Halloweening (and why my husband is the coolest guy ever)

We had a great Halloween this year! This was the first time in three years that we weren't constructing costumes in the evening right before it was time to go out. It was such a relief to not have a hectic (or too hectic, I should say) Halloween.

Benjamin started the day off by strapping on his tool belt and heading down the street to his friend Jada's Halloween birthday party!


I cut and re-sewed the t-shirt down to size for Benjamin (just don't look at it too closely). It was one that Paul got from work, and it made a perfect shirt for a trick-or-treating construction man with the reflective strips on front and back. Paul and I also worked together to create the tool bags. Paul designed and I sewed, and altogether I think Benjamin went out with a pretty cool get-up.

I should backtrack. Thursday night we carved jack-o-lanterns! Benjamin is just old enough now to get involved in the process. Here he's helping me get the guts out of my pumpkin. Then he helped Paul carve a nice face and a John Deere logo on another pumpkin.


Rhett's participation was quite a bit more limited. Basically he was miserable the whole time because we kept taking the knives away from him and he couldn't get up on the table.


Friday night we had "mummy dogs" for dinner. I saw the idea on a blog, but now I can't find which one. Thanks for the idea, whoever you are.


We did the mummy dogs the day before because on Halloween we had our traditional Duersch family chili-in-a-pumpkin!


Then it was time to jump into costumes and head off to the ward trunk-or-treat. This was they boys' first trick-or-treating experience. Last year Rhett was a wee little baby and both boys fell asleep on the way to the Halloween carnival.

It was a little overwhelming for them at first, and neither of them really knew what to do. Benjamin got the idea after a while, but he wouldn't go anywhere without me because he was so intimidated by it all.

Rhett screamed the whole time. He wasn't crying or scared. That's just how he handles just about every emotion right now. He screams. Loudly. I think in this case he was just overwhelmed.

(Rhett's recycled BYU football player costume from 2007)

So why is my husband the coolest ever?

Take a look.

He built it in just a couple of days with some help from Tool Man Benjamin. And while Paul won't rave about it, I have to say that it was the hit of the trunk-or-treat! A real door to knock on instead of a bowl of candy sitting in a car trunk? What could be better? Paul even had a peep-hole so he could watch people from inside. Most of the little kids liked to knock on the door, but several of the older, pre-teenish ones were sure that something would jump out and scare them so they wouldn't knock on it. Next year (if we do it again) we'll make it a bit more welcoming with a "please knock" sign and a step for kids to stand on to reach the door.

We took two sticky-fingered, sugar-pumped kids home and gave most of the rest of our candy to the five trick-or-treaters who came by our house. (Really, it's pathetic how few kids come trick-or-treating down our street.) Rhett was wasted but so high on sugar that it took a lot of chasing, hide-and-seek and tickling to burn everyone out.


It was a fun day! Hope yours was too!

Note to self:

When the bread recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups of water...


4 1/4 cups is way too much.


Also, does anyone else see a pattern here?



Fortunately, the bread still turned out okay. It's actually quite nice. And I got three loaves instead of the usual two.

What's new with us

This is our family's seasonal decor. Pumpkins... and a BYU flag. I doubt Paul is ready to talk about his Cougars after last weekend's game, so I'll leave that for another post.

Last weekend Paul's mom and dad were here so that Dad could ordain Paul to the office of High Priest and Paul could begin serving as a counselor in the bishopric. The main thought that was going through our minds during the previous week was, "Didn't see that one coming."

We had barely reached our pew on our first Sunday back at church in Bellingham when President Youngberg from the Stake Presidency asked to talk with us, just minutes before the meeting began. I must have been pretty clueless because I thought it was just a little "welcome back" sort of chat. When do they ever do that? Anyway, there you have it. Paul is the youngest High Priest in the ward, with the youngest family. Like I said, we didn't see that one coming.

It was great to visit with Mom and Dad Duersch for a couple of days. They drove all the way from Orem, only to have us drag them out in the rain to the pumpkin patch just hours after they arrived in Bellingham. Okay, we didn't drag them, but it wasn't the choicest of times to venture out to the farm. Still, I think it was fun.


I picked out a few small gourds to display in the house. Unfortunately, my favorite, bright orange one grew a nice big patch of mold after we brought it home and I had to throw it away.

This place has a really fun feel to it. They have many, many creative displays around the farm.


In fact, this is where we came last year to get pumpkins (and later a Christmas tree), and I think a little then and now is in order.

Benjamin then (October 2008):

Benjamin now:

This year the boys really enjoyed the farm animals. Rhett had never really seen any in person, and he was completely won over. He really loved the rabbits and wanted to touch just about every animal that was close enough...


and then a chicken bit him, and that fixed him right up.

We came home with some cider and a small selection of gourds. I opted to pay 12 cents per pound for carving pumpkins at the grocery store versus 30 cents per pound at the farm. And I am not ashamed about it.


Grandma came prepared with sticky letters and sticky people, a perfect activity for Benjamin. She even stuck magnets on the back so everyone can hang out on the fridge now.

Thanks for coming, Mom and Dad! We had a good time, and it was a perfect break from the everyday.

I have been so pleased with the beautiful scenes outside this week. There are gorgeous red and orange leaves everywhere. Here is a recent view of our back yard.


It will probably stay this way until it stops raining long enough and/or it seems worthwhile to rake all the leaves up (meaning we won't have to do it all over again in two days).

Sugar Cookie Sniggler

A couple of weeks ago I made some sugar cookies to take to a baby shower. Of course, both boys were eager to sample what was being made. Rhett was a bit more persistent than Benjamin, though. It didn't take long for him to discover the powdered sugar goodness coating my work surface.


A few people at the shower asked for the recipe, so here it is. I found out last weekend that the recipe comes from my mother-in-law's college roommate. Not that you need to know that, but I've been wondering myself.

Kathy's Soft Sugar Cookies

2/3 c. butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 c. milk
3 1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla
1/4 t. salt

Cream butter and sugar; add eggs. Dissolve baking soda in milk and blend. Add vanilla. Sit flour and salt; add gradually to mixture. Chill. Roll about 1/8" thick and bake on a greased cookie sheet @ 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

The dough is very sticky, so sometimes I add a tiny bit more flour, but mostly it's important to chill it for a long time. Mine was in the fridge for several hours (or maybe overnight, I can't remember). Then I roll it out on powdered sugar. This time I also tried keeping the cut-out cookies in the fridge for a few minutes, and I think that helped them keep their shape in the oven. Oh, and I do mine a little thicker than 1/8".

Creamy White Frosting
(From Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

1 c. shortening
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 t. lemon, orange, or almond extract (I used almond)
4 1/2 c. sifted powdered sugar (about 1 pound)
3 to 4 T. milk

In a medium mixing bowl beat shortening, vanilla, and extract with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Slowly add half of the powdered sugar, beating well. Add 2 tablespoons of the milk. Gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar and enough remaining milk to reach spreading consistency.

When I used this for Benjamin's birthday cake I used 1/2 c. margarine and 1/2 c. shortening. For the cookies I used 1 c. butter. I liked both ways, and I think both would be better than just shortening. I frosted 30-35 cookies (about 4") with this recipe.

Birdhouse painting with Benjamin

Slowly but surely I'm going to try to fill in the gaps about things we did in Alaska since much went unposted with our limited internet access.

This is one of the rainy day activities we did in September. (Whether it was actually raining, I can't remember.) I spent a fair amount of time at JoAnne's craft store while we were in Juneau, which the boys were thrilled about. (Can you guess how thrilled they were?) During one of our visits, Benjamin was rewarded with a $1 wooden birdhouse to paint since he had behaved really well that day. Unfortunately, the birdhouse ended up in the trash as we were leaving for the airport on our way home because it just would not fit. But it filled some time quite nicely, as you will see below. Here, Benjamin tells it in his own words (with some help from me).

I love painting my birdhouse.
Why did you love it?
'Cause I did.

I love painting the roof and the sides.
I love painting the orange and blue.

I love painting a castle.
Did you paint a castle?
No.

Bye bye! I love my birdhouse!

(Rhett was a good sport, too.)

Getting into the spirit of things

No pun intended. Honestly.

I loved the idea of these newspaper ghosts the minute I saw them on my friend Lori's blog a while back. It was so simple and quick to bring a little Halloween into our house.


Benjamin insisted that these two ghosts needed to hold hands like another pair that I had deliberately cut out together so that they could be a "famowee" too.

Thanks for the great idea, Lori!

If you want to see some really great fall decor, check out what Anne did at her house.

September 25, 2009

First birthday photo of the day. Benjamin, 3 years old

I wanted Benjamin's birthday to be special (memorable) this year because, well, he might remember it. I remember my third birthday still, even after more than twenty years.

Fortunately he didn't care that we recycled the balloons from my birthday.

Benjamin jumping in Rhett's balloon-filled bed

I had been asking Benjamin often during the past couple of months what kind of birthday cake he wanted, and it didn't take him long to announce enthusiastically,

"I want Lightning McQueen!"

I think I have some history of trying too hard to make amazing-looking creations out of cake and icing (and usually ending up disappointed), and I contemplated a couple of different ways to create a Lightning McQueen cake, including building the race car out of cake, drawing him on with icing or, rather simply, making cupcakes with some sort of Cars party toppers. Fortunately for us all, I ultimately decided, the simpler, the better.

I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. In any case, Benjamin loves his new cars! His new Lightning McQueen has hardly left his sight in the past two weeks, and he generously allows me to play with Sally and Rhett with Chick Hicks.

Happy birthday, Benjamin!

25 and counting

We ate a lot of cake during the last two weeks of September. And it wasn't because we were depressed at still being in Alaska. We had birthdays! I turned 25 on September 16, and Benjamin turned 3 on September 25 (a post which will follow later).

What was the best part of my 25th birthday?

The surprise balloons brought home at lunchtime...

the sunny flowers bursting from a pickle jar...

the (voluntarily) self-made chocolate chip cake...

or something else?

It could have been the two little boys who must have known it was my birthday and who would often climb into my lap that day with no other apparent reason than to sit a while and snuggle.

It could have been the husband who, despite his busy work day, tried extra hard to make it a special day for me.

It must have been all of those things.

I can't belive it! We're back!

It's true! We arrived home in Bellingham on Friday, October 2, and oh boy, did it ever feel like coming home!

After waking up in Juneau at 4:00 a.m. and flying for five hours or so (up and down three times), the scent of our front porch told me that we had finally arrived. It smelled like home.


And now it feels like a dream. Did we really spend over four months in Juneau, Alaska, living in a (rather smelly) single-wide trailer with peeling paint, moldy windows, and purple-flowered wallpaper?



Yes, we did.

The truck packed full (and I mean packed full) of our stuff should arrive on the barge in Seattle at the end of the week and hopefully we'll be able to spend the weekend unpacking. (Hello, Kitchenaid!)