Pumpkin Patch

Everything Old Is New Again

Last week I stumbled upon a little tradition at BGA. Friday was Homecoming for the school and as part of the festivities the Roar Store (the school spirit store) was open for business at the Lower School. I thought I would hop in and get Greyson a new t-shirt or something like that to mark his first Homecoming. What I didn't realize was that there is a tradition at Homecoming to sell game used jerseys to the little ones to benefit the football team. I got to school just in time to witness the unveiling of the jerseys. There was a mad dash of mothers and children to get this valuable item and I now know what my mother must have felt like when I made her get me that Cabbage Patch doll back in the day. With hawk like instincts I swooped in and got one of the last remaining jerseys and voila....


Greyson's most current prized possession. Stop on by and he will surely show it to you, along with the dirt marks on the shoulder that came from a REAL GAME he will say with enthusiasm.

The best part of Homecoming (which of course once again is not photo documented - I really just need to permanently attach my camera around my neck) was watching all these little tykes running around the side field in these gigantic jerseys that at best stopped at their knees. It was really a sight to see.

Sadly, this was our last football game of the season and even sadder was that we lost our Homecoming game (though we really should have won but that is another story). But I have a feeling that the jersey will still get a lot of use until the Boys of Fall return next August.

Let's Get Cooking!

OK, I know there are two tribes in the world, the kind, like me, who like to cook and more importantly love to eat and the other who really would prefer a root canal over stepping foot in the kitchen (that would be my mother). So for the latter group, this post probably isn't up your alley but for those who like to cook I thought I would share my new favorite cookbook with you.

I am loving Family Meals by Maria Simskey. It is an amazing cookbook filled with tons of kid-friendly, family-friendly meals (hence the title). The flavors are simple so that little taste buds will enjoy them. The recipes (at least main dishes) are relatively simple and quick to make helping all the busy Moms out there get dinner on the table. Most of the recipes have an aspect that kids can help with - which is one of the main thrusts of this book - to get kids in the kitchen. Whether it is breading the shrimp in the Crispy Shrimp recipe or mashing the apples in the Chunky Applesauce recipe I can always find something for a little helper to lend a hand with. But my favorite part of the book is all the decadent little treats you don't find in most cookbooks.....the homemade marshmallows are seriously one of the best things ever to come out of my kitchen and the from scratch chocolate pudding is to die for. These recipes are a little more time consuming but well worth the effort - I doubt I can ever eat a store bought marshmallow again.

So anyway, if you are looking for a way to spend some time with the kids and make some good food while you are at, pick up a copy.

New Friends

(Seriously, could these two be any cuter??)

Getting In The Spirit

Fall has arrived (at least according to the calendar, the thermometer still hasn't gotten the memo) and with it fall decorations and Halloween costumes have started appearing in the stores. I couldn't resist picking up a couple for the kids who LOVE to dress up.


And thank goodness I did, because as you can see we were in desperate need of a fireman (and a princess) to put out the fire in the fireplace.

Hard to be Quinn

We were driving home from school and listening to one of our many audio stories, when they used the word difficult.

Q: Mommy what does difficult mean??
Me: It means something isn't easy, it is hard to do.
Q: Oh. I get it. Like when I have so many friends (referring to her stuffed animals) and sometimes it is hard to remember all of their names.
Me: Exactly.
Q: So when that happens I am difficult.

Yes, Quinn sometimes you are very difficult but I love you nonetheless my sweet Quinncess!!

Go Frog!!

Last week we had Meet The Teacher night at Greyson's school. During part of the program, Ms. Kay discussed how they would start writing sentences soon and how they most likely would be phonetically correct, but in terms of actual spelling horribly inaccurate. They may get the consonants right but perhaps forget the vowels etc. but as they matured and progressed eventually the spelling would come.

This has intrigued me since her talk and so yesterday I got out a piece of paper and told Greyson he could write any sentence he wanted to. I was curious what he would write (in terms of creativity) and how he would spell everything. To my amazement this is what he came up with....


He whipped out the "The" with no help at all (though for full disclosure I did start out by saying that all sentences started with a capital letter). He sounded out "frog" all by himself and got 99% of "jumps" - he intially wanted to spell it jups so I did coax the m out of him. As usual, he far surpassed what I thought he was going to do. I was really impressed and proud. I was also quite intrigued, still am, that of all the sentences in the universe this is what he thought of. I can't remember the last time we actually talked about frogs...go figure. But I realized long ago that it is futile to attempt to understand the workings of my children's minds.