Turkey Cookies

Seeing as Katie is letting me write some of these blog posts, I feel that I should issue the following warning: The opinions, circumstances and details expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Katie (or the actual truth, for that matter).

Contrary to what you may be thinking based on the title, we did not make cookies out of turkey. Though that may have been easier than what we actually did. Katie has a knack at picking out the most difficult recipes/activities for us to try. This episode of "Frustrate Craig through Cooking" dealt with making frosted cookies that look like turkeys (see Figure 1, although I think we needed to take the picture from a more over-head view to really see what it is).

The cookies, the frosting, and most of the decorating wasn't that bad. The infuriating part was making the legs for the turkeys. This required the precision cutting of pretzels to form something that looked like a leg and feet. I don't know if we picked a bad bag/brand/style/whatever of pretzels, but I cut ~80 pretzels (breaking most of them) to get about 14 usable turkey feet. Needless to say, Craig was not a big pretzel fan by then end (see Figure 2). (Not a very intimidating picture. Note to self, use bigger knife for next deranged serial killer picture.)


Not all of us were unhappy with the turkey cookie making, Lucas benefited and really enjoyed himself!

Christmas at the Mall

Craig here finally doing my dues on the blog. I've been busy the last year or so with my candidacy exam, but now that I've passed and it is behind my, I'm helping Katie catch up with the blog.

Our local mall (the amazing Nittany Mall, don't blink or you might miss it) had its Christmas kick-off the weekend before Thanksgiving. They had fun and games for kids and promises of Santa Claus showing up. We decided to take Lucas and get out of the house. The best part of the whole experience was the fact that Lucas was more interested in the guy dressed up as a Nutcracker than Santa Claus and the reindeer hat the Christmas Magician made for Lucas.

Art Museum

For playgroup Lucas and I went to the Art Museum on Campus. It was interesting and something different to do. The lady that gave us our tour was really good with the kids and making it kid friendly. She even brought a special friend to assist her on the tour, it was an ostrich hand puppet. It was fun to take Lucas to the art museum, which is something I would not normally do. Lucas did pretty well, considering he stayed in his stroller the entire time, due to the fact I did not want to find out what kind of mischief Lucas could get himself into.

My favorite part about this season!

Those of you who know me know I am not a big fan of this season. I don't like being cold and I don't like snow! Unfortunately it gets cold here, really cold! Since there is not much I can do about this I have decided to look on the bright side! The bright side is that when it gets cold I get to bring out the Hot Chocolate maker!!! I love the hot chocolate maker. It is an awesome appliance, one of my favorite appliances in fact (it ranks right up there with the Kitchen Aid, and that says a lot)! The other day we plugged it in and used up the last of our hot chocolate mix from last year! Lucas loved it! Hot Chocolate, yum!

No Nap!

This is what you do when your child doesn't take a nap and you can't handle it that he will not take a nap!


Sidenote: We're not sure how this happened, but Lucas knows how to turn on the TV and cable with the remote. Lucas sometimes watches Sesame Street or Yo Jabba Jabba in the morning while we're getting ready for the day, but that is about the extent of his TV watching, so we're not sure when or how he learned this new trick. Not sure if we like it.

Library

This may not seem very amazing, but to me this was an awesome moment that needed to be documented, when I felt that I was an alright parent! Lucas is a very energetic, busy child. When other mothers go to the library to let there children play in the designated play area (it has a train track, a wood house, puzzles, and other fun toys), they can sit and relax. I am the mother that is chasing after my child as he aimlessly wanders the library and at times tries to escape from the children's area into the main library. I have been taking Lucas to story time at the library once a week. Last week we went to story time and I let Lucas play after. Brace yourselves, here comes the amazing part.... Lucas stayed in the designated area, he even played with the train for several minutes! I got to be like all the other mothers that sat and talked! It was Amazing!!!

Fall!

We have a pretty big tree in front of our apartment, and its leaves have been changing colors. The other day Lucas and I ran an errand and we came back and our yard was covered with leaves, from the tree. I had not taken any pictures of Lucas and the leaves so I thought this was the perfect moment.

Our annual Halloween Dinner!

For Halloween I made Lucas a festive tie to wear to church, he looked very handsome and very festive! I was pretty proud, the tie turned out better than I had expected (which was relief since it took me several hours to make the day before).

We also had our annual Halloween Dinner! Which is dinner in a pumpkin and of course our pumpkin caramel cheesecake, which was excellent! This was Lucas first dinner in a pumpkin and he thoroughly enjoyed it! We also had our new neighbors, the Van O's over for dinner.

Trick or Treating Week

This Halloween Lucas was a Monkey, a very cute monkey!!! There was so much going on throughout the week that I figured I would take a vantage of these opportunities and took my monkey all around town! At the beginning of the week we went to a grocery store, where they had games set up throughout the store. For Lucas being so small he did pretty well at the games. He put the rings around the witches hat and put the Halloween eraser in the bucket.

The next day we went trick or treating at the Athletic Museum on campus. Throughout the museum there were both athletes with treats! At first Lucas struggled with the concept of trick or treating. He wanted to eat the treat right away, and kept trying to reach into his bucket and pull the candy out, but by the end (after I had opened a sucker for him) he was happily putting treats in his bucket. They also had games, which Lucas didn't really get care about, but we attempted. We had a picture taken by the mascot, as you can see Lucas was not sure about this!

The Athletic Museum was a good practice round for the really deal, which came a couple of days later when Lucas went trick treating around the neighborhood. Lucas loved this! He took advantage of being so cute. When he was told he could pick two treats, Lucas would stick his hand in and come out with five, people thought this was so cute! Lucas enjoyed this so much he even outlasted the older kids we were with, they got tired and cold and were ready to head home, but not Lucas he kept going and going. I was amazed; he walked the majority of the time. He was such a trooper!

Last but not least, the following day we took Lucas to the ward's trunk or treat at the church. Lucas was really excited to going trunk or treating, by now he was a pro! He got to the point where he didn't want to be handed a treat, he wanted to pick out his own treat (or with Lucas it was treats)! It was a crazy week with lots of trick or treating, but Lucas had a blast!

Gettysburg

About the second week of October, I left Craig and Lucas at home and took a trip with some women in the ward to Gettysburg. We were lucky enough to have our own personal tour guide, who was very knowledgeable about the Civil War and Gettysburg. This was very fascinating to visit such a huge part of history. To hear the different stories and experiences that occurred during this battle.

Asleep!

This happened a week or two ago. Lucas didn't take a nap during the day and as I was holding him later that day he kept falling asleep, and I would gently shake him awake. I set him on the floor to play and I looked over and there he is curled up with his knees under him on the kitchen floor trying to sleep. It was about 5 o'clock and I did not want him sleeping, so I turned on some tv and gave him his sippy cup, thinking that will deter him trying to sleep. I started making dinner, and realized that he had been really quiet, and that is when I found him curled up with his knees under him, sippy cup in hand, asleep on the floor in front of the tv. I don't know how long he was there, it couldn't have been more than 30 minutes. If you know my child at all, you know this is not like him at all. He doesn't fall asleep till I set him in his crib at night, during nap time, and occasionally in the car, but he doesn't just randomly plot himself on the floor and try to voluntarily go to sleep.

Another First!

The first weekend of October Craig came home with a head cold. A week later it was passed on to Lucas. Eventually I also received it. For over a week now, Lucas has been ornery, clingy, whinny, has had a runny nose, the gooey eyes came back, and a cough. Yesterday morning I went and got Lucas out of bed, brought him into my bed to lay down next to me, he screamed bloody murder and would not lay down. Finally, the light went on and it occurred to me that this might not be just a cold. Long story short, we went to the doctor, Lucas was diagnosed with his first ear infection, in his right ear. He is now on an antibiotic and Tylenol! He is still whinny and clingy, but hopefully the end is near.

Lost Count!

I have lost count of how many teeth Lucas has, but I think this is number 12. Lucas now has his lower left cuspid, yeah! It has been right under the skin for awhile now and seemed to take forever to break through.

Apple Festival!

Went went to the annual Apple Festival this past Saturday! The weather was way better than last year! Nice and Sunny! We took a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch (10 acres) and picked out a pumpkin for our traditional dinner in a pumpkin. I personally think Craig dreads this part, because I am so picky about the pumpkin and it takes me forever to decide. Craig kept and eye on Lucas, who was wandering around the pumpkin patch playing in the dirt and picking up these green ball things, trying to put them in his mouth, while I found the perfect pumpkin. Then we went and found the rabbits, which are usually at this event. Lucas was super excited about this. He wandered around attempting to pick up the rabbits. He was so eager to touch them. Fortunately, Craig was there to supervise.

Homecoming Parade

Last week was Homecoming for the university. We went to the parade with some friends from our neighborhood. It was lots of fun! Lucas seemed to enjoy it! He loved the music, he was grooving to the music (which is basically Lucas waving his arms, moving up and down, and twirling around and around). It is pretty cute to watch. This is a pretty long parade. It seemed to go on and on. Of course they save the best part for last, the marching band. We have watched this parade three times, two more times to go.

Applesauce

Today was our applesauce canning day! I bought my two half bushels of apples and canned them. When we first started, I was thinking 'wow I forgot how much work this is'! However, it didn't take us a long to get a system going and even with three kids roaming around (my child decided not to take a nap today) we canned 4 half bushels of apples pretty quick. It was totally worth it, too. Applesauce is so much better homemade rather than store bought, no additives or preservatives, just apples!

Just a side note, since I mentioned that some things are better homemade rather than store bought, I also made another two batches of strawberry jam. We already ran out and I don't want to go through an entire winter without jam. I also experimented and made strawberry blueberry jam. It is pretty yummy!

Fall Festival!

On Saturday we took Lucas to the Fall Festival that they were having downtown! Lucas picked out his own pumpkin, which was not much smaller than him. He also went on the Merry-go-round for the first time and loved it (so much so that we had to go again)! His favorite activity of the day was playing in the pool of birdseed! Last, but not least, Lucas decorated a cookie, and then of course ate it!

Pumpkin

Fall is in the air. I love fall! When the leaves start to change colors and it gets a little cooler. I get in this mood to bake. Pumpkin is one of my favorite ingredients to use for this time of year! This year I attempted to make pumpkin fudge. It took three attempts and assistance, but we finally made a decent batch of pumpkin fudge. It tasted pretty good. It was a little harder than I like my fudge and really, really rich, but it was pretty good.

Oops!

Lucas has been into putting things over his head. The other day he was playing with sand toys (that are not ours and need to be returned), and was really enjoying himself. Then we started to her whining, like he was frustrated. We turned around and there was Lucas with a bucket around his neck and not to thrilled about it either. Though he was very upset, I had to take a picture. It was one of those moments when I can't help but think, "really?" "Where did you even come up with that?"

Apple Orchard!

Last week our playgroup took a tour of an apple orchard. We took wagon ride through the apple orchard and had a quick tour of where they store, wash and clean the apples. Lucas was intrigued with the machine that washed and cleaned the apples! Throughout the tour Lucas tried to grab and eat the apples. Luckily at the end of the tour they gave us some apple cider and a bag to fill up with apples. Lucas really enjoyed his apple!!! He kept trying to go back for more!

Banana

When Lucas sees something he wants he goes for it. Like the other day when I forgot to push the chair in and before I knew it, Lucas had climbed the chair onto the kitchen table, reached into a bowl took a pair of bananas out proceed to pull one off. He put the other one back in the bowl, looked at me and said, "want this". At least I didn't have to guess what he wanted.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Craig! As of last Wednesday Craig is one year older! Unfortunately he wasn't able to enjoy it, because everything happened to land on that day. However, we were able to celebrate between his work meetings and mutual. We had balloons and no bake cookies, Craig's favorite. So we didn't have to take away anymore of his man cards, we gave him money to buy a drill!

Beach!

This past weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to go to Delaware with some friends. We stayed for three nights in a house in Ocean View, Delaware. There were four families, a total of eight adults and eight kids, so at times it was a little noisy, but tons of fun! It was so nice to get away and take a break from our everyday routine. We went to the beach and the weather was wonderful. It was late in the season so there were not a lot of people, which was a nice perk. We also saw dolphins right off the shore.

Lucas loved playing in the sand, and after several minutes he was willing to play in the waves. He started to chase them, which he really seemed to enjoy, though we had to hold onto him or the current would have take him out into the ocean. One of our friends had a friend that owns a beach house right off the bay, so we went and watched the sunset off of their deck.

We were not far from Ocean City Maryland so we took a stroll along the boardwalk and was able to see where the ocean met the bay. On the way home was got stuck in traffic, lots of traffic, as bikers headed home from motorcycle week 2010 in Ocean City, but then we crossed the Chesapeake Bay which was really cool. The bridge was long and high above the ocean, which was a little intimidating. We could see boats coming in from the ocean. By then end of the journey Lucas was exhausted! It was a good time!