Happy Halloween! And a Super-Easy Game for Kids

In fact, it's so easy that it almost seems condescending to give instructions.  
You will need felt, preferably the cheap kind that is 20 cents a sheet at craft stores.  Cut pumpkin shapes, and then use black to cut eye, nose, mouth and stem shapes.  And whatever else sounds like a good idea.
Wyatt put all of these together by himself!  I keep the eyes all in one baggie, the mouths in another, and so on. He's going to be sad when I put it away with the rest of the Halloween stuff!  
Call me crazy, but I think it's safer, cleaner entertainment than the stuff he thinks up himself. . .

(Yes, those are earrings stuck into deodorant).

. . . if not actually more entertaining!

 

Why Blog? (With Some Lists)

I tossed around the idea of starting this blog for quite a while before actually doing it. Believe me, I came up with a lot of reasons not to.  Among them were these:
1. It might take too much of my time.
2. I'm not really full of original ideas.
3. As far as "crafty-ness" goes, there are scads of people in my neighborhood alone who are better at these things than I am.  
4. I don't really have the techie know-how.

But, the more I thought about it, I just kept coming up with reasons that I should do it.  
1. Everything I plan on sharing here are things that I would be doing anyway, blog or not.
2. I spend more than an hour every day nursing the baby, and since I've become quite proficient at typing and nursing at the same time, it really won't take that much time.
3. I don't know how many times I've found instructions for how to do something and still had to figure it out myself.  Because my circumstances, materials, vision of what I want are just that much different.  So some of my reasons are selfish - now I will have documented just how I did whatever it was, and I'll be able to remember it next time.  
4. Back in the day, I was pretty good at writing.  Ok, actually, I was super good at writing (if I do say so myself).  And I've kind of lost that skill over the years.  I really need to get back in the habit of writing something that I expect other people to read.  Facebook does not count.  I am writing a novel, but that's kind of on hold because it's really hard for me to get into my happy authoress-ing mentality while also caring for two very sweet but also very high-maintainance little boys 24/7.  

 (case in point)

So then, here I am.  I can't make any promises about what kind of stuff to expect here.  But I can give you a little bit of an idea.  
1. Crafty stuff.  Rather varied, because I like to try everything.
2. Recipes.  Because food is good.
3. Musings.  What good is a blog if you can't subject your opinion on your readers?  Muahahahah!
4. Construction photos of the Payson Utah Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We happen to live in the area, and it's going to be rather awesome to watch it go up!
5. Whatever else strikes my fancy.  Who knows what that might be!

 

Halloween "Frosting Cookies"

Yesterday, Wyatt said he wanted to make Frosting Cookies. Of course, he's talking about sugar cookies, because I don't go to the trouble of frosting any other kind of cookies. I figured that then was about as good a time as any, since we really only make sugar cookies at Halloween and Valentines Day. 
Probably everyone has this tradition, I'm guessing.  If not, don't be afraid to try it! 
Here's how we do it:


The recipe I use is from a community mailer I received way back when we were first married.  It's an excellent recipe because:
1. The cookies are thick, soft, and do not taste floury like a lot of sugar cookies do.
2. There's none of that  refrigerating the dough nonsense in it.  You just mix it up, roll it out, cut with cookie cutters, and bake. 


Valentine Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter (soft)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs (unbeaten)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sour milk*
6 cups unsifted flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt 


*Since most people don't keep sour milk around the house (I don't anyway), The way to make it sour is really easy.  Pour 1 cup of milk into a measuring cup.  Add 1-2 Tablespoons of white vinegar.  (I use 1% milk because that's what I have around, but the recipe says to use evaporated milk.  I'm sure you could use heavy cream or half-and-half too).  Let it sit for at least a minute before using it.  It will look lumpy and gross, but it makes for good cookies!


Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cream the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla together.  Add the sour milk and stir.  Add the dry ingredients, stirring after each cup of flour is added.


Step 2: Roll out dough to 1/4" thick on a well-floured surface.  The dough will be very soft, but if it is too soft to work with, knead in a small handful of flour until it is workable.  You do not want the dough to become stiff; if it is, then you have too much flour and your cookies will be tough.  Unless you like tough cookies, that is.  


Step 3: Cut out shapes with cookie cutters.  Note: If your young kids help with this part, expect their clothes to look like this:

 Short sleeves and an apron probably would have been a good idea.  But, he had loads of fun and is still talking about it today!  


Step 4: Bake cookies at 400 degrees for 8 minutes.  You may be tempted to leave them in longer.  Don't do it!  They will look like this when they come out: 

Not brown at all, just puffy.  They are done.  If you leave them in longer you'll get crunchy cookies, which is not the point with this recipe.  


How many does it make?  I got 30 cookies yesterday, but they're pretty big.  It really just depends on what size of cookie cutters you use.  


At this point, I took a break to nurse the baby, clean up the toddler (still trying to think of "blog names" for the two of them) and make frosting.


My sister and I once had a conversation where we realized that there is really no point to making regular frosting if you can use cream cheese frosting instead.  Homemade is of course, best, but I've been known to use canned frosting as well.  Just divide the frosting into separate bowls for the different colors you want to use, and stir in food coloring.  If you want black frosting, you'll have to add in some cocoa powder or melted baking chocolate as well.  Otherwise the black food coloring will turn your frosting just gray. 

Ta-Da!
Halloween frosting cookies!  I let Wyatt make faces on some pumpkins with chocolate chips, which he loved.  I think this tradition is one we'll be keeping for years to come. :)


P.S. Get your cookies in an airtight container as soon as you can, or else they will dry out!  (I may or may not have remembered this little tidbit after waking up this morning to a bunch of dry cookies still spread out on the countertop!) Also, if you do use cream cheese frosting (why wouldn't you?), they should probably be refrigerated.  Although *shhhh* I've never done that and we're all still alive.

 



 

Here Goes . . .

There's something a little too stale about my regular family blog. After thinking and thinking, I just couldn't decide how to revamp the old blog to become what I envisioned. How could I keep a running commentary on our little family and our happenings, as well as incorporate all the other stuff I want to share?
The only way that made sense was to start afresh.
For anyone who follows my old blog, it's still around and will probably not change too much (lots of cute kiddo pictures!), but it will be private from now on. Feel free to contact me if you would like an invite. Hopefully if you want an invite, you actually know me and I know you, because otherwise that could be really awkward ;)
This blog will still have cute kiddo pictures (yay!), but I'm going to be a little less open with personal-type info and share all kinds of fun things that would seem a little silly on a family-update kind of blog.
So, without further ado . . . ok, well, truth be told I first have to feed my kids some lunch and *ahem* fold some laundry . . . but after that . . . let the fun begin!