Pumpkin cookies

Today, we made our first round of pumpkin deserts.  The first pumpkin that met its death was used for pumpkin cookies.  Mischief assured me that she would let me make something out of her pumpkins that she got, and she chose the cookies.  I have never made anything from real pumpkins before, so this was a first for me.  The extra two sets of hands really helped me out!

To start with, we had to butcher the pumpkin.  Mischief picked the pumpkin to be used for the cookies, and said, "Here you go.  Use this one, but be really gentle because I'm gonna miss him."  Then, she turned to her pumpkin and said, "I'm sorry, but you're gonna taste really good in those cookies!  But, boy am I gonna miss you!"  And, she gave it a little pat as she was handing it over.  So, I cut the pumpkin and had a lot of help cleaning it out.

He really just wanted to play in the goop.

 

 

 Then, we put the pumpkin on the cookie sheet to bake.

After the pumpkin was baked, I peeled the skin off and put it in the blender.  When the blender makes noise, the kids go running and screaming into the other room to be goofy about the noise.  Then, I asked the kids if they wanted to push the button on the blender, and that only brought a few tears when they got scared!

yummy pureed pumpkin goo

Then we made counting lessons out of adding all the ingredients together.  When we finally got everything blended, the kids got to mix it all together.

And they only made a slight mess of stuff flying out of the bowl!

 At last, we got all of the stuff mixed together, and it was time to make the cookies.  When the cookies came out of the oven, I heard, "oh pumpkin!  How I missed you!  But you sure are tasty!"  I believe she has a weird way of mourning...

yum yum

I think we should call it a success!  They sure are tasty!

Things I Say to my Children

Today added a few phrases to my new book:

"Stop licking the bark of the tree!  You are not a brontosaurus!"

When Mayhem did not want to lay down for bed, my response was, "Down, Doggy, down."  When he popped up, "Stay!"  So he laid down and stayed down, after he barked at me.

All in a day's work...

Sealed with a Kiss

And so it begins...

Mischief has been having issues with a friend in her class who is not always nice to her.  Well, on the other hand, she tells me she has these other little boys who follow her around helping her when her other friend is not nice.  There is one little boy who told his mother and grandmother he always tries to sit next to Mischief, and is unhappy because all the other little boys sit next to her.  He also told them that he likes to make sure Mischief is, "ok."

He must really think that Mischief is something special, because, today, when her friend stepped on her lady bugs and smashed them, this little boy gave her a kiss so she would not be sad about her lady bugs.

He was bragging about it when they left school today, but Mischief will not say anything about it.

I guess she is not one to kiss and tell.

Godzilla

Considering that my children are four and two years old, I should not have to explain and listen to stories about Godzilla.  But, alas, I do.  Mischief was allowed to watch a two minute youtube video about Godzilla after she found her father's Godzilla doll when we were cleaning out the garage.  She has decided that Godzilla is a nice monster who likes to stomp on mean monsters.

Hm... Some of her Godzilla stories are a bit skewed, like Godzilla fighting with the good soldiers to knock down the America flag.  But, none the less, we have daily Godzilla shows put on for us!  And all of this started because of Daddy and his toy.

Steam Vac

I am becoming obsessed with keeping my carpets clean.  I have too many pets and kids (and the husband) that get the carpet dirty.  I have been using a Bissell steam cleaner that is not actually a steam cleaner, but uses hot tap water and a lot of chemicals.  I am having issues with the chemicals, so I am looking for a real steam cleaner.  Please, suggest away and help me out!

New Teacher

Mischief has a new teacher this year for preschool, and this is a big deal to her because she had the same teacher for the last two years.  We have been gearing her up all summer for her new teacher, and she seemed excited.  She seemed excited when she got to go to school on "Meet the Teacher" day.  She seemed thrilled to be a "Fantastic Fish," as this is the name of her new class this year.  She was also very excited to have some of the same classmates this year that she had last year.  Even the first two days of school this week, she was inquisitive and somewhat excited about her new teacher and new class, until the last day of the week...

Mischief asked me to put her hair in a ponytail to go to school, and she quickly changed her mind, sobbing that she did not want her new teacher to see it!  I have no idea what the problem was, but all she could say was that she wanted to go to her old teacher's class and show her the ponytail.  And, while she was there, she would just stay there for the day!  Finally, I gave in and took the ponytail out, and everything was fine...

This is gearing up to be an interesting year!

Baby Elephant

Today we had a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Through connections at work, Aunt Laura had the chance to take her family to the Indianapolis Children's Zoo for a chance to pet the new baby elephant, named Kenali, who was born in July and is seven weeks old.  Aunt Laura asked if I would bring the kids to her so she could share this unique opportunity with them.  Of course, the kids are always to see Aunt Laura every time they can - even though Mayhem now calls her "Bug Laura."

When we went to the elephant building, we were shown a mold of the elephant's molar and a real tusk off one of their elephants.  We were also shown a hair off the tail of the elephant that I would have believed if they had told me was a piece of wire.  After a little bit of an informative session, we got taken straight into the elephant barn where the baby is very, very playful and quite the joy to watch.  Mischief was in awe and kept petting her.  Mayhem, however, had to be held and kept pointing to the mother saying, "Big Elephant!"

All in all, it was an awesome and unique opportunity they will never have again, so we thank Aunt Laura for this chance.

Kenali liked Mischief, too!