Pumkin fun and sweet treats

Carving pumpkins is always an activity everyone looks forward to. The older girls really enjoy finding unique ideas to carve into their pumpkins and like doing very intricate designs. Because I usually end up doing at least one of the little girls in addition to my own, I like to keep mine simple!

Ninny jumped right in, had no qualms about getting slimy. Picking out the seeds one. at. a. time.

Ava doesn't mind getting messy either. She did grab more than one seed at a time, and did a pretty good job of cleaning hers out this year. I only had to scrap the sides for her, she did the rest. She likes to create her own designs, and draws them on paper, then on the the pumpkin.

 Michaela had an original idea this year. She had a jack face, with a guitar going through his mouth with "rock on" above it. It was pretty neat.

 Payden was the "scream" for halloween this year, so she carved that into her pumkpin. Here is Ninny poking little holes in hers with a toothpick. I think it made her feel like she was carving it!

 Go Michaela!

 As I said, I keep mine simple. This year, I just got out my drill and drilled a bunch of holes all over it. It was fun and looked really neat!

 Afterward, we had chocolate pudding with cool whip on top. It was pretty good, but the little kids liked it best, I think.

 Another day this week, we wanted to do caramel apples, but always find them difficult to eat. So instead, I cut them up and we drizzled (or dumped, as the case may be) our caramel, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and nuts on top. It was very good. Fall rules.

Ava's Art

This is a sample of Ava's awesome abilities. She is a natural artist, and always has been. I can remember her drawing very sophisticated things at 3 and 4.

She is now almost 7, and she amazes me with her talent.

 The other day her class went on a walking field trip to a home nearby that kept bees. They learned about bees and the process of honey making. They also got to taste fresh honey.

 She drew this picture tonight, and said that this was a boy bee. I started looking for body parts (he he) but she was thinking something else.

They had told her that the female bees do all the work and make the honey, and the male bees just sit around drinking the honey.

 So her drawing depicts a lazy male bee, watching bee tv (see the remote in his hand?) while drinking honey with all his other legs. There is also more honey on the table behind him. See his crossed legs, and one arm behind his head?

This girl astounds me.

 I should have her sign it.

I bet it will be worth money someday!

On catching spiders and cats

 I love the house we are renting. It is small and cozy and doesn't take long to clean. Doesn't take long to get dirty either, but oh well. We do have lots of spiders, however, in the basement. Really a lot. I got some glue traps and they are filling up. I acutally just looked at the one I took a pic of last night, and it looks like there are 3 new spiders on it. I guess I am glad the glue traps are working, but I wonder how many there are that aren't on the glue traps.

They are also good at catching cats, as evidenced by the cat fur on the trap. Have you ever watched a cat tear through the house trying to remove a glue trap that is attached to their stomach? Highly amusing.

This one is a huge bugger. The pic doesn't do it justice. It's big. *shudder* I have sprayed, but I am thinking I need to do a bug bomb. The only problem is the cat, keeping her in the car for the time of the bomb. I have sprayed around the inside and outside of the house, it doesn't have seemed to help. Or maybe it has, and we would have had a bigger spider problem. Perish the thought.

All I want for Christmas....

Can you tell what this is?

 It is the tiny little tooth that used to reside in Ava's mouth! She was so excited to lose this tooth. It had been loose for a while, and it seemed to her that EVERYONE had lost a tooth except her.

 It was very loose on Friday, she had worked it until it was sticking straight out. I told her she had until bedtime to pull it out or I would, since I didn't think she should go to sleep with it like that. I took Payden to a party, and when I came back, I was greeted with her triumphant smile, minus one tooth!

 Side ways pic. Driving me nuts. She was so happy to get her money from the tooth fairy! Her teeth are so tiny; like much of the rest of her. Except her eyes! But really, that tooth was so small I couldn't believe it. It was the size of, I can't think of anything that small. Smaller than a pea, maybe the size of a small lady bug, or smaller! I swear the diamond in my wedding ring is bigger than that tooth. Anyway, very small, and a very happy little girl!

Its fall!

On Sunday after conference, we went for  a drive to look at the fall colors and take some pictures. It was a very nice day, clear skies and warm. A lot of the pics I took are sideways, and since I can't seem to change that, here are the ones that aren't!

Silly girls.

Michaela took her guitar and wanted some pics with it.

Ok, this one is sideways, but so cute I had to put it in here!

We also went on a short easy trail for a little walk. It was a Mormon Pioneer trail, or so the sign said. We had fun!

Hogle Zoo

On Friday, we had the opportunity to go to the Hogle Zoo. A neighbor of ours offered us to go with her on her family pass, so we got to go with friends and it was free! It was sort of hot that day, but gorgeous.  On Fridays the girls get out of school early, so we went right when they got home.





Michaela loves me for the above picture! This monkey has a little baby in her arms, it was very cute. 

 The zoo had a new baby elephant, the first born at the zoo. It is a girl name Zuri. We spent a lot of time here, as she was very cute!

 Watching the baby elephant.

 Playing on the hippo statue!

 We thought this sign was so funny!

 Ava was so excited to see the giraffes. She really loved them.

 The train ride was fun, and I love this picture. This little girl is in Ava's class and is our neighbor; they have made great friends and love to play together. I feel like it was really an answer to prayers.

 My big girls on the little toy!

 Michaela was able to establish a relationship with this huge goose and sat and chatted with it; it answered!

 Ava looks good as a turtle.

Never too old.....

We had a really good time, and I was excited to make a new friend. She invited us to go again before the season ends, which sounds good to us. Here's to great neighbors and new friends!

"Sun" dried tomatoes

The new settings on blogger are driving me nuts. It seems the pictures just don't do what I want them to do. Oh well!

I had some more tomatoes from the garden here, and thought I would try making "sun" dried tomaotes. I sliced them, tossed them with olive oil, seasonings and kosher salt,

and then put them on a cookie sheet. I put them on my oven's lowest temp, which was 175, and watched them. And watched them and watched them and watched them. It's a good thing it wasn't too hot that day because it took all day. I don't even remember how long, but it was a really long time.

 They are done when they are dry but still kind of rubbery. I put them in some pasta with some olive oil, butter and seasonings and they were SO GOOD. I will be making these again when I find myself with extra tomatoes!