Five Carpenters: October 2009

Friday, October 23, 2009

Spirit Day!

Do you know how rare it is that my kids are all up, ready, fed and on time - let alone downstairs, happy & together in the morning?!
R A R E.
Maybe it's their excitement for Spirit Day which wraps up Red Ribbon Week. I think it's Dedan's favorite week of school, because he wears his favorite color everyday. (Yes, he has enough red clothing to wear 5 different red outfits)
Happy. Pledged to be drug free. Love their schools. A little bit crazy.
It's a good life today.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Crazy Cute

Red Ribbon Week Crazy Hair Day

Double-Daring Book for Girls: Dye your hair (pink) with Kool-aid

Monday, October 19, 2009

Best Vegetable Ever

As we walked up to D-man's school with an armful of these fall veggies (teacher requested for an activity) we could see the kids eyes get as big as saucers and hear their excited whispers of, "Pumpkins!"

What other vegetable gets such a hallowed reaction?

We enjoy pumpkins so much that last Spring we planted our first garden. All pumpkins. 3 different kind of seeds. 15 square feet in Grandpa's backyard. A few months later we had this beautiful full vine with lots of blossoms on it. Our anticipation grew exponentially as the vines began to take over the side yard.

Fast forward to October. My dad brought the entire harvest from our pumpkin garden to our house on one of his weekly visits.

The white one is smaller than my fist. At least our one orange pumpkin has an interesting shape and a cool stem!

Do you know how hard it is to pay attention to General Conference* on TV at home when you're a kid? This year I had a plan, a knitting plan. Dedan loved making this cute little faux harvest guy on a loom.

Emma used needles and started her own scarf (it's not finished yet). Something to do with their hands really helped my kids sit still. Probably the most peaceful Conference weekend we've had. Dedan was so proud of his crafty skills he took it to school and shared it with his class. Confidence building vegetable craft!

Come October who doesn't love pumpkin treats?....other than my husband, I mean. I found a couple of recipes for my Have To Try This file here and here. But my Chocolate Chip pumpkin bread is a must have in our house. I like you so I'll share my recipe.

2/3 c Butter flavored Crisco

2 2/3 c sugar

4 eggs

1 lb pumpkin, canned or freshly cooked (here's how)

2/3 c water

Mix it well!

Add:

3 1/3 c flour

2 t baking soda

1 1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking powder

1 t cinnamon

1 t ground cloves

Mix it up!

With a spoon stir in:

1 pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips

Divide into 2 greased bread pans. Bake @ 350 degrees for 70 minutes. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Tomorrow Nash & I are headed for the pumpkin patch with our buddies. A whole activity planned around pumpkins! I haven't even mentioned jack-o-lanterns or my mom's famous Dinner In A Pumpkin....

______________________________

*that's Mormon for our bi-annual broadcast from church leadership in SLC. 4 different sessions. 2 hours each.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Headstrong...to say the least

My 3 year old, Nash, woke up this morning sick of his hair - like smacking himself in the head, angry at the world, sick of his hair. He wanted to go straight to the "hair cut place". I offered to cut his hair since it's Sunday and his "place" is closed. He immediately started riffling through the bathroom drawers looking for the "suitcase" that has my hair cutting tools.

We got him all set up in a chair with the drape around his neck and I pulled out the scissors. "NO! I want the big thing. I want a Hollywood haircut...like Emma said." Emma had no idea what he was talking about, but we figured out he wanted me to use the clippers. He wanted a H.A.I.R.C.U.T. Nash has beautiful curls and I didn't know if I had the strength to buzz them off, so I called Har for reinforcement. Har explained to Nash that his hair would be really short, shorter than Daddy's. "YES!" Alright.

Our favorite neighbors came over for Sunday dinner (again) and as after dinner entertainment pulled out their copy of Fortune-Telling Birthday Book. Every month/day has a description of the personality for people born that date. Nash's was pretty accurate:Your positive and headstrong ways will carry you over many obstacles to success. You expect others to step aside or be trampled on. You are influenced by praise and flattery, rather than by direct appeal or command. You have your family's respect and devotion.

As I type this Nash is chasing Har in circle around the kitchen island, screaming "I already ate my lasagna!" while Har carries his plate of untouched lasagna in one hand and the pan of brownies in the other and replying to Nash's screams with, "You can have a brownie if you eat your lasagna."

Respect and devotion.

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Disneyland in {almost} October

I love having Disneyland passes. It's been great to run down on occassions when we can spare a day from school and life. Monday was one of those happy days!

The whole place was decorated for Halloween - gorgeously carved pumpkins everywhere, the Haunted Mansion was all Nightmare Before Christmas-ed out, the air was cool, Nash was dressed all in orange....great way to kick off my favorite month.It didn't hurt that our hour plus wait in line for Splash Mountain was rewarded with Mom in the front seat, taking the brunt of the water damage and screaming like a girl. (Nash is in the back with Har you just can't see him...he was screaming like a girl, too.)

Five Carpenters