Count Explore Blessings: Adventures of Little, Middle, and Mom

 It's the Friday before Halloween and the first day so far this week that we haven't had some kind of errand to run. With some extra time on our hands, Middle and I decided to bake some Halloween themed sugar cookies.  Middle's never actually helped in the kitchen before, but he's usually pretty interested in what's going on up on the counter. We've not prepared for this, so instead of a step stool, we had to use a chair. We'll definitely be upgrading before the Christmas baking season. We started measuring out our ingredients and Middle was thrilled to get to add them into the mixing bowls.  After the hand mixing was done, I had to break out the electric mixer. It's fairly noisy and Middle is definitely not a fan. He ran the doorway and waited until the coast was clear. Once the horrible mixing monster was back in it's cabinet, Middle rejoined me to help wrap up the dough and put it in the refrigerator to chill.  An hour later we returned to the kit...

 As Papa R likes to put it "Halloween in our house is a full contact sport." Momma keeps everyone busy with activities and outings for the entire month. This is my Christmas. So we've got a busy weekend. Today was the Treat Street event at Bridgewater Shopping Center. Music, donuts, candy, and lots of fun. All the stores and restaurants set up spots for kids to trick or treat throughout the entire complex. The weather was a little on the chilly side, but thankfully the rain stopped as things were starting up.  Since the clouds were sticking around and we couldn't guarantee that no more rain would fall, we opted to leave Thomas off the stroller. He's still got one more night, the most  important night, to last through. Middle, Little and I kept the train theme going, but Big, being a little bigger, wasn't really feeling another engineer day. So I put together a more appropriate costume theme for he and Papa R.... Mario and Luigi.  I had planned on making their ...

 Ever seen the Netflix show Nailed It! ? Well if you have, you know which direction this post is heading. If you haven't, first, do yourself a favor and go giggle at a few episodes... after you're done reading, of course. Second, the premise is simple: Home bakers who have a poor track record in the kitchen compete to see who can make the least cringe-worthy recreation of a edible masterpiece. While this particular craft is not edible, I had some Nailed It worthy moments. It started with a simple Pinterest idea... And then there was trouble. Fizzy surprise pumpkins... because Middle loves pumpkins. Simple ingredients: baking soda, water, food coloring, dish soap, Halloween rings, and vinegar. The pin was a quick video showing the process, but with very little detail. As we know, the devil's in the details. The pumpkins, once made, have to sit and dry for 24 hours before you can fizz them so I waited until Middle was busy with Papa R after dinner to sneak into the kitchen a...

It's a rainy, gloomy day outside. Middle and I decided to break out another one of the Pinterest ideas we've been eye-balling to brighten the afternoon. Middle LOVES to paint. It started at an early age. Middle also loves pumpkins. Momma is fresh out of real pumpkins, but I just so happen to have a canvas that's just waiting to be covered in paint. While Middle ate his breakfast, Momma gathered all our supplies. This one is fairly simple: Masking tape, scissors, canvas, paint, and brush. The first part of our project was a little advanced for Middle so he watched eagerly from his table, munching on his eggs, while I applied our design with the masking tape. Since it's fall, nearly Halloween, and as we already established, Middle loves his pumpkins, I had to incorporate one. Momma decided to showcase her three little punkins... With the technical stuff out of the way, it was time to turn Middle loose. I gave him a full palette of colors on a paper plate and a large spon...

 We've had a busy month so far, but somehow we had not yet made it to a pumpkin patch. Today we had to change that.  Middle, Little, Papa R, and I hit the road to visit one of our favorite farms, Garver Family Farm. The weather was a perfect fall afternoon and the farm wasn't too busy. We grabbed a wagon and checked out the pre-picked pumpkins around the store.  These pumpkins were great, but we came for adventure and the patch awaited! On the way to the field, we stopped to admire the resident pumpkin truck. Papa R has quite the affection for this truck. We have welcome mats for every season with the truck and various decor items for each holiday. This was Middle's first time visiting a pumpkin patch, so his first few yards in were a little tricky navigating the vines. He quickly got the hang of it though and was speeding around checking out the selection. We took our time, searching high and low, for the perfect pumpkins. Middle was excited to see pumpkins of varying si...