3rd, Possibly 4th, to Last Halloween Post for Sure

We finally finished tarting up outside. I am so into it this year!








Oh! Oh! And I made the treat bags for Dash's teachers (I did smaller ones for the kids but didn't photograph them).

Each bag had two double chocolate brownies, a homemade caramel apple (that I had to make twice since the first batch stuck to the wax paper--grr) and a giant Hershey bar that I wrapped with a picture of our little Batman.

The Grill

I got a really, really great coupon from the place that did our Christmas pictures of Dash last year (buy one get two free! whee!), so we decided to do another batch for our cards this year. The appointment was for Saturday morning.

Thursday night Josh & I came home to discover that someone had replaced our perfect, beautiful child with a hillbilly--both his front teeth were broken into jagged little points. Apparently he had fallen off the play structure at school and chipped them. No one there noticed (which is a whole other conversation).

Anyway, we kept the appointment for the photos, thinking the chipped teeth wouldn't be obvious. Ahem.

Hai! Mai parents don't hold no truck with them fancy teef doc-turrs!

Changing my name to Cletus

So, if you're on our Christmas card list just know that we won't be offended if our 2008 card doesn't appear on your mantle.

(Ok, so yeah, we got them fixed on Monday. But it's still funny.)

Painting Pumpkins

We had our newest friends over for some grilled dogs and pumpkin painting this weekend. Dash had absolutely refused to take his nap or even endure a little quiet time before their arrival, so I wasn't optimistic about how things would go. Turns out Dash can totes hold his shit together, nap-free, until about 7pm.

I bought some small pumpkins for the kids to decorate. I figured the big ones would just be too unwieldy for them to maneuver.

I never cease to be amazed at how quickly and completely kids can cover themselves in paint.

I also bought some Mr. Potato Head-inspired pumpkin decorations. They're simultaneously cheesy and awesome.

See?

Oh, and I made cupcakes. The picks came from here. I think the hatchet is an inspired touch.

Cupcakes are a little bit of trouble to make so I took a lot of pictures.

You know, to show off.

The kids ate the frosting off of about three cupcakes apiece.

Then they ran their asses off.

Then, this.

He Can Has Razberries?

Yeah, he's covered in marker & still has the remains of the skull face paint from the day before. What?

How to Build a Better Chocolate Chip Cookie

I am not a baker. I am lazy and unwilling to make things from scratch. My last attempt at non-mix cupcakes resulted in little yellow hockey pucks that were somehow oily & dry at once. But for some reason I can't explain (I think probably because fall air acts like a drug on me and I feel invincible) I decided to make some cookies from scratch this weekend. And hey, not just from scratch: these fuckers required me to grind rolled oats into flour. And then to use whole wheat flour in addition. TWO TYPES OF FLOUR!

Anyway, I did it and they were, if I may say so myself, delish. Hearty but not "whole wheat-y." They're puffier than regular chocolate chip cookies, but not in a bad way. Anyway, if you're ever up early on a Sunday morning and feel motivated to grind your own rolled oats, I highly recommend these.

Ultimate Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from here)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup natural brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Place oats in a blender and process until it turns into a powder.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered oats, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4. In a large bowl, cream together butter and both sugars for 3 minutes on medium speed. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Gradually beat in dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips.
   
5. Roll or scoop dough into 2-inch sized balls and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
6. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

After I made these I was so inspired that I proceeded to bake a loaf of pumpkin bread.

Then I made the marinade for Char Siu Pork Roast which is in my Crockpot, filling the house with the scent of pork and hoisin sauce (they really should bottle it) at right this very moment.

Harvest

We met some new friends at our local pumpkin farm this weekend. God I love fall. And making new friends. And cute blond babies who hug.

It was so windy I was fairly certain one of them would blow off the top of the haystack pyramid.

When I asked Dash if he would take a picture with me like this was all, "nope."

He enjoyed the pony ride MUCH more than last time.

His horse's name was Dan wich amuses me to no end.

Here's when I passed out from all the cute.

They revived me in time to see this and then I died.

Cute baby jail.

The petting zoo was pretty much goats & sheep.

He refused to touch any animals in the petting zoo and eventually also refused to stand.

There's a bunny in there.

Dash kept trying to get Lis Ana to catch him & Lis Ana kept trying to get Dash to dance.

Lis Ana won.


This is good parenting, right? Instead of trying to keep him out of the path of the train we took pictures. See, it's funny because he can't read.

It took us about 10 minutes to talk him out of getting a rainbow and then a dolphin. Not that there would have been anything wrong with that.

He sat unbelievably still, but looked pretty unhappy the whole time.

Badass

There was a country band & Lis Ana spun and danced and all the little boys fell in love and started chasing her around.

Dash was pretty chill, though. 'Cause he knew she was leaving with him.

See?

Same as last year, we came home with not a single pumpkin. See you soon, Trader Joe's pumpkin bin.

[edited to add]

The photographer father of Lis Ana just sent these! Squee!