Halloween Fun

Last Tuesday our family took an impromptu after-school trip to Walden Farm to soak up a little pre-Halloween fun.

We took a beautiful hayride and enjoyed a lot of the farm that I had never seen before.  It is beautiful, rustic Tennessee at its best.

After our hayride and a few pumpkin pictures, I thought it would be fun to get a family photo in front of this awesome wagon display.  Jim and I were so focused on helping his mom figure out our camera and making sure everyone was situated that no one noticed Brennan's silly face.  Don't tell Brennan, but I think it makes the picture just perfect.

For whatever reason, Cora is absolutely obsessed with scarecrows this year.  She points out every single one she sees, and believe me, there are a lot more out there than you realize.

Just before it got dark, Brennan climbed to the top of these hay bales and shouted that he was king of the mountain.  

On Friday we went trick-or-treating at Jim's work after school.  It required tremendous work to get everyone there on time, in one piece, and happy.  I had to gather costumes, snacks, dinner stuff for Cora, trick-or-treat buckets, my camera, wake Cora from her nap, and go pick up Brennan from the car line (the bus would have made us too late).  By the time we got there, I realized I had forgotten Cora's tutu.  :-(

Nonetheless, she and her little friend Myla made perfect ladybugs.

It amazed me how bold Cora was.  Brennan used to have to be pushed and urged to approach people, and saying trick-or-treat scared him.  This year he was over that, but Cora didn't share any of Brennan's reservations from years past.  She just marched up to anyone and everyone that might offer her treats and gladly took them.

On Halloween morning, Cora got to wear her costume to Mother's Day Out.  She was so excited!

I told her she made a cute ladybug and asked her what a ladybug says.  She replied, "Ummmm...  Maybeee.....  Trick or treat!"  :-)

Together Brennan and Cora were the characters from Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, one of our favorite books.

We had to make a few adjustments.  First of all, Bumblebee Boy doesn't have anything that makes him look like a bumblebee except his striped shirt, so we made more of an effort with Brennan.  For Cora, I went with a black shirt instead of red, and although we tried to find the boots (they do exist!), they were all sold out and we had to settle for Mary Janes.  Nonetheless, another little trick-or-treater said, "Hey!  You guys remind me of a book called Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy!"  Mission accomplished.

Hope you had a happy Halloween!

Going Fishing

This morning when I looked at my facebook page, I had to laugh.  My recent posts include photos of my hike in Fall Creek Falls, a comment about a four-foot snakeskin that Jim found in our backyard on Saturday, and photos of our family's first fishing trip.  We are definitely Tennessee folks now!

For years Brennan has been begging to go fishing, and this weekend we went on our first ever fishing trip with our sweet friends, the Warfels and the Boyds.  Byron Boyd is an avid fisherman, and he helped show us the ropes fishing line.  

We had six adults and seven kids all gathered at a perfect little fishing spot on Percy Priest Lake, only 20 minutes from our house.  It's a wonder we didn't scare away all of the fish (especially with all of the rocks the kids kept throwing in the water), but we did actually catch a few.  

I think Jim ended up enjoying fishing more than he thought he would.  While everyone else sat around in camping chairs eating a picnic dinner, Byron and Jim wolfed down their food and headed back to the water to fish some more.  

Jim caught four fish with one worm, and Byron joked that even for a Dave Ramsey guy, that is pretty extreme and frugal!  :-)

Brennan was a little surprised at how much time had to be spent untangling lines, putting on worms, and preparing to fish, as opposed to just fishing.  But he was pretty patient for a five-year-old, and I think he would enjoy going again.  

I have no interest in touching fish or worms, but I wouldn't mind going again just to see the beautiful lake and watch my family having fun.

It is definitely more fun with friends...

... and Hope and I are already hoping to plan a joint family weekend trip for next fall so our six seven(!) kids can spend more quality time together in the great outdoors.

Fall Creek Falls

I love the outdoors, and I love transitional seasons.  There is something incredibly comforting about fresh air and trees.  You've probably heard me say it before, but I don't know how I lived for eight years in concrete city, with a near absence of trees.  It isn't enough to have a well-placed tree or two in my yard.  I need lots of trees - forests, really, with canopies of leaves and colors and light filtering through in sunny patches. And I need access to forests and hills and streams in order to stay healthy.  Maybe it is the fact that I was born in western New York and went to college in PA.  Maybe it is the fact that I was a camp counselor for years.  Maybe it's just the way God made me.  Whatever the reason, I need nature.

Last Saturday, three friends and I escaped to nature at Fall Creek Falls State Park.  Oh my word.  That is seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life.  The minute I got home, I wanted to go back.  I kept trying to think of excuses to justify the 2.5 hour drive with my kids very soon.  The fact of the matter is, our lives are busy and our weekends are full until the weather gets cold, and in the spring we will welcome another baby.  But as soon as I can get back there, I will.

I spent thirteen hours away from my family last Saturday, and five of those hours were spent on the road.  It was totally worth it.  I came back refreshed, revitalized, and recharged, and I was a better wife and mother, at least for a little while.

I am so thankful that God is creative and loves us enough to give us beautiful things that money can't buy.

Cora's Rainbow Cake

When I decided on a rainbow theme for Cora's birthday party, I knew I would have to make a rainbow cake.  I had seen several variations on the internet, and they just begged me to try them!

This cake above appears to have been made from six separate layers of cake.  Although it is beautiful, I do not have the patience to bake and cool six separate layers.  Plus, I could just see one of my layers being too thick or unbalanced, and it would throw off the whole effect.  Too much work and too much pressure.  Instead, I opted for this type of cake:

This cake, featured on Omnomicon, is a diet, Weight Watchers-worthy cake.  Since I was making this cake for my two-year-old's birthday party, I did not think it needed to be a diet cake.  For that reason, here is what I did:

I bought two boxes of white cake mix.  (I got white cake that used egg whites only so it would really take to the color better.)  I made each box according to the instructions, and then I separated all of the batter into a total of six bowls.

I used gel food coloring (it has a stronger color, in my opinion) and dyed each bowl a color of the rainbow.

Then, I started pouring the batter into a greased pan, starting with red.  I used about 2/3 of the red and then a little less than that of the orange, and so on.  This is because each time a color gets added on top, it spreads out the color beneath it, and if I had used the same amount of every color, the bottom colors would have been sparse and the top colors dominant.

You can see that by the time I got to purple, I didn't have to use much.  I probably only used 1/3 of the batter, whereas I had used most of the red.

Next, I did a reverse of the colors by making a new pan with purple first, then blue, then green, etc., ending with red.  

Because I hadn't measured exactly, one cake ended up being much bigger than the other.  When they baked up, it was even more evident:

This made layering the cakes a little tricky, but it worked out okay.  I just flipped the smaller one upside down.  

The final product looked like this:

You can see by looking at it that the bottom layer was much smaller than the top layer.  If I'm honest, I'll tell you that it really bothered me.  (Yes, I know I have issues.)  I wish I had either measured more accurately to have two layers end up the same size.  

Actually, I wish I had done would I would suggest you do:  Just make one layer out of one box of cake!  The slices were massive and didn't really need to be.  However, if you do decide to only do one layer, remember when dividing your batter between your bowls that your bottom color will need much more batter than your top color.  So, if you do red first, you'll need significantly more red than purple.

If you do decide to do two giant layers, at least put lots of frosting between them.  My cake didn't have enough at all.  I should have used two full containers of frosting on the cake, but I tried to squeeze by with one and then ended up using part of another to finish the outside.  Don't do that.

So there you go.  Rainbow cakes are fun and totally worth the effect - especially when you first cut into it and see your guest's eyes!  :-)

Now, on a separate but related topic: Rainbow decorations.  I tried very hard to keep my decor extremly simple for this party.  I tend to go a little overboard sometimes (see here), and I really wanted this to be a fun, relaxing party.  For that reason, I only made the balloon wreath I showed you before...

... and some colorful balloons, hung from the ceiling, along with a flower banner:

A red tablecloth with Skittles scattered on it and the kids' rainbow lollipops rounded out the decorations.  It was simple, but effective.  

In a similar vein, the only food I served was the rainbow cake, and, although I had considered more of a menu, I think the simplicity just added to the perfection of the morning.

I can't wait to see what kind of party Cora will want next year!  :-)