Fall Happenings

Jasmine's class. She is the Mountain Dew can.

Jasmine's class weighed and measured pumpkins. Then they cut them open and counted seeds. The teacher roasted the seeds for them to eat.

I saw that Jasmine had written a poem about the twins. That's sweet that she thought of them. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

The owner of the last pumpkin didn't decorate it so Jasmine decided to get the seeds and roast them.

Jessica decided to give the pumpkin a face.

We roasted the seeds with butter and salt but they were pretty bland.




So this morning after we roasted the rest we added sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in small amounts.

Treats

Jessica, Adam and Jasmine made goodies for treat bags. Ty decided he's a little old for this and he has also been gone most of the last two days.



Adam and Jasmine lick beaters after mixing spice cake for cupcakes.

Pouring the batter into cups.

Decorating the cupcakes.

Frosting rolled sugar cookies.

Cutting more cookies.

Eating the rest of the almond bark after dipping pretzels.

Fun Stuff

Although this has been a rough month in some ways (mostly dealing with issues and behaviors plus increased school work and problems for Jessica at work), there has also been a lot of fun holiday stuff going on.


The third graders are having a paper bag mask parade tomorrow at school. I suggested several things to Jasmine such as decorating it to look like a box of Cheerios or Froot Loop or making it look like a Dr Pepper or Mountain Dew can. (You can tell what we have lots of around the house). She chose to make it a Mountain Dew Voltage Can.










I think it came out pretty well. She did the painting herself. We ran the Mountain Dew logo on computer. She colored it in darker and then we cut the letters out and glued them on.




We bought a pumpkin decorating kit that had pieces like Mr. Potato head pieces but with sharp points in order to stick them into the pumpkin. We got little pumpkins this year.

Here is Jessica's Mr. Pumpkin head.

Jasmine added a tiarra to hers.

Jasmine got all ready for soccer pictures and then it poured! I put purple and yellow beads in her hair. I left them in even though her school uniforms are red, white and blue. Since she had the beads in, she wore her soccer uniform as a costume to Tyler's church festival last night.

Someone saw her and asked where she played soccer. The lady said her son was purple terminators also but was U15. When Jessica said her brother Adam was on that team the lady said, "Oh, the suspended one." Guess that news traveled fast. I only told the coach was he was going to be out for a couple of weeks due to the trouble at home and school, no parents.

Tyler decorates his pumpkin.

Jessica made rolled sugar cookies for treat bags for teachers and bus drivers and other overlooked people. She started to melt almond bark for pretzels but the coating on the pan was all scratched up and bits of the coating got all through the almond bark so we have to buy more and start over. Threw the pan away!

Tonight we do more cookies, almond bark covered pretzels and cupcakes. Adam and I will do a lot of it because Tyler has a party at the college and the others are going to a big concert at the civic center.

We have two recipes we use for rolled sugar cookies.

Rolled Sugar Cookies (using granulated sugar)
1 c sugar 2 1/2 c all purpose flour
3/4 c butter softened 1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs 1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla colored sugar

Cream sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients.
Cover and refrigerate at least one hour. Roll dough 1/8” on floured
clth-covered board. Use rolling pin cover floured to prevent sticking.
Cut into desired shapes and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
Sprinkle with colored sugar. Bake at 400 6-8 minutes or until
light brown around the edges.

Rolled Sugar Cookies (using powdered sugar)
1 1/2 c powdered sugar 2 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 c butter softened 1 tsp baking soda
1 egg 1 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp vanilla colored sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract

Mix flour, baking soda and cream of tarter. Set aside.
Cream sugar, butter, egg, vanilla and almond extracts.
Gradually stir in dry ingredients. Cover and refrigerate
at least three hours. Roll dough 1/8-1/4” on floured cloth
or board. Cut into desired shapes. Sprinkle with colored sugar.
Place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 7-8 minutes or
until edges are lightly browned.

Jessica

Jessica finally located her camera. It had been left at the homecoming dance and a teacher had it. So she downloaded her homecoming week photos.

Jessica with a friend at the pep rally.






Jessica with Ignite and FCA ready for the parade.

The parade car.

Jessica and a friend get ready for the dance together.

If Jessica had stayed in band she would have gotten to go on the football field and be recognized on senior night along with the senior cheerleaders and football players. We would have been out there with her. Since she dropped band and missed that, we took her out to a restaurant of her choice instead.

She chose the Chinese buffet because she wanted cheese-filled wontons.

Rick tackled some crab legs. Jessica and I prefer not to eat things that have crawled around in the ocean.

I'm so proud of my senior!

Park and Festival

The last post was of our Purpose Driven day at the park. This is from yesterday also.


After our chapter and lunch, Tyler went to climb his favorite tree at the park. A bit challenging to get onto those first branches.










In looking over colleges and majors, Jessica is thinking of staying here locally rather than going away to the college she had previously chosen.

In looking at majors, I pointed out criminology and she thought that sounded interesting and there are a lot of ways to go with it. Plus she can always change her mind if she doesn't like it.

Anyway, I challenged her to do the obstacle course at the park to start getting in shape. Jasmine and I went with her.

Jasmine demonstrates how to swing on the rings.




Jasmine can push up on the bars but not walk down them with her hands or do the pushups on them.





Jessica can "walk" down them.


I can push up. That's it. I can really feel the break in my arm from a couple years ago when I do this. Funny because it's completely healed.




Jasmine demonstrates one of her gymnastics bar skills. Her left hand is so much smaller that I worry about her grip.

















1-2-3 climb--or not.




Jumping. Both girls can easily do two footed hops over these.










They were doing push ups but decided to get goofy on me.











Back home it's time to get ready for the church festival. At the last minute Jasmine decided to wear one of her dance costumes from last year's recital. She had planned to wear the white one and be a princess but wanted to wear the read "Little Red Riding Hood" one from her hip hop dance.



Limbo




At the chili cook off











Jessica with friends


Baptist gone wild with some line dancing. It was a western theme but my girls didn't have western costumes so wore what they wanted. Rick and I have shirts my mom made a long time ago for a horse ride. The kids have long outgrown theirs.

This was then: