Halloween Time!

The first picture was taken at the pumpkin farm. It was very strange for us to be at a pumpkin patch in OVER 100 degree heat! The only downfall of the day was Emily lost her cell phone. Thank goodness an honest person turned it in at the main office, and we did get it back. The Good Lord DOES answer prayers, and boy were we praying hard! We are so grateful to the family who turned it in. The next one is us at Nick's work party. Last years party was fun with clowns, cotton candy machine, and a costume contest. This year was very unorganized and well, booooring. We left and went to a little party thing at Sophies school instead. Katey is dressed as Alice in Wonderland,Zoe is Dorothy, I am Little Red Riding Hood ( felt more like a waitress at Oktoberfest though!) , Sophie was a Pop Star and EMily was a Devil Girl. The older two picked out and bought their costumes this year. (sigh). Don't let the picture of Zoe with the pumpking fool you! She picked out one seed and that was the end of that. Sophie put in a bit more effort, but she left all the carving to me. There are no pics of the older girls becuase our stupid camera bit the dust. I will be taking pics on Halloween with my cell phone and will upload as soon as I figure out how! Sadly the older girls forgot to but vaseline on their pumkins so they are already rotted. What a bummer, but we did get a few nights of them lit up all pretty. We are excited and getting ready for a huge neighborhood party on Halloween. A friend of mine even has a blow up Haunted House! I have my trusty fog machine and someone else has a black light and creepy music. We are going to rope off a common area and TRY to keep random kids out. Snort. I was thinking about stamping our guests hands or something. This is not going to be free food and drink for EVERYONE. Just our friends, and friends of friends. (its a saftey issue, parents tend to drop off kids unsupervised)
We are going to have food, drinks and of course COSTUMES!!! Mine is a secret so you will have to wait and see! Happy Haunting everyone!!!!

Its Raining!

It is raining, here in southern California, in October! That is pretty much unheard of. So we got off to a rather late start today. ( I blame the dark and gloomy weather) I had to dig out a raincoat for Sophie ( yes, I made her walk to school, it was only a bitty drizzle after all!) and just when I was going to head back to bed, Zoe finally woke up. I get her breakfast and start singing ( she is still young enough to enjoy my "singing") Its Raining, its Pouring, The Old Man is Snoring... so she tried to sing it back to me and goes... "Its Raining, its Boring, Its boring , the old man Is Boring!!" ha ha, my little sunshine brightened my gloomy day!

Gravy!

I know most of you (if you are on Facebook) don't respond to every status, but this was too funny not to share again. I have been in a cooking mood. The other night I made Chicken Fried Steak with biscuits and gravy. Well, Zoe fell in love with the gravy. Coincidentally,Sophie is doing nutrition in school. So Sophie is like, " biscuits are in the grain group. Steak is in the meat group. Milk is in the dairy group." Zoe pipes up and says, " Yeah! and Gravy is in the Gravy group!!" oh yeah, thats my girl!!! I was just surprised she didn't invent a chocolate group. Gravy works for me. Of course the BEST gravy i have ever made was yesterday. I roasted a turkey and had all the fixins, and because it was out of the blue and NOT a holiday..... it turned out beyond perfect. Well, Happy Columbus day all!

Bless Me!

Its that time of year, cold, flu, and allergy season!! WE have all been pretty miserable. Here I am on a beautiful saturday, stuck on the sofa and chugging dayquil. I had things I needed to do, places I wanted to go ! I am grateful we didn't really have any plans for this weekend other than household projects. So far we have not had any wildfires near us, am keeping my fingers crossed on that one. I am going to make a homemade chicken stew for dinner, cuddle up with the kids (some who are already snifflin, uh-oh!) and watch movies. Hmmm maybe a bad cold isn't such a bad thing after all!

Its that time of year!

Halloween Decorating time!!!This year I have some really great neighbors who love Halloween as much as I do, so we have a friendly competition going. This is the first year I am putting decorations out back, because we are have a "block" party in the field behind our house on Halloween night. I am nervous that the local kids are going to walk off with some of my stuff though. We have so much cool stuff planned. I need to go through all my boxes thoroughly, I still have a lot of party favors and stuff left over from last year. It just in dissaray because the little ones tore it all out while I was looking for things and I just shoved it back in, not really looking. I did lose two strands of light this year, may they rest in peace! Today are dental appiontments for all four girls after school, ugh. We will find out how much it will cost to replace Katey's broken retainer.. grrr. In the mean time I am happy setting up all my decor,with out helpers destroying it all behind me. Happy Haunting everyone!!!!

Lead Me Not

Lead Me Not into temptation. No sugary, carb filled snacks shall pass my lips. No carb filled, salt loaded, baked in the toaster oven but taste fried treats shall meet my mouth. Snort. Had ya going didn't I?? I WAS doing really well on the "healthy eating plan" till my husband dragged me out shopping this afternoon... Yes he really did talk ME into going. I DID find a ballgown... for $25. Thats four. yes four years I have spent less than $30 for my gown. wooo hoo. Anyway, I was headachey, and grouchy and In and Out burger was on our way home... It was sooooo good. Burger, fries, soda. So old fashioned, simple and yummy. Totally kid food and I loved every bite. I was working on fighting a migraine and I SWEAR that hot greasy food helped stay it off. Hey I worked out hard this morning, so I deserved a treat right? So right now I am typing away ignoring the siren song of salty, fatty, greasy, carb filled snacks calling my name. Wish me luck! I DO still have to fit that new gown!!!

In the where??

Ok, I had posted something on FB ( for those of you who are not members, its Facebook) and realized I had to clarify. I had said..".I ate fresh rasberries, with organic yogurt and strawberry o's from Trader Joes. Zoe is addicted to the berries and keeps getting in the fridge!" Well, first of all the berries were from a cool Korean market we found.(not trader joes, and I don't know where we got the yougurt... ) Ok, the fridge thing got me thinking and my Bidwell, (yes, BIDWELL) sense of humor kicked in. I had visions of Zoe actually sitting IN the fridge eating berries. (this did NOT happen) anyway so I had to say that Zoe was not IN the fridge but kept opening the door and stealing berries. For some reason this just cracked me up. (the vision of Zoe in the fridge, not that i would endanger her and let her do that. Whew. Covering my rear is getting tiresome!) Anyway, the berries were good and I got a good laugh at myself this morning! I think I need a nap.