Our Pumpkin carving 2011

AJ picking out her pattern

Cheese!

My white "pumpkin"

Fall child labor

My sweet sweet girl

My after pumpkin

I always lean sideways when a little guy takes my picture :)

My whitey ghost & AJ's kitty

She had some help

Kendall's pumpkin

Concentration

Confusion

Finished Project

Alcapolcos after.

Lexi's tea got a hole...

So she shot guns it.. I'm a proud mother :/

Beauty & the Beast, and then Kendall just confused

Cute Bud.

Our pumpkins on the front porch

My first attempt with homemade Pumpkin Pie

The kids and I went to the pumpkin patch to get pumpkins to carve, and Kendall asked if I would make her a pumpkin pie, which is her favorite thing of all time. So after getting some advice, we chose the pumpkin and came home to try the homemade pie thing. It was fun and got us in the fall spirit. Here is the recipe that I used along with pictures while we were making it.

Step 1- Pick your pumpkin. I chose an heirloom pumpkin.

Step 2- Wash Pumpkin with water (no soap)

Step 3- Cut Pumpkin in half. (In my case it was to big so i ended up cutting it into fourths.)

 Step 4- Scoop out the seeds and scrape the insides.  You can save the seeds to plant pumpkins or to roast them. Recipes Here

Step 5- Cook the pumpkin. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I baked mine in a cast iron dutch oven. You can also use microwave, pressure cooker, or crock pot just make sure you cook it until they are soft. In oven bake 45-90 minutes. I split mine into two rounds, each taking 65 minutes. Try to get cut sides facing down as much as you can

Step 6- Remove when pumpkin is soft. Scoop pumpkin off rind with a regular teaspoon. There will be water in the bottom of the pan, you do not want to add that to your pumpkin. I read that it can be used in soups and things, but I just dumped mine out.


Step 7- Puree the pumpkin in a blender. At this point you are done with the pumpkin. You can freeze it or continue on making your pie. 

Now for the Pie recipe.


Step 8- Make pie crust. Here is a recipe. Or cheat like I did and get pie crust from store. I bought the deep crusts, and I needed 4 of them. As you can see my pumpkin wasn't very big, but it made a lot. 

Puree'd pumpkin glop

Step 9- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.




Step 10- Mix ingredients in a bowl:


1 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves

Lexi loves cracking the eggs :)

1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
3 cups of your above pumpkin puree
1.5 cans (12 oz each) evaporated milk
2 9in' deep dish pie crust                                                                        





 

I added aluminum foil to the edges so they wouldn't burn

Step 11- Pour mixture into pie crusts about 1/4 to 1/2 in from the top. I put them on the edge of the oven rack to fill them because they are runny, and it saved time from cleaning the floor.




Step 12- Bake the pie.
         
425 degrees for the first 15 minutes 


350 degrees for 45-60 minutes or until knife comes out clean

Step 13- Cool the pie. Eat then or freeze for Thanksgiving. 

Kids and Costumes

Halloween is quickly approaching. I can proudly say that we have all our Halloween Costumes and pretty much ready.

I love watching them dress up. I love dressing up myself, and usually do. The kids have had a wide vary of costumes over the year. This is what they will be this year.

This year Lexi is dressing up as a "nerd" with all of her friends, and I'm sure she'll ditch me as soon as I get her within a 2 mile radius of all of them.

Bailey chose the Ghostbusters outfit strictly for the backpack. Since it has been purchased and  worn, he thinks he might want to be something else. 

Kendall chose a Monster High costume. She's into them right now. Although I've never seen her watch the show.

Little A.J. chose Belle. The costume already ripped once and had to be exchanged. She wants to wear it everyday. If  it wasn't so cheaply made, I would let her. She can live in it after Halloween.

Here are some pics of the my favorite Halloween family photos.

Ok so the last few aren't Halloween pictures, but just proof that our craziness rubs off on everyone, even the favorite men in our lives.