Bucke-whew

Once the jar of warm fuzzies is full the pre-schoolers get a treat. The first jar full earned them a trip to the pumpkin patch. And this is where I welcome you to Complaint Center. OMG, it was so stinkin' hot out there. There was NO shade within miles. Every pumpkin had been picked and then tossed to the way side to rot and make us walk even further out to find a decent pumpkin that isn't slowing rotting inside and squishy on the outside. Did I mention 12 school buses pulled up when we were in line?

It was a sad pumpkin patch. Sad, sad little pumpkins.

Monkey found it funny to pick-up the hundreds of rotting pumpkins and say "ewe gross" and throw them back down in disgust.

Bubbie found one and tasted it for ripeness.

Bubs and his friend waiting for the women to finish shopping.

Every one's got a pumpkin and ready to get back on the wagon to air conditioned cars.

Thanks warm fuzzies.

plenty of pumpkins

While I slaved over the sewing machine working on Monkey's Halloween costume the hubster helped the nuggets with their pumpkins. I love the idea of making Halloween costumes but the sleeves on her dress are a hot mess. But, it will do for a costume and at night time.

Soon after this Bubbie dumped out of the chair and now has a red sympathy scrape on his head.

along comes mr. aligator, quiet as can be

Grandma Simpson taught this to Monkey over the summer. I don't do songs so I'm glad someone taught it to her.

I did it! I made the apples

It feels good to get things done. I bought all the things needed to make Carmel apples. Normally, I buy them and then time passes and then the holiday has past. I not only made them, but there's actually one still left. The kids are on the fence with them. The hubster really likes them. Fun to make and I'm glad I completed them before Halloween!

candle in the wind

My annual Gold Canyon Party was Friday night. I thought I would get 6-7 people to show-up. 15 were there. We played a version of Cash Cab which I'm so using for my shows for Pampered Chef. It was so good to see so many of my friends that I hadn't seen in a while. It was so much fun.

You're going to be totally shocked when you see how much I got for free! I haven't closed my show yet since I still need to get in a few more orders, but I am going to bank on candles this year.

I love these candles. They are better than Yankee because they are double wicked so it burns all of the wax instead of burning a hole right down to the bottom and wasting good wax. The smells are spot on. A few of my favorites are Warm Apple Crisp, Mulled Cider and Holiday Wreath.

the hubster's new "toy"ota

hey it's me the hubster, for the the last days weeks months and years i have been nagging my better half to let me get a toyota fj40 landcruiser. but they are becoming highly collectable and we can't afford them but i finnaly found one that we could afford so it will have to do

big on signing

I am big on teaching children sign language. It greatly reduces tantrums and increases the ability to learn. Both of my kids know signs, ones that promote feelings are the first ones I teach ie. eat, hurt, drink, don't want, sleep, please, thank you. Anyways, to force my propaganda on others I am going to start a preschool signing class at my house once a week., doing games and fun activities to increase their signing skills and get them excited about ASL. Wish us luck!

wanting

I am so wanting to make this! When I worked in the dorm setting I made a routine chart for the kids I would work with. Nothing as cute as this, but I just like knowing what to expect and children do too. This is way cuter that what I could have made-up.

Next will be a stop at a thrift store to make my new project happen.

file a complaint

I'd like to tell you that I'm annoyed with our hooligans in our city. Now, we're not at bad as cities in Italy, but we could come in a close second. We have tagging (graffiti) everywhere, on walls, polls and on art. In college I took a art appreciation class and one section was on why people tag. Gangs do it to take claim on object, like a dog peeing on your tires.

Many cities have zero tolerance and I don't know why we don't, maybe we're too big, maybe enough don't complain. I'm sure if we got a news station to report on it taggers would have the heat put on 'em. I don't know the answer. What I do know is that this is ugly. This wall I have always known, it's a landmark. I used to work at an office that looks out at this wall, when it was still in use as a meat processing factory I would see that it had be tagged and that day a old man would come out and re-paint his mural and make it new. I don't know if he did this and got paid by the building owner or if he just couldn't bare to see his work defaced.

The company went out of business and it is now a breeding ground for punks that have no respect for property and the most upsetting part for me is that the art is tainted.

Little Learners

Some mommies and I decided to do a Pre-school. There were so many little kids around the same age that we decided to do make it happen and each mom take a turn hosting.

This week it's at my house. The color we are doing is ORANGE, the letter is H and the shape is rectangle so we will make habitats on Friday in rectangle boxes. And the number is 3 so we did 3 cotton balls glued onto the number three for a little intro into touch math.



It was a mad rush for everything. You only have 2 hours to get everything in and one squirmy kid is nothing compared to 9 squirmy kids.


Since the color is Orange this week, we ate Oranges of course. And then we took a field trip to my compost bin and dumped the peels in. They were impressed!

candyland and visions of sugar plums

I cannot get this image out of my head. Not this exact image, but the idea. I just think this is the cutest thing ever. Fill clear apothecary jars with all types of candy. I have an Italian theme throughout my house and don't see it fitting in my style. I know, I'm chicken. However, I DO see it in Monkey's room. She's got the pink and brown theme in her room and I totally see lemon heads in one jar and cherry balls in another. Of course they would just be decoration and out of the way of little fingers. She has a hutch in her room that I saved from the dump and had my uncle refinish for me so I know just the place!

Do you dream of these things too?

apple in my eye

I keep telling myself I need to make these before it's too late. I always have good intentions each year make 'em and it never happens. But we all know what the road to Hell is paved with. Not that I'm going to Hell for not making carmel apples. That would be a downer.

Want to know the recipe I'm going to use this year?

HERE

Princess crown

Our little buddy next door had his birthday party at the children's museum (great idea by-the-way) and after the children got to spend an hour discovering all the fun stuff they have there they got to have their faces painted.

Monkey wanted a princess crown, Bubbie wanted nothing to do with it.

It looks like a whacked out cupcake to me. She scratched it off within the hour so it was like it never happened. Only the memories of a hat with pillars holding it up.

scones bebe'

Sorry this morning for having no entry. Normally it's the first thing I do in the morning but, I was making scones. I made so many that I gave them to my neighbors on either side of me and was talking to them for a while, before I knew it I never entered in my bloggie.

My roommate used to make these weekly. We LOVED them and were the popular place when you could start smelling them cook. Random college students would stop by and want a scone.

SOOO stinkin' good with butter and honey!

Scones:

2 C warm water

2 T yeast

1/2 C sugar

(combine and let yeast do its thing in a large bowl)

add:

2 tsp salt

4-6 C flour

Kneed dough until firm and not super sticky- use about 1/4 to 1/2 C oil while kneading to keep it from sticking.

Let it rise 15 minutes. Then separate them into little scones and fry them.

Pumpkin Picker

Saturday we ventured down to Apple Annie's Pumpkin Patch to pick some pumpkins. Sure, we could have gone down to the corner Safeway and bought one from one of their vats for $5, but it's the experience isn't it? Our niece and nephew came along for the fun and each kid got to pick a pumpkin.

Bubbie always finds away out of working.

No turning back. To the left is the new maze they put closer to the farmer's market area. We took a hayride out to the field and they dump you out to wander the fields.

Monkey found several pumpkins. This one she claimed hers by sitting on it.

This year they added the best thing ever for kids. Vats of corn to swim in. They loved it and had to drag them out. We would run our hands through it, quite therapeutic. My mom is thinking about doing the same thing at her house instead of having a sandbox.

Corn Baby

You can pick sunflowers for $1.50, we just took pictures by them for free.

You can never pass up Kettle corn and sugared almonds.

Took a family picture, bubbie has a black eye from getting knocked over in the tub. Poor bubs.

ugly duckling

This poor duck I got for the nuggets for Easter. I love unique little trinket and wind up toys. Costplus has toys imported from Europe and I can't help myself to buy them for special occasion's. This creepy thing waddled pass me while I was trying to blog. Didn't mind to bother the little owner of this toy, but I stopped typing to look at its deformity and thought it was one sad duckie.

top gun

The in-laws came into town for a quick visit. So, what else do you do when it's 104 degrees outside? Go to a Air Museum that is 70% outside of course. It was quite hot with the constant blow dryer effect but luckily much is inside now with several hangers to look at aircraft's and memorabilia. I enjoyed myself. I didn't so much when I was 8 and my dad would drag us to the museum every July and take pictures of each aircraft from each angle. I've worked past the memories...

Monkey in front of the smallest aircraft, the bumble bee. She still remembers the name of it too.

Bubbie checking for dents and scratches before he takes off.

Houston, we have a 3 year old wanting to land the shuttle.

The strange man came with the plane.

Monkey with a yellow water craft.

This museum was on my list of things to do during the summer. I think we did all of them but two. We didn't get a chance to go up on Mt. Lemmon. We went on a mountain, but not that one and we didn't go to Pump-it-up. I think we did great with our summer to-do list.

that kinda hurts

I made the cut, literally. The hubster this morning

went onto one

of his favorite sites which happens to be the

one that

used us in their article.

They must read my blog and the crack about air brushing.

CLICK HERE to see.

Ouch.

Blue Blood

The hubster is clearly, unmistakeably a Bronco fan. No, not a Denver Bronco fan, but a Boise State Bronco fan. We drove to the New Mexico game Saturday and watched the Broncos sweep the Aggie's under a bronco rug.

59-0.

I got way into to dressing up, mainly to get on TV. The bigger of an idiot you act the higher the chances of air time. Hence why Lindsey Lohan has more coverage than real news.

Oh dear Lord, why couldn't the photographer waited until I lowered my double chin or air brush it out like they do on every thing else.

Oh well, such is life.

Here's the article we were in. HERE