More of what we did in October

This is a catch up post. The most recent events are first, moving down to the oldest. This is the order in which I WOULD have blogged about if I'd actually done the blogging. :)

***Halloween was nice and warm this year. The kids got too much candy as usual, I did my annual threatening...."if I see ANY candy wrappers on the floor, I'm going to......." which year after year means absolutely nothing to anyone. The joys of motherhood, right? Cole as the vampire was from the 6th grade spook ally. The kids and their friends before trick or treating. And for the last several years Taylor has been a Packer fan with Hunter joining him this year. It's an easy costume for us to throw together.

As usual at the Stephens house, kids wearing shorts the last day in October. Actually we have several pictures of the kids in the back yard building snowmen with shorts and snow boots. That would be Taylor, Cole and Hunter and of course me!

Our kids LOVE carving pumpkins. These are this years creations.




****mmm...Fall baking. I made pumpkin roll to take to a couple of ladies in my neighborhood. I love the smell of it baking, (so far it's the ONLY thing I have liked about fall..remember I'm a summer lovin' girl) The recipie is on the back of the Libby's pumpkin can or here it is. (super good comfort food)

LIBBY'S® Pumpkin Roll

Ingredients:

• CAKE
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
• FILLING
• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Directions:

FOR CAKE:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.

COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes.) Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

FOR FILLING:
BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

COOKING TIP:
Be sure to put enough powdered sugar on the towel when rolling up the cake so it will not stick.

***More mod podge stars. My friend needed hers refurbished, I love the papers she chose, they are from Basic Grey and the Ambrosia line. I love the reds, oranges and greys.

****My friend Kayla kindly took us to Mueller Park to take some family photos for us. The kids were exploring around and found the river. Seeing that as a great photo opportunity, Kayla went down with them and was helping organize the group for a picture, all I could think of was...5 kids and water....somebody's goin' in. Well, of course you know what happened. As soon as I heard "grab Cade's hand and help him across" I knew that was it. He slipped on a mossy rock and went into the water getting his clothes all wet. It's October...it's cold! For the rest of the shoot, he was shivering. I just KNEW it would be Cade. We're grateful for Kayla and all the time she took with us, thanks to her we'll be getting a Christmas card out this year!

***Shawn and his friend Jim flew to Cincinnati to a Steelers game. Jim is the Steelers fan, and Shawn is of course a Green Bay Packers fan but will go anywhere, anytime for an NFL game especially for the exceptional seats they had for this game! This is the actual photo from their 3RD ROW SEATS! (I can't believe Shawn actually brought a Bengals football home to the Packers house)

***We went to the zoo again. It is really a lot of fun to go with a good friend and only a couple of children. It was on one of the last warm sunny days where we soaked up some of the last sunshine of the season.