Boo at the Zoo

We went to th zoo Monday night for some Halloween fun. Just another excuse to wear our customs.














































The zoo had many fun Halloween exhibits.





































We had fun playing games.
RJ is trying to kind a prize in all those leaves!




























Savannah is looking at the eyeball, puzzling. She latter got the idea. Throw the ball in the bucket. She did pretty good.
















We also saw some of the animals. Here the kids are checking out the Otters.













The Otters
















It is hard to tell, but the lion in the photo is eating a pumpkin. I guess that animals were getting into the Halloween fun as well.

















Savannah didn't know what the heck was going on, but she of course enjoyed the candy!

Pumpkin Carving

RJ and Savannah showing off their pumpkins. These came from our garden!





































Last Year RJ hated putting his hand in the pumpkin. He washed his hands each time he pulled out the pumpkin guts. But this year he didn't have too much of a problem.

Savannah was a little unsure at first. But she enjoyed it once she got started.







Savannah got pumpkin!



RJ saying BOO!










Can you believe it? I am finally on the blog!















Of course, Savannah had to try the pumpkin, Everything still goes into the mouth!










Savannah is mad because we are all done. It was just too much fun!



RJ and his skull. So perfect for a pirate.

Geo Caching

We had such nice fall weather this week. We tried to go geo-caching to enjoy it. Our geocaching was a failed attempt :( No find. But we got to see a train go by. RJ loved that.

Early Trick-or-Treating at the Library.

We go to the library for story time each week. This week they had the kids come dressed up and let them go to all the library desks and trick-or-treat. It was fun.
























Her custom is a little too big. (RJ's old one from 2 years ago). But she made a cute giraffe.



















This is RJ's favorite part about the library. The computer! He loves playing computer games.

Couch Potatoes

Watching a movie. I thought this was cute because Savannah had to be just like RJ. She isn't a movie watcher but I guess RJ looked so comfy on the couch with his blanket, she just had to get a blanket and join him.

Girly-Girl

Such a cutie!






















Some friends of ours were cleaning out all their old kid stuff and we inherited a lot of it. Mostly children books but there was this huge Barbie Pent House. Savannah fell in love with it! She is turning into a doll girl.





Showing off her Barbie.

Oh, boy. She isn't even 18 mo. yet and already we are into Barbies. Help!




Look at those curls! Lucky girl.

Recipes

We have tried out some new things and have loved them. I thought I would share, maybe you might love them too.

I made this and Jared raved about it all night. He said it was the best pasta ever. Said it tasted like it came from a nice Italian restaurant.

Italian Sausage with Bow Ties

1 package (16 oz.) bow tie pasta
1 lb. bulk Italian Sausage
1/2 C. chopped onion
1 1/2 tea. minced garlic
1 1/2 tea. crushed red peeper flakes
2 cans (14.5 oz. each) Italian stewed tomatoes, drained and chopped
1 1/2 C. heavy whipping cream
1/2 tea. salt
1/4 tea. dried basil
Shredded Parmesan Cheese

Cook Pasta according to package. Meanwhile, cook sausage, onion, garlic, & pepper flakes over med. heat for 4-5 min or until meat in no longer pink.
Stir in tomatoes, cream, salt, & basil. Bring to a boil over med. heat. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 6-8 min. or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Drain pasta; toss with sausage mixture. Garnish with Parmesan Cheese.

Sounds good just typing it up. Makes 5 servings.

Second Recipe:

This one is perfect for that left over pot roast beef. It calls for sirloin steak but the pot roast beef was perfect.

Onion-Beef Muffin Cups (sounds funny, but so good!)

2 med. onions, thinly sliced
1/4 C. butter
1 boneless beef top sirloin steak (1 in. thick and 6 oz.), cut into 1/8 inch slices
1 tea. all-purpose flour
1 tea. brown sugar (the key ingredient)
1/4 tea. salt
1/2 C. beef broth
1 tube large (16.3 oz.) refrigerated flaky biscuits
3/4 C. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 C. grated Parmesan cheese, divided

In a large skillet, cook onion in butter over med. heat for 10-12 min. or until very tender. Remove from heat and keep warm. In same skillet cook steak for 2-3 min. or until tender.
Return onion to pan. Stir in flour, brown sugar, and salt. Add beef broth. Bring to a boil and cook and stir until thickened.
Separate biscuits ; split each horizontally into three portions. Press into bottom and up the sides of eight ungreased muffin cups, overlapping the sides and tops. Fill each with about 2 tablespoons of beef mixture.
Combine mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese; sprinkle over filling. Fold dough over completely to enclose filling. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 375 F for 12-15 min. or until golden brown.
(makes 4 servings)

3rd week of October

We don't have many pictures from this past week. Jared was in Virgina on a business trip and I was jealous. Someday maybe I will get to go back east. The Kids and I had a very uneventful week while he was away.

I did learn a new Photo shop technique that is a lot of fun. Here is what I did:



And this is another favorite scrap page I did recently as well:

I spent some more time on my quilt that I haven't been able to work on since before our trip to Hawaii. I am almost finished! Then maybe I'll start working on and finally finish our wedding quilt from the quilt block you all wrote on at our reception.

Dream Pig

These is one of SimplyFun's newest products. The Dream Pig. It is a huge piggy bank. The idea is, as a family you pick something you want to save your money for and then you paint your pig with that as your theme. It is a great way to teach your kids the value of money and how to save. Can you guess what we are saving our money for?


A trip to DISNEYLAND!

Puzzle time

Trying to put together a SimplFun Squared Up Puzzle.








Concentrating hard!

Blast Off

Took the kids and some friends to blast off Sat.
They all had a blast :)


RJ, Savannah, Ethan, Seth (twins), and two others that are hiding.












Savannah loved the balls.

































Jared with old roommate, Doug, in the background. Doug's wife, Erica is on the side of photo. And one of their friends is in the pit with his daughter and Savannah.

We all had lots of fun.













Seth also joined us and after everyone left RJ and Seth enjoyed their first round of mini-golf.

Enjoying the outside.

RJ sitting with our pumpkins. These four came out of our garden. A little small but a perfect number. One for each of us.


















(The blue sled still in the yard from the big snow storm last week. I guess I need to clean up a bit.)

The next project.

This is the little room between the garage and the kitchen and to the right of our room. It was hard to find what to do with it at this point. (and is the same room that the window was replaced in) It has been used as a craft/junk room. Jared wanted to move the computer out her so the kids will stay out of our room more. (RJ loves to play on the computer and they both are in the room playing when I am on the computer making a mess of everything.) I wanted a place to put all my SimplyFun supplies. I need to get organized again. It wasn't fun doing business out of boxes. So this past week Jared created a work space.

















Jared made this desk and later we will either stain it or paint it. But it is working well right now. He also added shelving above.
















Now I have a place for everything.




































Building a bench to sit on to put shoes on and off.































The finished bench. He added hooks for coats and hats. A great place for to hang all the wet accersories when winter comes.

(Jared made both the bench and the desk out of scrap wood. Pretty good work, I must say.)