Tag: pumpkin

family

Hedgehogs

Andi

Guys, theres a little detail about myself you should know. I hate hedgehogs. I know they look cute adorable, but they are secretly mean!

This is not without reason. A reason I will share with you.

A few years ago, I went with a friend, to a pumpkin patch. This was before kids, and we were just there to have fun together. They had several farm animals there you could pet or feed, or just look at. Lots of pumpkins of course. A camel you were able to get rides on. And then there was this hedgehog. It was sitting a small box like enclosure, not really being supervised. You could pick it up and hold it. So we did. My friend held it first and it was calm and relaxed. Then she handed it to me and that tiny cute little furball took the opportunity to bite the daylights out of my finger. This thing has a tiny mouth and thin pointed teeth. It was like being poked with itty bitty needles. I screamed and dropped it back into the box. My finger hurt like the Dickens. That hedgehog showed no remorse whatsoever either.

In retrospect, it was not supervised. It was in a small box. There was only one, and it probably hadn’t been taken away for a break. It was more than likely striking out in stress and anger for being over handled. It was just my unlucky finger that got the strike.

But it still hurt. Listen, hedgehogs have needle like teeth, and they will bite. Be aware.

It’s also worth noting the friend that was with me sent me a hedgehog themed card last Christmas. She’s taunting me at this point.

I still have it.

family

Pumpkin cookies

Andi

It’s still Fall, and I’ve still got pumpkin! I love a good cookie, and I of course love pumpkin, so I made some Pumpkin Cookies. For these cookies, in addition to the ingredients I also used a mixer, a cookie sheet and non-stick cooking spray, a spoon, spatula, my measuring cups and a glass bowl.

1/2 cup Pumpkin Puree

1 Egg Yolk

2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/2 cups Sugar

2 tsp Vanilla

14 tbsp Butter

Preheat oven to 350°. My oven takes its sweet time warming up, so I have to do this right at the beginning or it won’t be warm enough when I need it.

In a mixer or large bowl stir together all ingredients except the butter, flour, and sugar. Once everything has been thoroughly mixed, add the butter, one little bit at a time and make sure it gets good and blended in. Then add 1/2 cup of the sugar, setting the other cup aside for later. Now for the flour, slowly add to the bowl allowing each bit to become fully incorporated. This part is where my spatula comes in handy. You know how sometimes when using a mixer stuff gets stuck up on the side of the bowl and doesn’t get together with the rest of the ingredients? Take that spatula and scrape the sides down to reintroduce it to the mixture. Flour does this a lot. After you’ve gotten all the ingredients made into a dough remove, cover the bowl, and refrigerate for about an hour. This step is not 100% mandatory if you are in a rush, but it does make handling the dough 100x easier.

Once the dough is chilled, remove it and grab that remaining cup of sugar. I spray my cookie sheets with a cooking spray to avoid sticking, in this case, that was a good idea. With a spoon, scoop out a portion of dough, roll it into a ball and dip it in the sugar. I put the sugar into a bowl to accomplish this. Then place on the cookie sheet, press down gently to flatten a tad, and that ball of cookie is ready to go. Repeat until you are out of dough.

Place in oven for 10-13 minutes. Once they get good and baked, remove and let cool, then enjoy!

This batch of cookies is a lesson in following directions. I read the description and it said, “pumpkin flavor that is subtle and sweet”. I thought “What? No! I want powerful flavor. I want the pumpkin to reach out and punch me in the nose!” So I scooped extra pumpkin puree into the bowl and stirred it up. They still turned out okay. They did taste good, and the kids ate them happily. Unfortunately they were incredibly dense and thick, more like a squash bread than a cookie. My kids got it all over their hands and faces because they were sticky. It was a mess. All of this I attribute to my winging the instructions and not simply following the recipe. So follow the directions, cookies don’t need extra pumpkin puree.

family

Choice of an Odd Cup

Andi

I think it’s important for children to have the freedom of choice. I think this for a couple reasons.

On one hand, they need to develop strong decision making skills and how to be confident in those decisions. They also need to understand that sometimes, their choices come with consequences, and that they can’t have everything. When they’re young this is as simple as you can only choose one toy to buy, you can’t have all of the toys. These are learning tools for them. They now have the toy they chose to play with and are confident it was the best. And I enforce that they made a good choice, without mocking it or telling them it was a dumb toy, all while encouraging them to remember that their choices have consequences now while the consequence is something tiny. Life is full of this choice and consequence sequence. They are learning how the world works in these scenarios.

Another part is that I want them to grow up with confidence in themselves. Giving them the ability to choose who they hug and kiss, what kind of clothes they wear, when they want to discuss something, tells them that they can proudly express themselves and they have power over their own bodies. Even as their parent, I ask to kiss them. I give them the choice to be rocked/cuddled to sleep or go to bed on their own.

This doesn’t mean I turn my kids loose in the world and tell them to choose whatever they want. For one, that would be incredibly overwhelming. That would overwhelm me and I have a grown up brain. Their prefrontal cortex is still developing so I do have to help them sometimes make good choices. In the arena of say, what they wear, let’s say they need new tennis shoes. I wouldn’t take them to a shoe store and just tell them to go pick something. I would take them to the tennis shoe section, and allow them to pick from that smaller selection. This teaches both limitations and decision making. They do have to make a choice from a wide range, but they also can’t choose a dress shoe either. Or say with bedtime. They don’t get to run wild all night, we have a set bedtime, but they get to choose whether or not they want to be rocked to sleep or not. Either way they still have to go to bed, they choose how.

The world works that way for all of us, even as adults. We often have to make choices within certain limits, and no matter what, we all have to deal with the consequences of our actions. For a kid that may only be the short pain of a skinned knee after not heeding a warning from an adult, but it teaches them how to handle the world when they get older.

This becomes humorous sometimes when a kid chooses the oddest things. Like the hallowen cup my kid chose. He could’ve had a vampire, or Frankenstein’s monster, things that actually had brains. But no, he chose the pumpkin, the one cup that made no sense to have a brain lid.

So in a roundabout ancedote, when you give your kids freedom of choice, you get some interesting cups in your cabinet.

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Pumpkin Painting

Andi

One of the most common Halloween activities many families like to do together is Pumpkin Carving. They go to the pumpkin patch, pick out the biggest ones they can find, take them home and carve Jack-o-lanterns. It really is a fun event, and the pumpkin patches love it too because most of them charge by weight or size. But when your kids are too small to properly carve a pumpkin, and you don’t like squash guts anyway, what are you to do? We do Pumpkin Painting instead.

Each year, we make a trip to the pumpkin patch. I look for one that has lots of activities included in the price of admission, and specific sections for younger kids. A petting zoo is always a big bonus, and if it has a bounce place, it’s a definite win. We spend most of the day there, and towards the end, we go out to pick a pumpkin. But the pumpkin we pick, probably won’t be the one we paint. This one is for my child to proudly parade around and show everyone. I’ll buy painting pumpkins later from the grocery store where they are much cheaper. The day at the pumpkin patch is definitely a seasonal experience for us. The focal point is to have a fun day. It also signals that its fall, and time for pumpkin season.

After we get home, probably the next day, we get out our paints and our painting pumpkin. If you live further south where it stays warm through the fall, you could keep your kid in just a diaper (or underwear if potty trained) and then give them a bath afterward to wash any paint off. I’d also only do this if you have a fenced in yard nobody can peep into. If you do not, you just don’t want your child outside in their underpants, or it’s already cold and snowing before Halloween where you live, my best suggestion is an apron. Paint is still destined to end up on your kids clothing though, so be 100% sure you got washable paint. Put them in worn out clothes you’re not worried about piant getting on.

I take my kids outside to paint, so the mess is not on my flooring. We had a few younger kids join us this year including my younger child, so I got some baby sized pumpkins for them. I aso let my kids use real paintbrushes instead of those flimsy plastic ones kids paint comes with.

This activity probably won’t last long. The older kids may be more intent on their painting, but even so, a pumpkin is only so big. As they get older it may become a longer activity when they start expressing creativity more. Right now it lasts 20-30 minutes at most, much less for younger children.

I still threw my kids clothes right into the washer afterwards and gave them baths because of course they still managed to get everything messy.

As you can see, kids are messy painters. They like to mix colors and experiment. But they are learning to be creative, as well as some hand eye coordination and dexterity. They are also usually very proud of their work, and feel accomplished.

If you want to do a family activity, but on a tight budget, this is also a good alternative. Like I said, the pumpkins we paint we get from the grocery store, off brand childrens paint, and a brush. Your cost will depend on how many pumpkins you need and how large. Those mini pumpkins came 6 in a bag for $3, making this craft less than $10. If you do want a pumpkin patch experience, look for one with a front gate admission. These usually include lots of things in the price. Patchs that are free admission will probably charge for each activity and spending a dollar here, 3 dollars there, accumulates cost very quickly. You get more for your money when the patch has a admission cost, and many have some kind of deal for purchasing tickets online.

So if you are looking for an alternative to pumping carving, look no further! Pumpkin painting is where its at!

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Pumcakes

Andi

Add some Autumn to your breakfast!

Really you can add any mashable fruit and it’d be yummy. In addition, this is the simplest thing to do to add some fruit to your kids diet. Today we are making Pumpkin Pancakes, or as my husband calls them, Pumcakes.

When I said the easiest thing, I mean, the easiest thing. Mix up your pancake batter just however you normally do. So, if you say, make a dairy free pancake, make that batter! We do not however, So I just whipped up some regular plain pancakes. (Pro tip for those of you using a baking mix, if you add a dash of oil, a dash of baking powder, and a splash of vanilla it really elevates your pancake experience. I do not remember where I heard it though) After you’ve mixed your batter, add a cup of pumpkin puree and whisk together. (Like I said, you could add a cup of banana, or even maybe a butternut squash here and it’d be fine. Really anything you can squash and make a puree of)

I like to use my cast iron skillet for pancakes, but of course, you don’t have to. Make pancakes as normal. With the pumpkin added, they took about 5 seconds longer than plain pancakes. Which isn’t long, but long enough I made a mess flipping one too early.

Now, let’s say you don’t have smashable fruit, like blueberries. These are not blueberries, as I’m sure you can tell. Those are chocolate chips. I have a weakness. But the principal is the same. Make plain batter and sprinkle the blueberries in after you pour it into the skillet. Also makes yummy pancakes.

Just have some fun, do a little experimenting, make a few messes and enjoy your cooking!

Art, family

Paper Plate Pumpkin

Andi

It’s almost 🎶Autumn🎶, it’s cooling down and its almost Autumn! 🎶 Auutummmn🎶

I love the fall. My favorite seasons are spring and autumn. They are both that perfect in between temperature that’s not too hot and not too cold. Spring is bright with colorful flowers and Fall is bright with colorful leaves. And sweaters are always appropriate for both seasons. So when it comes to cute seasonal crafts, Fall and Spring get a few more than Summer or Winter. So when September hit, I excitedly pulled out all the fall crafts.

I saw this paper plate pumpkin and thought it looked cute and simple, but the original had a pipe cleaner stem and I didn’t have any pipe cleaners on hand. So I thought I’ll just cut the top and make that the stem. I’m not sure where I thought I was going with it, which is abundantly clear with this first one my younger child did. I don’t have an explanation for that.

But by the time my older child was ready, I had a better idea of what I was doing, which is good because he cares about his crafts a great deal more. I helped him make the face, but if you wanted, you could cut the face out of black paper and have the child glue it on instead of drawing it.

This is, I think, adorable and easy. It took a little paint, paintbrushes, and a paper plate. I let my small one try to paint with this craft. A good craft to get the little ones involved and start jogging their creative juices.

A thumbs up 👍🏼 craft.