Making Mud Pie: October 2009

Happy Halloween!

Aren't these the cutest butterflies you have ever seen? I am not bias or anything! Ellie is the Little pink butterfly, Lola the purple, and mom the blue. If you can't make it out, dad is a leaf for all of us little butterflies to land on...We headed out this afternoon to a Halloween party!

Melissa and Brady (the gracious hosts)

The butterflies playing with their friend the Lady bug!

Lola Grace

Ellie Francesca

The girls won FIRST prize in the costume contest,

it was a tough race though, lots of cute babies there.

Lola got spooked.... the big gorilla at the party must have caught her eye!

Kathleen, Bailey, Lola & Stacie- Lola and Bailey are birthday buddies.

Off to Grandmother house we go.......

Ellie with Emma

Lola with Uncle Drew

Off to trick or treating we go!

One house we stopped at was haunted... Lola and Ellie were a bit unsure about this piano player.

WHAT A FUN DAY!

Holidays are way more fun when you have little ones. Tony and I were more excited than ever before simply because of our little angles.

After this full day the girls were beat, and crashed early and hard!

Most annoying toy of the year 2009 (so far)

The Spooky Foursome

Happy Halloween 2009

Little T and Little O dressed up in style to party with their friends tonight.

Party games and spooky jelly were enjoyed by all.

Even Mrs K/C/KC and myself got into the spirit of it all...

German Apple Cake

Busy season has gotten the best of me and I haven't been able to post much at all this past month even though I wanted to. Hopefully next month I will be able to post more, I'm even thinking of challenging myself to do a post every day, gee, I wonder if I could make that happen? I was able to do a little baking though and made this wonderful German Apple Cake for My Kitchen My World -- Germany. I found this recipe online here at allrecipes and baked it in my Wilton Queen of Hearts pan. This is probably my favorite bundt pan of the little bunch that I own. It was my first bundt pan (after baking in my mom's bundt pan for years) and I got it when my husband and I got married almost seven years ago.

German Apple Cake

2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil -- I used Mazola corn oil
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups apples - peeled, cored and diced -- I used Honey Crisp apples from a recent family trip to the apple orchard

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour one 9x13 inch cake pan. I used a bundt pan and sprayed with cooking spray with flour -- Baker's Joy or Crisco with Pillsbury Flour are my favorite baking sprays.

In a mixing bowl; beat oil and eggs with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat well.

Combine the flour salt, baking soda, and ground cinnamon together in a bowl. Slowly add this mixture to the egg mixture and mix until combined. The batter will be very thick. Fold in the apples by hand using a wooden spoon. Spread batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until cake tests done. I baked this for an hour in the bundt pan and it was perfectly done. Remember to let cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverting to serving platter. Once cake is cool serve with a dusting of confectioners' sugar.

Although this wasn't the prettiest cake, it was absolutely delicious! It was so moist and full of apples, you can see in the before baking photo that it is almost more apples than cake batter. My picky husband and kids all loved this one so it's going into the "make again" category for sure. It almost reminded me of a steamed pudding and I think it would be wonderful served with some warm vanilla sauce. My husband said it was like an apple pie/coffee cake hybrid :)

Der Puppenkörper - The body of my Waldorf Dolls

Last week I created a new doll body pattern. Now my dolls are aivailable in two different types.

Letzte Woche habe ich einen neuen Puppenkörperschnitt entwickelt.
Knecht Ruprecht Puppenkinder sind jetzt in zwei unterschiedlichen Arten und Körperformen erhältlich.

Puppenkind mit einzeln eingenähten Armen
Das Puppenkind mit dem aufwendiger gefertigten Körper hat einzeln angefertigte Arme, die von Hand in den Puppenkörper eingenäht werden. Auch die Schulternähte sind von Hand genäht, so wird mit Nadel und Faden die Schulter und der Oberkörper des Puppenkindes modeliert.

Puppenkörper mit einzeln eingenähten Armen
Body with extra attached arms

Puppenkind aus einem Stück Trikot
Das Puppenkind mit dem einfacheren Körperbau ist aus einem Stück Trikot genäht. Die Arme und Beine des Puppenkindes sind mit der Nähmaschine abgesteppt. Die Proportionen dieser Puppe sind etwas feingliedriger und zarter.

Puppenkind aus einem Stück Trikot
Body made from one piece of tricot

Getting Ready

Twas The Night Before Halloween...

When all through the room,

Not a witch was stirring,

Not even on a broom.

If you go down to the woods today...

Halloween Party

Yummy food, friends, and costumes what does that equal ... Halloween Party fun.

Halloween Parade

We had so much fun trick or treating around the school. Thanks so much to the parents who came and helped us with the parade.

Making Mud pies

Mrs. Charlotte's class came to listen to a story "Mud pie for Mother". Then we made mud pies. The children were not interested in making mud pies with real dirt so we made them with chocolate pudding and cool whip. They were super yummy because all the children ate them up. We had to make 5 pies to feed all the children and staff.