Fall Fun

The Peanuts Gang

This weekend was full of fall family fun. Kendrick had his last baseball game of the season, while Cavett went to a karate costume party. We dressed the kids up and visited some of Stephen's cousins, Dick and Launa and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside and watching Dad carve the pumpkin.  Of course, we made pumpkin pncakes and found a great recipe for toasting the seeds.  (The trick is to boil them in salt water first!)

 Cavett put his hands in and got messy, but Kendrick would have nothing to do with it and instead decided to roll down the hill. 

 Happy Fall Y'all!

Estimation

This afternoon we decided to estimate the number of pumpkin seeds that we scooped out of the pumpkin we carved over the weekend.  However, it wasn't all of them out of the pumpkin, because we used a couple handfuls for an art project. 

So, Cavett estimated 201.  We counted them out in groups of 10.  Once we got up to 200, he reassessed and decided, "ok, maybe 230."  He came close.  252 was the actual count. 

My Pumpkins

Yesterday's outing to a pumpkin patch.

Pumpkin Soup

This weekend, besides my sister's incredibly easy pumpkin cupcakes, I cooked two pumpkins for soup. Last year I found this great low-calorie/low fat recipe. Unfortunately, when I went to make it this spring, there was no pumpkin to be found. So, this year I'm freezing some.

Thought I'd share:

2 Leeks chopped (white and light green parts)

1 can of Pumpkin or 2 cups baked fresh pumpkin

16 oz. can Garbanzo beans (rinsed)

2 c. Chicken broth

1/2 c. Cooking sherry

1 1/2 t. Oregano

1 t. White pepper

Salt to taste

In a pot, sauté leeks in 1 t. Olive oil. Add remaining ingredients over medium heat. Blend with hand held emulsifier/blender. Garnish with Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Enjoy!



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The Big Orange Pumpkin Patch

This afternoon Dad left to go back to Grand Saline and we needed an outing to fill our day. We chose the Pumkin Patch just northwest of McKinney. I knew it would be a bit muddy, but we decided to brave it anyway.

We drove up and we were the only ones there for a while which was nice. The boys loved chasing the chickens as they cock-a-doodle-doo-ed like crazy. There were longhorns, sheep and goats to feed. Cavett really got into it. One goat even took away his cup and decided to feed himself. Kendrick fed the longhorn one nugget and decided he had had enough of the feeding. Unfortunately, the patch was entirely too muddy to get into, but we were still able to have a tractor ride through the grounds.

The boys had a good time. Momma, not so much. I think if I am going to be a "boy momma", I need to get me some rubber boots too! I have also given up on the whole idea of trying to get a good picture of the two of them together. It happens so rarely and with MUCH coercion. It just isn't worth my sanity. If only I could post all the pictures I took so you could see the progression to get one good one.

As for the rest of our weekend, Cavett is finally fever free and will go to school tomorrow after which we will head to Grand Saline until Saturday afternoon for Cavett's soccer pictures and game. Please keep the whole Hill family in your prayers.

An Afternoon Project

After church today, we set out on a family project to carve pumpkins. However, not in the literal sense. Our cul-de-sac is having a party for our small neighborhood on Halloween evening after everyone is done trick-or-treating. The typical bobbing for apples, broomstick limbo and jack-o-lantern bean bag toss. We had some left over plywood in our garage and so I volunteered us for the bean bag toss.

We searched for our design--a winking pumpkin--and drew it on the plywood. Stephen and Cavett went to Home Depot for a couple of hinges for the back and some paint, then came back to cut it out. They did a great job and Cavett loved working with the power tools!


We actually made 2. As I was drawing the big one, Dad found an additional smaller piece and let Cavett draw his own. It ended up looking kinda square-ish, with dots for eyes and nose. I asked him if he'd like me to help and we came up with the second design similar to the first, but with one tooth.

We will paint it tomorrow sometime. I'm so proud of my boys and we will have yard decorations for years to come!

The Lesson of the Day

Yesterday brought us pumpkins. We left for church a bit early stopping off at Pei Wei for dinner and we were able to finish up just before the last light of the day. Our church has a pumpkin patch on the front lawn and we were hoping to catch a few pics. Cavett wore his new "War Eagle" shirt just for his aunts and uncles and Kendrick wore his Halloween smocked outfit given to us by William, via his cousin. Unfortunately, Kendrick was not too keen of the big round orange things and several of our shots were either blurry, too golden, or cars zooming past in the background. We'll have to try again, but here are a few good ones.

Today we had a math lesson at lunch. Grapes were the manipulative. Cavett had 10 grapes. They were lined up 2 by 2. We talked about sets/groups and we counted the groups. We counted how many were in the sets and talked about "times"--"it looks like an X." We also described it as 5 by 2, pulling our finger along the sides. I gave him the answer and then we counted all the grapes to see if we were right. He ate 2 and we did it again and a third time, when he decided it was time to switch to subtraction. I think that is his favorite--"take aways." I'm really glad he likes to learn and watching it is so fun.

This past week I have had 2 meetings with different people in Houston ISD. The red tape, buracracy, waste of time and quality just makes me want to home school. I know I could teach them the same things in half the time and possibly do a better job. We'd have so much more time to travel and do fun, ok, educational stuff. The world should be the classroom. However, I know how big the social aspect of actually going to school is. I know there are ways around it with home-schooled kids, but you can't replace the exact same social experience. I also don't know if I could be discplined myself and would go crazy? Thoughts to ponder for at least another year or so. What are your thoughts on home schooling?