Connor's New Friend

Ok, so Dave has actually been hanging around for 6 months or so, but Connor has just now decided he's worth sitting on!

Connor is watching the TV as daddy plays Beautiful Katamari. Dave brought his Xbox 360 over so we could try it out.

Good luck trying to get Connor to look at the camera when you want him to.

And another shot of his famous 'look'.

Quotable Quotes

Sean comes walking out of his room with a sad look on his face and Reagan turns to me and says, 'Mommy, I wonder why Sean looks so glum?'

Sean wants me to show him how to use a jump rope in the front yard. He hands me the rope and says, 'You can show me how to do it, Mommy, the old-fashioned way.'

Not sure exactly what the 'old-fashioned' way for jump roping is, but apparently I know how to do it!

Soccer

The kids started soccer this fall. They're playing in the Naples Optimist Club. They have practice once a week and a game on Saturday. Both of them are really enjoying it, and they've both made new friends.

Reagan is #12. She was part of the starting group for their game yesterday.

Reagan going after the ball. She actually kicked it around a bit during the game, but I think I only got that on video.

Reagan hustling for the ball again.

Sean doing his version of pre-game practice. He's #7.

I got him to slow down long enough to get this picture.

This was during their game. #10 is a little boy named Oliver who is actually quite good. I'm pretty sure he's played before!

Sean loves kicking the ball in. I think he begged to do it every single time!

Artwork

Sean drew this picture this morning. I think it's a story about me (see 'mom' in the middle in red) and some other people, but I don't remember all the details.

Last week one of Sean's phonics readers was 'Mac's Map'. I explained to him that the apostrophe-s meant that the Map belonged to Mac. So a couple of days later he drew this picture of a fish. Then he wrote his name at the top. Then he asked me to spell fish, which I did and he wrote that out as well. The next time I looked at the paper I noticed he had added an -'s to his name to show that it is his fish. I thought that was pretty cool!

Reagan drew this picture last week. I really enjoy the way she draws her people. I'll have to look and see if I can find some examples of her first drawings from kindergarten and first grade. She's always had her own style.

These figures make me think of angels. Reagan was experimenting with a different way of drawing her stick figures. I like it!

Killer Caramel Corn

One favorite fall memory from my childhood is that of my mom making oven caramel corn. I remember she did this quite a few times while we lived in Stone Mountain, GA. Unfortunately the recipe was lost during our move to Naples. At least that's the story she always gave! Anyway, not too long ago I decided to search for a caramel corn recipe to see if I could find one that lived up to my memories. I'm happy to say I believe I did. And now I'm going to share it with you. The base recipe is actually from allrecipes, but this is the version I came up with based on a couple of reviews.

Caramel Corn

1 cup popcorn kernels
2 T. oil
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
12 T. butter (1 1/2 sticks)
6 T. light corn syrup (1/4 cup + 2 T)
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 250.

Pop the corn 1/2 a cup at a time in 1 T. oil. Put popped corn in a disposable aluminum roasting pan (22-25lb. pan, I found this was the best way to fit all the popcorn in a single pan). Keep warm in oven.

Mix brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and add baking soda and vanilla.

Spread mixture over warm popcorn. Stir well. Bake at 250 for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Let cool and break into pieces.

Tattoos

I found a box of Transformers tattoos on clearance at Target for $2.49. Much fun was had by all (and we still have a bunch left!).

Connor kept amazingly still in my lap while I put this on his forehead.

This picture just doesn't do it justice. Sean had tattoos on his legs and both arms as well.

Reagan didn't go for the cheek tattoos, but she had a couple on her arms.

We took a trip to Publix right after we got done putting the tattoos on. Needless to say, the kids got quite a few comments. Especially Connor!