Break me off a piece of that...

Peppermint stick!

Last night after the kids wanted to eat some candy. They both picked out a big huge candy cane. After explaining to them both that they could not eat the whole thing, I opened Henry's. His was broken at the top, so I didn't have to do anything to his. Frances' wasn't broken so I knew I would have to break it. I decided to give it one solid whack on the table to break a piece off. It didn't exactly work out as planned!!

Super Scary Sunday Supper

Halloween is Monday, but we all have work and school, so I decided to cook up a Halloween meal on Sunday this year.  I had a ton of fun getting everything ready, and it was a pretty well balanced dinner too.
We had:  Mummy Dogs,

 Witch's Fingers,

 Monster Mouths,

 Goblin Eyes,

 Ghosts,

 Zombie Brains (I forgot to take a picture of the steamed cauliflower, sorry), and Peek-a-Boo Brew.

That clock is wrong, btw, but it keeps getting unplugged and I refuse to keep setting it!

Frances LOVED it!!

 

 Henry (who was over tired from lack of a nap) whined that he was "scared of his dinner," but finally acquiesced.

And Benjamin?  Yeah, he was over tired from his lack of a nap as well. He licked the Nutella and white chocolate chips out of his Monster Mouth and then tried to throw the rest of his food around the room while screaming.  I put him in his bed to chill out and he fell asleep (and slept through until morning!)  GOOD TIMES!!!

**This stuff was all pretty easy to make. If you want any directions, just let me know!**

Would you like some soup with your pepper?

We had Nadia over for dinner last night. The kids LOVE  her and she is so great with them. We are blessed to have her around and will be sad next semester when she leaves for her internship and then graduates.
Last week I bragged on Facebook about having homemade turkey soup and homemade biscuits for dinner. Nadia made a comment about it, so we invited her over for the same meal this week. I had made and frozen a ton of soup, so it was easy to do.
We sat down to dinner and Nadia added a little bit of salt and pepper to her soup.  Henry saw her do it and wanted some also.  Usually when he wants salt and pepper we just turn the lid so nothing comes out and then shake away.  Nadia has either seen us do it, or she it just that smart (or both!) so she turned the lid on the salt and "gave" him some.  Well, then he wanted to do the pepper himself. So she turned the lid and gave it to him. He turned it upside down and SHOOK!  He ended up with about 3 tablespoons of pepper in his soup!  I wished I had my camera out, but figured it would be kinda rude to jump up and get it.
Then Henry got mad because Ken traded soup bowls with him! Not sure if that is the reason, but he never ended up eating any of his soup.  Just part of a biscuit and then he went to play.  I am expecting him at any time now (it's 5:30 am) to wake up and come tell me he's "hunkry and persy."
By the way, I also made brownies to go with dinner. I figured that if my house was a mess it should at least smell like chocolate!  I made the regular mix and poured it in the pan. Then I took about 10 fun sized Snickers bars and put them in the Ninja and pulsed them a few times. I poured that over the top of the brownies and then baked them as usual. YUM!!

Frances makes dinner

The kids and I are trying out a new chore system that seems to be working pretty well.  I created a bunch of two by two cards with different chores on them (set table, collect trash, put away clothes, etc.)  and put them all in a ziploc baggie on the fridge. When it comes to chore time, the kids pick out whichever cards they want and then move the card to their own bag.  Sometimes I assign a chore to a specific child and sometimes I let them pick out a few to do.
Frances has been asking to help make dinner for a while now, so I added that as a chore choice, but just haven't had the chance to let her help-dinner during the week is pretty hectic.  Tonight as I was making dinner, I was thinking about meals for the rest of the week and decided to let Frances make a meal.
This one is officially rated "So easy a 7-year old can do it!"

Easy Chicken Pot Pie
Mix together: one can of mixed vegetables (drained), one can of cream of "fill in the blank" soup (we used cream of chicken), and a can of chicken.  In a separate bowl mix together one cup of Bisquick, 1/2 cup of milk and one egg.  Pour this mixture over the chicken/vegetable mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

We baked it tonight and will reheat it tomorrow night for dinner after work. And Frances was SO proud of herself!!