Parties, Pumpkins & Costumes

This weekend has been a very busy one for this Hinton family. Friday we went to a BYOP party and carved our pumpkin. We chose to carve out the headless horseman. It turned out really cool and looks great in the dark and it is lit up. David really enjoyed helping to pull out the guts of the pumpkin and then see what the inside of the pumpkin looked like. David even fell into a bowl of pumpkin guts at one point in the evening.

Saturday morning while Dustin was at work David and I worked on his pumpkin. We did not carve David's pumpkin but let him paint it. David had a great time painting away at his pumpkin. We ended up with a completely painted pumpkin. David was of course a huge mess and he got to take a bath on Saturday morning instead of Saturday night which was probably a better idea anyway since we had our ward Halloween party to attend.

Satuday night we had our ward Halloween party. We were able to get a good family picture of all dressed up.Dustin was a Jedi, I was a butterfly and David was a pirate once again. We are trying to figure out what we could be as a family for next year. We have thought about maybe being the main characters from "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow". That would make us Polly Perkins, Joe and Dax. If you have any suggestions please let us know. We would really like to have the family be themed before David realizes that he can be absolutely anything he wants to be.

Awesome Recipe

Last night we went to a BYOP (Bring Your Own Pumpkin) party at our neighbors. I had found this awesome fondue recipe online and we took it to the party. It was an immediate success. It has been a long time since we had fondue and we were really excited to try this one.

Apple Cider Fondue
3/4 c. apple cider (or apple juice)
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 c. shredded swiss cheese
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 (16 oz) loaf frech bread
apple slices

In a saucepan boil cider, reduce heat to medium-low. Toss cheeses with cornstarch and pepper. Stir into the cider. Cook and stir 3-4 minutes until cheese is melted. Transfer to fondue pot. Serve with french bread, apples or whatever.

We loved this recipe, loved it!!

Grandma...This post is for you

Pictures, Pumkins & Caramel Apples

We spent Thursday down in New

Mexico so that we could have our family pictures taken by a friend of my that now has a photography business with her husband. It was nice to go down and escape the valley.The first stop we made was to Wagner Farms to get our Halloween pumpkins. I remember going there as a kid to get our pumpkins.We let David pick out his own pumpkin and he loved sitting in the box to get the perfect one. Since we had a little cart David also enjoyed climbing all over the bottom of it while we waited in line to pay for our pumpkins. By the way we got 2 pumpkins cheaper than they were at Walmart (at least the Walmart here in the valley). Later we went to the mall to have my ring checked and while we were there we got a chocolate dipped caramel apple. It was so good and David obviously enjoyed it. When it was finally time to go get our pictures taken, while Peter was setting up we let David have his turn with the camera. This is the picture he took.David did have a hard time participating in the picture taking process, he wanted to be too close to the lights or with Peter taking the picture. I hope they turned out nice, we'll find out in the next few days.

Super Poor or Cleaning the Refrigerator?

Background Information -

David has learned how to open the refrigerator. It's actually one of his favorite things to do. He loves it when we ask him to open the refrigerator for us and he loves to make it into a game to see who is watching when he opens the refrigerator when he knows he's not supposed to.

The Incident -

Saturday night David woke up about 1am. He got out of his bed and crawled up to footboard into our bed. Then he got down, went back to his room and grabbed his white bear and climbed back into our bed. He slept with us the rest of the night. At least that is how I remember things going.

What Actually Happened -

All of the above is true, however at some point David went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. I don't know what he was looking for or if he just needed light I don't know. As is David's custom he didn't close the door because we weren't there reminding him to close the door.

The Result -

When I woke up in the morning David did too. We walked into the kitchen to get the usual cup of milk (for David). What do I find....the refrigerator door opened and everything is hot. I went back into the bedroom and told Dustin to get up. I spent Sunday morning emptying the refrigerator of all its contents and throwing 99% of it away. I filled the trash can 1 1/2 times. The milk had actually started to curdle. We were able to save a few things like the raisins, dried currants, an apple, some lettuce, the string cheese, butter, homemade shake and bake mix and the coconut. I made up some powdered milk so that I could use if for the "cooking" I had to do.

We were supposed to have our neighbors over for dinner but most of the ingredients we needed were in the refrigerator because we had just bought them Saturday evening. We ended eating dinner over at their house instead. The refrigerator is now held closed with a bungie cord so that if David opens the door he can only open it 2-3 inches before it swings shut.

Ah, the joys of parenthood.

Fire Truck!

Yesterday a fire truck, fire fighters, and Freddy the fire dog came for a visit. We live right by the ASC preschool and they were learning about fire safety. We got to see ladder lifted and extended and then one of the firefighters climbed up. He was so high! We got to join the preschool class and walk around the fire truck and look inside. David even high-fived Freddy the fire dog.

Mr. Etiquette, Mr. Photographer

This morning at breakfast as we sat at the table David was quite the little entertainer. Dustin had put some nutella on David's apple and David immediately liked it off. Of course some of it ended up all over his face. I handed David his napkin so that he could wipe his face and hands and he tried. I then used my napkin to wipe off his face at least and returned the napkin to my lap. David saw me do this and proceeded to put his napkin in his lap as much as his booster seat and tray would let him. I ran to find the camera so that we could get a picture of our little etiquette master.
After taking David's picture he of course wanted to see the picture. I put the camera on review and showed him the picture I had just taken. David then took the camera from and figured out how to take pictures himself and how to review them. Here is some of David's own photography.

Gymnastics!

Today we enrolled David in a toddler gymnastics class. Today he caught up for missing the first class on Monday. David's class will be Monday afternoon for the next six weeks.

The class is so cute. They crawled on the balance beam, walked on the balance beam, jumped off the pommel horse, swung from the bars and played on the floor. Of course David's favorite part was the balance balls. The kids were airplanes on the balls, and they got to bounce the balls and roll the balls around the room. David loved it! The teacher also had the kids do somersaults, roll on the floor like a caterpiller and run and jump. They also jumped on a little mini trampoline.

I think it will be a really good little class. The kids love running around the room playing and pretending.I thought this would be a great way to make sure David gets a chance to run around and play with other kids different from church or MOPS. It also gives us something to do on Monday's for David. Since we have started doing preschool we have one activity every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; now we can add Monday to the mix. I'm excited for this little class of David's.