Newest cooking lesson: pumpkin bars

I can't wait to get started.

Please take my picture so we can start dumping stuff out!

He told me, "Need just a few more cackers!"

He was supposed to be scattering the marshmallows on top, but he couldn't help himself.

Mmmm, butter and graham crackers, yes, I'll have some please.

Let's test the butter to make sure it's still good.

Well, half of the cornstarch made it into the bowl.

"Push the button."

The breakdown when I told him we were done.

Cute stuff

As everyone knows, I love things that have Asher's name on them.  There is a new store on Etsy that carries super-cute personalized items, and an owl shirt that I think I must have.  Here is the link, check it out, Noodles and Milk.

Pumpkin carving time

Carving a pumpkin with Asher is a bit of a challenge because he absolutely hates having anything that has a funny texture on his hands. I was proud of him for touching it at all.

He actually wanted to "hab dat knife" the whole time i was doing this, right a Cutco carving knife, sheesh.

Eagerly awaiting...whatever might be going to happen.

"Takin' da top off"

Um, so you want me to put my hand in there?

How about my spoon? Here, Daddy.Here, Mommy, I believe these go back in there.

I'll just clean this up.

Get it off!

Get it off!

Get it off!

Finished products

You know you're in trouble when you have to call Poison Control from the playground!

While at the park today, Asher decides to poop.  Though I would have loved to pretend that I didn't notice and kept playing, I knew that I had to act.  When I tried to get him, he ran away, so I thought, fine, I'll just leave him here and go get the diaper bag.  He was in a fenced in cement volleyball court with one exit facing the car.  He would be in my line of site the entire time.  So off I go, retrieve the bag, and return to the court.  

As I get closer I see that he is chewing on something.  So I chase him down and tell him to spit it out.  Yeah, right.  At this point I begin to smell mint, so I know that the item in his mouth is probably edible.  So I pinch his cheeks until he spits it out.  It was Nicorette gum!  Some genius left a piece of Nicorette gum on the volleyball court.  He had actually chewed it in its little package, but it was pretty well chewed.  

Poison control told me not to worry, it just might make him a little jittery.  For those of you who know Asher, any more jitteriness is a cause for worry.  

Praise the Lord...

my wallet was found by a nice, unselfish, trustworthy individual.  For those of you who don't know, I lost my wallet about a week and a half ago.  I put it on the back of the car at a gas station and drove off (because I was talking on the phone, I will admit).  So I realized it the next day and the nightmare began.  The wallet contained my IN driver's license, my ss card, Asher's ss card, all insurance cards, zoo membership, museum membership, blockbuster card. library card, etc, etc, pretty much my whole life.  Whoever found my wallet could have totally stepped into my life and started living it.  The only information the wallet did not contain was my current address/phone number, nice.  

So I started with the license, couldn't get an NC license without a IN license and a ss card, great, dead end.  Called ss office, can't get ss card without photo id, i.e. IN license.  Called IN and asked about getting duplicate license mailed, no way, they said, I had to be in their branch with two forms of id to get a new license.  At this point, I actually get into my car perform an experiment to see where the wallet likely landed, and search up and down highway 29 to find it.  No luck.  

SS finally agrees to let me use my med insurance cards as proof of identity to get a replacement card.  This was a huge relief because at least this way, I could go in like a 16-year-old and just take the tests to get lisenced.  Before this point, I was going to have to drive to IN to get a duplicate.  

Then on Saturday, Logan gets a call while he's shooting his wedding, the man had found my wallet and had been trying to track me down all week.  We met with him on Sunday and got my wallet and he wouldn't even accept a reward.  We had been praying about my wallet all week and it was really neat for Asher to be able to see prayer answered in such a tangible way.  I'm thankful that God protected my identity and put the wallet in the hands of Ron, the nicest, most honest man in the universe! 

Just goin' to da punkin patch

Asher's new thing is to add "just" to whatever sentence he is saying, so today, it was "Asher just goin' to da punkin patch." Because I am braindead, I bought a pumpkin at Hellmart the other day for carving purposes. I saw the sign and thought, "Wow, 4.48 is a good deal for such a large pumpkin.", completely forgetting that the reason I had not purchased the pumpkin yet was we were going to the pumpkin patch. So I kept the large pumpkin thinking I would just buy another at the patch and we would have a scary jack-o-lantern and a sweet jack-o-lantern.

We headed to the "punkin" patch after a birthday party and before a desperately needed nap. I don't know about your kids, but Asher gets CRAZY when he doesn't get a nap. Not grumpy, CRAZY, it's like we have injected him with adrenaline. So this was his state as we arrived. He immediately ran toward the pumpkins and picked up every one he could get his hands on. He then proceeded to the gourds, which he called "uchinis" (zucchinis). I could only take about two minutes of him tromping over the wee pumpkins like babyzilla before I was ready to go.

It's a good thing I kept my Helmart pumpkin (and sold my soul to the devil for shopping there, I know), because the pumpkin patch pumpkins were really expensive! I bought three tiny ones for $2.25 and told Asher these were the babies and their mommy was already sitting on our porch.

I know the people were cringing when they saw wild child coming.

Dis 'un be a 'ucchini.

Babyzilla rips the sign out.

Babyzilla beats the pumpkins with the sign.

Babyzilla take the sign and pitches it in another group of pumpkins.

Listen, lady, I don't know you.

...but maybe I'll smile anyway.

An autumn walk...with an almost two-year-old

The pictures really say it all.

At the beginning of the walk, actually deciding if we're going to take a walk or just, "pay wiff a cars"

Cute bottom shot.

This is when it all started to fall apart.  We had had some sitting episodes and a few "mommy put Asher on da solders (shoulders)" moments.  He literally laid on the sidewalk and said, "Asher goin' nigh-nigh".

"Asher geddin up"  Notice his hat is now askew from all the wallowing, but I told him I was going to spank his hand if he took it off again.

Well, well what do we have here?  Why, it's a pile of powdery dirt that I can sit in the middle of.  

His clean jeans are now filthy, but don't worry, he had already sat in dog poop at some point on this walk.  This is why I refused to carry him and he was lying on the sidewalk.  

Asher and a pen vs the sofa, round two

And the winner is...the sofa, assisted by mommy and a Shout wipe.  I left a pen on the floor yesterday, and Asher found it and "painted" the sofa, as he informed me.  I don't know what is in a Shout wipe, but it will get anything out of anything.  Thank you, Shout wipes, for saving my sofa, yet again.  

The (almost) Naked Chef

So after our super fun trip to the orchard, we baked an apple cake from my new favorite cookbook, Bakin' without Eggs.  I wanted to let Asher start helping in the kitchen so he won't grow up and be helpless in the kitchen like some other men that I know ;).  So I measured out all of the ingredients for Miss Pat's Apple Cake and away we went.

Ready to bake.  He had already grabbed the vanilla, oil and applesauce in the time it took me to step back and take the picture.

Mixing the apples and cinnamon...and then throwing spoonulas full of the mixture on the stove.

This was hilarious, when he squeezed the sour cream out of the container it made a funny sucking sound so I said, "It went 'glop'."  He cracked up and kept saying, "Dat 'un go gop!"

Nothing like sampling to see if you need to add a little something.  Who needs a spoon anyway?

So yummy!  He's never had any kind of batter/cake because he's highly allergic to eggs so he was in heaven.

Licking the bowl.

A little mishap down the front of the cabinets.

The half-eaten finished product.  It is very good to be a modified recipe, I highly suggest this cookbook for anyone with food allergies, we have had nothing but success.

Just because I love this diaper cover!

Apple Orchard

At the Jarrard's pre-preschool program, we have been "studying" apples this fall.  This culminated in our apple orchard "field trip" today.  Being that I've never been to an orchard, I dressed us with comfort in mind.  I also considered the fact that trees are located outdoors and are likely to be dirty.  So shorts and flip flops for me, jeans and Crocs for Asher.  We get to the orchard and the lady tells me, "Oh, and be careful with your feet, because of the flip flops.  The bees are really well fed so they are generally okay, just make sure you don't step on them."  Okay, alarms should have been going off in my head, but I was so focused on getting to the fun that I didn't notice them.  

We load Asher and the basket into the wagon and head down to the trees.  We passed an apiary so I thought, oh, there are the bees.  Not so much, we get to the trees and there are bees EVERYWHERE.  Bumble bees, honey bees, Japanese hornets (of which I will include a picture for those who are curious), and yellow jackets.  When the apples fall to the ground and begin to rot, it is like a sugar fest and all the bees come out for the good time.  

So I am instantly paranoid.  For those who know me, you know that I am not in the least fond of insects, particularly ones that have the power to hurt you, and in my case, will leave the affected body part swollen for days.  Asher jumps out of the wagon and runs to pick up the apples lying on the group.  I scream at the top of my lungs, "Don't touch, the bees will sting!"  Luckily, I guess, he was just stung this week, so he was aware of the pain they would cause.  Not aware enough to make him stop completely, but aware enough that he was not his usual wild-child self.  

Finally, I stuck him back in the wagon, gave him an apple to eat, and concentrated on the task at hand, filling my basket as quickly as possible without getting stung.  I was making good progress when I hear this little voice saying, "Mommy hab-it."  I turn around and he's handing me the stem.  He had eaten the whole apple, seeds and core included!  I tried to get him to pick some apples, but he's scared of leaves so that made it very challenging to say the least.  

Trying to crawl out of the wagon on the way down.

Contemplating the bee situation.

A few of our enemies on a rotten apple.

Pulling the wagon paying absolutely no attention to where he's stepping.

Eating apple #1.

Back in the wagon to avoid being stung, apple #2.  

Doesn't it look like he's just hanging out, enjoying his apple?  He's actually trying to get down, I just caught him at the right moment.  Oh, and eating apple #3.

The apiary.

The love of his life, a tractor.

Japenese hornet (not taken by me, from the internet).