Pumpkin parties and baby dedication

In preparation for a pumpkin party we were to attend, Jade and I spent the day before, first decorating our pumpkin(s) and then cooking one and roasting the pumpkin seeds.
Then we took our fresh cooked pumpkin and turned in into pumpkin spiced whoopie pies. Yum!
The pumpkin party was super fun, with fresh pressed Apple cider...
...and JB is holding a freshly baked pumpkin fritter/donut
Then today, we were able to have Cutter dedicated, Mr. wiggle britches did pretty good during the prayer...
whoops, there he goes crazy...but now you can see Jadey Lady!
Here are some more pics of Cutter and Jade (and Jonathan) on Cutter's special day
Cutter is now seven months old. Time goes by quickly
The beautiful sweater and booties were made by Grandma Bechtle:)

Craft day

My little craft class didn't meet this week so I wasn't as motivated to work on a craft project with Jade as I normally am. However, we did find some time to get out the glitter glue and work on coloring in Jade's "make your own" calendar kit. Then I found Jade's book that has idea's for little girls to "bejewel" everything and anything they own. She was given the book with the jewels as a present before Cutter was born (I think she got it at my baby shower). And I have avoided showing her how to use it. Until...today. Today we bejeweled one of her head bands. You can't see it to well in this picture, but she proudly placed three big, red, hearts on my headband...because "Red is my favorite Mommy!"
modeling for you all
and then it was Jade's turn to take a picture.

Pumpkin patch

We went to the pumpkin patch over the weekend with some friends. It was a perfect Fall day, cool, crisp and SUNNY! Riding to the pumpkin patch was the highlight for Jade
I think Cutter enjoyed the tractor ride as well:)
Most of the pumpkins were either squashed or still a bit green, so we didn't find to many "good" ones. Still, it was fun searching for them.
Jade found and picked a flower while we were out, she is holding it in this pose.
After picking our pumpkins, feeding the goats, letting Jade slide down the super slide, we headed home. I put Cutter in his seat and took off his baseball cap, only to reveal is funny, sticking up, hat hair. Hee, hee...gotta love it!

Silly sock day at AWANA

Jade is a Cubbie this year in AWANA and I have the privilege of being her cubbie leader. It's so much fun for me to see her interact with the other children, learn bible verses, play games and remember stories that were told weeks ago. Sometimes on AWANA nights there are silly themes for the kids to dress up as. One night we had "inside out and backwards" night, and we all had to wear our clothes inside out and backwards. Last night was "silly sock" night.

Jade and I tried to pull off a bit of santa's helper look with our stripped red and white socks (Jade's light up on the sides!) And then Jade told me we should pose serious and silly....so we did
I really love teaching in AWANA, but I love to see how excited Jade is to go even more!

My precious kiddos

Today was one of those beautiful Fall days you want to take advantage of, go to the park, play outside...just be out in the wonderful, cool, sunshine. We didn't make it to the park but we did play outside for awhile. My little Cutter bug likes to sit in the grass and pull at leaves and twigs and eat them:)
Thankfully Jade is a big helper and kept trying to keep him from eating icky things.
this didn't bother him, he likes attention...he likes A LOT of attention. Some ladies in the MOPS nursery today accused me of entertaining him to much and that's why he can't sit still and must have constant attention. I thought it had something to do with him being human, but apparently not. hee, hee
Jade likes to play tennis the way you'd play ball. I throw the tennis ball at her and she swings at it with her racket. She wanted to pose for this pic and got upset with me when I snapped it while she was talking. I love my little diva.
She says the funniest things these days. When I repeat them it's never as funny, but in the moment I don't know where she comes up with these things.

She bit her lip yesterday and was crying. I tried to sooth her and asked her what happened "I bite myself" she sobbed" I bit myself with my sharp teeth!"

This morning while I was feeding Cutter and she was cooing over him, she put her arms as though she were rocking a baby and said "Wouldn't daddy be so cute if he were a tiny baby?" and then she started laughing.

She likes to talk about when she gets big, a few days ago she declared "I want to get big Mommy, I was to grow and be HUGE, just like you!"

I have to wrap this up as my baby is crying...but I just wanted to say that Cutter hasn't been to interested in food as of yet. But I did try him on some turnips yesterday and he actually seemed to like it! Turnips!

When gushing over this to my friend at the gym, she said "what are turnips?". hee, hee (Gym partner, if you read this...well...we'll talk later. I love you!)

Shrink art...it shrunk...and shrunk...

I was so very, very excited to try shrink art with the kids today for our weekly craft. The kids were very excited too!
we picked out our designs and they all couldn't wait to watch their art shrink before their eyes.
Oh, it shrunk alright. Despite covering our little pieces with parchment paper and also trying without and trying a lower setting on the oven and a higher setting....our art didn't really shrink the way it was suppose to. These below were our best pieces.
and these were some of our worst :-(
not to be discouraged we spent the remainder of our craft time stringing animal shaped beads onto plastic string to make bracelets and necklaces. Perhaps I should have called on some professionals in trying the shrink art. LOL

Friday Craft Day

This weeks Friday craft was making "finger kites" ours didn't quite work out very well, but the kids had a blast painting them.
After craft time we headed out to Lattin's Cider Mill to play around and...
feed the goats:)
we didn't have warm sunshine like the weather man predicted, but we still had a really great time!

Kale

I often think of myself as a pretty healthy person, I feel I cook fairly healthy and I think I eat fairly balanced. However, I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to trying new vegetables. I don't say I'm to picky until I start going down the list of vegetables I won't eat: squash, mushrooms, eggplant, onions, etc.. Every now and then I get inspired by a new recipe and find myself sampling something new. But outside of that one recipe I'm clueless how to cook this new vegetable.

A few months back I was craving Olive Garden's Zuppa Tuscana and found a copy cat recipe for it online. The recipe I found called for "Kale". I had never cooked with Kale before and was unfamiliar with it's taste and texture. In the soup I found it to be DELICIOUS! I've since made the soup a handful of times, buying the large head of Kale sold at the store. However, outside of this recipe I don't know what to do with my Kale, and sadly my kale has gone bad before I've had time to finish the whole thing.

Right now I'm reading "The Jungle Effect" and I'm all inspired to go back to my roots (er...at least back to how Mom mom cooked when I was growing up) and start cooking and eating more healthfully.

Under the diet recipes recommended for Crete, Greece, I found an omelet recipe that called for...Kale!! I was so thrilled. I now have TWO recipes to cook with kale and both of them are FABULOUS!

I was thrilled to find I had all of these ingredients in my fridge this morning without needing to go to the market. If you want a super yummy omelet recipe that includes yummy kale...try this one!

Horta Omelet:

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups chopped kale (or swiss chard or spinach)

2 Tablespoons crumbled feta

3 or 4 eggs, lightly beaten

3 Tablespoons, kalamata olives, chopped

1 lemon wedge

saute garlic in olive oil until garlic is soft (not brown) add greens and stir till soft. Evenly distribute the greens on the bottom and then sprinkle with the feta, add eggs. Cook to your liking then top with olives and tiny bit of salt. After you serve squeeze a bit of lemon (really brings out the flavor) and enjoy with whole wheat toast or whatever you have. SO good!

Friday craft

Pretty much everything that Mother Lode posts I want to do with Jade. Fridays are "craft day" that I do with Jade and two of her friends. Having her friends there help me to make sure the craft happens instead of putting it off.

Last week we did Alphabet Rocks and this week we tried tracing and embroidering our hand prints. Now, I originally had planned a craft that involved paint and blocks and lots of mess, so last minute I decided to do the hand print craft. Because I didn't plan out this craft, we used regular fabric that I had on hand, and regular sewing thread instead of embroidery thread.

If you try this yourself, I would recommend using the correct fabric (I'm not sure what it's called but it has the little holes in it, like burlap) and embroidery thread.

Even still, we got the needed effect and Jade was VERY excited to try her "hand" at sewing. Hee, hee. Was that a funny pun? LOL

Craigslist find!

When Jade was around 5-6mons I got a used high chair at a garage sale for about $15. After she grew out of it I switched it for a booster seat and sold the high chair on Craigslist for $15. Now that Cutter is almost 6mon I decided it was time to find a high chair. I didn't think I'd be able to find something that was nice for $15...but I was wrong. Hurray for grandparents who buy extra high chairs for their grandkids and then need to get rid of them! LOL
Cutter seems to enjoy his new chair, happily munchin' on a teething biscuit and...
...trying to drink his water. LOL
Jade is also thrilled she doesn't have to share her booster seat quite yet, though she is a little worried about how messy Cutter gets when he feeds himself. hee, hee
my little neat daughter:)

Alphabet craft day!

My friend and I are swapping educational/babysitting days with our kiddos once a week. Today was my first day with the kids and we decided to try a version of "Alphabet Rocks!' that I had seen on Mother Lode's blog. In our version, we used stickers on the rocks that we then covered with a thick layer of mod podge to keep the stickers from peeling off.
during our craft time Kyri become a little photographer and got some shots of me and then Cutter
Cutter LOVES Kyrie, every time he see's her he lights up. Seriously! It's really sweet
Here is little Kyri spelling out "spiders" with her rocks. (while the rocks dried we all went outside searching for bugs. LOL)

can you see?

Ben first spelled "slugs" with his rocks...but then got inspired and instead spelled out...

...Washington D.C.

After craft time the kiddos got to put their alphabet rock collection in their own little fabric bags. The girls especially enjoyed having little bags to keep their rocks in.
and proceeded to give me plenty of poses to snap pictures of. Love it!

Crafty projects day

Inspired by Mother Lode's play square give away...awhile back...I decided to pull out my random scraps of fabric and make Cutter his own set of play squares. I put crinkly material on the inside so they are fun to grab and chew on.
Cutter has a little cold today, so sitting around playing...not leaving the house...is the plan for the day
so far he isn't letting his cold get to him. He is happy as a clam. Perhaps mostly happy that I'm not dragging him around to a million places today. LOL
Tomorrow (if baby is doing well) I plan on going to a friends house to do a teaching craft with the kiddos, these little baggies will some how be included in that craft. I got the "how to" from the gigantic Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts sent to me as a birthday present from my Mother-in-Law (Thanks Peggy!)
I also made these out of random left over pieces of fabric. In the book old suiting material was used. I did come pretty close to finding a pair of old pants or a suit coat of Jonathan's that needed to go to Goodwill...but decided this fabric will have to do. Busy day at home so far!

1st day of Pre-school

Despite my best efforts, Jade's first day of pre-school was moved back to...today. LOL! But today we got started bright and early, even had time for some pre....school...pre-school pics! Jade took these very seriously.

okay, so maybe not THAT seriously. But she is VERY excited about starting school even if it is taking place, at home.
We started our school with prayer, the pledge of allegiance (to a picture of the American Flag on my computer...since we don't own an American Flag), Phonics, Math and then of course, some fun craft time using glitter glue!
Jade had lots of fun during her first hour of school and thankfully Cutter enjoyed himself on the floor, playing with toys and baby talking non-stop.
my little goober bug being super cute, in his old man pants and football shirt. FOOTBALL!
Okay, school's over, Cutter's down for a nap, Jade has play time, it's after 9am and now I need to get dressed and start MY day. LOL