Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Love, Cait (Candace) Saxon (Ferb) Bridger (Phineas)

and Grammie (my mom) holding Dalton (Agent P.)

And here's Saxon with his teacher...isn't she the cutest? We love her!

Aunt BB (Brittany from Love Stitched) came with us too.

A few people even stopped her to ask if she was Brittany from Love Stitched.

It was awesome!  Kind of like being with a celebrity :)

And speaking of Aunt BB...

she's running a deal on GroopDealz today!

Make sure to go check it out... 

 What are you Halloween plans?

No Heat Curls

I found this video link from pinterest and wanted to try it out.

No heat curls.

I have REALLY straight hair.

I used to have to sleep in sponge curlers as a kid if I wanted to have any hope of curls.

This looked like fun so I thought I'd try it out and show you how it went:

This was my first attempt at self-photography.

It was kind of tricky LOL.

Notice the broken mirror?

It's my camping mirror and is supposed to be really sturdy.

But, apparently it's not child proof.

Bridger somehow got the urge to stand on it,

and of course,

it cracked in half.

Fun, right?

It was so nice to wake up the next morning and not have to worry about doing my hair.

Mine turned out to be more like beachy waves than spiral curls, but I still liked it.

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Indian Summer

 Along the line of smoky hills
The crimson forest stands,
And all the day the blue-jay calls
Throughout the autumn lands.

 Now by the brook the maple leans
With all his glory spread,
And all the sumachs on the hills
Have turned their green to red.

  

Now by great marshes wrapt in mist,

Or past some river's mouth,
Throughout the long, still autumn day
Wild birds are flying south.

-Indian Summer by William Wilfred Campbell 1889

 

 

 We're loving this beautiful Indian Summer that we're having.

A perfect time to drive up the canyon and watch the leaves change color.

Don't mind baby's dirty face...I guess he thought all of the fall colors were edible.

  

What I wore:

dress - Love Stitched

Slip - A Slip Shop

Shirt - half-tee

Flower clip - Love Stitched

What the kiddos wore:

Saxon: shirt-thrifted, jeans-costco

Bridger: shirt-crazy8's, jeans-H&M

Dalton: shirt-Wal-mart, jeans-crazy8's

What do you love about fall?

(Make sure to check where we link)

3 Easy Halloween Cupcakes

I have a really fun recipe to share with you today!

It's one cupcake mix that can be made 3 different ways.

Here's the recipe:

1 box of vanilla cake mix

1/3 cup oil

1 cup sour cream

3 eggs

1 tsp. almond extract

Idea #1

Pumpkin in a Cupcake

I made a batch of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix and then colored it orange and green.

Then form little pumpkins out of the dough.

Then put a scoop of cake batter in the cupcake liner.

Put your little cookie dough pumpkin in the cake batter.

Then put another scoop of cake batter on top to cover it.

Since the cupcakes had to be really full to cover the cookie dough, I bake them a little longer than usual.  I kept them in about 20 minutes at 350.  Cooking times and temperatures depend on your oven and altitude.

But...I think they turned out pretty cute!

My kids got a kick out of the "secret" inside the cupcake :)

Idea #2

Candy Corn Cupcakes

First, make the cake batter and then divide it into two bowls.

Color one yellow, and the other orange.

Then, put a scoop of yellow batter in the cupcake liner, and then a scoop of orange on top.

Once they are baked and cooled, swirl some white buttercream frosting on top. 

When you cut them in half...ta-da!

Candy corn colored cupcakes :)

Idea #3

Harvest Cupcakes

For this last idea, I just baked the vanilla cupcakes in the harvest cupcake liners from Wal-mart.  Then I topped them with vanilla buttercream frosting and candy-corn-colored sprinkles.  The cupcake liners came with these darling little pumpkins and leaves.  Super cute.  Super easy.

Make sure to check out where we link :)

Farm Girl

This weekend, my Grandparents were in town from California.

When they got here, my house was covered in tomatoes from the garden.

We were planning on canning them, so they are sitting out in bowls all over the counters.

Not to mention the signs and the paint that were out.

I was a little embarrassed.

While chatting with my Grandpa, I told him that I found my dream house online.

It was built in 1900.

It's brick and beautiful and on .70 acres.

I'm in love...

I keep dreaming of fruit trees, a HUGE garden, and a motorcycle track for the boys, a trampoline, a swing set, and maybe even a tree house!

(Since we're not in a position to buy a house, I just have to dream about it for now...)

Then I told him about our garden and the vegetables that we're growing and how I'm going to try to make dinner in a pumpkin.

When my Grandma walked in and asked what we've been talking about,

my Grandpa said:

"Caitlin thinks she's a farmer."

Ha ha.

I've never thought of myself as a farm girl.

A California beach girl, maybe, but farm girl...no.

Then as I started thinking back on the things that I do now, I had to laugh.

Maybe I am turning into a farm girl (LOL)

 When I became a mom, I felt so blessed to have that precious little baby in my arms, and I wanted to be the best mom ever!

I realized, or course, that I had a lot to learn.

Now that I'm a SAHM, I like to try new things...

(sewing, gardening, quilting, cooking, painting, etc.)

To my surprise, I like some of them.

I love gardening, and I think quilting is really hard.

I try new recipes all the time and love to go new places and see new things.

I'm getting pretty good at finding adventures that are free!

So...here we are at the closest farm learning about animals :)

Since it was a nice day out,

my baby decided to help himself to my diet coke.

If you ask my kids what they wish for, they will say every time:

"A house with a backyard and a dog."

So, maybe one day, I'll be a farm girl (LOL)

and will live in a house with a backyard and a dog :)

Apple Orchards and Caramel Apples

 Every week, Bridger and I go to "field trip Fridays".  

A group of moms in my neighborhood get together every Friday to do an activity that represents a letter.  

Each week, we talk about the letter with our kids, and then do an activity to represent that letter.

For example, we went to a FARM for the letter "F".

And last week, we went to the apple ORCHARD for the letter "O".

Bridger and I had so much fun learning about apple orchards.

The farmer let Bridger take a bag and pick some of the little apples that were left on the trees.  

They were the small, lumpy, ones, but they were perfect for Bridger.

Even Dalton got to pick an apple and eat it :)

He also showed us how to make apple juice, how to store and sort apples, and even talked about the different kinds of apples.

The farmer even let the kids ride in his apple crate :)

 

Since we had all of these little, tiny apples, we decided to make caramel apples.

Most of the recipes that I found for homemade caramel were exactly the same.

This is the one that I used though: 

1 stick of butter

2 cups of brown sugar

1 cup of corn syrup

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp. vanilla

First, wash the apples really well.  I washed them in hot water and scrubbed them a little to roughen them up so that the caramel will stick.  Then I dried them and put a craft stick in each one.

Next, melt the butter in pan, and then add the sugar, corn syrup, and milk.  Stir constantly for about 30 minutes until it reaches 248 degrees.  

Then, I let the caramel cool for a few minutes.  I read somewhere that it works better with slightly cool caramel.

Next, dip each apple in the caramel and hold it up and let the excess caramel run off.  Then place it on a sheet of wax paper.  I dipped the bottom of each apple in either crushed Oreos or crushed Butterfinger.  That way it didn't stick to the wax paper.  Then I stuck them in the fridge to harden up and keep the apples cool.  The great thing about homemade caramel is that it doesn't get crunchy in the fridge.  It stayed nice and soft and chewy.

Last comes the fun part:

DECORATING!  :)

We made a Jack-O-Lantern face, a ghost, a Frankenstein, etc.

I let my kids come up with the ideas :)

Here's baby cakes helping himself to his own caramel apple:

And Saxon finishing off his:

Nothing says "fall" like homemade CARAMEL APPLES!

DIY Phineas and Ferb Costumes

Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb is a HUGE hit at my house.

And, I'll admit it...I like it too.

They remind me of Saxon and Bridger.

I looked online for some costumes, but all they had were huge Phineas and Ferb heads, where the face opening is in Phineas and Ferb's neck.  They were really expensive and not cute.  We decided to make our own.

After a trip to Wal-mart and a trip to Goodwill, I found everything that I needed to transform Saxon and Bridger into Phineas and Ferb.  And of course Dalton has got to be Agent P.

Here's what you need:

Cowboy accessory kit from Wal-mart ($4.98)

White polo from Wal-mart ($5)

Perry the Platypus shirt from Wal-mart ($7)

Girl's purple sweats from Wal-mart ($4)

Orange striped shirt - already had from Target during the summer.  

(I did see some at Wal-mart though...)

Blue shorts from Goodwill ($1)

yellow/orange tights and ducky feet

(borrowed from a friend who bought the baby chicken costume from costco)

Colored hair spray from Wal-mart ($1.29)

Black ribbon, safety pins, hot glue (already had but can get from anywhere)

-I started by wrapping the black ribbon around the cowboy had to make the Agent P hat.

-Then I measured the sweats on Saxon to the length that I wanted and cut them off.  Since sweats don't fray, I didn't even hem them :)

-I bought Dalton's Perry shirt in Saxon's size so that Saxon could wear it after we use it for Halloween.  There are lots of tutorials about how to turn a shirt into a romper, but since I wanted to keep the shirt, I just rolled it up between his legs and pinned it from the inside with a big safety pin.

And now, I'd like to present:

FERB

PHINEAS

PERRY the PLATYPUS

and the whole cast...

These were the perfect costumes for them.

Two crazy, smart, adventurous brothers

pretending to be

two crazy smart adventurous brothers.

Perfect!

Of course since we were at the park, we had to act out the cartoon.

I was assigned to be Candace and Aunt Brittany was assigned to be Isabella.

Every time they tried something new, I was required to scream

"You are SO BUSTED!"

Onlookers were probably starting to wonder about us...(LOL)

And Baby Dalton/Perry the Platypus had to keep up with all the action.

 

 So...what do you think?

Also, be sure to check out "Where I Link" to find where this post is linked up to.