Happy Halloween!

Recipe Wednesday - Halloween Desserts

For playgroup last week I put together a few desserts that I had seen a few weeks ago.  They turned out really cute and tasted good too!  I might make up another batch of ghosts to give out to special trick or treaters this weekend!  Both of the recipes were from Parenting.

Marshmellow Ghosts

Makes 6 ghosts

* 8 large marshmallows

* 6 wooden skewers (points cut off)

* 1 cup white-chocolate chips

* 1 Tbs vegetable shortening

* 12 cinnamon Red Hots (I used M&M's)

* Black decorating gel  

1. For each ghost, push three marshmallows onto end of skewer; set aside.

2. Microwave white-chocolate and shortening in a microwave-safe dish on medium-high for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave in 10-second intervals until smooth.

3. Holding the skewer, spoon the melted mixture over marshmallows until covered; place on wax-paper-lined cookie sheet. Use two Red Hots for eyes and decorating gel for a mouth.

4. Refrigerate until chocolate has hardened; serve.

**I just mixed the chocolate in 1 cup of chip increments and it worked great!

Witch on a Stick

1. Cut off the tops of pretzel rods and set aside.

2. Melt 1 cup white-chocolate chips, 1 Tbs shortening, and a few drops of green food coloring; stir until smooth.

3. Dip the cut end of the pretzels into the chocolate, covering the top 2 inches. Place on wax paper and sprinkle the sides of each with coconut flakes to form hair.

4. Top each with a Hershey's Kiss and refrigerate until the chocolate has hardened. Draw on eyes, nose, and mouth with black decorating icing; finish by covering the Kiss, too.

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we set out first thing in the morning to visit the area pumpkin patch.  People from all over the northern half of Alabama and the southern parts of Tennessee come to this working farm in the fall and we wanted to start a tradition of taking Charlotte.  We arrived not long after it opened and were surprised to see the farm already packed with people!  I think we picked the perfect day to go through because even though it was windy it was cool and not hot.  That made it feel much more like fall than if we had visited a few weeks ago!

Our first stop was the big pig hay bale outside of the hay maze.  We didn't venture into the maze but Charlotte loved the pink pig!

After seeing the hay bale pig we went over the petting area and Charlotte got to see some animals up close!

Here she was with the bunny's.  She loved it when they hopped around!

Then we ran into our friends Candy, Chris, and Anna at the lamb area!

Charlotte wasn't afraid to get in there and pet the lamb.  She loved her!

And we got a big kick out of the llama trying to get Jason!

Of course then he tried to get me while I was trying to take pictures of C and the llama! I love C trying to get the llama in the background of this picture!

Charlotte enjoyed going down the slide with Daddy before getting to play in the corn crib!

Then there was a little swinging time before finding the giant pumpkins!

She loved sitting on the big pumpkins but then decided she wanted to pick one up!

Once she realized that the pumpkin wasn't going anywhere she was content to walk over and get her picture taken with Daddy as flowers!

Then Charlotte and I took a spin in a corn husk! Let me tell you, the man on the tractor pulling this ride wasn't afraid to go fast! I was a little nervous about the speed we were taking some of those turns! I was glad that we weren't in the last cart on the ride or I would have been afraid that we would have flown away!

After the corn ride we went and got on the hay ride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.  Charlotte loved sitting on the hay like a big girl and kept grabbing big handfuls of it and then throwing it in the air! 

We went on a search for the perfect carving pumpkin and finally found one.  Charlotte insisted on walking around which caused a few problems since the ground was covered with old vines.  Despite a few stumbles we eventually made it to our perfect pumpkin and Charlotte looked on intently as Jason twisted it off its vine. 

Then we had to find a pumpkin that C could carry.  The search for a smaller one took a little longer but we finally found one and Charlotte loves it! 

Sweet little girl was exhausted though at this point and almost fell asleep on the ride back to the farm! 

We packed it up after the hay ride and headed home.  I thoroughly enjoyed our time at the farm and can't wait to go back for many years to come!

Sweet Seventeen

Friday marked Charlotte's seventeen month birthday.  I can't believe that we are a month away from a year and a half!  I haven't done a recap recently of what Charlotte's up to so I thought I'd take this chance to do one.

C still takes two two hour naps a day.  She usually takes one good nap and one nap that is a series of catnaps but I can't bring myself to take her to one nap a day.  She is perfectly happy to be in her crib for those four hours and is, in a sense, resting and not running herself ragged all over the house so I can't see a reason to go to one nap.  She does fine taking one three hour nap on school days or days when we go somewhere in the morning so as long as she's easily adaptable to what we're doing and is happy in her crib I'm going to relish those four hours a day to do things around the house!  Thankfully she's also a great sleeper at night and sleeps 8 to 8.  I'm so glad that she loves sleep as much as her Momma!

Getting well balanced meals into Charlotte has become a problem of sorts.  She'll eat most any fruit but really won't be bothered with veggies.  Beans and occasionally matchstick carrots are about the only veggies that she'll touch.  She loves almost anything to do with cheese but Kraft Easy Mac is one of her favorite meals of all time.  She eats a decent amount of food and I try and keep it well rounded but it's hard to come up with original meals for her that cover all the food groups.  She will usually try what we're eating and sometimes she loves it and eats it all, it just depends on the meal.  She loves her milk but will happily drink water or lemonaide or juice if we give it to her.  We only use straw sippy cups at this point because she can drink from them very easily by herself.  But the cups we have continue to leak and so we're trying to switch to new ones but C isn't having any of it.  We'll see if we ever are successful at changing!

Charlotte loves her stuffed animals.  She was attached to her Elmo doll for a while after we got him and would carry him around with her but soon the attachment wore off and she would leave him in her crib all the time.  It has lessened to such that we forgot one of the Elmo's in Tuscaloosa last weekend and haven't bothered to get his replacement out of the cabinet because she hasn't missed him.  She does love her Brown Bear and Brownie (her dog) and usually wraps them under her arms to sleep with but she is usually content to leave them in her crib.  When she does bring something with her when we go out she understands that they stay in the car and will usually toss them to the other seat before we can even open the door to get her out of her carseat! 

While I try and limit her tv viewing we do occasionally catch Sesame Street or Dinosaur Train.  She likes both of them and will glance up at them every now and then while she's playing when their on.  She only typically sits down in my lap and watches something when she's tired or sick although she has come to love football and will sometimes stand in front of the tv for a few minutes watching it.  Her favorite tv shows are probably the commercials that have animals on them like the one with the snake and bunny (Geico maybe?) and the Maxwell the pig one.  It doesn't matter how far away she is from the tv when she hears that snake shaking his rattle she will run into the room yelling, "Hop! Hop! Hop!" which is her way of telling us there's a bunny on tv.

Charlotte is definitely a growing girl! When we took her to the doctor on the 10th for her ear infection she weighed 21.8 lbs.  And she is getting taller! She's fully into 18 month clothes now and wears some 18-24 month outfits.  The sleeves are still a little long on some of her t-shirts, I have to roll the pants up once on a couple pairs of pants and they are, of course, way too big around the waist but they fit for the most part.  (After typing that it sounds like they don't fit at all but they really do!)  She's wearing a size 4 diaper and is starting to tell us when she goes potty so we're thinking of trying to potty train over Christmas break.  We'll see how that goes! Haha!

C is definitely a child of the new times.  She has a passed down cell phone from Uncle Charlie and loves to "text" on it with her thumbs going a mile a minute.  She holds anything she can get ahold of up to her ear and says "Ring, Ring" and then starts to talk.  She usually tells us she's calling Papa G but it has started changing to more people.  She loves skyping but doesn't understand why we can't see people when we talk to them on the phone.  Because of this she's pretty quiet on the phone but as soon as we hang up she starts yelling the person's name because she doesn't want them to go.  A few weeks ago we had to put her in time out for disobeying repeatedly and I heard myself say, "Charlotte, give me your cell phone, you have to go to time out!"  I never thought I'd be saying that sentence so early!

It seems like Charlotte is learning something new every day.  The only letter that she'll recognize is a C but she points those out on anything that she sees.  The way she says C though is sort of like "esss" so we're not to the point of saying it correctly yet.  She can say the colors blue and purple and she will correctly tell you that the sky is blue but other than that still gets mixed up on which color is which.  She is learning new words constantly so we're having to make sure we don't say anything around her that we don't want repeated because she has repeated something after hearing it only once recently!  She mastered saying "Roll Tide!" a few weeks ago and this weekend started saying "Roll Tide Roll!"  It is, by far, one of the cutest things she's done so far because she sticks her arm up to move like she's got a shaker and her voice goes up on the "Tide" part.  I've got it on video and have to get it posted!

C also appears to be rather musically inclined.  She's started "singing" with us to "Baa Baa Black Sheep" (she just sings "Baa Baa Baa Baa") and "Happy Birthday".  She also loooooves to dance and anytime she hears music she'll stop what she's doing and start breaking it down.  I LOVE watching her dance because she is so energetic and just loves it so much!  It is hilarious and it's hard not to laugh (and a lot of people laugh and laugh loudly) so I hope that she doesn't start getting self-concious about it.  It's just so cute! Charlotte, I promise we're not laughing because it's bad, we're laughing because we love it so much!

She has also gotten more independent recently.  She no longer cries when I leave her at Mother's Morning Out and at playgroup she was content to do her own thing even when I left the room.  She used to have to see me to be happy but I was floored on Friday to realize that I didn't know where she was and walked around until I found her playing with the other kids not caring where I was at all!  She learned this weekend to get herself into the chairs at her coloring table and is starting to do more and more for herself.  It's sort of sad seeing her need me less but I know that she still needs me a lot and that it's all part of growing up.

Overall, we are just loving this stage with Charlotte.  She is so personable and has become this little girl instead of a baby.  We love getting feedback from her like her signing "I Love you" or her starting to give us (and pretty much anything else) kisses.  She cuddles some when she's tired or doesn't feel good but isn't one to sit in your lap for hours on end.  We love watching her explore and discover new things.  My favorite is when she figures out something new and her mouth just drops open in delight and amazement!

Charlotte,
You are our pride and joy and your Daddy and I love every minute with you.  You are a smart, beautiful little girl and we pray every day for you to retain your confidence and love for learning.  We want to teach you the right things and our hearts just melt when we hear you say "Amen" after we pray or starting trying to say "God is Great" at dinner.  We pray that you grow up with a love for God and continue to thirst for him your entire life.  We love you so much baby girl.  You make every day better and we are so incredibly thankful that God chose us to be your parents. 
love, Mommy

Boo!

On Friday we hosted a Halloween playgroup and has so much fun having our friends over.  I had a good time putting together some fun Halloween treats and using playgroup as an excuse to get a few more Halloween decorations for our house.  We had a great crowd -- 20 people in all! -- and had a great time together! I can't wait to do it again soon!

I had fun putting together some Parenting treats.  (The recipes will be featured during this weeks Recipe Wednesday!)

Marshmellow Ghosts

Witch on a Stick

I had gotten a foam pumpkin kit and some of the kids had fun putting them together. 

Charlotte, Joshua, Caroline, and Rylie

Caroline showing us her beautiful pumpkin!

Rylie put hers together all by herself! As the oldest at playgroup Rylie was so sweet to all the younger kids!

There was lots of playing going on! Our den was basically a sea of toys, kids, and mommies!

Charlotte loved playing with baby Reese!  She kept reaching out and kind of air petting her.  She doesn't know what to do with such a cute baby!

William had a festive Halloween passy!

Reese was all smiles all morning! She is a great baby!

Kate was so sweet all morning! 

Charlotte kept everyone entertained with her unique dancing! She continues to be baffled as why everyone laughs when she dances though.  She has her own moves and I LOVE watching her dance! I hope she continues to dance for a long, long time!

The boys were a little more rambunctious than I was used to so it was harder to catch them for pictures but I did happen to get Charlotte close to them for a few!

Thomas was a little unsure about Charlotte.  He might have see her dancing earlier! Maybe we'll get to use this picture at their rehearsal dinner! :)

But I did convince C to give Thomas a hug.  She decided to go for it while his back was turned.  (Her hugs just involve her leaning her head in to you which is what she's doing here.)

Then she went and gave William one too! He's pretty unsure of C also! Haha!

Charlotte held her arms up to Miss Kelly when she saw that Caroline was distracted! C loved getting a quick hug from her!

But she wasn't too interested in getting her picture taken with Mommy....

Overall, we had a great morning and were so glad that so many of our friends were able to come.  I love playgroup because it gives the kids some kid time with other kids and also gives the Mom's some time to chat and catch up.  We missed our friends that weren't able to make it but are looking forward to the next playgroup!

Enough

I have the privilege of being a part of the board for the engineering alumni association at Alabama. It's a great group of people getting together to try and enrich the engineering school and thus enrich The University. A bunch of people who have done a lot more than I have, who have worked for far longer than me, and who are -- with one exception, me -- currently in the work force. Last Thursday and Friday were filled with my first board meetings to attend. I just got on the board and when they called last spring to see if I was interested I made sure to let them know that I am not currently in the workforce. They said that was fine.
My first meetings rolled around and, while everyone was perfectly nice to me, I always got skittish when they asked where I work. The first time I was asked on Thursday I answered simply, "I'm a stay at home mom." By Friday afternoon I was answering the question by qualifying that while I'm a stay at home mom I'm looking into some consulting opportunities but I just haven't found something yet that I'm interested in.

It rattled me that I felt that being a stay at home mom wasn't/isn't enough. No one made me feel that way, but somehow I felt a little ashamed that I am at home with Charlotte every day as opposed to coding for some company somewhere. And that ticks me off at myself but it's also something that I can't really deny. And I wonder why was I making myself feel bad when everyone accepted my current role?

I've been gifted with this time home with Charlotte. Yes, it is trying and hard and mundane sometimes but it's also wonderful and invigorating and so so special. I was here when she rolled over for the first time. I saw her take her first steps towards me without being lured by something. I'm here to wipe her nose when she's sick and to take her outside to explore. I pick her up from school and ask her questions about her day. I'm shaping her life each and every day, for almost every second that she's awake. And that's important.

But sometimes it's not enough. And I accept that. I accept that in a room full of working engineers I'm going to feel left out. I'm going to work harder at making sure that it doesn't make me feel incompetent or that I have to overcompensate with humorous anecdotes or embellishing my career aspirations. Honestly, I've always wanted to be a stay at home mom. Always. Computer Science and engineering was just a means to an end to get us to a position where I could do that and thankfully we made it to that place.

Still, accepting that doesn't mean that I'm always 100% satisfied with being here all day. I keep looking for something that will motivate me and get me excited to start a project. So far, software design isn't that thing for me. I don't really have a desire to get back in to it right now. But maybe sewing is. Or photography. Or blog design. Or writing. Or something that I haven't quite found yet. But I'm on the lookout for it and praying for God to make that path clear to me. And until then I'm just going to enjoy the days at home with my daughter and do my best to be the best mom to her that I can be. And I think, for today, that's enough.

**For another great post on a topic similar to this check out Kathy's recent post.

Homecoming at The Capstone

Saturday proved to be a very long, but fun day.  We knew it would be with an 8 pm kickoff but children only sleep so late so when 8 am rolled around we were up with Charlotte!  Thankfully the parade was pushed back until noon so we got to take our time getting ready before heading out.

We were hard pressed to find a place in the shade on University but we did find a little shade and claim it.  It was next to a family with a small Yorkie so Charlotte immediately wanted to go over and see her.  Thankfully Emma (the dog) was very sweet and let Charlotte pet her!

Then it was about 30 minutes before the parade made it down to us so Jason took Charlotte on a walk to see the Walk of Champions! I just love the little Just Ducky dress that she is wearing! It's even cuter with Roll Tide monogrammed on it!

Hanging out with Miss Kelly waiting on the parade

We put C back in her stroller to watch the parade so that we couldn't have to keep a death grip on her hand the whole time.  Such a good idea because she was content (with her snack trap and snacks!) the whole time and one of us didn't have to hold her!

Shellie Street was the Homecoming Queen and is also the current Miss University of Alabama.  We were so excited to see an Alpha Chi as Queen!

C loved Miss Shellie and is now thinking that she would like to be Queen one day!

After the court the floats started coming.  Charlotte got excited every time she saw an elephant figure on them.  Good thing we're Alabama and everyone had elephants!

She started trying to pull out of her stroller when she got excited! But she wasn't about to lose her snacks in the process!

Glad to see our Alpha Chi's! We hated that Lauren was on the other side of the float though and we couldn't see her!

Love this family picture after the parade was over!

On the way back Charlotte wanted to walk so Memma and Papa G took over.  It took them a lot longer to get back than it did us! They said they finally just had to pick her up because she didn't want to quit walking!

Our afternoon was fun watching football and being joined by lots of friends.  It was great to see Lindsey again and we loved seeing Lesley and Jeremy also!  Charlotte was a little overwhelmed though when she got up from her nap to 18 people in the condo!

By this point Charlotte was beginning to suspect that something wasn't working out.  She was also exhausted from walking so much and not taking a great afternoon nap!

Our group this year! Just missing Caroline! This is our fourth Bama/Ole Miss game together and we're looking forward to heading back to The Grove next year!

We got a babysitter for Charlotte and then went to the President's Mansion for dinner.  I was excited to see Julia there and loved catching up with her at the game!

I wasn't sure that I would make it through the game since it was so late but I did manage to stay awake!  We made it back to the condo around 11:45 but didn't get to bed until almost 1:30! Thankfully we let Charlotte sleep late on Sunday and she did great -- sleeping until 8:45!  The extra 45 minutes helped but wasn't nearly enough! We're still recovering from our lack of sleep this weekend! But it was a great trip and we were so glad that we got to see so many friends over the weekend!