Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween this year. We carved pumpkins as a family:

 

Then we drove to my sister’s house in Iowa for the weekend. Avery and Camryn had a BLAST with their cousins Stephen, Emily, and baby Samuel. My parents even drove up from Houston to join in the fun! We went to Howell’s to look at pumpkins,

 

go on pony rides (well, Camryn was brave enough – Avery… not so much),

and feed the goats/get really distracted by all the rocks on the gravel road.

Then Aunt Britney put on a Halloween party for the kids.

Of course what is Halloween without the much anticipated trick-or-treating. Camryn was Jessie. Isn’t she so cute? The yarn braid turned out pretty good, but not perfect. Oh well, she didn’t even want to wear her hat once we got outside anyway. (“What’s a cow[girl] without [her] hat?!”)

Avery was a beautiful Snow White. Thanks to Grandma Smith for getting her this cute costume! She had so much fun trick-or-treating. Everyone else was done but Avery and Merrick both wanted more-more-more! So they kept going a little longer than the rest. :)

It was a fun, quick trip! It was nice to spend some time with my parents and my sister and her family. Oh so much better than Halloween night last year when we all were sick at home with the swine flu. :) Hope you had a good Halloween too!

Yum.

I haven’t blogged about food in a while, so I thought I’d let you in on some good recipes I’ve tried and loved lately. What are we eating at the Smith house?

Well, I’m still making pizza pretty much every Friday. This pizza sauce recipe from Our Best Bites is oh so good, super quick, and I use it every time I do a red sauce pizza.

This Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe from My Kitchen Cafe is making frequent appearances at our house too. It.is.awesome. Try it, you can’t not like it.

Merrick got me a panini maker for my birthday. I’ve been making those a lot. Our favorite kind (not pictured below) is turkey, provolone, pesto, and tomato. So, so good. Anyone else have a good panini recipe to share? We’re always looking for more ideas.

These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are totally easy and so yummy. (Can you tell I like ourbestbites.com?)

Merrick occasionally watches Tommy Tang’s Easy Thai Cooking and he decided to try to make a curry recipe one time. I couldn’t find the recipe online but this is pretty much what we use for a Chicken or Pork Curry with Rice. We don’t use the chicken stock and Merrick chops up fresh ginger and a jalepeno pepper. It’s really yummy so we’ve made it 4-5 times. The best part? Merrick doing the cooking!

These Chicken Fajitas are the best I’ve ever had. Mmm… I’m getting hungry!

Ooh and another one from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe I recently tried with success: Pork Chops with Caramelized Apples and Onions. Very tasty and even though we don’t eat a ton of pork chops, these will be repeated.

And if you need a nice fall soup recipe, this is your ticket: Tortellini Sausage Soup. Made this for my MIL and it was a big hit. Makes your house smell divine and tastes just as good.

 

To finish with a dessert, try this Scrumptious Apple Pie by The Pioneer Woman. Oh wow this was delish! I made this for a party and it was very well received! Merrick, who doesn’t appreciate apple pie like I do, was hooked on this stuff. It’s like part apple crisp, part pie, plus the caramel and pecans on top… sigh. 

Did I make you hungry? I hope so. As you can tell, I get most of my recipes these days from food blogs. It’s fun to try new things and I love how you get so much more info and pictures that you do from cookbooks.

So, what recipes are you loving at your house?

I Can’t Resist…

… I have to show you what I’ve been working on, even though it’s not quite finished yet. I’m just a teensy bit proud of it. :) Here it is, Camryn’s Halloween costume – Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl (from Toy Story 2 and 3).

I used some old jeans, sewed on some cow print chaps, and added a strip of brown felt for the belt. (I’m still working on the belt buckle). Then I got a white long sleeve shirt and sewed on some yellow fabric and buttons then hot glued on some of this red rope.

I also have a red hat I found at the dollar store and I sewed some white yarn around the edges. I’m hot gluing red yarn in it for the hair, with a long red yarn braid coming off the back. It’s going to be fabulous.

And Jessie’s biggest fan is lovin’ it.

PS – Any cheap ideas for the white circle for the pull string on the back?

Picking Pumpkins

Today we decided to go pick out a few pumpkins. The girls had fun riding in the wagon and seeing all the different shapes and sizes.

They had all these cute places to take pictures, so we took advantage (especially since I’ve been slacking on my blog updates lately!).

 

Camryn wasn’t to happy with this one. Maybe it was those gnarly fingers poking out of the log to her right.

But one she saw the Pooh she was a happy camper again. :)

Beautiful fall days are nice, aren’t they?   

Discovery World and The Beach

Merrick’s mom was here last week and we did some fun stuff with her. One afternoon we went downtown and checked out Discovery World. It was our first time there and we had fun exploring.

 

We especially liked the Aquarium area, where you could walk on fish tanks or have the fish swimming above your head, etc. It was really cool.

   

Then we stopped over at Sil’s Drive-Thru for some hot fresh mini donuts. Totally yummy. After which we headed down to the cold lakefront to dip our toes in the water, get totally sandy building a sandcastle, and chase some seagulls.

Boy was it chilly. Well we had some fun with Grandma Smith and then I didn’t take any pictures of the rest of her stay. (On Friday we drove up to the Dells, stayed at Wilderness and enjoyed all the indoor waterparks there.)