Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Monday Mom – Neetika:
Happy Frankenstorm! If you are reading this from the East Coast, I hope you are safe and dry. Hopefully you have your candles ready and pots filled with water. At this point, I don’t know what we’re all in for. We are in New York City—translation: islands surrounded by water. The mayor has announced that the transit system is shutting down Sunday night—now that’s a big deal. My husband works on Wall Street—among the most vulnerable parts of Manhattan—and I’m relieved he doesn’t need to go in. Whatever we face, we face as a family, and that’s somewhat reassuring.

We live on the third floor of a walkup so I’m not too worried about flooding, though our car is parked on the street. My major concern is losing power. Since Haley is out of the infant stage and can handle a lot more, I know she will be all right. Yet it’s still nerve-wracking to be unable to guarantee her safety.

Perhaps the most annoying feature of this weather system? Its disruption of Halloween! We were planning to go to a Halloween Fair over the weekend, but the weather just didn’t look too great. I really wanted to show Haley off in her elephant costume—she looks too adorable in it. Luckily, she doesn’t really get the holiday anyway. We’ll always have the cute pictures. One day we’ll look back and laugh about how they were all taken indoors.

From Wednesday Mom – Janelle:
Our family headed out to our local pumpkin patch last weekend.  The weather has finally cooled down a bit and it was a gorgeous morning to enjoy some fall activities.  The kids were looking forward to it all week long, and so was I.

We arrived right when the farm opened so we had the whole place to ourselves.  Before we headed to the patch we visited the petting zoo, played on some tractor tires, jumped on a giant pillow/bouncy thing and rode on a little train.  It was fun to see how much more Tate could do this year than last.  Next we boarded the hayride which took us out to the patch.  It wasn’t a “true” patch where the pumpkins were growing on the vines.  More like a bunch of pumpkins thrown out in the field to look like a patch.  No problem, because the kids didn’t know any better.  There were tons of pumpkins, large and small, covering the ground.  The boys each picked out one of their favorites while I was trying hard to get some pictures.  The boys wouldn’t stay still long enough, but that’s okay.  Jack and Tate were happy with their choices and we loaded back up on the hayride to return to the  farm.

We grabbed some overpriced hot dogs for lunch and quickly grabbed our seat for some silly pig races.  Yes, that’s right, pig races.  The owner of the farm trains pigs to race by bribing them with Oreo cookies… only in Mississippi.  The workers put on a little show and we watched the pigs race around.  Jack loved it.  Tate had already lost his patience by the time we grabbed our seats.  I guess that’s what happens when you get up at 4:30am.

We had a great morning exploring the pumpkin patch and came home to decorate our front porch.  Soon we’ll carve our pumpkins and be set for Halloween.  If only we could keep the candy corn dish filled for more than a day.

So yesterday I was trying to figure out what I would write for today’s post… With it being Halloween weekend and all, I thought I would be really original and write about that.

Andrew is having a Halloween party at school so after work, I picked him up and we bought grapes (and 9 million other things) for the party. I signed up for that so I could delude myself into thinking that he MIGHT eat something healthy. Yeah, right! If I were in a room full of cookies, brownies and candy, the last thing in the world I would go for is a handful of grapes.

I got home, made dinner for Andrew and myself, played cars with the little guy while explaining for the hundredth time that just because his new movies have been shipped from the store, they don’t arrive at the house the second we click “BUY” on the computer. I made lunch, picked up the mail, paid bills, packed up the car and started to freak out about how much work I still had to get done.

Somewhere around 11:30 last night, I started to fall asleep at the keyboard mid-brief. I got up this morning at 6 and started working on it again (there are 5 more that are all due on the same day next week). So in the insanity of being in “brief mode” I forget all about my post.

Andrew is napping right now, but in an hour they’ll get all the kids up and throw them into costumes for the big Halloween parade at the school. Somehow I managed to remember both my video camera and my regular camera so the immediate world will be able to check out my guy. He’s dressing up as Woodie from Toy Story (although he’s also claimed to be dressing as Pluto, a chicken and a doggy named Skittles). I was really looking forward to leaving work early, taking Andrew home after the parade and actually spending a good chunk of time together – but work has again conspired against me…

Work seems to have a habit of doing that at the most inopportune times.

Anyway, have a great weekend everyone and happy Halloween!

All week Jack’s school has been doing nothing but preparing for Halloween. Every day when I pick him up he has a new piece of artwork relating to the holiday.  He tells me how much he loves Halloween and can’t wait for the “tricks and treats.”  He has a big party on Thursday that I hope to attend.

We pass by several houses on our way to and from school that are decorated with spooky things.  He gets so excited every time we pass by and shouts, “mommy, look at those giant blow up pumpkins, or look at that icky spider.”  It’s so cute to hear him get so excited, but starting to get repetitious when I see a giant yard ornament and the next second Jack will shout out what it is.  Next it will be turkeys and then Santa Clauses… oh my!

This year Jack is going to be a Ninja!  His father found the costume when he was deployed last year and visited Singapore.  It’s a cute little outfit, complete with the hat and long dark braid.  Jack is excited about it and has even mastered his ninja kicks and punches.  He has been given specific directions NOT to kick or punch anything or anyone.  Tate is going to be a pumpkin because he is my lil’ pumpkin.  My husband and I haven’t decided on a costume yet.  We better hurry up and think of something before the weekend arrives.

I look forward to seeing all the little kiddies dressed up in their favorite costumes.  I hope you and your families have a wonderful Halloween!

Hey everyone!   It’s Andrew.

I know this is usually mommy’s gig, but she’s in the other room getting my food together for school tomorrow.   I scrambled up onto the couch and took over her laptop.

Today was so much fun!  We’ve been learning about police this week in school.  I like the flashing lights on their car.  But I think their lights should be yellow.  Yellow’s my favorite color.

They took us all outside on the playground, even though it was cold.  Someone put my jacket on me backwards!  I tried to stop them, but they didn’t listen.

When we got outside, there was a really big policeman there.  He had a dog with him!  I love dogs.   This was a special police dog.  He did lots of tricks for us, like finding stuff the policeman hid on the playground.   They told us that the doggy helped the police catch bad guys and keep us safe.   That’s a really important job.  I want to have an important job one day.

I got to pet the dog.  He gave me kisses.  It was really cool.  Maybe I can have a job where I work with dogs when I get older.

Mommy asked me what I wanted to be for Halloween.  She vetoed my first two ideas (Nana and daddy).  I wasn’t really serious about the first two… I’m going to be a doggie!  I even got to pick out my own costume.

And then when we got home…uh-oh!  Mommy’s coming back into the room.  I better get off the computer.  Catch you next time!

_____________

I love talking with Andrew.  Most of the time I think we actually understand each other.    This is what he told me about his day yesterday – well, he told me a majority of it anyway.  In words like “doggie” and “outside,” letting me extrapolate the rest.

I wish we got to spend more time together during the week while we are both awake.  But I love every minute of the moments we do have together.   Hope you enjoyed meeting the little guy.  He may make another appearance and guest write a post or two…

Have a good weekend everyone

It’s hard to imagine Halloween is just around the corner. With temperatures still in the low 80’s it just doesn’t feel like Fall has arrived. Although, last Sunday, when Jack and I were strolling through the neighborhood on our daily walk, we were fascinated by all the orange and black that seemed to take over our street. This is the first year of Jack’s life where he can somewhat grasp what Halloween really is. He pointed out every pumpkin, scarecrow, bat and witch he could get his eyes on. I’m sure he will quickly learn that candy is a large part of Halloween, too!

Seeing all the decorations from our walk inspired me to be a little festive and bake some Halloween cookies. Jack was my assistant and we had a blast making a mess in the kitchen. We turned on the iPod, listened to some “scary tunes” and started in on the fun. Jack helped me pour in all the ingredients and mix the batter. We made some yummy chocolate and vanilla sugar cookies with candy corn on top. It is a great kid-friendly recipe to help teach your little one(s) the joys of baking. I wanted to share the recipe with you so you and your little one(s) could experience the spirit of Halloween just like we did.

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• About 36 candy corns

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place butter and sugar in a medium bowl; beat with a wooden spoon until combined. Beat in egg yolk, vanilla, baking powder, and salt. Add flour, and mix until a dough forms.

2. Chocolate Variation: Reduce the amount of flour given in the recipe to 1/2 cup. Add 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder along with the flour in step 1, and proceed.

3. Scoop out level teaspoons of dough, and roll into balls (chill dough briefly if it becomes too soft to handle). Place balls on baking sheets, 2 inches apart.

4. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are firm and cookies are dry to the touch (do not let cookies color), 10 to 12 minutes.

5. Remove from oven; gently press a candy corn into center of each cookie (surface of cookies may crack slightly). Let cookies cool completely.

Happy Baking….. ’til next time!