Archive | October 2009

Finally Something NICE in Regards to the Government!

Mondays for this family are always mildly bumpy but we managed quite well today! I printed out what I could last night for our Halloween unit and the boys burned through it in no time! So we did some beading AND stringing of tri-corner beads… but I will get into more detail about that later.

I spent a nice chunk of last night finishing up my pieces for our advent calendar… now all I need to do is assemble the actual calendar and apply some velcrow to both the pieces and the calendar. I am hoping to use this to get the kids a little more aware of the passage of time before an event! Oh and to celebrate getting ready for Christmas of course!

All 25 Pieces!

All 25 Pieces!

I have been working more on the ornament as well… I am about one colour away from starting on the beading. I am seriously debating budgeting in another perforated paper project… around the Christmas etc. projects I already have lined up.

Santa!

Santa!

So Halloween preparation in the Reinsch-Johnson home… well we started off with the letter for the book – B is for Bat! We sounded each letter out and then put them together and of course coloured carefully!

B is for Bat

B is for Bat

Then on to the letters – each boy got a Halloween themed letter to colour – THEIR letter. This is always exciting for Emanuel who absolutely loves saying that HIS letter is E. I figure that can be on the front cover of the lapbook.

Halloween Letters

Halloween Letters

The big activity of the morning was our 3rd Halloween one – hand puppets! I found this great UK craft site. They have stuff for all occasions… and 3 different Halloween hand puppets – the boys just didn’t chose the witch one (thank goodness it had a whole extra page of things to colour and cut out!). Zander spent the most time with his scissors being as sure as he could that there was NO white left around his ghost. I am really impressed how far they have advanced with their small motor skills.

Proud Puppeteers! (Gavin right)

Proud Puppeteers! (Gavin right)

In the afternoon we worked on two different kinds of beads… just like their mom the boys are addicted to the Perler beads. This time Zander worked further on his box sides and Gavin chose to make candy corn – in his own colours. I love the time they take to do it properly and the creativity. They are already coming up with more ideas for later!

Candy Corn and a Box Side

Candy Corn and a Box Side

And of course the old stand by from last Christmas – tri-cornered beads! This time in Halloween colours. Even Emanuel got in some stringing time. The plan is to make up ones  tomorrow to give away so that the boys can keep the ones they made today. Which of course pleased them to no end!

Busy Beaders (Gavin left)

Busy Beaders (Gavin left)

Ready to be Tied Off

Ready to be Tied Off

So for once I have NOT got a complaint about a branch of the government… Keep in mind I mean that I can complain about MANY MANY others, BUT the Student Loan people – they are my friends today. I finally got my repayment reassessed and for once – in MY favour! I swear I about fell over in shock… of course I WILL be calling them later this week to make sure I understood everything in their note. This came on the back of the bank once again screwing up with payments to 3 things. Just because Ken went in with MY bills and numbers… at least this time the manager is looking into it further to ensure we do not have to go through all of this  again – lesson to everyone – SAVE RECEIPTS! I am so glad we did!

Off To Bed We Go!

Off To Bed We Go!


Pumpkins + Kids and Men = Messy Fun!

What a weekend! Definitely kept me hopping. There were a few lovely surprises, lots of terrific friends and family stopping by and of course a nice and extended birthday party for Ken.

Friday night of course, marked the start of Ken’s weekend lan party. We had a nice group of guys over – Sean, Fydo, Ted and Nathan (though Nathan didn’t make it over until 11 or so after he was done work – he works afternoon/evenings). I guess they mainly played WoW but everyone seemed to have a great time, though they ate a batch of my frozen sugar cookies for a snack – with permission – so now Ted and Ken have to replace them for me! Yay!

Ken received some rather nice gifts – a couple movies, some alcohol and of course from Ted – Master and Commander the BOOK! Definitely an inside joke – Ken HATES the movie – so for Christmas Ted got it for him on Blueray and now the book! The look on his face was PRICELESS!

Saturday morning was a treat for the whole family – Grandma and Mike came up for a visit WITH Harley!!! Silly puppy stole a sugar cookie off the table when I walked away for a moment but otherwise was a lovely, well behaved puppy. The boys went out into the backyard and ran wild with the dog. Mom brought Ken a lovely gift – a US flag in a flag box… oh and an ornate over the top desk decoration!

US Flag!

US Flag!

Then to top it off they treated us to McDonald’s which was a first in a while for our family… Trinity had apple slices with the skin on and did so well! Since we did not have time for the play area as a treat we all went to PetSmart with Harley and grandma treated us to a brand new catfish! A big one (and once the tank is cleaned up better I will take a photo). Harley was on her best behavior there but the REAL star of the show was this guy:

TURTLE!!!

TURTLE!!!

That’s right an honest to goodness TURTLE!!! Young I guess, only 8 yrs old but AMAZING. The guy let the boys touch it and everything. Although Trinity’s favourites were not the fish or the turtle but KITTENS! She went almost crazy looking and talking to them! Makes me wish we COULD have one, but in this rental they do not want us to have any 4 legged pets. So once we are in a new long term rental or even bought our own place I am definitely going to see what I can do!

Kittens! (Gavin)

Kittens! (Gavin)

Harley the Not So Little Puppy!

Harley the Not So Little Puppy!

Sadly with the addition of Kitty the 2nd two of our neons disappeared! We figure they died and were sucked up into the filter. Since 2 neons is just not ok for this family – what sort of a school is that? – we plan on waiting until Thursday to let the tank settle and tidy it up a bit and then go back and get some more neons. A fun field trip for the boys as we can go through and talk about the different animals, see if they can count them, etc etc.

Last night Karyn and I sat down and scrapbooked – I had ordered some photos for a few Trinity related events ages ago and had the paper and no idea what to do with them. Karyn brought her Cricut and we worked out some really lovely pages. I explained to her my idea of how I want our Christmas cards to turn out and she seems to think she can help me out with a template. I find that is one of my main problems with making cards and pages – I often have an idea of what I want but can’t execute it! Although I would LOVE a Cricut!!!

From Our God-daughter Isabella's Birthday Party

From Our God-daughter Isabella's Birthday Party

Trinity's Birthday Party

Trinity's Birthday Party

Easter

Easter

Of course our biggest source of excitement and mess was the pumpkin carving party! Chris and Chris, Karyn, Ted, Sean and Fydo all were around for the momentous event. We had a total of 4 nice sized pumpkins to gut and carve. 3 were done on Saturday, one left for tonight for Ken to work on.

Ready to Go! (Gavin left)

Ready to Go! (Gavin left)

Chris did the carving while the kids “helped”. I am not sure who had more fun, though it was obvious out of all the boys that Zander was the most dedicated to getting every little bit of the ickies out of the pumpkins.

Zander and Daddy

Zander and Daddy

Aunty Karyn

Aunty Karyn

The Carving Pro!

The Carving Pro!

I am hoping to get some pictures off the kids in costume this week with the carved pumpkins, just have to find a spare moment and a nice spot in the house to do it. Oh, and convince Trinity that tutus are not torture! She is unsure of the poof.

Pumpkins and Kiddos (Zander left)

Pumpkins and Kiddos (Zander left)

We had a nice assortment of snacks and a lot of visiting time.

Mmm Snacks!

Mmm Snacks!

And tonight a nice tray full of pumpkin seeds  to roast for latter. I  roasted those tonight and tomorrow plan to make more beans before starting my serious Christmas baking. And of course, here is our recipe:

Step 1: clean the seeds. When you are carving your pumpkin, separate the seeds from the pumpkin flesh and strings. Was them well (usually putting them in a big bowl of water and rubbing them between your hands is a fast way to clean them) and let them drain in a strainer for about 30 min, then spread them out on a baking pan. Now just use a hair dryer to dry them quickly!

Iti s time to start preheating the oven. Turn it on and set it to 275 F

2. Spread the seeds on a cookie sheet and season them.

Spread the seeds evenly over a cookie sheet and lightly baste the seeds with melted butter, margarine, or vegetable oil.  There are many variations.  Here are the most popular, in order or popularity (we chose Halloweeny since that is what we had all the seasonings for):

  1. Savory: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt and 2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce
  2. Lemony: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon ‘Mrs. Dash” or lemon pepper
  3. Halloweeny: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon salt,  and 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice.
  4. Spicy: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  5. Natural: 1 teaspoon sea salt or other salt, 4 tablespoons melted butter

3. Roast the seeds.

Heat them in a 275-degree oven for 10 to 20 minutes until golden brown. DO KEEP AN EYE ON THEM, checking every few minutes and stir about every 5 minutes. Some ovens run hot and it can be as little as 10 minutes or as long as 30 minutes to roast them. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot or cold.

For milder flavor, simmer the cleaned seeds for about an hour in salted water and fry in deep oil. Or mix a tablespoon of oil or margarine to each cup of nuts and roast them at 250 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes until they’re golden. Sprinkle them with salt.

Mmm Seeds!

Mmm Seeds!

Tonight’s pumpkin story: From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer. Terrific illustrations it explains everything from how the plants get water to what the different leaves do in nice, simple terms.

From Seed to Pumpkin

From Seed to Pumpkin

The boys and I spent some time today working on our pumpkin lapbooks… the outsides are not done but I am very happy with the interiors! This marks the end of our P is for Pumpkin study so now we are spending  the rest of the week doing HALLOWEEN!!! I am not sure how complex of a book we will make but I am sure it will be fun, maybe B is for Bat or something of the same idea???

Emanuel's Pumpkin Lapbook

Emanuel's Pumpkin Lapbook

I got the basic Pumpkin set up from a free lapbook. Some of the links were dead so we improvised: For the rhyme Peter Pumpkin Eater we found another link for puppets, and instead of the section making words out of the letters for pumpkin we found a prayer to include. We took full advantage of the boys’ interest in perler beads and made pumpkins (Emanuel made HIS into a jack-o-lantern). I also hunted down a picture of a hedgehog with pumpkins that I will get pictures of tomorrow for the back cover. They are VERY happy with the resulting books!

Sewing has not been a priority this weekend BUT I have made some progress on my Santa and Ken has PROMISED me a plethora of patterns this week to get me caught up with all my ideas. I am looking forward to having my site properly running… then I have to start with advertising and the like… but it will be a NEW challenge and I LOVE those!

Fuzzy but You Get the Point

Fuzzy but You Get the Point

Since tonight is my local stitching group chat night and I have perler beading to do I really must get a move on! But all in all a busy and HAPPY weekend!

Mike and His Wee Girl

Mike and His Wee Girl

A Baking Marathon on a Birthday Day

As you can tell from the title of this entry we got caught up in more housewifely things and our hike just never happened. Not too huge of a loss since the weather had gone from basically decent to the other side of chilly. After another late night – this time due more to friends and a lengthy game of Talisman than Trinity (though towards the early hours of the morning she and Ken left for the living-room to let me sleep) we got started on the last few pumpkin activities.

Tiny Puppets!

Tiny Puppets!

We used our fingers and orange ink to make pumpkins for a scarecrow to count – 1 through 10… Messy but actually quite a lot of fun! Then Ken and Emanuel did his 5 Little Pumpkins book – Ken drew the gate and used emanuel’s thumb for the pumpkins. I love the way they turned out – Emanuel directed everything!

Happy Pumpkins!

Happy Pumpkins!

The final activity for our pumpkin lapbook was to make a wheel of the 4 spices found in pumpkin pie – cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. We took some white glue and pasted a sample of each spice on a quarter of the wheel… allowing the boys to smell each one. Which tied in nicely with the absolute from scratch pumpkin pie Ken made with them this evening.

He had to search pretty hard to find out you needed the smaller pie pumpkins and the process to prep it but he managed!

Pumpkin Pie From SCRATCH!

Checking Out the Pie Pumpkin (Zander sit)

Checking Out the Pie Pumpkin (Zander sit)

I had a special request for APPLE pie so we gave that a go as well – though we forgot about the TOP part of the pastry crust as we only bought two frozen pie crusts… so we did more of an apple.. dish! But the boys were VERY impressed. I used a nice recipe out of Company’s Coming:

Apple Pie

pie crust pastry,  your own or a mix

5 cups cooking apples peeled, cored and cut up

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp flour

cinnamon to taste (1/4 – 1/2 tsp)

sugar for topping (optional)

Roll bottom pastry and fit into a 9 inch pie pan. (we used a premade one) Cut off all excess pastry.

Prepare apples. Set aside.

Mix sugar and flour together. Put about 1/2 into pie pan. Fill with apples. Sprinkle rest of sugar mixture over top. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll pastry. Dampen edges, cover with pastry. Cut off excess pastry. Press and crimp edges. Cut several slits in top. Sprinkle with a bit of granulated sugar. Bake in 350 F oven until apples are tender, about 45 min. (we missed the top pastry but the boys didn’t complain!)

Placing the Apples (Gavin)

Placing the Apples (Gavin)

Apple Pie! Topless!

Apple Pie! Topless!

Add in the ghost cookies that the boys “helped” Ken with each step of the way and we were a busy baking family! Oh don’t forget the beans we put in, then had to take out and put back in (thank goodness it is a 7 hr recipe) as for some reason it didn’t clue in for either Ken or myself that we needed the OVEN at different temperatures for all 4 items!!! Opps!

Rolling Out the Dough (Gavin)

Rolling Out the Dough (Gavin)

Fun With Cookie Cutter (Zander)

Fun With Cookie Cutter (Zander)

Ghosties!!

Ghosties!!

Once all that baking and pumpkin fun was done I have to admit I felt very drained… but what a haul snack wise! Tomorrow early we will ice the ghosts and defrost the orange iced circle cookies… just in time for PUMPKIN CARVING!

Last night I managed some quality beading time – another wall for the gingerbread house, the lion for a little boy in Cali, and some leaves for the fall tree I plan on assembling on Sunday. I wish I had the large hexagon peg board as you need that one to make some of the larger leaf patterns. Maybe next year!

Roar!

Roar!

Stitching wise I am absolutely LOVING the perforated paper… enough that I may take a bit of my emergency money later and get ANOTHER ornament kit. This Polar Santa is going on our tree for sure! I can’t wait to get started on the mill hill beads! I was chatting with a couple other stitchers online and there does seem to be a consensus that the paper is rather fun to work with.

Santa!

Santa!

Oh and today’s story book: The Perfect Pumpkin Pie by Denys Cazet

Pumpkin Book!

Pumpkin Book!

I think I am in need of a full, UNINTERRUPTED night’s sleep… every night this week Trinity has woken up and made sure we were good and aware. It is amazing how much that takes out of a person once you are used to sleeping right on through the night again. We have tried a new set up in our room which has helped immensely. My mom gave me one of her old French screens… I put that up between our bed and her crib so she can’t see us directly – there have been a couple times when she has woken up and since she CAN’T directly see us, eventually gone back to bed. I am hoping the trend continues!

Divided!

Divided!

So today marks Ken’s 32nd year of life… which of course means a lan party, beer and friends… though this year pumpkin pie and apple pie (ish) instead of the traditional Birthday Boy favourite banana cream. This birthday marks a bit of a new beginning for Ken… I think the upcoming year will be his healthiest in ages… and with that comes a lot of wonderful things for the whole family – a happier Kenny is a happier and more content daddy and in turn the best of best friends I could ever have. So everyone, please wish him a happy birthday!!

Baby Kenny!

Baby Kenny!

Today!

Today!