A Birthday Boy!!

It's not Halloween....it's Luke's birthday!!!! We love you, Luker....Happy 10th Birthday!

Tasty Thursday- Pineapple Muffins/Cake

Pineapple Muffins or Cake
1 (20 oz.) can of crushed pineapple...DO NOT DRAIN
1 white cake mix

Mix 2 ingredients and bake as directed on cake mix box. You can either make muffins or cake...it's your choice!!!

Frosting
1Tablespoon softened butter
1 teaspoon almond flavoring
powdered sugar....start with 1/2 cup, then add more
milk...start with a Tablespoon, then add more


Whisk ingredients together until desired consistency.....add to warm muffins or cake. I doubled the frosting recipe for my cake (9x13).

YUMMY!

Wordless Wednesday-- Minnie Moo

My Hubby

I forgot to tell you that my hubby was amazing this weekend. On Saturday, he helped the boys clean out their closet....and boy, did it need it!! On Sunday, he made chili.........
and he was a machine, just folding and putting away the laundry.....

He's a KEEPER!!!!

Trick or Treat!!!!

Wow- what a chilly weekend... we had a fun day trick or treating on Saturday. I'm not sure why our village picked Saturday, but it just seemed too early to trick or treat. Anyway, here's Anna dressed as "Kit", the American girl doll....it was a shame that she had to wear a coat; no one could see her outfit....
Then there was Ben.....I mean Hillary Clinton. He had a very good time figuring out his attire. After trying on the clothes, something still didn't seem right. He finally broke down and made a statement that I thought I would never hear one of my sons say.......he said " I think I need a bra!!"
I was happy to help him out with that request but later I saw him stuffing socks into the bra....now that was quite a sight!!! So.....here he is......
Luke couldn't decide upon a costume so he basically used foam shapes to make a face and stuck them to a pillowcase and he wore the pillowcase over his head and called himself "Pumpkin head". Sorry no picture..... but we have LOTS of candy......

Sick boy, tired dog...

Ben came home from school yesterday and said he didn't feel good. He was running a fever and had a sore throat. Here's what our couch looked like at about 7:30 p.m. last night. A sleeping, sick boy and a spoiled, tired dog.

Tasty Thursday

I found this recipe in a Gooseberry Patch cookbook called "Speedy Suppers" and decided to try it.... It was a huge hit at our house!! I doubled the recipe and it was gone in a flash....I guess we're just little piggies here.

Mom's Creamed Chicken
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 egg yolk, beaten
2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste

Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat; add flour blending well. Gradually stir in broth, then milk. Reduce heat to low; cook until thickened, about 2 to 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove 1/4 cup milk mixture and gradually stir into egg yolk. Return egg mixture to milk mixture. Add chicken, salt and pepper; heat through. Serves 4-6. (small appetites)

I baked some biscuits and served the creamed chicken over the biscuits.....Excellent!!

Wordless Wednesday.....John & Jill

Flag Football

Ben (top right) enjoyed his last middle school flag football game last week. Because we have such a small school, we end up playing many of the small farming communities around us. During the last game some people from the other team called us "city-folk". We just had to laugh at that comment....they call us "city-folk" because our gas station has a Dairy Queen........ Big City-Folk, yep, that's us......

Leaves

We had a gorgeous weekend! Sunday the kids decided that it was a good day to catch leaves as they blew off the trees (a family tradition) so they went outside and looked for leaves floating through the air....
When they were finished....or too tired to run anymore.... they decided to make a huge leaf pile. They grabbed all of the rakes out of the shed but Andrew came out with the big gun....a leaf blower!!!!
Once the leaf pile was done, I made them pile in front of it and snapped a picture....I think it turned out pretty well.....what do you think?????

New haircut & vocabulary

As the father of 3 sons, John has learned a new word because he now has a daughter. What is the new word, you might ask???? Chin-bob (the name of the new haircut)

Tasty Thursday

Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 box spice cake
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
1/2 cup water
mini chocolate chips

Pour dry cake mix into a bowl. Add pumpkin, water and mini chocolate chips. Put into mini muffin tins and bake for about 10 -12 minutes.

These muffins started out as a Weight Watchers recipe until I decided to add the chocolate chips...hee, hee.

Wordless Wednesday....FALL.....lovin' it!!!

Ben's No Good, Very Bad, Day

Sunday was a very bad day for Ben. Nothing seemed to go his way....except for having donuts in Sunday School.

First of all, Ben was playing Luke's guitar when the string happened to pop and break..Bummer.

Secondly, Ben started a load of laundry and accidentally poured laundry detergent in the section of the washer that the fabric softener is supposed to be poured into, resulting in lots of bubbles at the end of the wash cycle...ugh! (see photo above)

Third, Ben was mowing the lawn and forgot to engage the blade.....wow!

Lastly, Dad asked Ben to mow in a certain direction so that the grass would not accumulate in the center of the mowing circle...well, someone couldn't do that either... rats!

So, I guess his day wasn't really THAT bad, but we're hoping its a better day tomorrow...

Did I mention that Ben is an honor student????? Go figure...

Mall Adventure

The best thing about this weekend was cruising the mall with our friends Mrs. Z and Madison. We motored down to the mall so Anna could make a Build-a-Bear, you know, the one I promised her when she had her teeth "wiggled out." So, we finally made it there and she made the cutest little monkey!!! Anyway, we had a great time laughing at all of the $100 Halloween costumes at Pottery Barn Kids....$100...can you believe it?? We managed to dodge most of the kiosk vendors that were trying to grab us as we walked by.

We found our way to the Food Court where Anna scarfed down 2 big pieces of Rocky Rococo cheese pizza...now that's a new record!!! Here are the little girls at lunch....
and here are the big girls at lunch too.....photo by Anna, the up and coming photographer....
We managed to visit all of the girly stores....Limited Too, Pottery Barn Kids, Libby Lu and Build-A-Bear.....even stopped and sank our fannies in the Love-Sac store. A fun day had by all!!!!

Our Precious Pups

Tasty Thursday.... Breakfast Burritos

Freezer Breakfast Burritos
(Luke thinks I should sell these at our local grocery store.... :) By the way, I don't add ANY of the optional ingredients and they are still yummy!!

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Ingredients

• 12 eggs, beaten
• 1 lb bulk sausage, cooked (or crumbled links)
• 1/2 cup chunky salsa (your choice of heat)
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• 24 flour tortillas (you can also use whole wheat)

Optional Ingredients

• 1 green pepper, finely diced (optional)
• 6 potatoes, shredded and fried until cooked through (optional) or hash browns (optional)
• jalapenos, slices (optional)
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies (optional)
• 1-2 garlic cloves, finely minced (optional)
• 1 onion, finely diced (optional)
• 1 tomato, peeled and chopped (optional)
• 2 green onions, sliced with tops (optional)

Directions

1. Scramble eggs in large skillet until done; stir in cooked sausage and salsa.
2. Warm tortillas in microwave 20-30 seconds or until warm and flexible.
3. Place 1/2 cup egg mixture into tortilla; roll burrito-style.
4. Freeze burritos in single layer on lightly greased cookie sheet.
5. When fully frozen, wrap burritos individually; place wrapped burritos in large zip-top freezer bags; freeze.
6. TO SERVE: Unwrap burritos from foil or plastic wrap that you used for freezing.
7. Wrap in a paper towel.
8. Cook in microwave until heated through (about 2 minutes).
9. Or thaw burritos (remove plastic wrap if used in freezing), wrap burritos in foil, and bake at 350 degrees for ten minutes.

Wordless Wednesday--The latest book obsession...

Anna's Birthday Bash

We decided to outsource Anna's birthday this year. She's never had a birthday party outside of home so we thought we would give it a try...and it was a success! Anna invited 13 of her good friends and we met at a local gymnastic club. The girls started out playing with a parachute and then graduated to trampolines, uneven bars, and later trapeze's. THEY HAD A BLAST! Did I mention they were worn out too???

During the last 20 minutes they let the girls try these beauties...they were setting up for the party after ours......a $250 party (yikes). What a blessing that we got to use them at all!!!
The girls sang happy birthday to Anna and she blushed, of course... (Anna is 2nd on the left)
Presents were opened and Anna got to feel a little like a teacher, showing her class all of the goodies....
and then we made a craft....a foam pumpkin treat bag that they could decorate with foam shapes or stickers, that they later filled with candy. Everyone went home sugared up and tired!! What a great party!!! Now.....let's start writing those thank you notes........

Firetrucks & A Party

We had a busy, but fun, weekend. Friday night we made our way to our village's Fire Prevention Week Kick-off event. Firetrucks, ambulances, dive teams, hazardous material units from around our area gather together so kids can tour all of the vehicles. The Flight for life helicopter even flies in and lands in the parking lot..how exciting! We had planned on meeting friends there but it was almost impossible to find them with all of the people there.

OH, yes, they had the "Survive Alive" house for the kids to enjoy.... (cough, cough)
We finally found our friends....they have a little boy (Ben) who's really into the "fireman" thing. He wore his own fireman coat....his Dad said " we wouldn't miss this event...it's like going to the world series for him." Here's Ben, his sister Elise, and Anna posing in one of the trucks.
Our older boys found some friends to hang out with too...aren't they cute!! Did I mention that the temperatures on Friday night were in the 30's?? Brrrrr... and they ran out of hot chocolate at the event.....Grrrrrr.
We also did this for Anna's birthday party on Sunday......more on this tomorrow.....