The Pumpkin Patch

Ailey's preschool had a field trip to the pumpkin patch this morning. Andy took the morning off and we all headed out there. It was supposed to be cold and raining, so we were prepared with our rain coats and boots. Luckily, the wind and rain waited until the afternoon, so we got a very nice trip to pick out pumpkins!

On the hay ride


Out in the pumpkin patch

Getting ready for the duck race!

Petting the kittens

MONSTER Cookies

I've got a recipe for "Monster Cookies" that I love. I usually make them around the holidays. Lots of yummy stuff in these suckers. This particular recipe comes from my Aunt Sharon who, I have to assume, came up with her recipe at a time when she was feeding her kids and lots of farm hands daily ... because I can't make her full recipe all at once. I can't even make the half recipe that she included in our family cookbook. No, I have to halve the half recipe in order to get this to fit in my mixer and be able to bake all the cookies in one day!

I wanted to make them last week for Andy to take with to his Habitat work day with a group of his co-workers. I spent the week wondering what to do about the fact that I haven't been able to find mini-M&Ms in the grocery stores lately. Maybe they are somewhere, and if I spent an afternoon visiting all the stores in the area maybe I'd find them. But do I need to explain that I don't have time for that?! I did look on the M&Ms website where their "where to buy" search turned up nothing. So I took to my usual Albertsons and decided to substitute mini-Reece's Pieces for the peanut butter chips. (I think the regular sized M&Ms are too big and I've gotten used to having the little ones in there.)

Friday afternoon rolled around, I pulled out the mixer, checked the recipe before beginning ... and realized I didn't have any butter. Seriously, how can I not have butter in the house?! So the cookies didn't get made. :( Now that I have my butter I'll be making them up the first chance I get!

In response to a recipe request, here is the 1/4 recipe I came up with from halving Sharon's half recipe. Thank you, Aunt Sharon!

MONSTER COOKIES

3 eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp maple syrup
1 stick butter, softened
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 cup 2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking soda
4 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
2 cups total of chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, mini-M&Ms

Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Mmm Mmm GOOD!

Dainty Baby

"Burp! Excuse me!"

September Pictures

September has been a busy month with Ailey going back to preschool and the rest of us getting back on a schedule too. Andy has been fine-tuning his "new" yard. We've gotten back into a church-on-Sundays routine too, with Ailey starting Sunday School and Marin and Silje trying their hardest to get used to the nursery. (::Sigh:: We'll get there eventually.)

Ailey, Marin and Silje watched Andy thatch the yard. He also reseeded the whole thing, so we now have a lovely green yard, and no longer because of the lovely moss!

Silje got herself "tuck!" (That's "stuck" in toddler speak.)

We made a trip to the zoo just a couple days before Ailey went back to preschool. I forgot my camera, but Eileen had hers, so we got some cute pictures. We also were lucky enough to be at the Snow Leopard exhibit when they let out the two babies. So pretty, and fun to watch as they scampered around! Ailey and Parker got to pretend to be baby snow leopards.

Ailey's penguin niche.

With Eileen at the otter and bear exhibit.

Silje liked Eileen's camera.

One of Marin and Silje's favorite things to do is color. We get out the big floor pad and let the crayons fly! Sometimes literally, of course, so they have also learned to love getting a wipe after we're done and cleaning the crayon marks off the floor. They're pretty good at it! There are no child labor laws against that, right?

Marin is pretty good at just chillin'.
Punk.

Cheese-ball. Cute cheese-ball!
Silje doesn't care how the food gets in her mouth, so long as most of it gets in there.

Happy Autumn to you all!

Playdate

Ailey and Parker had a playdate last week. A real playdate, just Parker, without his mom and little brother. Ailey and Parker were both so excited!

And honestly I was too. I've been trying to convince Parker's mom for more than a year that it would be really nice to have Parker here to play with Ailey, to give her someone her age to play with, to distract her from picking on her little sisters. (Finally Jen conceded!)

It was a fun afternoon. Ailey had someone to play with during baby nap time. I got some laundry done. Even Marin and Silje got excited to wake from their naps and find Parker in the living room.

The end of the playdate was, of course, a little traumatic. Ailey didn't want Parker to go. Wanted him to stay for dinner, stay the night, probably stay forever! To distract her from her sorrows I asked her to tell me about what she and Parker had done while he was here. That worked for a couple minutes, and once the comentary ended I suggested she take my camera upstairs and take a picture of the "dog park" she and Parker had created out of blocks for the dolls and their dogs. Something to remember the playdate by.

It worked. Because she stopped whining and proceded to take 15 more pictures of the walls, her books, me, the floor, and so on. It also helped to remind Ailey that she gets to go to Parker's for a playdate next week. Yay me! I mean, Yay Ailey!