions (my mom got to put on all of the fun details). It certainly isn't perfect, butI am so very proud of my creation!

There was a part of me that was fearful that I would have to explain to Amelia what the dress was and that she would give me a confused look and say something like, "I know Belle and that's no Belle dress". Thankfully, though, Amelia is happy, too! She came down yesterday after waking up and yelled, "My Belle dress, mommy! Look at my Belle dress!!" before I even had a chance to point it out to her. She is constantly repeating this line nearly every time she passes by it and has asked countless times to put it on.

This week I went out and bought a white turtleneck to go under it as well as some shoes (I bypassed the sparkle glitter Mary Janes in favor of black patent leather ones that can be worn again at Christmas). I also found a crown WITH Belle's picture on it, but Amelia turned it down flat. She, apparently, would rather wear the crown she received in a Happy Meal a couple of months back.

So, without further ado.

The dress in all its glory

the dress sans the "shawl"

the back...

close-up of the rosette and "diamond" detailing

Deja Vu

Rombach's Pumpkin Patch in Chesterfield was the location of our second pumpkin patch visit this season.  We went on Saturday since we had some errands to run out that way.  Man, it was so crowded!  We went last year to Rombach's at the end of September when no one was there.  Not surprisingly, a month makes a HUGE difference in how crowded it gets.  

Amelia, of course, didn't seem to notice or care.  She loved looking at (and climbing over) all of the pumpkins.  When she had enough of that, we took her through the "haunted house" where she whimpered and hid her head, then begged us again and again to go back through until we obliged her.  We also checked out the animals, ran through the maze, and climbed on the numerous playground structures on the property.

Rombach's has added hayrides this year which sounded like fun until we saw the $5/person price tag!  The ponies were also $5 to ride and even the bounce houses cost money.  To be honest, I am not sure we will be back next year.  There are plenty of other places that do far less gouging than this place. At least there were plenty of free things to do, I suppose.

I think this will probably be our last visit until next fall, I think we are all a little pumpkin patched out!

Candy and Costumes--Round 1

Boy oh boy, things could not have gotten any better last Friday when Amelia and I went to a friend's house for some play time.  Not only did her friend's mom pick up some candy necklace making kits for the girls to assemble, but they also got to play dress up in some of Natalie's clothes. And, I got a little glimpse of what Amelia would look like if she had long, red (yarn-like) hair!

As you can see, once the necklaces were around their necks, they went into their mouths and did not come back out!  

Living in the Moment

Thursday was a very. long. day.  

Jason was out of town and I had to work, so I got to wake up extra early to get Amelia ready for the day.  Work was especially challenging and included a "vomit situation".  Traffic was awful coming back home.  

But shortly thereafter things started looking up.

You see, Thursday was the day that Jason and I had planned on driving to Columbia to see Mason Jennings.  Maybe you know Mr. Jennings, maybe you don't. He's been described as "one of the best kept secrets in pop music" and you may have heard Christian Bale lip sync two Bob Dylan songs that Jennings sang for the movie, "I'm Not There".  If you don't know him at all, consider checking him out. Seriously, I love this man.

Okay, so, with Amelia at GG and Papa's house, we were Columbia-bound by Thursday evening.  We stopped for dinner and rolled into town with only about 20 minutes to spare before the opening band took the stage at the Blue Note.  We found my college friends, Lynn and Debbie who had scored some front row balcony seats.  And from the balcony, we could clearly see my brother-in-law, Dave and his friend, Travis who were also in attendance at the concert.  They were the ONLY people on the floor by the stage, staking their shot smack dab in front of Mason's microphone.

Now, the "opening band" consisted of one Zach Gill, perhaps best known as Jack Johnson's pianist.  Over the summer, when Jason and I saw Jack Johnson in KC, Zach sang a song or two and we both thought he was really good.  When we heard he was opening for Mason Jennings we were excited, and Mr. Gill did not disappoint!  Not only did he sing and pay the keyboard, he also used the ukulele and accordion to enhance his vocals.  My favorite song from his new CD is one called "Bettina", a true and colorful description of a past landlord of his.  In fact, he was so great that my Dave decided to buy his CD following the show.  But, more about that later.....

After a short intermission, Mason took the stage and was outstanding.  I enjoyed about 2 seconds of his performance from the balcony seat, another 45 seconds from the floor near the back, before shimmying my way up to where Dave and his friend were located and enjoying the rest of the performance about 28 inches from Mr. Mason Jennings himself.  Despite my earlier teasing of Dave for staking out his spot so early when no one else was around, he was kind enough to let me get in front of him.  I was so close that I could have touched Mason's size 15 shoes.  I rested my beer on the stage.  I could lean over slightly and read the set list hidden behind the speaker (and blab it to anyone who would listen behind me).  

The best part of the evening was when Mason sang my favorite song, "Crown" followed by my second favorite song, "Jackson Square".  After a quick bathroom break and urging my friends to join me up by the stage, Mason belted out "Be Here Now" which reminds me of my days in Chicago.  

(Warning, Flashback Ahead)  

Mason's CD, Boneclouds, did not leave my car's CD player during our entire stay in Chicago.  Since I always started the CD at the beginning (on my favorite song of the CD), by the time I hit Lake Shore Drive, "Be Here Now" was right in the meat of the song and I will forever associate it with beautiful Lake Michigan and feelings of adventure mixed with homesickness.  Once the possibly of moving back to St. Louis came up, the song became even more powerful to me.

"the point"--our favorite spot to hang out by the Lake

(As a side note, I am about 85% sure that Mason Jennings winked at me during this song.  It could be that he had something in his eye at the exact moment he looked at me, but I prefer to think the former.  Never mind that he really didn't smile, wink, or make eye contact with anyone other than his band members during the entire performance.  Well, the band members and me, that is).

After Mason's 3 song encore, the place cleared out super fast.  Dave and his friend took off to another bar, while Lynn, Debbie, Jason, and I chatted a bit.  Within minutes, Zach Gill appeared from a side door and was immediately accosted by a group of young ladies.  We immediately called Dave, who I know would want to have his CD signed.  Dave reemerged, Debbie and Lynn went to grab a late dinner, and the rest of us waited for Zach to finish signing the ladies' CDs, ticket stubs, t-shirts, and whatever else they could find.

In the meantime, Dave decided he would have Zach sign the CD to me and I would buy a copy for him at a later date.  When it was our turn, Zach was great about signing the CD and taking loads of pictures with us.  We talked to him for about 15 minutes about a wide range of topics: like the age of his daughter (he sang a song about her at the concert), his wife's desire to "make another baby" when he returns from this tour, his feelings about Bonnaroo and the embarrassing moment he had backstage with Eddie Vedder, Mason's size 15 shoes (this was initiated by looking at the size of Jason and Dave's shoes), what it was like for his family to tour with him this summer, and how he sees Mason's current tour like a "Men's Retreat" since all of the musicians are about the same age and have families and children.  It was more like we were talking to our next door neighbor or an old high school friend instead of a multi-millionaire musician who has rubbed shoulders with some of my favorite artists. Very cool.

By then, it was a little past midnight and Jason and I decided it was time to head back to St. Louis.  Stopping only twice for bathroom breaks, we made it home and in bed shortly before 2 AM.

Long day, indeed!  But it was definitely worth it!

As a side note, if you choose to check out Mason Jennings' music, might I suggest:

Crown

Jackson Square

Be Here Now

Your New Man

I Love You and Buddha Too

Butterfly

Lemon Grove Avenue

If you Ain't Got Love

Living in the Moment

(I could go on and on, but I will spare you)

Stop, Drop, and Roll

Thanks once again to Parents As Teachers, Amelia got the chance to attend yet another fire station (I think this makes four!).  She got to climb up into the big fire truck and drive it, watch a (way too long) Sesame Street movie about fire safety, pretend to spray the hose, and see where the firemen sleep and eat.  She scored a new fire hat (that makes five!) and a coloring book during the visit.

Amelia seemed to enjoy herself, although she kind of had the "been there, done that" attitude as we went through the tour.  The highlight of the trip to the firehouse seemed to have less to do with the firemen or fire truck and more to do with Amelia's friend, Natalie.  We arrived in the parking lot at the same time and the girls quickly discovered they were wearing the SAME Halloween shirt!  (Although, it is a little difficult to see in the pictures due to Amelia's "Fire Safety Graduate" sticker.

In uncharacteristic fashion, Amelia immediately accepted Natalie's request to hold her hand.  And she had no interest in letting go the entire time we were at the firehouse.  The two of them holding hands in their matching shirts was just too cute!

  

Amelia noticed that Natalie was departing the fire station when she was up in the fire truck pretending to drive.  She immediately insisted on getting down and then had a meltdown right there on the concrete when it was confirmed that Natalie had left.  We raced to the parking lot to say good-bye and all was well again!

Slowly, but Surely

We've been in our house now for 16 months this week.  And many, many months ago I promised some updated pictures of the work we've done around here.  The house isn't old, 11 to be exact, but it was done floor to ceiling in the same awful beige color (the same beige pictured below).  That is, with the exception of a neon orange bathroom.  We've slowly turned it into our own space by updating parts of the kitchen and bathrooms (a slow, expensive process) and by giving our home some color.

  

On our old blog, I showed some before and after pictures of Amelia's room, but never got any further.  I am going to try to do better.  Seeing the progress through before and after pictures makes me realize how far we've come instead of feeling frustrated with all there is left to do.

We have an odd sort of room in the front of our home that is connected to our family room. These are the only pictures I have that can qualify as "before" pics.  (Gotta love the laundry basket turned toy box look).

For a childless family, I could envision floor to ceiling bookcases and a super comfy reading chair.  And maybe a small desk.  A coffee machine and small fridge.  But, alas, we have a child.  So, after trying the room our as a catch all for stray toys and furniture, we gave in and decided to try it out as a playroom instead.

Check out what we've done so far!  

It is the first room you see when entering our house, so it is important to me for it to be organized chaos, instead of just regular chaos.  And slowly, it is becoming that way.  I still have lots and lots of plans for this room and am looking forward to carrying them out! (I am putting up pics now because I am quite sure that the room won't be 100% finished until the day we put it on the market years from now).

In case you missed the bulletin boards on the wall, here's a close-up.  These boards are incredible because they are not only bulletin boards, but  they are magnetic too!  Amelia likes to look at the picture and say, "Barack Obama is laughing!".  And then, she laughs too.  Those magnetic circles, from one of my favorite stores--IKEA, hold all kinds of things for us like hair bows, rubber bands, paper clips, etc. (Anyone else notice Mr. Obama's recurrent appearance on this blog site?  What gives?)

Jason, being the awesome dad that he is, decided to paint some pictures to liven up the playroom a bit.  He is hoping to complete 12 altogether, 5 are finished so far (the 5th is the bunny on top of the taller shelf).  He got the idea from a magazine and has recreated them with stunning accuracy.

These inexpensive shelves from Target have worked well for us.  I just read the other day about putting a picture on toy bins so your child knows which toy goes where.  I am planning on doing that sometime in the next 6 years or so.  I think it will help a lot!

I am hoping to post some other rooms in the house soon, stay tuned!

Scary Spider Cookies

Looking for a way to fill what I thought was going to be a rainy day, I turned to THIS WEBSITE for some inspiration. Halloweeny, easy, inexpensive, and yummy made this idea hard to beat.

We braved the drizzle and ran to the grocery store to pick up the essentials: sandwich cookies and black shoestring licorice (we already had gel icing and red hots). Amelia was pumped, she told the cashier she was making spider cookies.

At home, we disassembled the cookies and Amelia decided to take a huge bite of the licorice (which she immediately spit out and then requested a napkin to wipe her tongue off with).

After opening the cookies, we gave each spider eight legs. We put the cookie back together and I went to the lazy susan to grab the supplies for the eyes.

When I turned back around, Amelia was gnawing off a licorice leg--apparently this time no napkin was needed.

We added the red hot eyes...

and when we were all finished, Amelia decided the poor spiders were missing something--a nose, of course! So, she added marshmallows noses to each spider to finish off the project!

Our Little Pumpkin

In addition to an annual apple-picking trip, Jason and I have always enjoyed visiting a pumpkin patch each fall. Since the arrival of Amelia, our visits have become even better (and more frequent--I think we went to three different patches last fall).

Our first pumpkin patch adventure was this Saturday. Amelia was cautiously interested in the animals at the petting zoo (probably because her paranoid mommy kept saying, "let's look, but not touch"). They didn't look or smell so clean, so much for the PETTING part ;)

We checked out all three swing variations and folded ourselves into the train, all of which was pretty enjoyable.

But nothing compared to the hay bale maze! Amelia ran through it at top speed for about 20 minutes straight. The maze was packed full of rowdy boys and an entire girl scout troop which made me nervous, but Amelia could be heard giggling inside and didn't seem the least bit concerned with all of the other bodies flying around. Every time Jason or I attempted to go in after her, she would spot us, giggle, and then bolt in the opposite direction.

Once we pulled her from the maze we headed back to the car. She was complaining a little (which I assumed was due to the fact that she wasn't quite done in the maze) and when we got to the car she said, "shoes mommy!" quite urgently. When I removed her shoes, nearly enough hay to make an entire bale fell out!

We escaped without actually purchasing any pumpkins (one of the few families I noticed that visited the pumpkin patch without actually buying any pumpkins). We usually pick them up at Home Depot instead for a quarter of the pumpkin patch prices. Luckily, Amelia doesn't seem to notice, but I have a feeling those days may be numbered!