Pancake Batter   + 
       
               Chocolate Chips   = 

                   Lots of Messy Breakfast Fun!

Halloween Playdough



We use a lot of play dough in our house!  I love making home made play dough, but sometimes it's hard to find recipes that really work well.  Play dough that doesn't get soggy or sticky.  Play dough that doesn't dry out quickly.  I was tickled pink to find a play dough recipe that not only smells good, but after a week has held up really well to playing, smelling, rolling, licking.  It's a really great recipe.

 Ingredients for Homemade Halloween Play Dough

1 1/2c. cornstarch
1/2c. flour

 2c. water
2t. cream of tarter
1c. salt

 1 T. vegetable oil
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
Several drops red and yellow food coloring

Combine all the ingredients into a medium-sized pot.  Stir to mix.  The mixture will be a liquid at this point. 
Cook over medium heat, stirring often.  Play dough will form in roughly five to seven minutes.  Remove from heat and spoon the play dough onto waxed paper or a cookie sheet.

When the homemade play dough has cooled, knead until the dough is pliable.  Store in a zip lock bag or an air tight container.  We've been using this dough for over a week, and it has really staid smelling and feeling fresh.

Five, Make That Four, Little Pumpkins

                                           Five fat pumpkins sitting on a  gate.
                                          The first one said, "Oh my it's getting late."

                                       The second one said, "There's magic in the air."

                                         The third one said, "But we don't care."

                                               The fourth one said, "It's only autumn fun."
                                               The fifth one said, "Let's run and run and run."

                                                 Then whoosh went the wind,

                                                 and out went the lights,

                                        and the five little pumpkins

                                         rolled

                                         out of sight!

A very Fun Fall Festival



 This weekend, we took the kids to a fall festival. It was out on a farm, way out in the country.  The kids enjoyed all sorts of fun activities.  They enjoyed pumping water with hand pumps to make their ducks race.
 

They had fun working their way through a hay maze.  Later it became chasing and hiding from eachother in the hay.

 One of their favorite activities was the corn crib.  They took off their shoes and dove right in.  They LOVED burying  one another in the corn kernels.

 

 The boys LOVED racing around a track on little petal cars. Notice the Big K.'s expression.  He took driving seriously.


The festival also had an opportunity to rope some "steer".  The kids worked and worked at this activity.  Finally, when they were about two feet from the heads they roped their bulls.  Roping is harder than it looks.

Part of the admission price included one ticket for each child. The kids could use their tickets on various rides and games.  Our older two kids decided to shoot corn from a cannon.  Doodles' jumped the first time her corn shot out.  After that, she was a pro. 

 

The younger two boys used their tickets to bounce around on this huge bouncy thing.  I'm not sure what it was, but it was really neat.  The kids took off their shoes and were bouncing around like popcorn.


Jon found a petal car that both he and Baby J. could ride together.  Baby J. got to steer the cart.  The whole way home J. was talking about "driving the car with Daddy".

Finally, we took a hay ride.  The kids LOVED riding around in the hay wagon.


 The driver even bounced us through some big mud ruts. 


All in all, I have to say, a good time was had by all of us.

 We're looking forward to spending a weekend next fall at the festival.

New Blog

Some how, I've ruined this blog.

I'm not sure which button I pushed, but I've lost my

background, music, and all sorts of other fun things.

While trying to fix this blog, I pressed a button and made a new

blog.  So, here's the new blog's address:

www.best4everfamily2.blogspot.com

Enjoy the new blog. It has music, and a background,

and a cool shelf that shows the books I've been reading.

Oh yeah, and pictures of the four best kids in the whole wide world.



First Post on Our New Blog

First, let me say, I broke our old blog.
I'm not sure what I did to it, but it's broken.
I don't have my background, or my music, or all of the
other cool things that were on it.
I accidentally made a new blog.
All of the older postings and pictures are on the other blog.
I set up a new one.
Enjoy.

Our last month has been busy.

It's been both sad and happy.

The kids celebrated their first combined party.

Instead of gifts, they asked people

to bring donations for Hospice.

With pride, they gave their gifts to others.

We remembered my Mom's birthday together.

It was hard.

I missed her.

We missed her.

We wrote notes to her, tied them onto balloons, and

sent them up to "heaven" for her.

On her birthday, we receive a call from our new adoptions case worker.

She was the same worker that we had with our older kids.

Someone that we all really love.

I felt like it was such a special gift on what would have been

my Mom's 59th birthday.

As the one year anniversary of my Mom's death draws near, I have

found that my grief is not as intense as it first was.

I miss my Mom every day, but I have found that it

is healthy for life to move forward.

I think of her daily, want to talk with her often,

and think of how much she would be enjoying her two new

grandsons right now.

I also think of how much she would love to see the kids

still having fun.  Still enjoying the traditions that we

shared before she became ill, before she died.

This year, we took our boys with us to pick apples.

It was so much fun to include them in our family's

yearly apple picking tradition.

This year, Grandma Jean and Grandpa Tom went with

us to the orchard. I couldn't help but think, as

we shared our day with them, that God knew just

what He was doing when he

brought them into our lives and our family.

As the weather has changed, and the leaves are dropping,

as the pumpkins, apples, and scarecrows are decorating our house,

I realize that it's almost been a year.  It's been hard to think

that this is one year without her, and that there will be many

more years without her.  Although my grief is not as

deep as it was, it is a dull ache of loss.  I think of last year,

at this time, when Mom was looking at a glass window hanging in her house.

She looked at me, with tears in her eyes, and said,

"I think that's what my mansion in heaven will look like.

I look at that, and I think of how beautiful heaven will be."

I know that she has celebrated this past year without pain, illness, or grief.

I know, without a doubt, that one day I will be there with her, in her

mansion, and we'll be chatting away just like we always did.