Whoohoo!
My first pumpkin seeds have sprouted.
I just planted them on June 2!
Now I just have to figure out what I’m going to do with them. 
Posts Tagged: fall
17
Oct 08
Happy Babyween!
Today we had (yet another) Sears photo session at noon.
Kevin is off on Fridays, so it’s always nice to having him accompany me on these trips! Plus it means that we get to have an excursion to the mall food court afterwards. And, since Jack-Evan usually passes out after his pictures are taken, we get some quality adult time.
Sitting there across from my beloved husband, in the loud, bustling food court, scarfing down a 3-cheese steak footlong, snarfing bacon & cheese fries, with a sleeping baby in the stroller beside us, we can almost pretend we’re on a most exquisite date.
Almost.
But even with those romantic possibilities on the horizon, I came close to cancelling our photo session today. As I was changing Jack’s diaper this morning, 5,783 reasons why we should NOT go across town to the mall today zipped randomly through my mind.
Fortunately, I talked myself out of talking myself out of it though. I mean, this is Jack’s first ever, first-ever-halloween. He’s going to be a lion. If I don’t drop everything and capture the moments on film (er..pixels??), I’ll regret it later. He’ll never have a second chance to have a first moment, right? He’ll only be a baby once.
At least, that’s how I rationalize my obsession with photographing my kid. All moms need some sort of rational thought stream, or we’d go nuts with our shenanigans.
For what it’s worth, I ended up very happy that we did keep our appointment.
11
Oct 08
Make Toasted Pumpkin Seeds (In 18 Baby Steps)
(Voiced by 5 month old Jack-Evan, Typed by Mommy)
…testing…testing…Hello? Is this thing on?
Yes? …ok.. Hello, Jack-Evan here, reporting from the pumpkin patch.
Today I am going to show you how to make toasted pumpkin seeds.
The first thing you need to make pumpkin seeds is, well, a pumpkin.
If you are not allowed to handle knives, you’ll also need a mommy.
Then, you will be removing the top to reveal the yummy seeds inside.
Reach your hand inside, and begin scooping them out.
(See? Isn’t it easy so far?)
Or you may simply choose to remove them through the pumpkin’s nose.
(Although I wouldn’t recommend it)
After your pumpkin is empty….
….your bowl will be full.
You will then need to separate the seeds from the stringy flesh.
Put the flesh in the ‘fridge, and leave the seeds out.
(Don’t bother rinsing them. You want this to be easy.)
Melt some butter in the microwave, and pour it on the seeds.
Use your hands to mix up the seeds so they all get coated with yummy butter.
Assemble your seasonings of choice.
Mommy makes 3 different coatings using salt, garlic, and cinnamon-sugar.
Sprinkle some salt on your pan.
Spread your seeds out in a flat layer on your pan(s).
Mommy seasoned the top pan with salt, and split the second pan
between the garlic and sugar seasonings.
Heat your oven to 275F.
Place your seasoned seeds in the oven.
(Don’t forget to close the door)
Set the timer for an hour, and press start.
Go have yourself a snack of something orange in celebration of the fall.
In your excitement, though, please do not eat the raw pumpkin flesh.
Smooshed Carrots will work just fine.
When your timer dings, remove your toasted seeds and let them cool down
Store in baggies, and label them so your tastebuds will know what to expect.
….and that’s how you make toasted pumpkin seeds.
The End.
—————————
THIS POST IS IN LOVING MEMORY OF
Mrs. Momma Pumpkin
To us, she gave her all….
11
Oct 08
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Jack-Evan!
(Voiced by 5 month old Jack-Evan, Typed by Mommy)
“IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, JACK-EVAN!”
Hello! Linus…uh..I mean, Jack-Evan here.
Has anyone seen my pencil and paper? I have a letter to write.
Dear, Great Pumpkin. I’m looking forward to your arrival on Halloween night.
I hope you will bring me lots of presents….
“Who are you writing to?” asks Gabby the dog.
This is the time of year to write to the Great Pumpkin.
You see, on halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises out of his pumpkin patch
and flies through the air with a bag of toys for all of the children.
Wouldn’t you like to sit with me on halloween night
and watch for the Great Pumpkin, Gabby?
“You must be crazy. When are you going to stop believing
in something that isn’t true?” says Gabby.
Suddenly, there was in the air a loud thundering noise….
….and the Great Pumpkin appeared before our very eyes.
Ohhhh, you didn’t tell me you were going to kill it!
How will we ever find the treasures the Great Pumpkin had for us??
“Hold on, son. We’ve have something to show you….” dad said quietly.
“You see son, for decades, people the world over have left their own homes
to search obscure pumpkin patches trying to find the Great Pumpkin’s treasures.
Yet all along, the treasures were hidden
within the heart of every pumpkin.
Who would have ever guessed to look so deep inside?” dad whispered to me.
I sat there, in the midst of our pumpkins,
and thought about all I had just learned.
And then it suddenly hit me. Yes. I finally understood….
The most valuable treasures in life,
are those that are stored within our hearts.
The End.
9
Oct 08
Yay for Pumpkins, and Poo on Dead Batteries
Doncha know that when you want your camera the most, that is the moment you are least likely to have it available?
For one, you may remember that I have been obsessed with collecting pepsi points this year. I was bound and determined to earn 75 points before the contest ended so I could get this very nifty pepsi loungewear set. (I can get quite OCD with hoarding pajamas sometimes).
And last week, I finally entered my 75th pepsi point and ordered my set. It arrived today!! I barely had time to remove it from the mailbox before it hopped out of the package and insisted on me putting it on. It’s so comfortable, and it fits perfectly (I was a little nervous about sizing because of some negative reviews on Amazon.com). I have it on right now, and I wanted to take a picture of it and put it on the “share your images” part of Amazon’s listing for it when I do my review on there. But as luck would have it, my batteries died yesterday.
Another picture worthy moment I wanted to capture was Jack-Evan at lunch time. Now that he’s 5 months old, we’ve begun introducing him to veggie baby food (we introduced him to rice cereal last month). The other day, we fed him some sweet peas for the first time and that went well. Today, I introduced him to sweet potatoes. His reaction to them…along with his face and full body shiver…was hilarious. It only took a few bites though before he became accustomed to the taste – he ended up loving them. I also intoduced him to a sippy cup that contained some expressed milk He’s always refused to drink from a bottle, but the sippy cup was a different story. He loved it! He took right to it, holding it with both hands and everything. I was quite proud of him.
Then… one last picture worthy moment occured tonight…
After dinner, Kevin, Jack-Evan and I hopped in our SUV and drove about a half mile away to our local farmer’s market. We were going to get a pumpkin! Three, to be exact. In the interest of fairness (and cringeworthy goofiness) we just had to have a daddy, mommy, and baby pumpkin. We arrived at the farmer’s market around 7:15 and spent about 3 hours looking for the perfect pumpkin.
Ok, well, it was only like 10 minutes, but it really did seem like it was going to take me forever to choose which pumpkin was the best! (Isn’t that silly?) The entire time, the logical part of my brain was telling me to just pick a pumpkin, that they’re really all pretty much the same, yada yada yada. But the emotional part of my brain was causing me to run around outside, in abstract giddiness, plunking the colorful range of orange pumpkin skins and listening happily to the plink sound. I bet I plunked 33 pumpkins in all. Whilest I was searching for our daddy pumpkin, Kevin took Jack to the little pumpkins and helped him pick out one. After Jack had his pumpkin, we still had 2 more to find.
Finally, we decided on the perfect large pumpkin (one that weighed 21.84 lbs, had the most terrific stem, and made the best plink a picked, plunked, plump pumpkin could make.) Again, it seemed like it took forever to choose mr. daddy pumpkin because they had so many choices.
Kevin made me tote it. (hrmph.)
Then, without much adieu, Kevin took us over to the medium pumpkins, and within 3.7 seconds he had picked out a cute momma pumpkin for me. Since all of the pumpkins were located on the outside, we had to go inside to pay.
So imagine this – out of the nighttime darkness, and into the farmer’s market we march – a large 6’1 inch male, carrying a baby carrier (with baby) and 2 smallish pumpkins, along with a 5’4″ small, pepsi-clad female struggling under the weight of a 20+ lb pumpkin. Oh yes. I was wearing my pepsi loungewear.
And we were all grinning like possums! 
The 3 pumpkins didn’t cost quite as much as I thought they might. The larger pumpkin was only .49 cent per lb, and the total cost for all 3 was about $15.00. That’s not too bad for a fun fall family tradition.
Our pumpkins are now sitting on our front porch, awaiting to be carved tomorrow afternoon. I always make toasted pumpkin seeds too when we carve our pumpkins! So by this time tomorrow night, we will all be munching on some fabulous, crunchy, salty pumpkin seeds. (Yummy! I’m getting excited just thinking about it!)
Perhaps I’ll stop by the store and pick up batteries tomorrow. I do so want to get pictures of Jack sitting with his first pumpkin. Such cute memories should always be recorded for posterity…
