an official brownie

Olivia had her investiture ceremony for Brownies earlier this week. She is the 5th over from the left, fingers in the air, saying her little pledge. Cute! She is all about getting the blue shirt now to complete her ensemble. She has the brown skort, which is actually a welcome change twice per month, from her plaid school uniform. Only a uniform wearing kid would think that, huh? I do have one shout out for the Girls Scouts, they are such a big organization, why must the uniforms be made from the worst ever cotton fabric? It is close to burlap, I tell ya. I am shocked my Miss Picky will even wear it.

And in other Catholic school news...we attended the school pizza party last night. We went last year, and were in the car within an hour. This year, 2+ hours later, we left. You see, someone had gotten entertainment in the form of DJ Bill from Minnesota. CatholicDance.com. Read the reviews. He was so much fun, like a wedding reception DJ but really geared to get the kids moving...and he had tricks to draw the parents out too...breaking my cardinal rule of no dancing in the daylight (or in the well lit cafeteria of your child's school!). Now that I see his online schedule, I am very unsure how he ended up at our small school, for two short hours. I am quite sure there is no budget for him. I cannot wait to find out the story. And the people who missed out on free pizza this year, missed out on more. I left thoroughly impressed. And my Olivia, she danced her heart out! One thing we did learn is that our kids need more exposure to mainstream music! He played a lot of songs from Shrek and other movies, and he'd scream: what movie is this from? and the kids were scream back the reply. Olivia might as well have been in Timbuktu! I did laugh pretty hard watching all these very young kids, screaming the lyrics to "I'm A Believer". And I am laughing harder right this minute as a I realize the double meaning of that particular song...catholic dance dj...kids shouting I'm A Believer. Pretty darned genius.

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food finds

Nothing revolutionary here, but some good stuff. First, two weeks ago I tried one of those "roast in a bag" deals. You buy a seasoning packet that includes this oven safe bag and you (or me) add the meat and veggies. I am not a roast lover but it was decent, and Dave did like it. So that led me to try the chicken in the bag last night. Ok, now this was GOOD. Like a hot, rotisserie chicken right in my own home. I did not add the veggies this time, b/c they got too saturated with the sauce in the prior cooking bag attempt. I used the Kroger brand and it was really delicious.

Next, and I don't want to know the fat content, but the soup on the Kroger salad bar is darned good. I have gotten two kinds during my weekly pilgrimage for groceries. Last week: cream of broccoli. This week: cream of potato. Both, totally tasty (the whole cream in the name thing is a sure sign). Which is saying a lot b/c I am not even a soup eater. Or I wasn't. Apparently I am converting. I also recently ate the Healthy Choice Chicken Tortilla soup and I liked that too. If I could get past soup coming from a can, I'd probably open up a whole new world for my tastebuds.

Moving on to sweets...have you ever made the Hershey Hugs and Pretzels with an MM on top? We have been making these the past few Christmases and they are so delicious for something so easy. And now, I happened on something that sounds even more delectable...same idea but you use a Rollo and then add a pecan on top to make a psuedo turtle candy. I am SO doing this. (Scroll down on the Becky Higgins blog to see a photo of these candies).

Today I have felt rotten all day. Slight fever and a sore throat but now I am hungry after so much food talk. I might have to raid the Halloween candy... Pin It

what a hottie, huh?

He is going to be so embarassed but hey, I took the pics for free the least I should get to do is parade them on my blog! This is my nephew and these are to be his senior pics. We had to take a standard, yearbook style, blue background, jacket and tie shot too. But these, these I like! I took some of his friend too which I am inclined to show off next. The boys were SUCH good sports.
And if you are from Cincinnati, Go Colerain Cardinals. That's who the boys play football for.

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perfect pumpkins

I might be the craftier of the parents in this family but in the pumpkin carving department, my hat goes off to Dave! The girls were thrilled for him to create the exact one they each selected. They look thrilled, huh? Ok but who made that fancy frame around the photo? That would be me! With the help of a free clipping mask from Pink Ink Studios. They have lots of cool things to enhance your photos. Scroll down on the blog for this particular Halloween download.

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Halloween

Olivia - The Tiger

Neighborhood Party - KIDS!!

Our Family - Mini Van included

Shelby- The Cat

I had enough strength to upload these last night, but not to share them. What a marathon Halloween was! All the parties were successes but I was dog tired by the end of the night. My girls were just melting down post trick-or-treat. Too much fun and way too much candy. In fact, my super puker, Shelby, threw up after eating a box of Dots that she really did not like. It does not take much prompting for her to unload, thankfully, she is just about the cutest cat ever, huh?!
Ok, and how weird was it to begin trick-or-treating in the light? I kind of liked it. And we were so lucky with beautiful, mild weather.

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