Halloween Fun

Trick or Treat

Give me something good to eat!

As much as I love Halloween, I have to admit I'm not fond of all the gory food tricks. I don't want to eat anything that resembles a bowl of worms, eyeballs, severed fingers or brains! Eeelck!

These tasty little toasted bones are just gross enough to send the kids into fits of giggles and still cute enough not to turn my stomach. They are so easy to make and highly addictive. You just take a roll of refrigerated breadstick dough (or your own homemade recipe) and seperate it into 12 strips. Lay them out on an ungreased baking sheet and snip and roll each end outward to form a bone shape.

 Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with garlic powder and sea salt. Bake at 375 degrees for around 10 minutes or until golden brown.

If you wanted to up the grossness level, you could always serve them with a side of marinara blood.

Happy Tuesday!

~Gridiron Girl

Fall Festival

It's a rare occurrence that we get an opportunity to have a lazy Saturday during football season. The kids and I NEVER miss a home game, we drive to all the away games that are within a reasonable distance, and I travel with the team to far away games. This past Saturday, we chose to skip a game. To be honest, we were all tired...really really tired and we needed a break . The team had to travel 8 hours by bus to the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma. If there was ever a game to skip, this was the one. Coach gave us his blessing, hopped on the bus and rode off into battle. The kids and I camped out in the backyard Friday night. We ate too much kettle corn, toasted with apple cider, read a stack of library books, listened to the high school football game in the distance, played games, made shadow puppets, told stories and all fell asleep by 9pm. It was WONDERFUL!

Until we all woke up freezing at 4am and took off in a mad dash for the house in search of our warm beds.

On Saturday, we stayed in our pajamas until noon. Again, WONDERFUL! Then we got ready and headed out to a little fall festival. The kids played carnival games, we walked the scarecrow trail and got some yummy hamburgers from one of the church booths. It was such a lovely day and the Knuckleheads were looking so cute, that we decided on a little impromptu photo session. The arboretum and town square were beautifully bedecked for Fall, so I couldn't resist getting some cute pumpkin pics!

We had a fabulous day and made it home in time to hear Coach give us a shout out on his radio show. We then spent the next three hours yelling at the radio, cheering our team on to another big victory!

Homemade Kettle Corn

I'll just tell you now, this stuff is highly addictive. If you have no self control (like me), you might just want to walk away and forget you ever saw this.

Homemade Kettle Corn

2 Tbsp canola oil

1/2 cup popcorn kernels

1/3 cup sugar

salt

In a large pot with tight fitting lid, heat the oil over medium high heat and toss in 3 popcorn kernels. Once all 3 kernels have popped, pour in remaining kernals and sugar. Give a quick stir and cover. Once the corn starts to pop, use potholders to lift the pot off the heat and shake vigorously for a few seconds, return to heat for a few seconds and repeat until popcorn is finished popping. Once popping slows, remove from heat, pour in large bowl and toss with salt. USE CAUTION, the kettle corn will be extremely HOT. Let cool completely and enjoy.

Slightly sweet, salty, crunchy...Yum Nummy!!!

 
 
 
 

The Great Outdoors

The weather here has been FANTASTIC! The minute the kids get home from school, they drop their backpacks, kick off their shoes and head to the backyard. Their new tent has become their headquarters, a perfect place for a good book, a big bowl of kettlecorn, a game of cards, a hideout from lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) and other big adventures.

Moving in.

When they're not hanging out in the tent, they can be found cooking up some fun over at the

Mud Pie Kitchen.

A week ago, I was ready to take their old plastic kitchen to the curb. The kids protested, so I decided to give it a second chance. I gave it a new home under the little oak tree, gave the knuckleheads a pile of dirt and permission to go crazy with a few jugs of water and...tada...the Mud Pie Kitchen was born.

BIG FUN in the backyard!