The Brats Vote for President

Survivorman Cuisine

Survivorman is a very popular show at our house. It has inspired the brats to build shelters and fires, whittle, play the harmonica and, most recently, to try new foods—like brewing a pot of delicious pine needle tea. Yum!

First, gather pine needles. These were fresh—gathered by Kaden minutes before use—from the pine tree grove at the front of our property.

Second, cut off the brown ends of the pine needles. The Wench is not certain this is necessary, since the pine needles aren't being eaten, but using knives is so much fun for the brats that it was a vital step.

Next, boil the pine needles in water. It was very aromatic and smelled quite pleasant (not an appetizing pleasant, though, just a pretty smell).

Lastly, taste the concoction. Our chef is excited!

Bottoms up, Kaden!

Bottoms up, Mary Jane!

Bottoms up, Eliza!

 And what they looked like after a little taste...

It was fun to try anyway!

Spooky Halloween

Like most kids, the brats look forward to Halloween. Kaden especially enjoys this holiday and is usually talking about how he wants to dress-up long before the Wench even thinks of mentioning it (probably around June—ha!). Mary Jane is most interested in carving pumpkins and Eliza is just excited to be a part of the excitement. They all love the candy!

The brats carve pumpkins. Eliza's is on the left, Kaden's in the middle, and MJ's on the right (she was going for a hill-billy pumpkin with blacked out teeth).

Memaw sent Eliza this outfit for her birthday, so Eliza went as the "Pumpkin Princess" (yep, the Wench made that up to save a buck!).

Kaden the Blood Orc (yes, World of Warcraft inspired).

For weeks Mary Jane insisted that she didn't want to dress up this year. This is what the Wench put together after a tearful confession from MJ who had decided dressing up might be fun after all. Pretty good for a last minute costume, eh?

The trick-or-treaters are all smiles.

All dressed up and being silly.

Papa waiting for visitors. Scary!

With Papa.

With Granny.

A dear friend invited us to her church for some trunk-or-treating. So, after hitting up our neighborhood for Halloween candy, the brats and I headed over to Pleasant Hill Baptist Church for some more! The Wench doesn't exactly know what happened to those pictures but the brats had fun.

The Brats Visit the Pumpkin Patch

Sometimes (okay, a lot) the Wench lacks a little skill called planning ahead. Plan a day for the Pumpkin Patch, check; get everyone dressed and ready, check; remember to charge the camera's battery, che... oops! Thus, we have only nine pictures (total, not picked through) to remember the day by. And most of them are of Eliza because the older children were going through the maze while she was exploring. By the time they came out of the maze, the camera was dead. So, here's what I was able to capture:

The Comrade and the brats posing at the entrance to the maze. Mary Jane and Kaden made it through in about forty minutes and were able to find all sixteen hidden numbers, which qualified them to enter a drawing to win $100. They had a blast and have the entire adventure taped.

Eliza swinging. The Wench thinks these tire swings shaped like horses are so cute.

Playing in the 'corn'box.

Riding tractors. These were so cute!

Eliza had the place all to herself. (One of the perks of getting to go when every one else is at school.)

She rode on each tractor at least once.

"See how big I am, Mommy!"

We love the fall! Such a beautiful time of year.

I loved this horse that was made out of cotton. There would have been a close-up as well, but this was the picture that killed the battery.

Field Trip!

The Comrade got wind that the Museum of Natural History in Jackson, MS was hosting a robotic dinosaur exhibit. So we packed some food, loaded the brats into the van, and headed over to Jackson to see if we could learn anything interesting.

The brats were excited to go somewhere... anywhere! (Yeah, we don't get out much.)

It was obvious right away that the robotic dinosaurs were not life-size. Very disappointing. :( Okay, okay. The Wench was the only one really disappointed by this—the brats were still happy to be doing something different.

Eliza and Kaden at the aquarium.

Mary Jane thought the turtles were darling!

Everything 'baby' is cute, even alligators. The brats insisted on a picture of this cute couple.

This two-headed corn snake caught our attention.

Wart hog! Pretty cool... according to Kaden. The Wench just thinks they're nasty. Ew!

"He's just a size size for me!" exclaimed Eliza.

After a thorough exploration of the museum (at this point in the blog the Wench is starting to realize just how few pictures were taken of the dinosaur exhibit... hmmm) we headed out to explore the nature trails surrounding the museum. It was the perfect weather for trail walking.

Starting out.

Waiting for little ones with short legs.

Altogether now.

Say 'cheese'!

The littlest ones sometimes need extra help.

And the most exciting discovery of the trip—bamboo! It should be noted here that the World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria, had just come out, thus the excitement over finding bamboo.

Kaden's bamboo haul by the end of the trail.

Toddler Turns Three

I love this girl so much! She is spunky, vivacious, persistent, funny, and always up for anything and everything. She is in love with her sister and brother...

...and is the cutest little sister anyone could ever ask for. I mean, really, just look at this face...

And this one...

And here she is with her "hey buddy"...

The number one item on her birthday wish list this year was a bicycle, complete with helmet and knee pads. She got her wish...

And she wanted a puppy-dog...

His name is Spot.

Lastly...

Candle-tasking: The only tasting of the cake that she enjoyed. Oh well.

♥ We love you, Eliza Poppy! ♥