Pumpkins

After battling the flu (went through the whole family, one by one) we were finally able to do some pumpkins for Halloween. I at first thought that it would be fun to paint the pumpkins. Less messy, the kids could actually do it themselves, something new....well, it's not more fun. I admit that I'm a neat freak, but it was a mess! Paint everywhere! Some of it will never come off our table. Oh well, at least the kids had fun...and their pumpkins did turn out pretty cute. Oops, I just realized that I never got a finished product picture of the painted pumpkins. Tomorrow maybe. (p.s. These pumpkins were grown from our very own garden. They are not very big, but our poor little garden did produce a few things!)

A few days later we decided to carve our big pumpkins from Grandma and Grandpa. I thought that was a lot more fun and the kids liked being able to take turns deciding what each of the facial features would look like. I even roasted the pumpkin seeds afterward and they turned out yummy!

Butterfly wings

These are Katie's butterfly wings. We haven't finished the antennae yet, but thought I'd post the wings right now since I don't know when I'll get to the butterfly accessories. I used this tutorial to get me started and then tweaked a few things along the way. I like how they turned out, although they did take a while to make. If I did it again it wouldn't take nearly as long now that I know what I'm doing.

Here's the supply list...
- 4 wire hangers (two large and two smaller ones)
- duct tape (to tape the hangers together)
- 4 knee high white nylons
- needle and thread (to sew the nylons)
- hot glue
- puff paint
- glitter glue (to spread on the wings to make them sparkle)
- jewels
- flowers and ribbon
- straps (I cut apart an old sports bra and used the covered elastic for Katie's. Worked great!)

She'll be wearing all black for the complete costume.

Cheesy smile.

Back view.

Front view.

You know what the real bummer is? We were at Target yesterday and saw butterfly wings there (not nearly as cute...they were black, yellow, and orange, and no jewels) and Katie said, "Oh, let's get those!" I said, "What about your other wings that we made?" She replied, " Well, I like these." When I acted a little wounded she said, "Well, I actually like both of them." Whatever. I had fun making them anyway.

Taking a walk.

We had a great morning! Katie didn't have school today so I took the kids to the river for a walk along the trail. Katelyn rode her bike...it's nice she can do that now and keep up. We spent an hour walking, running, and stopping to look at neat things like this horse bench...


There were about ten other 'art you can sit on' benches around the greenbelt. They were so neat! Others included a fishing lure, a river with birds, a snake, and musical notes. I would have taken more pictures but our camera is about fried. We need a new one.

We also had fun watching all of the ducks and geese and talking to people along the trail. It's quite a social place at 9:00 in the morning! The weather was beautiful and we had so much fun! Hopefully we can do it a few more times before it gets too cold. Maybe we'll even bring bread to feed the birds.

Bullies and Preschool

This post really has nothing to do with bullies at preschool, thank goodness. : )

Katelyn designed a poster for a contest at school about how to stop bullies. This is what she came up with.

I thought it was pretty good. If you can't tell, the blue girl and the purple girl are fighting over a toy. The pink girl is sad they are fighting, asks them to stop, and offers a flower. I wasn't sure if she grasped the concept or not, and even though the fighting girls are smiling, I think she gets it.

Jace had his first day of preschool today. Two friends and I started a little rotating home preschool. Jace is in there with two little girls. They had a great time today, learning about weather, the letter A, and the number 1. He's looking so big!

p.s. I'm almost finished making the kids' Halloween costumes. Katie is a butterfly, Jace is a cowboy, and Gage is a cow. (Jace is very excited to have Gage as his cow.) Gage's costume is already pre-made. In fact, both Katelyn and Jace wore the same one at that age. I made Jace some chaps and a vest out of fleece and Katie's butterfly wings are made out of hangers and nylons. I'm excited with how they turned out! I have a few finishing touches left and then I'll let you all see too!

Yummy!

I made this soup tonight and just had to share. I found the recipe on a fun cooking website I found on my sister in law's blog...it's called Picky Palate. It is so delicious! I did make a few changes to make it healthier and fit our tastes better...I'll post those at the end.

Cheesy Chicken, Bacon and Rice Soup

• 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 stalks of celery, finely chopped
• 3 large carrots, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 Cups zucchini, diced
• 2 Tablespoons fresh minced garlic
• 2 Cups cooked and shredded rotisserie chicken
• 2 Cups steamed white rice
• 4 Tablespoons butter
• 1/4 Cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 3/4 Cups chicken broth
• 1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 Cup Smithfield Bacon, cooked and crumbled plus 1/2 Cup to garnish bowls

Instructions

Heat oil into a soup pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Saute onion, celery, carrots and zucchini for 10 minutes or until softened. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute then add chicken and rice. Reduce heat to low.

Melt butter into a large saucepan over medium heat. Slowly whisk in flour, salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in chicken broth until thick and creamy, nearly to a boil. Stir in shredded cheddar until melted then pour into chicken and vegetable mixture. Add 1 Cup crumbled bacon, stir then season according to taste then simmer on low until ready to serve. Garnish each bowl with a few pinches of additional crumbled bacon.

8 servings

Changes:
- Used half of the olive oil to saute the veggies.
- Used extra veggies.
- Used a third of the garlic...and still tasting it!
- Used 3 T butter instead of 4. I'll bet you could even get away with 2.
- I had to add about 1 to 1 1/2 cups milk at the end because the soup was so thick.

We ate this with French bread and everyone liked it except for Gage...he's a little picky. Hope you enjoy!