Tie-dye Party!

Forgive me for not posting pics, I'll do that tomorrow, but being that everyone in my house is sleeping and I can actually be on here, I'm posting now!

Our tie-dye party went great! This:http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=12054 is what we did. We had four adults and nine kids in the house! While we (the adults) tie-dyed, my SIL had the kids doing a Halloween door hanger craft. I've never tie dyed before, so this was new for me. We still have to put the faces on, and then I'll have the girls pose for a pic with their pumpkin shirts on. After that, we went to the Kids Expo in town, which was fun. They had a couple big inflatables for the kids to play on, and lots of vendors to check out. It was fun, although Alayna wasn't. Grrrrr. She didn't have a nap and was very cranky. She decided it would be fun to try and do somersaults on the concrete floor, right in front of everyone. And of course when I said no, she flung herself onto the floor and screamed. We were there for maybe five minutes when that happened. Double grrrrrrr.

I'll post the recipe for the Cinnamon Ripple muffins, they were fantastic! I *think* the recipe is from Family Fun magazine, but not positive. I also made two big homemade pizza's for lunch. I was up at 6:30 making muffins, frying sausage and making pizza sauce. I'm tarrred. (tired for those of you who don't speak Kentucky. And I'm not making fun of KY, it's a funny little story of when we first moved there, I was 8. We stayed a couple nights at the pastor's house, and they were watching the show 60 Minutes. It was about a little girl who got run over by a car, but when I asked their teenage daughter what happened she said the girl got run over by a tar. I was confuzzled. There was no TAR on the child. So I asked again what happened she says, "She got run over by a TAR." I think either mom or dad finally whispered to me that she was saying TIRE. Sheesh.)

Tonight we went over to the inlaws to get some pumpkins, they had a large patch this year and got a ton of beautiful pumpkins. They are the best looking ones I've seen in awhile. We got 4 of them, and I also raided her tomato plants, I got a plastic bag full, plus another smaller bag full of grape tomatoes. Those grape tomatoes are the BEST tasting ones I have ever had! Between Rachel and I we almost ate them all! My plan is to can the tomatoes tomorrow, we'll see if that happens.

Tomorrow I teach Sunday School, and Rachel is going duck hunting with Brad, as long as it doesn't rain. (Which it's supposed to) In the afternoon I'm going to take off to Barnes and Noble for a much needed break:) I have a book waiting for me that I ordered, it's called "Seasons Under Heaven". My girlfriend Jona asked me if I wanted to join her book club as they were just starting up again. Umm, YEAH!!! I'm so excited to be in a book club! I also want to pick up another one of those Fairy books for Rachel. She started a chapter book on the first day of school, and already finished it! It's one of those Fairy animal books.

Well, now that I have written a novel, I am going to sign off, here is the recipe for the muffins and the Broccoli hotdish!

P.S. Dad, I ran into Mike Ness?? the manager at LKAG at the Kids Expo. I introduced myself and we chatted for a bit, nice guy. I didn't know he has been there for so long?

Cinnamon Ripple Muffins

Cinnamon Ripple

1/2 c packed light brown sugar
4 Tbl butter cut up into small pieces
1/4 c flour
2 tsp. cinnamon

Muffin Batter

2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c butter, room temp
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all cinnamon ripple ingredients in a mixing bowl and use an electric mixer to blend them. Heat oven to 400 and grease muffin tins

In medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. In large bowl beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until mixture is pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs and buttermilk and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients just until batter is blended. Then sprinkle the cinnamon ripple over the batter and use a flexible spatula to fold into it a couple times.

Bake muffins for about 13 minutes.

Broccoli Rice Casserole

Fry up 1lb of hamburger with onions and green pepper.
Make a cream sauce with 4Tbl butter and 4 Tbl flour, add a clove of minced garlic, and some fresh mushrooms. then add milk to the right consistency.
I had about 1.5 cups of rice in the fridge which I added, and then cut up some fresh broccoli and shredded carrots (which you could certainly eliminate if you prefer) Add some cheese, and voila! Very easy, and the kids actually ate it!