Halloween

Halloween this year was a bit of a 'rush job'. Not that I am ever super prepared for it, but I kinda thought we'd do Chuck E Cheese again or something, since that was such a hit last year. Then we got really busy with Hugo house work, and those plans fell to the way-side. But there was a dress up theme for Awanas on Wednesday night - you fave Bible character. Boy oh boy. If you know me well, you know I hate costumes. And more than hating costumes themselves, I hate spending money on them. So I like to make it work with what we have in the dress up bin. Which is not always easy when a theme is thrust upon you.

Well...we've got princess stuff...so Queen Esther seemed a logical choice. Then Kenna decided she should be Ruth and Brooks should be Boaz.

...well, I told her she could be Ruth - about to get married to Boaz. She used her flower girl dress and a sheer kitchen curtain for a veil.

Grey wanted to be "Kenobi", otherwise known as Obe Wan Kenobi. To Grey, he's just Kenobi. Occasionally, Kenobi-wan, haha. - He says they have the same hair, so he could be him...or the little green guy. I figured that it would be hard to find Yoda in the Bible...so maybe he could be a shepherd and use the Jedi robe. He was not excited by this. We decided he could be a shepherd named Kenobi, and that worked out.

Brooks got to be David - with a slingshot, and satchel with 5 stones in it. He refused any head gear (ie hand towel)...but I think the point was made:-)

On Halloween, after soccer practice, we got Sonic (kids first time to eat the food there) and worked on the house. They went to a few neighbours on Hugo...dressed as soccer players I guess:-) and got some candy to fuel their evening. Kenna thought it was the best Halloween ever, since they got to eat out AND get candy by "real trick or treating"

Nature Walk

We had some friends visiting today, and we took a walk to see what interesting things we could find. Here are pics of the kids with some of their prize finds!

Libby

Brooks

Kenna and the tiny acorn

May May loves nature walks!

Something to decorate my porch

Grace and the pinecone

fall is coming!

I love the peaceful lake and these puffy things

Grey "Can you hold dese? My hands are getting all bother-y"

Little cherries?

the goofball

the sweetheart

Soccer Video

A small example of Grey's skills:-) He actually, although not passionate about it, really, is quite a good little player. He has all kinds of moves he pulls out right when needed. Here is him, getting the ball and turning it around - which is typically a challenge for a 3 year old, but he's not too shabby...and so darn cute!


Talking about his very first goal, ever. But mostly just loving the cheese balls:-) He scored all by himself, and of course I missed the moment on camera. But he played so well!

Kennedy Family Music

While some of my family was in town, I borrowed a guitar, so we could sing, of course! Here is a small sampling

Ok - In an unrelated incident to actually singing (potentially falling off a ladder, in fact), Lehman was affectionately dubbed "Sally Songbird" by our brother, Jared. Fitting, I thought:-) Well, Sally Songbird is a really great sport - and a super awesome soprano too! He's doing the hilarious high harmonies, and obliging his sisters by being goofy. We love him!


And this is Johnny Willow! A familiar Kennedy family classic.


Another war-time song, I don't even know the name of it - "We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin'". A very well loved song from when I was a kid.


I've posted the lyrics to this one here, and posted the video of my Dad singing it at my wedding, here. It was my favourite song growing up and always made me bawl. He has a great sad-voice for the story songs, for sure:-) Singing it for Kenna (and please excuse the make-less shots of me, ruining the whole thing:-)


Here's a song I grew up hearing - it's Big John


The Cup Song - we wore Lehman out in just one chorus:-)

Ate-en Apple - Video

When silly kids steal my camera, I find gems like this:-)

Brothers

I'm totally loving watching Brooks and Grey become best buds. Brooks just has "so much to teach
him" and Grey doesn't mind being bossed around...yet anyway. Yesterday I caught them doing a few things that just totally made me smile.

I walked into the den and caught them in this little workout sesh. Sit-ups are the only way to those stellar abs Brooks is able to maintain;-)

And Grey helps him out, by standing on his feet, so Brooks can get up:-)

In the afternoon, I found them playing chess together. Brooks is teaching him all the pieces and what they can do. Other than errantly calling Pawns, "Pawn-pawns" (the way he says it sounds like Pom-poms), he's doing a pretty good job of instructing Grey in the finer points of the game:-)

And to end the night, when I went up to check on them, they were all snuggled together in the same bed:-) I didn't take a pic (lost my motivation to go find phone or camera), but it was truly a melt your heart moment. Love my little guys!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cupcakes - Recipe

Ok, an awesome recipe comin' atcha - but first, aren't these perfectly adorable? It's a little Christmas tree cupcake. Easy, simple and adorable:-)

 

Ok, ok, enough of those:-)

These Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cupcakes are pretty awesome. You won't regret making these for a minute:-)

Ingredients:

1 box yellow or white cake mix (OR Duncan Hines Spice Cake mix, and omit spices)

1 T pumpkin pie spice (omit if using Spice mix)
1 t cinnamon (omit if using Spice mix)
15 oz pumpkin puree
3 eggs
1/2 C applesauce OR oil
1/3 C milk
2 t vanilla extract
4 T butter, melted
1/4 C white sugar
1 T cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line muffin pan with cupcake papers

2. Combine pumpkin puree, eggs, applesauce (or oil), milk and vanilla extract
3. Stir in cake mix and spices, and beat on medium speed until well blended
4. Fill cupcake liners to 3/4 full and bake for about 16 minutes, or until done
5. Once cooled, melt butter, mix up sugar and cinnamon
6. Using a pastry brush, brush butter onto tops of cupcakes, and then “roll” the top in cinnamon sugar

Cinnamon Sugar Cream Cheese Icing
1/2 C butter, softened to room temp

8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temp

1 1/2 t cinnamon

2 t vanilla extract

3 1/2 – 4 1/2 C powdered sugar

 

Beat butter and cream cheese. Add cinnamon & vanilla extract and slowly add in powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached. If too thick, add a touch of milk.

Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and sprinkle leftover cinnamon sugar on top. Enjoy!

Washington DC

The Bears were playing the Redskins...and my Dad (an avid NFL fan, which is rare for Canada where there is only the CFL) has never seen an NFL game in person...and "his team" is the Bears! My mom gave him the tickets for his birthday, which was essentially the reason for the whole trip:-)

So we took off for DC on Saturday afternoon - it was a quick trip up there for the game and some sightseeing (we made it to our hotel in just under 3 hours!)

The band! The Redskins are one of the few NFL teams to still have a band, I believe

Dad, Brian, Lehman, and my brother in law Dale attended the game together and had a blast!

 

And some pics - somewhat out of order, from the rest of DC.

Sunday morning - you can see his crabby mood on his crabby face. Joy

It's bobble headed Me!! This mirror was super weird and made your head much larger than your shoulder-less body

 We drove around DC and saw some sights, the only thing we got out of the car to see was the Jefferson Memorial. This was because we only had a few hours, and also, my Mom can't walk a lot/great distances so we had to be careful with what we chose to do (she has back surgery coming up this winter that should fix that!)

The Potomac and the Washington Monument from the view of the Jefferson Memorial. We saw the Monument up close, but it is covered to the tippy-top with scaffolding, which makes it look weird/not quite nice and normal

I love domed ceilings. They are amazing

Aunties with niece & nephew

his best statue face

My Loves

There is the White House! See it?! In person, you could see it quite well, but through a camera, things always seem farther away somehow?

White House, again. We drove by 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, but of course from the street you can't see absolutely any portion of the White House at all (one of my biggest complaints about DC!).

 

I was wearing my go-to Canada sweater. Nothing says "tourist" like a Canada sweater in DC:-)

Lauren was with us of course, since Dale was with the guys at the football game

 We saw some pretty buildings as we drove around

 

Ahhh, my Canada sweater fits right in, now:-) Due to the excessive number of Canadian flags, I am assuming this is the consulate or embassy

The Capitol is gorgeous - I wished we had time for an inside tour (though, not sure it's open on Sundays)

Swimming in the hotel. It was a REALLY nice hotel, actually, and very affordable too!

Being silly boys

Brotherly love!

My Boy. You can totally SEE the tired on his face, poor thing. He's been working a lot lately.

The Jefferson Memorial

 

The inscriptions on the walls of the Memorial - All from Jefferson's writings, of course. Engraved around the base of the dome ceiling is "I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man"

Grey & Noni

It was a quick trip, but really really fun. I was super glad to see a bit of DC again, I'd really love to go without kids sometime so I can enjoy it sans whining about feet, shoes, legs, food, eyes, arms, drinks, sweaters, heat, wind, food, drinks, legs, feet, shoes...I think you get the idea:-) It was a really fun way to end the trip though, I thought.

We rolled into Willow house just after midnight, and we're taking it easy today, getting the house back in order, and catching up on SLEEP:-)