Trick or Treat!

Today was Trick or Treat in my parent's city, the area in which I grew up. We have made it a tradition to bring Devin up there, since it is different than the Trick or Treat time in our town, to join in on the fun. My parent's neighborhood is the perfect area for kids to seek out treats and they always go through SEVERAL LARGE bags/boxes of candy/treats each year giving to the kids. We had a great time traveling the neighborhood with some of our new and newer friends!

Here is Devin just before we left the house.
Mr. Postman, got your letters?....check!
Phew, time for a water break. All this mail delivery is making me tired!

Grandma, Devin, and of course sweet Micki girl!
~

Fun with Lexi

Devin's friend, Lexi, from our development came over to play this morning. The kids had such a fun time together. While she was here we made ghost cookies (as seen on Kaycee's blog). The kids thought this was great! The picture below is pretty typical of how this event went. Lexi was busy~ helping to dip and decorate the cookies. Devin was busy too~ he was busy eating the ingredients!!



Here are the ghost cookies!!! Very simple~ Nutter Butter cookies dipped in melted white chocolate with mini chocolate chips for eyes!
The following is a video I captured of the two kids playing. They play so nicely together and are adorably cute! (Please excuse- as usual- the pig-like grunting noise. I am not sure why my camera makes that noise when I record with it, but.....whatever!)

Thank You Ladies.....

(I feel kind of guilty admitting this, but....)

I feel so much better knowing that all of you are in the same boat as me with potty training! Yay! Devin is not the last one on board with this thing!!!! Thanks for speaking up too!

Potty Training

I am beginning to feel as if Devin will never get potty trained. Devin had started off potty training fairly well at the beginning of the summer. I started giving him "naked time" each afternoon and he was starting to get the hang of pee and poop needing to be excreted in the toilet. He even pooped on the potty for a week straight! Then something happened. I don't even know what it was or exactly when it happened, but he started to REFUSE the potty.

I am torn between so many different methods. Do I take him out of the diapers even though he is refusing to use the potty or do I wait? Do I try giving him periods of naked or underwear time again (like at the beginning of the summer)? Do nothing and just wait for him to let me know when he is ready? The other issue is that he is not home with me all the time. He is at daycare/school most of his day. They offer him the potty there, but they are not pushing him. They will do a potty chart with Devin, but if he won't even get on the potty its kind of hard to do a chart......

By the time we get home I have to make dinner, clean up, do the Nebulizer with Devin, bath time, bedtime routine, etc. There really is no time!!! Ahhhhh!!!! Will Devin EVER get potty trained????

See You Next Year

My beloved Red Sox lost the last and final game in the ALCS series with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last night. Their season is over. It is the Devil Rays who will match the Phillies in the World Series in the coming days.

The Red Sox are now forced to surrender their World Championship Title.

So long Sox, see you next year!

~

Miracle

The Red Sox performed a miracle last night!

What an intense game. So many times Erick and I almost threw in the towel and went to bed. Like most others in Red Sox Nation, we kept saying, "They are down 7-0. We are done. We should turn it off." But then, maybe because we like the torture, or maybe because we are eternal optimists, we kept flipping back to the game. I am so glad that, unlike many others, we did not abandon the game! We stayed awake until nearly 1 am, despite needing to get up early for work this morning, to see this miraculous victory.

Read the entire story here. GO RED SOX!!!!

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Happy Birthday Erick!

It was 35 years ago today that Erick was born. Yay! Happy Birthday Erick! To honor Erick's special day I made him a cake, Italian Wedding Cake, at his request. (See recipe at bottom)Devin and I practiced singing the birthday song all throughout the day. We sang in the car on the way to school, on the way home, making the card for Daddy, and well you get the idea!

By the time Daddy walked in the door, Devin and I were ready to sing and get the "party" going as it was well past 6 o'clock. Devin was getting tired and quite cranky- poor little guy!





Eating the cake was Devin's favorite part. Like father like son!



This is Sandra Lee's Italian Wedding Cake recipe

Ingredients

* 1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix (recommended: Betty Crocker)
* 1 stick butter, softened
* 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
* 3 egg whites
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (recommended: McCormick)
* 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (recommended: McCormick)
* 1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained (recommended: Dole)
* 1/2 cup sweetened flake coconut (recommended: Baker's)
* 2 cups chopped pecans, divided (recommended: Diamond)
* 2 (16-ounce) cans cream cheese frosting (recommended: Betty Crocker)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Lightly coat 2 (8-inch) cake pans with cooking spray; set aside. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, butter, buttermilk, egg whites, and extracts. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Fold in crushed pineapple, coconut, and 1 cup pecans. Divide batter into 2 prepared cake pans. Bake in preheated oven for 31 to 36 minutes or until tester inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes then turn out on to wire racks to cool completely.

In a small bowl, stir together remaining 1 cup pecans and frosting. With a serrated knife, cut both cakes horizontally to make 4 layers. Frost the top of each layer with 1/2 cup of frosting and stack on top of the next layer. Use remaining frosting to frost the entire outside of cake. Slice and serve.

My personal notes: I choose not to add coconut as I do not like it. I sometimes add cut up maraschino cherries to the cake batter....mmmmm. I do not cut the cake to make 4 layers ~ 2 layers work out fine for me!