Halloween weekend

We have had a very busy Halloween Weekend! It started Friday afternoon with my office's Halloween party which families are invited to attend. Saturday the fun continued as we geared up for a Halloween party at our friends the Harper's house. This is an annual adult costume party that we have attended each year since we moved to Florida! This year we went as the infamous "bun in the oven and the baker" again since it once again applies. I was impressed that we could find the costume with the move and all!! Today we geared up for trick or treat by making home made caramel apples as a family and tonight we've just now returned from trick or treat with our friends Hunter and Lola and their parents. Our little group was the hit of the neighborhood, who does not love a group of 2 year olds dressed up chanting "trick or treat" and knocking on doors and ringing door bells until the doors were opened! The elderly people (and there are a lot of them down here) especially loved our little group and were very generous with their treats. Here are some pictures from last night, today making caramel apples, and tonight from trick or treat! Jackson lived up to his costume as "Tigger" as he was always ahead of the pack and the first one to the door to yell trick or treat!

anatomy lessons

I'm starting to think we need to have an anatomy lesson in our household! Between potty training where he is the only boy in the class and hence the only one with a "weenie", to trying to understand what it means to have a mommy with a "baby in her belly" and why he does not have a "baby in his belly too"...we've got some explaining to do for him!!

You read correctly....Jackson is SO EXCITED to share with our blog world that HE IS GOING TO BE A BIG BROTHER! That's right, we're expecting baby #2 and now that I've told my office, and we're nearly to the tenth week, I am excited to announce this on our blog! Don't anyone go posting anything about this on Facebook yet, I will announce it there when I am good and ready but for now, we wanted to share the news with our close family and friends that read the blog!! We are excited and the baby is due right around Jackson's third birthday...the initial due date was smack on his birthday, May 28th but the doctor has since adjusted it a whole TWO days back to May 30th, sheesh. I have NO idea how we got that date again, but it is what it is. My sister and I have birthdays 4 days a part and we survived so our kids will too!!

When we told Jackson I had a baby in my belly he immediately thought he did too...I said only mommy's can have babies in their bellys and then the next day at his school he told the ENTIRE daycare that "mommy had a baby in her belly" and then proceeded to ask each teacher if SHE had a baby in her belly. He will learn, we will post pictures as a I grow:)

Fall Festival

The weekend is FINALLY here again and today we went to the fall festival in our area at La Porte Farms! It was refreshing to find that a place like this exists even in South Florida! The heat did return this week so it was a bit hot and sweaty for a fall festival (we have been spoiled the past two weekends with true fall temps) but we had a great time. No other plans on tap for this weekend, just lots of rest and relaxation which we all really need. After the festival we had a quick lunch and then we came home and Jackson and I both crashed for about 2 hours. Now, we're just lounging around with a quiet evening ahead!!

weekend!

It is the happiest day of the week at our house...SATURDAY! We love Saturdays as it is the ONE morning of the week when we can lounge around a bit in the morning and not feel the pressure to jump out of bed and shower and get ready for the day immediately. This morning also brought real fall temperatures! We turned the air off last night before bed and opened some windows. We can hear the surf from our house and it is really amazing to wake up to that sound and be in our house and not a hotel!! The temps were in the high 60's this morning so when Jackson hollered for us at the 7:15, I swooped him up and brought him into snuggle with us in our bed. Jon and I turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and then attempted to rest a bit more while he watched and all the sudden I felt rapid tapping on my shoulder and heard "wake up mommy, wake up daddy, Mickey is on, look, come on, don't you want to watch it?!" Ha...who can say no to that one! He was so enthusiastic about it and could not believe we would dare close our eyes and not watch Mickey. We've now relocated to the family room for more morning shows that Jackson chooses and he has donned his cool red Ohio State hoodie that Mimi found him at a garage sale this summer! He's getting geared up for the big game against Wisconsin tonight!

Before the football starts tonight though, we've got a big day ahead of us and the cooler temps showed up just in time! The Junior League is hosting Oktoberfest today and we are all involved in some way. I have to help with the set up today from 11-2, then I'll run back home and change and get Jon and Jackson and we'll head back out to the festival. Jon is playing with one of my co-worker's husbands in the cornhole tournament (cross your fingers for them, they've been practicing all week) and Jackson and I will enjoy the German food, entertainment, and kids activities including a petting zoo and face painting!! It should be fun had by all and then Jon will help with the tear down and we'll be home in time to watch Ohio State tonight at 8...or Jon will probably watch and I'll be ready for bed!!

Tomorrow brings another fun but busy day. We'll go to church in the morning and then at 12:30 we have Ann from Jackson's school coming to stay with him for a few hours. There is a bowl to build tournament at our local bowling alley going on to sponsor Habitat for Humanity and my office is a lane sponsor so Jon and I are bowling with the other attorneys and their spouses. We did this last year and it was really a lot of fun so it should be a good time. I just wish these events were not back to back but at least we're not lacking for things to do, that is for sure! Hope everyone has a good weekend. Next weekend we've got a fun family fall festival on tap for Saturday morning at a farm not too far from here.........I can hardly wait!

p.s. some of the pictures are from last weekend when Jackson was trying out his big boy bed. We still have not made the full transition, for how the bed is parked in his room alongside the crib and each night we ask him where he wants to sleep. He says the "big boy bed" and desperately wants to sleep there and then at the last minute he always calls for us and asks to go in the crib!! Does anyone have advice on how to make this transition? I am most concerned that he will not stay in the bed as he rolls alot at night and I'm afraid he may also get up after we've left the room and I will find him in the morning laying in the middle of the floor!! I guess worse things could happen.

Friday afternoon with my little helper!

The day started out normal for the most part and I was looking forward to a "easy" day at work with no appointments or clients coming in...just 8 hours of uninterrupted time to actually get some work done! Then, we had an employee breakfast that the staff put on for bosses week, and by the time I got to my desk around 9:15, I had a message from the daycare that Jackson had a low grade fever, was not acting himself and was tugging at an ear. He had been a bit out of sorts this morning and extra clingy (not like him at all now, he loves to go to school most days) so I banged out the work I had to do and got him an appointment with the Dr. at 11:30 and picked him up at 11. We sat in a waiting room for over an hour (I hope we did not pick up about 9 other diseases) and then saw the doctor for him to be perfectly fine, ha!! I guess he was going to find a way to spend the day with me one way or the other and he got his wish. He is sleeping peacefully now in his bed and I'm working on getting some of that work done from home this afternoon...happy Friday all!!

pumpkin butterscotch chip cookies!!

Now most everyone that knows me and reads this blog knows I am not much of a cook, but I do love baking and someone gave me this recipe about 4 years ago. We make the pumpkin butterscotch cookies at least a few times during the fall and Halloween season so today seemed like the perfect afternoon to make a batch for this year! The recipe is easy and very good so I wanted to share it:

2 cups unbleached flour

1 and 1/2 t baking powder

1t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 t ground cinnamon

1/2t pumpkin pie spice (if you have it)

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil or corn oil

1 cup canned pumpkin

1t vanilla extract

1 cup butterscotch chips

mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer until you have batter that resembles thickened pumpkin pie filling. Gently hand mix in the butterscotch chips last. Use a tablespoon and spoon drop the batter onto greased cookie sheets (you can line the sheets with parchment paper if you have it rather than using spray to grease the sheets). I like to sprinkle a few extra chips onto the top of each mound of batter and then bake the cookies at 325 degrees for 16 minutes.

The recipe will yield spongy cake like cookies that taste great even in the morning with a cup of coffee and they are sure to make your house smell like you've been burning the best smelly yankee pumpkin pie candle ever!! My most recent batch made 31 cookies and I made them rather large so this recipe will yield close to 3 dozen cookies...perfect for sharing with neighbors, friends and family, or for eating some now and freezing some for later! They freeze and thaw well!

another lazy weekend

After so much activity the past two months, we have the luxury of another lazy weekend that has rolled around! This morning it was cool from about 7-8:30 or so before the sun really came out and hit our back porch area. Jackson and I watched some Mickey Mouse clubhouse out there, and then he enjoyed a FLORIDA GATORS colored donut that he picked out! I think he got his teams mixed up because he is a buckeye through and through and will even now chant "lets go bucks" (video coming of that soon) but I think the bright orange and blue colors blinded him and he went for it! Happy weekend everyone.