Happy Halloween

Both kids had their Halloween parades. Joshua had his parade yesterday which let other parents go to other kids' parades today. Today Tyler dressed as Pikachu and Joshua did his Tigger again. There were so many people at Tyler's school that I couldn't close enough to see the parade plus the classes weren't announced so I don't even know when Tyler's class marched. Oh well. Joshua and his friends Alex & Amber kept busy eating every snack imaginable. Sheri (their mom) provided cheerios, goldfish, and pretzel sticks and all the kids ate like they didn't eat breakfast earlier. The kids had fun playing with the tetherball which they never get to try since it's usually crowded with bigger kids. Joshua was getting squirrely later on climbing in and out of the wagon, sitting on Amber's lap.

I made my pumpkin white chocolate macadamia bars and they are yummy. I set 2 plates aside for Hector to take to work and a plate for us. I labelled the plates with stickers and left a sticker on his pager to remind him to take the pumpkin bars this morning. I guess I wasn't clear enough because he took the wrong plate (ours with all the ugly/crumbly bars). Good thing he had some free time to come home and exchange plates.

Rose Bowl

The UCLA/Washington State football game was fun. T was late in arriving and of course we hit traffic. At least we didn't have any gridlock once at the Rose Bowl or parking problems. Tyler came along and I brought along his Nintendo DS to keep him busy during any boring parts. He also had popcorn and a frozen lemonade. Tyler lasted the 2nd quarter into halftime and then started complaining. The football game was really fun and the fans behind us were really rowdy. Washington State was playing much better than UCLA and they ended up winning the game 37-15. We left before the 3rd quarter began since I knew that Tyler would not last another 2 hours. Oh well, we tried.

Chicken taquitos

I thought maybe I'd share my simple recipe for chicken taquitos. Well, it's not really a recipe, more like instructions since it's very simple and easy. I start with cooked chicken like roast chicken from Costco and shred the meat. I use corn tortillas and warm them on a flat griddle like pan on the stove. The tortillas need to be soft so they're easier to roll, place some chicken along the middle and roll tightly that way the meat doesn't fall out during frying. The rolling part took me a while to get the hang of it. Then secure with a toothpick (see above pic for example). I pour about an inch of vegetable oil into a shallow pot and fry them up to desired golden brown or crunchiness. Drain on a wire rack over some paper towels and enjoy with guacamole. Yum!

Early Halloween

Whew, the kids and I had such a late night! We went to the Halloween night at Disney California Adventure and we had lots of fun. It was open until 10:30pm and we took our time around the park. There were many treat stations and one could get in line as much you wanted. Some of the rides were open and all of us went on Soarin over California. Joshua was tall enough and he really enjoyed it. The midway games were all free and the prizes were candy. Joshua tried all the games which was really good. Tyler's Naruto costume had a lot of people confused but finally a Disney employee recognized him. In a couple of places, there was a set up with a band or DJ where the kids could dance and interact with clowns, dancers or Disney characters. Tyler sure does love to dance!! Joshua was Tigger and at first he wasn't too happy to put on a costume but he got used to it. He also discovered that when he held his bag open at the treat station, they put candy inside!

It was nice to see Kat last night too. I hadn't see her since she went on her cruise to the Caribbean last week. She brought me back these cool slippers that look like Dutch clogs but they're really comfy. I'm wearing them now, Kat! Thanks so much!!

Pumpkin madness

Hmm, I made pumpkin bread for the first time yesterday. It came out all right. I made some pumpkin macadamia nut bar a long time ago (like 15 years) and I lost the recipe. I have searched the internet for the recipe but am unsuccessful. Luckily, I was talking to She-ra about the pumpkin bars and she says she has the recipe from way back when I first made them. Woo hoo! So she scanned it and e-mailed to me so maybe I'll try to make them this weekend.

Another pumpkin I dealt with was the one I carved into our jack-o-lantern. Last year I used a carving kit which came out really nice. I remember putting the tools and stencils in a ziploc but that bag has disappeared in our black hole of a house. Although, I did find the Netfliz movies that we've had for 2 months and never watched. Okay, since I couldn't find the kit and didn't want to buy another one, I had Tyler draw a face that I carved out for him. He approved the final result.

Another pumpkin food we tried this year is pumpkin ice cream (Dreyers Grand). It tastes just like pumpkin pie! Yum, the kids love it and so do I.

Tonight we are going to a Halloween night at California Adventure. The Disney characters will be dressed in costume and I'm not sure what else will go on but the kids should lots of fun. More on that tomorrow...

slow day

Nothing to blog about so here are some old photos that I'll post.

X-ray

Here is the xray of Tyler's wrist. The pic I took of the x-ray is grainy and not that great but you can kind of make out the fractures.