Z Good Life

warm gingerbread yumminess

Nothing says "fall" like warm gingerbread with whipped cream -- complete with a little orange pumpkin candy on top!

(We made gluten-free chocolate chip cookies for Erich!)

a little birthday wish... and halloween!

Erich's parents stayed with us for Halloween weekend. Linda and I had fun shopping for her birthday, which is TODAY! Happy birthday, Mimi! WE LOVE YOU! I'm not sure how I got so lucky to marry my best friend -- and then his mom became another one of my best friends. *hug* I love you AND I like you. :o)

On Friday, after some birthday shopping with Linda, we went to Lily's kindergarten class party. She was dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood. See what digging through boxes at Goodwill can produce?

On Saturday we went to our church's Trunk Or Treat celebration. Here we are in costume! (Erich was golfing with friends.)


Steph: Raggedy Ann
Jay: Commander Rex (from Star Wars)
Lily: Little Red Riding Hood
Summer: Prom Queen

 
One of the many trunks decorated for Trunk Or Treat. There was even a cement truck releasing candy down the chute!

 
Here are Lily and Jay going down the big bouncy slide. They also enjoyed the bouncy houses, and Lily had a ride on the tractor train. We had some hot cider, then went inside to play games and decorate pumpkins!

In the evening we enjoyed pizza, then Erich took the kids out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.   While they were gone, Linda, my mom, and I had a BLAST answering the door and handing out candy to the children who rang our doorbell. What a fun day!
 

a little pre-halloween fun

A few days before Halloween, Grammie came by with treats for all of the kids. She made home-made popcorn balls and caramel apples! What a delicious surprise! The popcorn balls are literally a blast from the past for me. Mom used to make them all the time when I was a kid. YUM! I'm going to have to get the recipe so I can carry on the tradition. She also included some miniature super-bright flashlights for trick-or-treating. Thank you, Grammie! :o)

And THIS is how Erich went to work on Friday. (No, he didn't drive with the mask on, but he DID walk into the UPS building wearing it!)

And here are pictures of our jack o'lanterns. Erich hadn't carved his when this photo was taken. I'll try to remember to take a picture tomorrow. 

 

Summer's looked better before I accidentally knocked it off the porch railing... ;o)

 
 
Stay tuned for pictures of our Halloween!
 

poor luna

more pumpkins

Until yesterday, Lily was the only one who had a pumpkin for carving. (We went to a local pumpkin patch early in October with some kindergarten friends.) The rest of the Z Family needed pumpkins! We loaded up yesterday and headed to a pumpkin patch that supports Young Life in our county. It was a great opportunity for a family photo!

Erich suggested this lovely pumpkin for Summer. You can see in the photo how she's pointing out an itty-bitty spider. She wouldn't touch it until the spider was removed. *rolling my eyes*

 

Once again, I found myself drawn to the white pumpkins. They just look so ethereal and spooky!

Now we're off to do some carving! Erich has been working on his costume today. Yes, he's dressing up as something other than a UPS driver! We both decided to wear costumes this year since Halloween is on a Saturday. No work for Daddy = NO UPS UNIFORM. Yay!
 
 

baby fix

Gabriel is my friend Janet's 3rd child. He is lucky to have two big brothers, Brennan and Elijah! 

 
Summer, age 12. Gabriel, age 2 weeks.

Ahhhh... Nothing beats a baby fix. (When I could pry him out of Summer's arms, that is.)

halloween cookies

Summer found an unopened package of Halloween cookie cutters in our Fall decorations bin. She asked if she could make cookies and decorate them later. Why not?!

 

This was just the FIRST time Summer made Halloween cookies this year. The second time (and I'm sure not the last), I purchased some Halloween sprinkles on sale. Everyone has fun decorating!

Lily is in her pajamas because it was Jammie Day at school. Oh, and black sugar sprinkles make tongues and teeth a really yucky color! The kids thought it was AWEsome.
   

pumpkin patch

We had a lovely day for our trip to the pumpkin patch! The sun was shining, the crazy windstorm from the weekend had passed, and it was warmer than I thought it was going to be. There were only 8 of us on the tour (3 moms and 5 kids). We literally had the farm all to ourselves!

 

First, we had a short tractor ride to the pumpkin patch. This farm has a lot of different types of squash, not just regular orange pumpkins. Very interesting! I ended up choosing a grayish green squash for the display on my front steps. It looks neat.

 

Rayanne and Lily both had to use some muscle to pull this heavy wagonload of pumpkins to the car. We had all the time in the world to choose our pumpkins, which meant most of the kids chose more than one to bring home. There were giant ones, medium sized ones, unique gourd-type squashes, bright reddish-orange ones, and itty-bitty tiny ones!

 

Lily's perfect pumpkin ended up being less than perfect. The owner saw the withered stem and said we should maybe choose another one. Sure enough, he found a small rotten spot! It certainly would not have lasted until Halloween. We found another one quickly and easily -- one with a fat, green stem!

 

After choosing our pumpkins, the children got a ride on the "tractor train." Then they happily played on the playground for quite a long time. The moms visited and got a closer look at the stunning dahlias. (I love the round puff-ball ones!) Oh, the farm also provided a snack of apples and cider for the children, then they opened the market so we could buy produce, gourds, or cider.  

It was a perfect day for the pumpkin patch! Hooray for Autumn in the Great Northwest!!

ice cream date

We recently had the privelege of meeting up with Erich's Great-Aunt Murnie and her dear friend Kitty. We "kidnapped" the San Diego natives from their hotel and drove them to our favorite local ice cream parlor!

 
(Summer's Great-Great-Aunt Murnie, Summer, and Kitty)

 
See that look on Aunt Murnie's face? She got a kick out of knocking over Jay's dominos just as he finished setting them up!

It was great to see you, Auntie and Kitty. Hope you had a great trip. Love ya!
 
 

apple farm

Lily and I joined some other kindergarten families and headed to a local apple farm! Due to extenuating circumstances, Summer joined us too, which made it even more fun. Here are Rayanne, Lily, and Summer on the back of the golf cart. Between all of us, we filled 4 golf carts with moms and kindergartners and siblings! This is the one I got to drive. (Even though the girls screamed every time I started up the cart, I think I did a wonderful job of driving.)

We drove through the apple orchards while the tour guide talked to us about growing apples. It was interesting to learn that apple trees are sprayed with food-grade salt as apple food! We also learned that horizontal branches grow more fruit, and certain trees are trained up to grow in certain ways depending on the type of apple they produce. Did you know apples can get sunburned? Their "sunscreen" is a special type of wax!

 

We learned how they harvest, wash, sort, pack, and store the apples. They also have an on-site bakery for yummy treats such as apple pie and apple chips.

 

Summer and Lily are seated in the apple-tasting area. We tasted 4 different varieties of apples, some Honeycrisp apple cider, apple chips, and honey-roasted peanut butter. Yum! 

Summer's homeroom teacher hinted that she bring an apple to him the next day, so Summer found a HUGE one! She said his reaction was priceless! We also bought a few apples to enjoy at home, plus a gallon of this particular farm's specialty -- Honeycrisp Apple Cider. Wow. I have no words to describe how good it is. What a special treat!

 

The tour guide told us they planted a pumpkin patch, but the pumpkins were bright orange and ready to be picked in August! Unfortunately, many of the lovely pumpkins were returned to the soil for compost. This patch of Cinderella Pumpkins was in fantastic condition, though!

We are hoping for lovely weather next Monday so we can go to a local pumpkin patch with our kindergarten friends!