Pumpkin time

This is about how I've been feeling lately.  Just exhausted, drained (or draining, as the case may be), a bit googly-eyed, and hoping that all three of the boys will be able to make it through one night without one of them waking from a bad dream that involves being eaten by some animal - wild or domestic - sometime soon.  It's been a while since that's happened.

Then I remembered that trick-or-treating is tomorrow night, and that I haven't carved our pumpkins yet.  The thought of doing that tonight made me feel, well...

I mean, don't get me wrong.  I love carving a pumpkin.  I love thinking about a design and carrying it out.  I love putting the candle in and watching it glow in a darkened room and then outside at night. I don't even mind gutting a pumpkin, because then I can roast the yummy seeds and munch on them over the next day or two. Anyone who knows me can attest to this.

But it's the combination of multiple pumpkins and multiple little ones that I don't like.  Because we all know what happens when we sit down with three little kids to carve pumpkins.  They start out excited and interested, and then you give them a spoon and ask them to start scraping out the insides and soon they're throwing pumpkin guts everywhere and then they're off and playing with something else (and covering it with pumpkin guts) because that got boring really fast.  And while they love to tell you what face to make on theirs and to watch it glow once it's done, we all know who's doing all the work.  We are.

And I'm pooped.

So riddle me this:  

Who has two thumbs, speaks limited French, and totally cheated on the pumpkins this year?

This moi!

A few years ago, I'd have thought this was sacrilege.  

Who doesn't take the time to actually carve their pumpkins? 

What'd that take, like two minutes?
Come on, where is the challenge in that?  Where's the skill?

This year, I'd like to find the person - probably a mom - who invented these
and give her a big hug.

The Dinosaur Sleepover

The boys like to type on our computer, and I'll often open a Word document for them to make letters and see what they're writing. Jack sees Patrick and I typing rather quickly (ahem) and so he is frequently pretending that he is typing quickly too and will start talking while he's typing.

One day, he said he was writing a story, so I asked him if he would like me to type it for him. He said he would, so this is his story - The Dinosaur Sleepover.

Once upon a time there was a baby dinosaur, a pteranodon named Rex.

His mommy thought she would keep him forever and ever, but she was wrong. (!?)

One day a big brachiosaurus came to visit and was nice. His name was Rex too.

They played a game of hide and seek together.

Then they had a snack. The pteranodon had fish and the brachiosaurus was an herbivore so he ate a leaf pizza.

The brachiosaurus came to visit for a sleepover. The sun went down quick like on Dinosaur Train and the two dinosaurs went to bed. The pteranodon slept in a nest and his mother made a special leaf bed for the brachiosaurus. It was big.

They had a good sleep and they just had good dreams, not bad dreams.

The next morning, they ate breakfast. Then they finished playing their game of hide and seek.

The brachiosaurus’s mother said it was okay for him to sleep overnight again!

The sun went down quick again and the dinosaurs went to sleep.

I loved hearing his thoughts and listening to him come up with the story with very few promptings of, "and then what happened?"

He and PJ have just started to become so imaginative in their play together. It's a joy to listen to!

Painting pumpkins

We picked out some pumpkins at the local farm stand and the boys each wanted to paint theirs.

The concentration in this picture makes me smile.

I love these matching Mickey smocks that Aunt Tori gave us!

They were totally engrossed and loved every minute. And I loved watching them work together.



In a couple weeks, we'll cut out some faces and make them glow! Jack can't wait!

Cookie monster

I have a confession to make.

I have a fear of rolled sugar cookies.

Or maybe it isn't a fear so much as a lack of time in which to make them, as well as a tiny bit of worry that I won't be able to make thedough the right consistency.

All I know is that I have resorted to using Pillsbury dough and rolling it out to make cookies a few times in the last year and they just don't taste natural.

I like butter. And sugar.

In fact, I think I could probably eat a shame stick. Remember that from According to Jim? Sheryl's brother Andy dipped sticks of butter in sugar and ate them like that.

Anyway, I found this recipe for the dough and I can't believe how easy it is to work with! It's my new favorite thing. Cutting them out and decorating them after the boys go to bed has become my new creative outlet.

A little lemon flavor in the icing, and I'm in my happy place. Mmmmm - sugar, butter and lemon? Does it get any better?

Sometimes, I'll just make a batch of airplanes and let Jack just sprinkle them with red sugar. But I did make a few Easter-themed cookies too.

They're not the cutest cookies on the block, but they're not too shabby for a first attempt. Figuring out the right consistency to for the icing isn't easy. The white piping needs to be firm enough to outline and the inside icing needs to be runny enough to fill...well... the inside. Say what?

But I just made another batch of dough for more practice. I think I'll make some egg-shaped cookies next. More photos to come!

Spring crafts

I don't really consider myself to be a crafty person. I'm artistic enough, but not super-dooper creative. I usually need someone to give me an idea and then I can run with it.

Still, I've been excited for Jack to be old enough to do little crafty activities with me. Yesterday, we painted egg-carton "caterpillars" (that idea was in an email from Huggies, I think. I don't even use Huggies, so I'm not sure how I got on their email list, but thanks, Huggies!) while my neighbor's little girl was here for the morning. Two two-year-olds and paints might sound like a crazy combination, but it was actually a lot of fun. I had two little smocks for them to use and taped some garbage bags onto the table so they didn't make a mess. Washable paints and cotton swab "brushes" helped too. Not too messy. I still have to put pipe cleaner legs and antennae on our little caterpillar and then I'll take some pictures of him.

But in the meantime, here was another easy-peasy craft we did a few weeks ago: construction paper Easter eggs.

I have these little windows on either side of our door, so I like to make seasonal things with Jack to decorate them. We made paper snowflakes in the winter and crayon leaf rubbings for the fall.
It was a great project to do in the hour or so while PJ takes his morning nap, and Jack loved taping the eggs onto the windows.

He knows how to spell all of our names, so we made one egg for each family member, as well as a few that don't have names.

Our eggs were so easy. Jack picked the colors and helped to color in the lines.

For more Easter craft ideas, check out the Usborne book of the week over there on the right. It's a fun time to start learning about bugs, flowers, and all things Spring!

Have a great weekend!