Halloween - Part 2

We had a blast Halloween night with our super duper friends, the Espinos. Amy prepared a delicious Italian Bean and Pasta soup, recipe compliments of Williams & Sonoma. We ate the soup in bread bowls, a perfect dinner on a fall Halloween night. During dinner the girls would rush to the door to tend to trick or treaters. Afterwards, we put the finishing touches on the girls' hair and costumes--sparkles and all! Sofia was Sleeping Beauty, Isabel was a Cheetah, Natalie was a Princess, and Baby Sophia was Winnie the Pooh. Amy and I nominated the Dad's to take the kids trick or treating while we stayed back to chat it up in a quiet house. It was a very peaceful and relaxing 20 minutes. :D

Upon return, the girls immediately began sorting and eating their loot. They couldn't wait to get home to dive in and apparently requested to go home sooner than the Dad's thought they would. While the girls enjoyed some Halloween candy, we indulged in fresh homemade Cinnamon Rolls. THANK YOU, AMY!!! Amy spent hours in the kitchen that day and everything came out perfectly. The girls partook of the Cinnamon rolls as well. Needless to say we had a ton of fun and definitely over stuffed ourselves.

Handing out the goods to the trick or treaters.

Just about ready to go.

These three were READY to hit the houses. Crazy girls.
Sofia, Isabel, and Natalie

No doubt the girls had a blast. I just love Baby Sophia already trying to take a bite of her Milky Way Bar. Cuteness.

Doing a little dance.

Two sissy's. Killer pic.

Sweet Sydnei. I love her little face!

Funny moment with Papi. Showing off her pig tail.

Relishing her favorite, a Hershey's Milk Chocolate Candy Bar.

The Cinnamon Rolls. 'nuff said.

A bit of Halloween History

Sofia is our girly girl.

To.

The.

MAX!!!

She loves to play dress up and most importantly to be a Princess. She describes Cinderella as "magical" and selects dresses based on their "twirling" ability. This year she was Sleeping Beauty. It's the third year in a row she's chosen to be a Princess. I thought I'd post a little chronology of her Halloween past.

Miss Piggy
2004


Pumpkin
2005

Cinderella
2006

Snow White
2007

Sleeping Beauty a.k.a. Aurora
2008

Sofia, you will always be my Princess. I love you!

Love,
Mami

Halloween - Part 1

Friday, October 24, 2008 we attended a Halloween Party and Trunk or Treat at our old ward, the Tualatin Valley Branch. That's to say the Spanish-speaking congregation we attended when we lived in Beaverton. It was fun to see everyone and introduce them to Sydnei. Because it wasn't "real Halloween," I was able to convince Sofia to be a Ladybug instead of a Princess. We have an awesome ladybug costume compliments of the Ramos family and she looks so cute in it! Sydnei was Miss Piggy and oh so precious. Here are some of the fun pics we took that night. I must say, I haven't ever been into Halloween in years' past but now, it's so much fun, I really look forward to it. My favorite part of this particular night was when I showed Sofia a ghost and she said: "Mom, it's not a real ghost! There was no way I was going to scare that child!!! Dang.

Sofia y Sydnei just before leaving. Sillygooses.

Sofia on the stage during the traditional costume introductions!

Trunk or Treat!

Miss Piggy, so serious!

One day, one day I tell ya, I"m going to get a picture with my girls where they're at least both looking at that camera and as a bonus both smiling!!! Hey at least the girl in the background is looking at the camera.

Towards the end of the party, Sofia sat in the front seat of the Ramos' family SUV listening to Madelyn Ramos (Diva) rock out with her Diva friends to a CD they made of themselves at a birthday party. Sofia thought they were SO COOL she watched them intently. When we got home she insisted on getting out the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus CD's to sing along too with a toy microphone. Sofia is 4, yes, going on 14!!!! We are so in for it.

Cute Madelyn, can you believe she's only in the 4th grade?!?!?!

And to top it all off, our friends, the Bell family did a Mummy dance to Michael Jackson's song, Thriller.

The 2nd Semester of Spanish Love Song

You just knew there would be a sequel to the 1st Semester of Spanish Love Song. Do enjoy this as much as we did!!! Happy Monday!

The Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

These bad boys are a frequent request from my kitchen. My sister will come to town and ask if I'm making them, Sofia will remind me when I haven't made them in awhile, and OHSU even been paid me to make 12 dozen of them last year! Many have asked for my recipe and so I'm going to post it here. I'm a firm believer in sharing recipes. If someone else can benefit and learn from my recipes than I'm that much happier of a baker and cook. I think it's silly when people won't share their recipes as if it's some huge family secret that only those born into a family can benefit. I like to share and I believe when you have something great that others can enjoy, you should share!!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 cup unsifted all purpose flour (may need extra flour)
2 cup chocalte chips
1-2 cups M&M’s® or nuts (optional)


Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth. Beat in salt and baking soda.

Gradually add flour one cup at a time. The mixture may need more flour above what the recipe indicates. To determine if the mixture needs more flour, wash your hands and touch the dough. If the dough is extremely sticky to your fingers, it needs more flour. Note: by not adding more flour you can count on a very flat cookie.

Begin by adding 1/2 cup additional flour at a time.

Beat or mix the dough until the flour is well mixed.

Repeat the sticky test. Continue to add flour until the dough is not sticking to your hands. After you add sufficient flour (usually an additional 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 more cups flour).

Add the chocolate chips and any additional ingredients (i.e. M&M’s ®, nuts)

Lightly grease cookie sheet and roll small to medium-large sized balls in your hands and then place on the cookie sheet. I like to use a food scale to weigh my cookie dough in 1 or 2 oz balls. The recipe will produce around 50 1 oz cookies and just over 2 dozen 2 oz cookies.

Bake 8-12 minutes, depending on the oven.

Watch your oven and the cookies as they bake to determine the necessary amount of time to bake in your oven. Cookies are done when they are just barely starting to turn golden. If the cookies turn golden brown throughout, you can count on them being soft and moist the day they are baked but they will harden the next day. That is why pulling them out of the oven right when they're just starting to turn golden is essential to having a cookie that will stay soft and moist as if you just cooked them that day! (that is if they even last longer than a day!)

Church of the Grid Iron

Quick pic at the game. We weren't about to let someone take our picture for us with our Nikon D60, Nigel. This was the best we could do holding the camera ourselves!

A gorgeous view of the Seattle skyline. Btw, We actually spent our honeymoon in Seattle over 7 years ago!

Yes, that's the church we attended while in Seattle, Sunday, October 12th. The Green Bay Packers were in town to battle the Seattle Seahawks at Qwest Field and we were fortunate enough to get tickets! It was the first NFL game Ryan and I have ever attended. It was also our first date out sans ninos since way before Sydnei was born. Gratefully, my Mom and sister, Darci, watched the girls while we spent the day together. (Thanks a million!)

National Anthem

Seahawks enter the field.

Kickoff.

It was awesome to be at a live football game. Ryan's childhood friend and high school teammate, Brady Poppinga, plays for the Packers so it was even more cool to watch him play live. He's a starting linebacker and #51.

The night before, we dined with Brady at an awesome fish house on the pier and it was a lot of fun to watch those two catch up. They joked about old times and we laughed about new times--especially raising young crazy kiddos.

QB Aaron Rodgers #12

I scored a shot of the last touchdown that sealed the deal on the Packers' win.

The game was exciting to watch as we screamed, and ate hot dogs, cotton candy, and popcorn! (So we're fat kids--but hey that's what you do at a football game!) The fans were awesome as the Packers have quite the following (see pics below). We were seated in an area where to the left of us were a bunch of Seahawks fans and to the right were the cheese heads--a.k.a.--Packers fans. Our locale definitely made for an entertaining game!

Diehard Cheese head.

Gotta love the contrast of fans in this pic. Clearly the Packers fan is more dedicated.

My hot hubby. Love you!

The cotton candy hit the spot, it had been YEARS since I had eaten it!

Packers won the game: 27-17.

Swimming in Seattle

The weekend of October 11-12th we took a little road trip to Seattle with my Mom. Conveniently, it's only a 2 1/2 hour drive. My sister, Darci, lives there so we got to hang out with her, enjoy the beautiful weather and stay at a hotel. The first thing we did when we checked in was find the swimming pool. Sofia has been dying to show off her latest kicking skills she's been learning in swimming lessons so off we went. It was fun to put Sydnei in the water for the first time ever. She was pretty tranquil and watched her little sister like a hawk. Good times, good times.

Holding on for dear life, Sofia practices her kicks.

Me and my girls. Sydnei looks half asleep or drunk depending on how you look at it!
I love my girls!

Swimming with Papi for the first time.

Papi and his girls.

Papi y Sydnei. PRECIOUS!

Having fun with Papi.

We made some sweet memories that day. We can't wait to go swimming again!

More Natalie and Sofia Fun

A couple of weeks ago, Natalie came over to play with Sofia for the afternoon. These two can be quite dramatic. They'll pretend play for awhile, change their clothes fifty times, get in a little quarrel over what they're going to do next, make up, and then repeat the same process. At one point, I noticed they were having a hard time getting to the make up stage and it ocurred to me they were probably hungry. So, I went upstairs to tell them they would soon be served and to be ready to dine in Sofia's bedroom. Their eyes immidiately lit up and all they could keep asking was "What are we going to eat?" "Do we really get to eat in my room?!?!" I explained it was a surprise and that they needed to wait patiently at their table. They quickly sat down and even invited their "ponies" to join them in the highchair.


I returned with a half banana for each of them on a pink plate. They quickly scarfed that down, and anxiously awaited the main course. What is every kids' favorite food? Yes, you guessed it, mac n' cheese. When I returned they were over-joyed to see their bowls of mac n' cheese and kept saying how much FUN they were having. Sofia said: "Mom, this is so cool, you know it's my favorite." Natalie added: "Yeah, I love mac n' cheese, we even have matching bowls and plates!"

I left them alone to indulge and returned for some pictures. Here are a few of the sweet shots I captured of their lunch date. Remember, when all else fails, a little mac n' cheese with a change of scenery will go a long way. Works every time!

This is so gooooood!!

Cheers! (gotta love Sofia's milk mustache)

Mmmmmm

BFF Natalie Espino's 5th B-day

We have some stellar friends, the Espinos. Their daughter, Natalie is one of Sofia's BFF's. These two are two peas-in-a-pod. They are both independent, humorous, crazy, and dramatic. So much personality you don't know what to do with it all. September 25th, Natalie turned 5. Her mom Amy and I, took the girls on a movie date to see Wall-e (the only g-rated flick in the theatre). It happened to be canned food festival day so we got in by each taking 3 cans of food for the Oregon food bank. The girls got a kick out of handing over the food for their tickets. It was a very cute movie. The girls kept cracking up and each enjoyed their OWN bag of popcorn AND drink (compliments of the canned food festival). Afterwards, we took some pics of these two. They are hilarious and so entertaining when they're together.

So excited, they were literally climbing the walls.

Little sissy, Sophia, Natalie, and Sofia

Since Wall-e has been out since summer, the poster is no longer up. So the girls chose the Chihuahua poster to pose in front of. Silly girls.

Sydnei chillin' in her car seat after the movie. She sat in my lap the ENTIRE time watching the movie with us.

What a fun movie date. The following day, Friday, we made pizza at the Espino's house and decorated an orange butterfly cake to celebrate with Natalie and her family. Fun memories. Yumm-o food. Happy Birthday, Natalie! Thanks, Espinos!