Trick or Treat & Trunk or Treat

I guess you could say we've been all about the treats lately.

Tonight some friends joined us for Trick or Treating in the neighborhood

The princess and the bumble bee. . .

along with the blue power ranger....who had to be convinced to go trick or treating as

he was perfectly content with the few pieces of candy he got at school today.

Sweet Clara.....she hung at the house.

Charlotte the ballet bear, Sam the motor biker and Alice the indian princess

Ian came home from work as excited as the kids coming home from school today.

He loves taking the kids out

chatting it up with the neighbors

and watching the kids have a ball

Usually Im home alone to answer the door and pass out candy.

Not this year, my friend stayed and we enjoyed a glass of wine

while Peter answered the door and passed out candy (and gospel tracks)

It was a wonderful evening!

Just last weekend we had our church's

Trunk or Treat

yesss.....ANOTHER Texas first.

Do you recognize Ian in his new hat (and boots)?

I'll have you know enough people encouraged him to wear it to church the next day

so he did!  That's my man!

And by the way..the biker dude....he's our pastor!

For my first ever trunk, I did a western theme

seemed appropriate for our first one!

Turned out real cute....

{said with southern accent}

especially with Charlotte Grace sittin' there handin' out candy! 

Everyone's creativity was so fun to see.

There was a luau

and fishers of men

and totally 80s

It was great to see our church come together to make this event such a success

to be in the community

sharing the gospel 

making friends

enjoying a good time together!

We have had our fill of costumes and candy.

But boy was it fun!

The Soup Pot

It is turning fall.

Slowly but surely it is cooling ever so slightly

here in Houston.

And I am in full anticipation of sweatshirts, stadium blankets 

and fires in the fireplace!

And when the weather starts to turn toward fall. . .

my mind turns toward fall food.

Namely - soups!

I love to make soup.

There are no photos or links to recipes for some of my favorites

like grandma's vegetable beef soup or

my mom's potage crecy (carrot soup)

Ron's Chicken Corn Chowder or

Sara's Spicy Sausage and Lentil Soup

These are old favorites scratched out on food stained cards

that I cherish and turn to time and time again!  

There are a few of our tried favorites available on the internet

and some new finds I cannot wait to make -

Our all time family favorite is Ina Garten's Chicken Chili

It is loaded with chicken and red and yellow peppers.

We love it with all sorts of toppings and tortilla chips!

Photo and Recipe from HERE

Another family favorite is Chicken Tortilla Soup

from Pioneer Woman

Photo and Recipe from HERE

While you're over at Ree's site, check out her recipe for

Roasted Vegetable Minestrone Soup

By far the best minestrone EVER!

Photo and Recipe found HERE

Here are a few new recipes that I want to try in the coming weeks:

Smoky Corn Chowder with Shrimp

from Bev Cooks

Photo and Recipe is HERE

I found this lovely looking recipe for White Bean Chowder

at An Edible Mosaic

Photo and Recipe found HERE

Lastly, I've been on the hunt for a decent homemake 

wonton soup recipe.

I don't know if Martha is the best source for asian,

but her recipe looks clean and simple....so I'm gonna give it a try!

The kids love making wontons!

Photo and Recipe found HERE

Simply scrolling through these beautiful photographs made me hungry for soup!

And I think we are due for more rain today. .

so guess what we're having for dinner!?

Question is. . .which one!?

First Day of School

The kids are off for the first day of school!

PETER

(freshman)

CLAIRE

(Third grade)

MEREDITH

(Senior)

{and here I have to leave space for Charlotte's picture....she was running around in an unorganized fashion and not ready for photographs this morning.  Perhaps because she got up early and organized everyone's back to school breakfast....that's my Hunka Bunka!}

For the first time in fourteen years, somebody else is driving my kids to school.

Meredith!

Last night we picked up the "kids car" and she will be taking them to and from school

each day...mostly.

which kind of leaves me the rest of the day to figure out what my meaning in life is now.

Ahhhh....firsts.

Sometimes they are harder on moms!

David is still asleep so I'm going to go to the living room with my coffee & Bible

and enjoy some quiet time.  And pray for the first day of school!

To God be the glory!

School Spirit and a Yummy Treat

What do you get when you combine fresh popped pop corn . . .

and homemade caramel. . .

with chopped fun-size snickers bars ?????

. . . Snickers Popcorn!!!

Bagged up with darling blue and white polka-dot ribbon you've got . . .

Warrior Popcorn!!!

Charlotte was my helper.
We made these for friends and teachers to kick off Warrior Homecoming Week!

This week, Elementary, middle school and high school (we have kids in each) unite to celebrate school spirit and have some fun!  There will be parades, spirit dress days, pep rallys, tailgating cookouts, and our football game Friday night.  Stay tuned for highlights and photos throughout our fun-filled week.

GO WARRIORS!!!

p.s. the recipe for snickers popcorn can be found here

...another great find on Pinterest!!!

It is, well, pretty darn good!!!

The Fall Tree

The Fall Tree

written by

David Achterkirch

The little Mamma got the little tree for David.

It growed up bigger and bigger.

All the leaves falled down.

The leaves are broken now.

The End.

First Day of Autumn

We welcomed autumn today!

All week long, David and I have explored one of my favorite things about autumn. . .

APPLES!

We've read a plethora of our favorite apple books.

David has about memorized 

10 Apples Up on Top!!!

We painted with apples . . .

This was so much fun!

 And today we made applesauce.

Have you ever seen somebody have so much fun peeling apples?

He cranked and cranked --

peeled a whole bag of organic green apples

and sampled one, too!

He sure thought this pile of peelings was a lot of fun to eat, too.

In went the sugar and cinnamon. . .

He thoroughly enjoyed making applesauce.

But eating it was a whole different story.

He licked it a few times

exclaiming, "this is sooooo yummy!"

But I wasn't convinced, are you?

In the end, we decided to save it for Peter, Charlotte, Claire and Mimi!

Thumbs up for that great idea!

Looking forward to our first fall weekend.

I'm fixin' (new Texas lingo) to make an apple pie for my sweetheart

who has been gone for the past two weeks.  So glad he is home!!!

Fall at Last???

Prasie God for the rain we've had the past few days!

It has brought welcome relief to our dry land and hot temperatures.

The forcast is calling for cooler temperatures - 

Does that mean we can declare the coming of fall?

Funny how low nineties feels "cool" when you've had

month after month of temperatures above 100 degrees!

Well, I've been waiting to hang my fall wreath since September rolled around

and today it went on the front door.

I'm ready for fall even if we're still wearing shorts and flip flops!

Several weeks ago, I thoroughly enjoyed this Saturday afternoon project.
Inspired by some fall wreaths I saw on Pinterest,

I collected my favorite fall foliage and blossoms,
gathered some fun ribbons and a grapevine wreath...

I decoupaged the black and white scrapbook paper to a big wooden 'A' for Achterkirch

and had a hay day with my hot glue gun

{best thing EVER!}

Maybe for now my 'A' can stand for. . .

ALMOST FALL!!!



Are there signs of fall where you are???