Happy Candy Day...

...from our house to yours!

Aaron's new favorite place to sit...don't you just want to eat him up?

Dad & Kate love the goop...Aaron not so much.

And finally, just to add a little spookiness to your day...I took this picture last night of Kate and the finished pumpkin...

hmm...I always knew my child was white, but I had no idea she was a ghost!

Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down...

...in a most delightful way!

I know I've been away from my blog for a bit, but my family is having to deal with its fair share of illnesses. Aaron has been suffering from a bad cold and an ear infection, on top of his recent digestion woes. Bryan came down with a cold last week and then came down with something worse (feverish) this weekend. Kate is still coughing. I'm on day #2 of a scratchy and sore throat. It's times like these where you really remember to be thankful for your family's health, right?

I do have two photos to share. Kate has been learning a little about politics in school. They discussed the election coming up, qualifications for being a president, and then they held a 'mock vote' in the classroom. Each child was allowed to vote for either McCain or Obama. When I asked Kate who she voted for she said, "John McCain". Then, when I asked her WHY she voted for McCain, she nonchalantly replied, "because Daddy really likes Sarah Palin". Okay....please tell me that my child didn't say that out loud in class!

Here's Kate with her Kid's Voting sticker:

Aaron and I are trying to figure out what he is going to be for Halloween. We do let our kids dress up in costumes and go trick or treatin' in our neighborhood. Last year, Kate and Aaron were Minnie and Mickey. So cute! This year, Kate wants to be a princess (shocker!). However, we aren't gonna be putting Aaron in any Prince Charming costume, so out goes the cute "couple" theme from last year. We have a Flash (the Incredibles) costume for him, but every time I ask Aaron if he wants to be Flash, he says "NO!". Sigh....this is a difficult age. He does love these eyeball glasses that we have, so maybe I'll just let him wear those! Ha. What do you think?

And since we are discussing Halloween and the Election (they are both coming up soon), I wanted to combine these two for you in a funny way. I'm sure both candidates have had to take their fair share of 'medicine' from the media, but I'm thinkin' political cartoons make it a bit easier for them to swallow!

...and just so Obama lovers don't go hatin' me, here's one for McCain:

Oh sweet thing...

There are certain things that I crave. And it's not a "it sure would be nice to have" hankerin', but more like a "man, I've really got to have it" desire.


There are hot, summer days where nothing quenches my thirst and tastes as good as an ice cold bottle of beer. And at least once a month, I must have the queso dip at Las Palmas, and a slice of cheese pizza from Schiano's. During the fall and winter months, a turtle mocha from Caribou warms me to my toes. And of course, if you know me at all, there are days where I will drive to McDonald's just to get a sweet tea. Well...my newest and sweetest addiction is: the cupcake shoppe.

I have to be honest. I am a frosting fanatic. I love frosting...sugar...yum. Growing up, my mom made her own chocolate frosting. I truly believe she would leave a little extra in the bowl because she knew how much we loved to lick the frosting straight from the bowl.

As you might have guessed, it was "love at first bite" with the cupcake shoppe's frosting. It really "made" the entire cupcake for me. Oh, and they have such cute names for the cupcakes. Here are some of my favorites: Plain Jane, What's Up Doc, Cookie Monster and Coco-nut.

Two weeks ago, when I was craving one of these delicious cupcakes, my sister called out of the blue to tell me she was at this beloved store. Of course she didn't call to just rub it in...she wanted to know if I had an order to give her. Well, of course! You know that I love taking pictures of everything, so here are some snapshots of the cupcakes and our family enjoying my "sweet obsession".

Look at the swirls of frosting. I get excited just looking at this photo!

Kate's favorite...the Plain Jane. Vanilla on vanilla.

Bryan and I split the coconut and the carrot cake cupcakes.

Hmm...Aaron really "dug" his cupcake...so much so that his hands were covered in it!

Well, I don't know about you, but after writing this post, I wish it wasn't 11:59 pm. I've got this craving...

When there's something strange in your neighborhood-who you gonna call?

Please, not the police. During this mysterious month of October, it could turn out to be someone "booing" you! Some of you may be asking, what's "booing"? No, that's not an angry mob standing outside your front door giving you a thumbs down. It's a special visit that takes place after dark (kind of like the toothfairy) where someone leaves a package on your doorstep. The package usually contains treats: candy, popcorn, toys, stickers, etc.

Our family was boo'ed for the first time 3 years ago. We had just moved into our new home that year, and were pleasantly surprised to find a package on our front porch one October evening. Kate was super excited. Not only did she get some pretty good treats, but she couldn't wait to boo someone else.

This year was no different. We were actually boo'ed in broad daylight (the nerve!). Someone left it on our porch while I was picking up Kate from school. The kids couldn't wait to see what was inside their bag. Here are some pictures of the kids with their BOO bag:

So, then the way this works is, once you get boo'ed, you are supposed to boo two more families (oh, and don't forget to hang the sign up that says you've been boo'ed). Last year, I got smart and hit the clearance racks at Target after Halloween and found some really cute stuff. And since I like to bake, I also included some carrot cake mini-loaves (yes, topped with cream cheese frosting, what else?) and chocolate chip cookies for our bags. Sometimes it is nice to throw in that kind of stuff for the grown ups (we all like treats, right?).

You can make your own boo bags and signs, or you can actually buy them. I saw some cute ones at Walmart. The picture of the doorhanger above and the official "boo letter" below is part of the Walmart kit:

So....we set out last night to boo two families. Kate was ready for stealth mode. She really gets into the sneaking part of it. I wanted to share some snapshots I took of last night's boo events:

Kate is really excited to deliver the boo bags. Aaron is going to watch from the car. He has no clue what is going on really.

Kate wants to make sure I am going to go with her. Bak, bak, bak...chicken!

Bryan said he would assume the role of driving the "getaway" car.

Aaron thought we were going to McDonald's. Sorry bud...

We had to get down really low so that our friends wouldn't see us. Kate gets super nervous about this time. We squatted for what felt like a few minutes until I convinced her to ring the door bell. She finally did and...

...got the heck out of dodge! I've never seen my child run that fast! She was laughing and giggling all the way to the van. How much fun! This will hopefully be one tradition that we continue to do as a family.

So...go out there and boo someone. We promise not to call the cops on you.

Name That Tune....

I was looking on Facebook the other day at the Notes section, and I came across this cool interactive "game" that I thought would be fun to play with my readers.

So here is how it works:

Step 1: Put my Itunes on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 3: Bold out the songs once someone (that would be YOU) guesses correctly.

Okay, now just remember, looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING. If you know a song, make sure you leave a comment with the correct name of the song. If you get it correct, I will bold it on my blog. I have to say I have a wide variety of music on my ipod, but I will give you a hint: not really a country fan.

1. Baby when I met you there was peace unknown
2. Alleluia, Alleluia For our Lord God Almighty reigns
3. Empty Hands Held high, such small sacrifice
4. Satellite in my eyes like a diamond in the sky
5. I could sing unending songs of how you saved my soul
6. I was so high I did not recognize
7. The splendor of the King
8. The snow is snowing and the wind is blowing
9. Little town, it's a quiet village
10.Where did you come from baby?
11. At home, drawing pictures of mountain tops
12. I am full of earth You are heaven's worth
13. What if I climbed a mountain? 2nd line: What if I swam to that shore?
14. BoyzIIMen...BoyzIIMen...BoyzIIMen (intro)
15. Oh look at how she listens
16. Come they told me (pa-rum-pa-pum-pum)
17. You broke my heart because I couldn't dance
18. What would I give for just a few moments?
19. You dance over me while I am unaware
20. Well you're a real tough cookie with a long history
21. Comin' to you on a dust road
22. Close your eyes, give me your hand...
23. So many times, said it was forever
24. My baby don't mess around because she loves me so
25. Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin....


Last Update: An anonymous commenter came close enough! The song is What If by Jadon Lavik. It's one of my favorites and here's the part of the song I love the most:

What have I done to deserve your son sent to die for me
What can I give I want to live give me eyes to see
In a world that keeps changin’ there’s one thing that I know is true
Your love is stayin’ there’s nothing else I’ll hold onto

Thanks for playing, readers. This was so much fun we will have to do it again.

And they call it "puppy love"...

It's 12:22 in the a.m., and I should be sleeping. But, I just finished 2 scrapbook pages from this weekend's trip to the "Pumpkin Patch". It's really just a local stand, but hey, if my kids get excited to go there, then who cares-right? Here is my pumpkin patch page:


I loved the top left picture of Aaron and Gabi soooo much that I decided to do an entire page for this one shot! See what you think:

These two are just too cute together.

Well, I'm off to bed folks. I have more fun events to blog about, so keep checking back! Love to all my blog readers out there. Congrats to Jenny Morrison, for the birth of her daughter, Abigail Wren. Jenny, glad I finally got to hold "Little Miss" tonight. She was so soft and smelled so good...it was wonderful to hold her and catch up with you. Also, want to ask that you say a prayer for my folks. They hit the road tomorrow...actually in about 5 hours, to go with their seniors group from church to the Amish country. Pray for safe travel, good sleep and food they can eat! Night!

Make new friends, but keep the old...

As most of you know, due to county rezoning, Kate had to transfer schools this year. Although she has made some new friends in first grade, I think that her kindergarten friends remain very special to her.

That said, Kate was super excited to find out she was invited to a fellow Kinderfly's birthday party last weekend. Not only that, but it was at her FAVORITE place...Gymcarolina. There were at least five or six Kinderfly classmates at the party, and it was so much fun to watch Kate "re-unite" with these girls. When Kate and Emma (the birthday girl) saw each other for the first time, they both yelled each other's names and basically ran & jumped into each other's arms. How precious! Here are some pictures of Kate with a few of her Kinderfly friends:

Alexa, Kate, and Emma (Birthday Girl Extraordinaire)

Kate and Izabella

Katelyn also made a new friend this weekend. Our family was invited to a cookout at the Jones' house Saturday night. Bryan and I met Amy & Jesse pre-children. Over the years, we lost touch with them, but thanks to Facebook, we have re-connected. Our children, however, had never met and Kate was really excited to meet Amy's eldest daughter, Gabrielle. They both acted kind of shy when they first met, but by the end of the night, you would have thought they were old friends. Neat how kids can do that so quickly, huh? Here is a cute picture of all the kids at their picnic table:

clockwise: Aaron, Kate, Gabrielle, Allison

Link Day

I don't have a lot of time to post today, but I did want to draw your attention to two things:


1) Please check out Kelsey's latest post. I think it's totally cute! I really love having a 13-year old girl in my neighborhood who loves my Kate and spends so much time with her.




2) They are giving away free handbags at Handbag Planet. Twenty-four handbags in twenty-four hours. How cool! Just give them your name and email address and that's it! You even get to pick which handbag you are interested in. Wouldn't that be cool if one of us won? Go enter!

Hope you guys are having a great day!

Birthday Jedis, Ballerina Girls & A Loose Tooth-OH MY!

We had quite a busy weekend at the Sherman household. On Friday night, we were invited to a catered dinner at the Blum's house to celebrate Jeff turning the big 4-0! It was another adult-only dinner party, and we had a great time eating, laughing and just chatting it up with our friends! The party had a Star Wars theme, since Jeff is a huge fan of those movies. Here is a pic of the birthday Jedi:

(notice the official Jedi ribbon he is wearing)

Sam (Jeff's wife) picked a wonderful menu for us to enjoy...the food was catered by Gianni & Gaitano's. I loved everything from the Spring Salad with Frisee to the Fussili Fiorentina to the Sauteed Broccoli. One funny thing about the meal...I loved the broccoli so much that I had 3 helpins! I just loved the flavor and the crunch of the broccoli sprinkled with sliced almonds. Yum! But wait...did I say almonds? Oh, well that's because I thought they were almonds. I didn't realize it was GARLIC until I had licked my plate clean for the third and final time. Needless to say, I drank several glasses of water that night, hoping to flush it out of my system. Of course, I took a picture of it just to immortalize my mix-up:

Don't they kind of look like almonds? Come on here, help a sista out!

So, just a couple more pics from the party to share. First up, I wanted to show you guys the awesome blanket that Sam had made for Jeff. She went through his T-shirt collection, and found ones that either represented a special time for them as a couple or for Jeff and had them sewn into a blanket. What a cool idea! It was fun to listen to him describe each T-shirt...I think it brought back good memories for him and Sam both. Here is pic of the thoughtful gift:

Good idea for those of us who have hubbies that won't part with OLD T-shirts!

And last but not least, here is a pic of my dining companions. All the folks at my table are friends that we have had since starting the Young Married 1 Class at Providence back in '99. We feel blessed to have such faithful friends in our lives!

Where is Sam/Jeff and Heather/Neal? Oh yeah, they didn't want to sit with us at the KIDDIE table.

Okay...so you thought this post was over? Hahaha...I still have two more subjects to go. But before I go to the next one, I want to give a shout-out to Amy and Jesse Jones. They invited us out to their house for a cook-out Saturday night. Once we finally made it to their house (that will have to be a separate post altogether), we had such a great evening, catching up with a couple we hadn't seen in years. Thanks Amy & Jesse for making us feel so welcome. We enjoyed the yummy food, the conversation (sarcasm and all) and the BIG campfire! Oh, and thanks for the gas that got us home safely. Hope to do it again soon!

Back to my second topic of the post: Ballerina Girls. I love Chick-fil-A! Okay, random connection, but it will make sense in a sec. Remember a week or two ago when I posted the activity my hubby did with the kids (hand painting)? You might recall that the activity came from a book we got from a Chick-fil-A kid's meal. Well...have you seen the new books they are giving out? So cool...it's a series of books about DRAWING FUN (places, animals, things that go & people and faces). Kate is loving this book. We got home from Jeff's party on Friday night to discover our little artist and her babysitter Kelsey had been busy creating their own masterpieces! Here is Kate's finished drawing:

I thought this was pretty darn good for a 6 year old.

Okay, last post, and I'll have to make this quick since it is almost midnight and I'm ready for bed. Today, at lunch, Kate lost her 2nd tooth. She had been wiggling it around for DAYS and so it was no surprise to anyone when she finally wiggled it right out of her mouth! She was so proud that, once again, she pulled the tooth out by herself. Tonight, at bed time, she asked lots of questions about the Toothfairy, and she was pretty concerned the Toothfairy wouldn't be able to locate the tooth under her pillow. So, we decided to wrap it in paper and draw a big tooth on the front...you know, in case the Toothfairy was illiterate or somethiing. Here are the pics:

The gap just keeps gettin' bigger...


See the tooth? Let's hope the ToothFairy remembers to locate it tonight!


Oh boy! This sure is fun. Now stop taking pictures Mom. Put the camera down!

Moonlight and love songs, never out of date.

Any guesses to my post title? It's a perfect kind of song that you would find playing at a dinner party. Ah...I love a good dinner party. Why don't we have more of them? Oh, yes! ...children. I love my two precious ones, but nothing ruins a dinner party quite like chicken nuggets and milk (unless it's the five hundred times you have to break up an argument or help them find a missing puzzle piece or take them to the potty). Am I right?

Last weekend, Bryan and I had the rare opportunity to attend a dinner party of sorts...without kids! Claudia & Richard, our neighbors and friends, invited us to our first wine-tasting party!

Bryan and I aren't big wine drinkers, but we were interested in learning more about wine and how it complements a meal. Of course, give any woman an excuse to have time alone with her husband AND dress up in perty clothes...SOLD!

I think both Bryan and I had a wonderful evening "in" together with friends. And hopefully, it will inspire me to host a dinner party of my own! I need to get to work on that, huh? At least we finally have a dining room table!

Here is my two page spread that I scrapbooked about the event:

Also, I wanted to share a recipe that I found in an old copy of Southern Living (Nov 2006). I was leafing through the magazine at my mom's house when I spotted these words, "try this tasty quesadilla with your favorite Cabernet Sauvignon for a fresh twist on wine and cheese". Hello...I was getting ready to go to Claudia's for the wine-tasting and we were tasting...Cabernet Sauvignon. Perfecto! I made it for the party and I have to say, it was a hit!