*On Sunday afternoon Cameron spent 4 1/2 hours straight working on building one of his Legos sets.  Holy cow!!  Put him in front of a pile of Legos and tell him to go at it?  He'll last 5 minutes.  Put him in front of detailed instructions to follow? He'll last 4 1/2 hours. :)

*Reason #435,365 why my daughter is too cute for words:

Yesterday:
Me:  Can you drink some more water?
Kendall:  I don't want to.
Me:  But water is so good for you!  Remember how we talked about beans having a party in your tummy?  Well, water has parties too because it's so healthy!
Kendall:  Oh!!  So it's like a swimming pool for the food!! :)

*I felt SUPER old today when I read that Stacey Dash, an actress from one of my all time favorite movies, Clueless, is 46!!!

(she's in the middle)

* Reason #435,366 why my daughter is too cute for words:  She looks soooo adorable in her new bob haircut. :)

pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin!!!

There have been so many recipes I've read about which include pumpkin.  I'm anxious to try a pumpkin enchilada recipe Chris' uncle sent me.  I know I'll love them because the past couple of days I've REALLY fallen in love with using pumpkin in savory foods.  First off, last night I made cottage cheese pancakes and cut the butter down and added pumpkin instead.  With a little jelly on them (they do need some sort of topping) the kids gobbled them up!!

Secondly, today for lunch I had my second meal of basically a stir fry with pureed pumpkin acting as the sauce.  Today's bowl included spaghetti squash, potato wedges, onions, pumpkin, and parmesan cheese.

I figured this would become a regular for me in the next few weeks, so I went ahead and froze some pumpkin in ice cube trays so they would be easy to pop out and into my bowls. :)  

I can't believe I've never tried this stuff in things other than breads and desserts! :)

*Last week I accompanied Cam's class to Oak Glen for an apple tour.  I actually learned quite a lot!!

*While we were at the field trip, my mom and Kendall went to my moms' group outing at a pumpkin patch. :)

*Chris' birthday is tomorrow and he requested his favorite cookies.  I made them SUPER easily this time.  I made chocolate cookies out of a cake mix (just added 1/2 cup oil and 2 eggs) and then sandwiched them between store bought German Chocolate frosting.

 *This below is SOOO me!!  For some reason, I hate having to walk those 10 feet back to the car from our kitchen for another load. :)

*I'm browsing Pinterest to try and find a good chore chart/system.  I know I need to get one going, I'm just dragging my feet. :)

*How cute is this dress?

*The other day I was telling Cameron that his teacher and I had talked and we are going to have him start reading, "even bigger boy books" now.  To this he responded, "You mean books that have words like 'absolutely' and 'incredible' in them?"  :)

daddy/Kendall and mommy/Cameron day

A few weeks ago I asked Chris to take Kendall for a few hours so I could take Cam to a birthday party yesterday.  Chris decided to make it a super fun afternoon and took Kendall to Disneyland since they had never gone just the two of them.

They had such a great day and it was fun for me to get pic texts throughout the day of everything they did.

One thing I love about Kendall is how easy she is to take to ANY store.  She just loves to look around and pick things up.  One of Chris' texts was how many gift shops they had been in, as opposed to when we all go (Cam isn't as into "browsing").

Cameron and I had a fun afternoon together.  After school we headed to McDonald's for some play time.  I had just gotten settled at a table with my iced coffee and newspaper when he announced (after 10 minutes) he was done.  Oh, well. :)  We then went to my mom's to kill some time until the party.  

The birthday party was at a bowling alley and Cameron LOVED every minute of it.  There is something so cool for kids about seeing their classmates in places other than school. :)  

One of the teen bowling alley employees was responsible for cutting the cake.  I gave her a break since she probably didn't have kids, but the pieces she served were the size of Cameron's head!  I knelt down and told Cam he would get a tummy ache if he ate the whole thing, and luckily he let me lop off half his piece and throw it away (wow, I sound like a real birthday killjoy, huh?). :)

Overall it was a very fun, "divide and conquer" day for us and the kids. :)

during lunch today...

...the kids and I got our groove on with our black bean tortilla pizzas.

About 10 minutes after the video:

Cameron:  Mom, can you not feed me this again?
Me:  Why?
Cameron:  Because beans are kind of yucky.
Me:  But don't you want them to dance in your tummy and have a party (that's what we say happens when we eat healthy foods)?
Cameron: (putting his hand to his stomach) Um...I don't feel them dancing.  I don't think they've arrived yet.

*Today Kendall and I took such a nice walk to the grocery store.  Heat, please stay just a little longer!  While there I picked up a can of pumpkin.  I'm determined to make some sort of savory/dinner dish with it as this has been on my "want to experiment with" list for a loooong time.

*Yesterday was a Palm Springs afternoon.  Costco lunch was followed by a delightful array of samples.  Usually I don't even attempt to get Chris to try veggie patties.  However when I tasted the Morning Star "Sausage" Patties, I just knew he had to at least give them a shot.  Verdict?  He REALLY liked them!   I can't believe my husband actually will be eating veggie patties for breakfast.  Woohoo!!!

*Lastly, I feel a little proud of my latest accomplishment.  I've NEVER been into crafts or DIY home projects.  However one of Kendall's walls had remained blank for far too long.  After seeing some super cute butterfly decals at the 99 cent store, I decided to make a go at a mural I found online.  It was so easy.  I drew the tree in pencil and painted it with some leftover paint we still had from her room.  It was actually very fun and I find myself now gazing upon other walls in our house wondering what I could do with them. :)

*I've decided Friday afternoons will be "fun Fridays" around here.  Nothing extravagant will be planned, just something different from the usual.  Last week we went to the mall for an Auntie Annie's pretzel lunch and playtime.  Today we went to the 99 cent store to find some fun Halloween decorations.

*My panel talk was today for my moms' group.  I think it went well.  Of course I always second guess myself and wish I had said some things and omitted others, but hopefully it was well received and the girls listening were able to take away a few kitchen tips from myself and the three others who were on it with me. :)

*Normally I'm pretty good about having treats around the house and not devouring them.  But lately I cannot keep my hands out of these two items.  Sidenote:  we don't normally have this large amount of yogurt covered pretzels.  Knowing how much I adore them, Chris went a little overboard at WinCo.  I was surprised at the amount he bought...however secretly I wasn't disappointed. :)  I will say that the next cracker purchase will be Wheat Thins, which are lower on my cracker list of favorites. :)

*When you have a mom who loves to cook/bake, how do you melt her heart?

1.  Randomly tell her you want to start writing the recipes for your lunches (i.e. "put peanut butter on bread, spread jelly," etc.).
2.  Tell her you want to make a recipe box so you can put your recipes (some a few pages long due to very large print!) inside.

3.  When asked what you want to be when you grow up for a school poster put, "chef". :)

 *We've tried several new shows this fall and have had rotten luck.  We are still trying Ben and Kate as well as Last Resort, but there isn't one show that makes me excited for next week's episode (like I was for shows like Damages or Lost).  Seems like shows have gotten more unrealistic, cheesy, and just not as funny.