A New Blog to Check Out...

As some of you know...I am obessed with cupcakes. All things cupcakes. While online I have stumbled across Bakerella. A fun and funky cupcake blog with crazy recipes. I think I am going to try the "Pumpkin Pecan Chocolate Chunk cookies with Maple Brown Butter frosting" for my mom's jewelry party coming up.

Any of you out there have good cupcake recipes...let me know!

The 10 Most Disappointing Treats for Trick or Treaters...

Adam found this one day and I was cracking up! If you want to read more of Ed Levine click here. Enjoy!!! Happy Halloween!

The 10 Most Disappointing Treats for Trick-or-Treaters

On Halloween night, some houses struggle with the idea of candy. There are good houses, and there are bad houses. The best trick-or-treaters know to avoid the latter. At the food site Serious Eats, we all love Halloween, but wish certain homes would just stop handing out the classically bad "treats." They weren't good last year, the year before that, or now. Our own Erin Zimmer put together this list of our top 10 Halloween treats that nobody wants...
Toothbrushes

Dentists and orthodontists should not be allowed to celebrate Halloween if they're going to get all tooth doctory on us. Do not bring your work home with you, folks! We all have a personal responsibility to brush, and maybe some of us will forget, but your complimentary bristles on a stick (instead of a Snickers) will not help us remember. It will make us despise you and your trade.

Raisins
Little boxes of stuck-together shriveled globs are not what little kids schlep around the neighborhood for all night. When they say trick-or-treat, they want candy that will rot their teeth, not wrinkled grapes. (Using an empty box as a kazoo-like instrument, though, is kinda fun.)

Candy Corn
The most polarizing candy of all. The fruitcake of Halloween; it just never goes away. If you love them, fine. But don't subject the rest of us haters to the sickeningly sweet triangle that tastes like neither candy nor corn.

Smarties and Necco Wafers
These chalky candies are supposedly "fruit-flavored," but no fruit I know tastes like dust -- and makes everything eaten after taste like dust, too.

Dum Dum Lollipops
Usually, foods on a stick are yummy (corn dogs, ice pops), but Dum Dums just can't be included on that list. Not even if they were breaded and deep-fried and served at a fair.

Apples
Long before "poisoned candy" scares, evil people were handing out apples instead of candy on Halloween. This disappointing "treat" is the main reason to avoid unwrapped food while trick-or-treating.

Tootsie Rolls
It looks like chocolate and sort of smells like chocolate, but the mini brown tubes are not real chocolate. They taste like watered-down chocolate, and have a chewy texture that will strip the fillings right off your molars.

Miscellaneous, Wrapped Hard Candies
Halloween is supposed to be a holiday for young people, not senior citizens who suck on hard candies all day. Something about the strawberry-shaped strawberries, gold-wrapped butterscotch, and peppermint feels past the expiration date. (These usually get set aside for Granny.)

Laffy Taffy
I do not laffy when I get these. I sobby. I get depressedy. Because it gets all stucky to my teethy and doesn't even taste that goody.

Anything Fun-Sized
Who started calling it this? Since when is one bite fun?! Give us the rich houses with the sprawling driveways and full-sized candy bars any day. Portion control doesn't need to start this young.

Check out all the new postings!!!

Hey everyone! Lots of new postings that happen to take up two pages. Make sure you go to the next page to get your 'kena fill'!!

"Princess Kena"

Wrapped up in a blanket we introduce,

Princess Kena!!!!

A Leaf!!!

This is how Kena greeted Dada one day with leaves! She is a crack up!!!

Its a Bird....No its a Plane...No its SUPER KENA!!!

Thanks Olivia for letting me play with your super cape!

I felt like superwoman!
Look at her...with such ease...such grace!

Handmade jig...

One of my etsy purchases was from handmade jig. Here is her very own pumpkin shirt to wear during the fall! Alyssa at handmade jig made this adorable shirt. I asked her to make up one with a pumpkin with Makena's name in it. She gave me four pumpkins to choose from!!! She was wonderful to work with! I recommend her for any babygift (she does all sorts of things and in a cute gift box). Hop on over to her site and check it out!!!!

My Little Helper..

Yes, that is my daughter loading the dishwasher. Where she gets it from? Who knows...

Sweet Dreams

Kena on her new BIG girl pillow!! Isn't that just the sweetest thing?

Grandpa Bill's Garden...

Kena...and the Potty?

Kena wants to be like Noah so badly! She sees Noah on the potty all the time and Olivia is interested too, so Kena HAD to try it out!! It was so cute....

Peepee in the potty...peepee in the potty!

Our Mini Trip to Seattle

For a late birthday treat, we went to "Dick's Drive In" in Wallingford. If you are not from around here, Dick's is a Seattle staple. Its one of those places you just have to stop by.

I am super sad...the picture didn't turn out well at all (gosh I am still learning!). But you can kind of see Kena's big smile!

Recycled Crayons

Yup. Those adorable little cakes are Crayon cakes! They are made with recycled crayon. Very simple to do and actually pretty fun.

-Cut crayons into small bits

-put them in a cupcake liner in a tin

-Cook them at 170 until all melted (can be upwards of 30 mins)

-Wait until cool, take off liner and enjoy!

Happy Birthday my Love....

A great BIG happy birthday to Adam! His birthday is today and he is a whopping 28 years old!!!

We love you!!!!.

Sara...Crafty????

So to save money and get creative, I decided to make Kena's Christmas dress. Now, I am not sure if Christmas dresses are as big of a deal in your family, but in mine...it sure is. Most dresses are to expensive, plus we will be in Hawaii for the Holidays so we don't want something too warm for her. Yes I still have a month and half until december, but the good stuff is out now. I searched on ebay and found....the pillowcase dress. I looked on etsy...the pillowcase dress. To make sure I picking out a good dress, I then forward a link to Adam (my fashionista hubby). Approved! But he added..."why don't you make it? It looks simple!" AHA! You are right, it does look simple!

So I called up my mother in law to make a unplanned trip to Joann's and Pacific Fabric. Didn't find much at Joann's (come on get your ish together Joann!) but fell in LOVE with the fabric's at Pacific Fabric. The yummy colors and patterns...LOVE IT! I couldn't find the exact pattern I was looking for, but found the perfect mix of polka dots/stripes in Christmas colors. And to finish it off we will have ties in a beautiful red color. Besides being side tracked beyond belief, we walked out of there with tons of ideas (and oh my goodness they had an abundance of monkey fabric there!!!). And all within our budget for her dress!

So if you don't know what a pillowcase dress is here is a picture...not the one I will make, but similar...

Wish me luck!!!

A Beautiful Fall in the Northwest!

Dada, lets go to the park!

And of course go on the swings!

Lets pick some leaves!

And after a beautiful day at the Park, mama got a pumpkin spice Latte and Dada got a Carmel Apple Cider...yummy!

It All Started With a Hat...

Since Kena was born (ok, maybe not quite then), I always wanted to get her a knitted 'pumpkin' hat. Last year Kena was so tiny that she would not have fit in any hats! So this year I was determined to get her a hat!!

My first stop was etsy.com. I LOVE that website and love to contribute to the 'handmade' cause. However the price range was way out of my reach. I was only hoping to pay like 7-10 dollars for this hat, but most ran into the 15-20 dollar range.

Next stop, ebay. And I found it...a adorable pumpkin hat in my price range! It is gymboree and a little bit bigger than I wanted it, but the good thing is she might fit it next year!

So enjoy the 'fall' postings with Kena in her hat!

COUSINS!!!

The Cousins-Olivia, Noah, and Kena!