piratesinpolkadots: A little this and a little that......

Boy have I been busy! I haven't even had time to post. Well here are a few things I've been up to, in no specific order. About a week ago I went and visited a cousin i haven't seen in many moons. I had so much fun! We sat and chatted and our kiddos played like we did when we were little :) We have so man things in common which is crazy for the number of years we've been outta touch. I can't wait for more visits with her and her beautiful children.

My parents got moved, well for the most part. I said good bye to the house I grew up in, and have shared so many memories with. I held it together well, until I got in my car and was by myself. Then ohh did the tears come. Now don't get me wrong, I'm very happy for the change for my parents. They needed this. There will be many many new memories in the new place, but there is something a little sad about letting go of the place you grew up in. As soon as we got my mom mostly moved my dad left for his annual elk trip in eastern Oregon. He looks forward to this trip so much each year and about the time he left I'm sure he was in need of a little away time =] I hope he gets some rest in cause as soon as he's back it's crunch time to get the rest of the old house moved.

I went with Nathan on his first grade pumpkin patch trip. The weather was warm and sunny, got to know some of the new mom's and brought home a Green pumpkin for Zakary. Then we had our Girl Scout pumpkin patch trip in which it down poured on us. We had a good time. we went to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. This is there first year of having a patch and the kids really enjoyed it. It was a more farm like patch, not so over commercialized like most of them are. We will be going back next year. Kaitlynn went to the haunted houses with some of her friends. She's the perfect age for it where it's fun to be scared. Lucky for me she's going with all of her girl friends and not in the shoulder of a boy to make her feel better, well not yet at least but I know it's coming soon. Rebekkah and Nathan had there Harvest parties at school. No costumes this year. It seems the schools take more and more away from them each year. Sure isn't anything like what it was when I was a kid. I am happy to say Zak's babysitter is back from her Australia trip. It was fun having Melissa and Kylee stay here though. It kind of gives me my "baby" fix having Ky around :) Zak is still very much my baby though, and he knows it. It will be good for all of us to be back in our routines. Sports is even over in a few weeks and life will be a bit less crazy. The kids like playing, it's good for them, just hectic to be in four places at once though right!

Last weekend I needed some me time, and what better thing to help me relax than baking. I made all sorts of fun things. Kaitlynn and Zak were home so they helped, mostly by tasting everything =] I made rainbow jello, Green velvet pumpkin spice cupcakes, and a pumpkin pie!

The rainbow jello I saw on one of the blogs I follow. It looked so fun, and was. All the kids loved it.

The green velvet pumpkin spice cupcakes are something I created, and boy did they turn out yummy. I took my red velvet recipe, which I got from the yummy Paula Dean, I put green food color instead of red, and pumpkin pie spice instead of cocoa powder. The frosting was vanilla butter cream with green food coloring so it matched too. I had some eye ball decorations so they looked like little cyclops and three eyed monsters. Zak looooved them, as he loves anything green. He takes all the green gummy bears out of the bag when I buy those and eats them, and those are my favorite flavor gummy bear!

And my pumpkin pie! I bought a pumpkin and baked it, mixed it up and baked my pie. The crust was store bought, I admit it, I need to practice on my pie crust. I made some pumpkin pie tarts to go with it too!

Here are some pictures of it all........