Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! We had a nice relaxing/busy day today. I was under the impression that Halloween wasn't really celebrated here (the trick or treater's we have had speak otherwise!) so the plan was just to do our own thing this year. All in all a pretty fun day of making caramel apples, cleaning and carving a pumpkin, and roasting some delicious pumpkin seeds for "dinner."
Our pumpkin was supposed to have teeth but it didn't work out...I had too much "help."

Phia helped me wash and soak the seeds in salt water before we roasted them. Soaking them in salt water actually makes them perfectly salty without having to add more or end up with over salty seeds.

I added cayenne pepper and black pepper with some olive oil to coat and tossed them in the oven for about 15 min. My oven is terrible so don't ask me the temp. I just try not to burn stuff these days!


There were 6 but I didn't take a picture fast enough!
Yummy!! Also ouch....my teeth hurt these days when I bite into super sweet stuff like this. Totally worth it!

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Box House

Today was a yucky cold rainy day. There was a short attempt to play in the rain but it was very cold and the kids came back inside almost immediately for hot chocolate. Fortunately we found some old boxes to make houses out of. It's amazing that a simple box that would otherwise be thrown away can provide hours of creative fun.

What I found this morning

These were all taken by Phia. This morning the kids went downstairs before me and were getting into trouble. Playing with momma's camera was bad enough but it's really bad when it contains incriminating evidence! My favorite piece of evidence is the picture of Sebastian getting into my wallet!

No Gifts Please

I've become increasingly bitter about my original plan to make gifts for people this Christmas. Maybe I will change my mind but I think this chick might be on to something.
No Knitted Gifts

First Ever Pair of Knitted Socks!

I finished my first pair of socks last night! It took me forever and I had to rip out a lot of previous attempts but they are finished. Considering I about quit trying to knit "f--ing socks" I think it is amazing that they are actually done. What is even more amazing is that I might actually like it....I am starting a new pair and quite thrilled about it!

So here is the picture of the finished socks. Not a great photo but considering they have a few flaws and variations between them I think it looks better for me if the picture is crappy! :-)

On another note I am super excited to get started with knitting for Christmas! I was debating about giving knitted gifts but with the economy being in the toilet I thought maybe we all need to remember something bigger about the holidays....and not worry about going broke to buy people new ipods! I also have been looking into buying "gifts with purpose." I have been scouring the internet for different web sites that have simple, handmade, gifts from 3rd world countries, eco-friendly, recycled.....etc. I might post the sights that I like the best on here. It's fine to buy Ipods if you can, but maybe it's also fine to create something, or give back just a little....maybe the world is bigger than our consumer driven lives.

Anyways....I will save that for a later post. I just wanted to brag about my first ever pair of hand knitted socks! Yay me!

Brunch

In honor of my husband having 4 days off I started out the break with brunch. I guess technically though it was just a late breakfast. I did however make apple fritters. Yum! the recipe was too complicated for breakfast though so I plan on using a different one. It had to sit for 2 hours....there was folded egg whites....too much for the morning. But they were still delicious!


Yes. Those are homemade hash-browns. I am the master at hash-browns....so long as I have my trusty omelet pan!

I took a picture of the kid's food but they didn't eat anything except the bacon anyways. Weird kids!

Sweet Girl's Hat

I finished Sophia's hat last night. She got a chance to wear it today and proudly sported it all morning. It pooled a lot in various spots but I didn't want to try to fix it since I only had one ball of yarn. I like it anyway. The yarn is warm and soft so I guess that is the important part. I wish I had some yarn for Sebastian to have a hat.....I ordered it but when it came it was purple instead of blue. I think the boy needs something a little more manly than purple...so it's now going to be a hat for me! Ahhh the silver lining...



It's just a basket weave stitch hat so the pattern went really fast.




The decreases went crooked...I think the pattern I used was off by a dozen stitches...oh well what can a girl do?



Now off to my hat to match!

We've had a crappy internet connection for the last several days. I have barely been able to check my email much less post a blog. Hopefully it gets better.

Here's what we've been up to these past days...

I got my supplies to start knitting socks! I always get excited to see this label in my mail box.


My pretty sock yarn. I'm still having issues with my sock knitting....I've never knit anything moree complicated than a hat! I'm on the hunt for information and better instruction on what to do. If that fails I guess I can always make tube socks! :-)


We went to base to get an oil change and ended up spending all day in the rain. Cool at first but it was rough at the end when everyone was wet and tired.


The boy finally relented and wore his rain boots!


She refused to put her hood up all day...typical Phia.

Sure doesn't look like a lot....there is more but I am hoping to post this before the internet craps out again. Who knows it might not crap out at all and that would make me very happy!