Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from N2!  (Photos courtesy Marcie)

 We attempted to get the cousins all in a photo together.  Marcie said this is the best one.  2 out of the 4 are looking and smiling!

Mini Carmel Apples-Taste Tested

After N2's nap I gave them their carmel apple.  I was curious to see how they turned out.  I have to say neither one of them ate the whole thing.  Noah ate all the carmel off and ate none of the apple.  Natalie had a few bites and that was it because she wanted to go outside.  The mini carmel apples did not keep well!  As soon as N2 bit into the carmel, it started dripping.  Obviously the apples were not dry enough and obviously these apples need to be eaten right away!

Mini Carmel Apples

So Marcie told me about an idea for mini carmel apples that I could make for N2's Halloween party at pre-school.  I thought they sounded like a really cute idea.  I searched around and found out that they don't store well and should be eaten soon.  So I nixed that idea for the party but wanted to make them just because.  I thought I would make them for my book club on Wednesday so I tried a trial run on Sunday.  Boy were they a failure!  I had a hard time using the melon baller on the apples.  I bent my melon baller!  I also learned that you can't start the ball remotely close to where you previously balled the apple.  Perhaps I needed a bigger apple!  I maybe got 4 balls out of one apple.  I made sure to dry the apples really well on a paper towel.

Then the next step was the caramel.  I melted just a small amount of Kraft caramels and the first time I burned them and the caramel turned really hard.  The next time the carmel was fine but but not dippable. I molded the carmel around the apples. That ended up working but it wasn't pretty and there was a LOT of caramel on each apple.  I tried rolling the caramel apples in Halloween sprinkles but the sprinkles wouldn't stick the the caramel.  I had to smoosh the sprinkles on.

Then I needed a stick.  I tried inserting a pretzel stick into the apple for the stick but they would just break.  I had to first make a hole with a skewer and then put the pretzel stick in.  The pretzel didn't work very well as a handle because it would fall out as you tried to eat the apple.

I ended up making 4-one for each of us.  N2's are sitting out so we'll see how they are when they wake up.  I need to investigate how to make these better.  I think I need to thin out the caramel so that I can dip.  I'm not sure it will stick to the apple though if it is thinned out.  I did read somewhere to first dip it in chocolate, let it harden and then dip it in caramel. 

Halloween shirt

I could not find any cute Halloween shirts for Noah.  I tried Kohls, Target, Wal-mart, Gymboree and Old Navy.  Nothing.  There were some scary shirts but that's about it.  Marcie convinced me that I could make my own shirt so while I was at my parent's house with N2 over Columbus Day we made a shirt for Noah.  I asked Noah if he wanted a spider or a bat and he picked a spider.  There are some adorable shirts on etsy!  Here's what we came up with.

It was quite itchy on the back so I got some iron on muslin at Joann's and that fixed it!  It took some convincing for him to wear it on Saturday but he did.  He also had some spider socks too.

Down by the Station, arranged by Noah and Natalie

Noah and Natalie perform their very own version of "Down by the Station" with orginal accompaniment.

Isn't it beautiful?

Who needs a Halloween costume

when mommy's sweater vest makes an awesome Obi-wan Kanobi costume for a 2 year old?

Painting

I wanted to do a fun project with N2 over Columbus Day weekend when Brian was gone.  I searched some blogs and found a simple painting project to do with toilet paper rolls.  I thought this sounded like fun!  Noah took some convincing to try it but Natalie jumped right in.  She just wanted to paint with 2 shades of blue.  Then she added purple.  Very harmonious.  At the very end she threw in brown.  I really love how this turned out.

I thought the plates of paint looked cool too :)   Noah wanted lots of colors on his.  He also switched sides of the toilet paper roll so not to mix colors.  Although he did have to double dip since he had 5 colors!

I though they would want to paint for a while but this only held their attention for about 10 minutes or less.