Memories and a Leftover Candy Recipe

I meant to get a post going sooner than this but I have been just beyond busy. But it's for a good reason! A friend of mine and I are starting an Etsy shop, hopefully in the next 10 days. At first, we're really only going to sell paper products like labels and note cards but later we'll be adding some fun stuff like art and sewn items. I will have more details later on all that sometime soon! :D But, I will tell you that our name will be Sew and Scribble!

Anyway, I have been trying to figure out ways to get Autumn involved in cooking dinner. Some of you might know that I love to cook. I love to give parties. And the first memories I have of cooking are helping my mom and my paternal grandmother in the kitchen.


My mom would let me roll biscuit dough and my grandma would even let me create my own muffin recipes. She lay out the ingredients and let me go to town with very little guidance. Haha, only a grandma, right? But, I really think of her when I think of how much I love to cook. I'm not sure if any of my muffins were edible but she encouraged me with her enthusiasm, willingness to go along with a weird kid, and her very tough stomach (probably). And, later, my mom let me cook "fancy" meals. To this day, she and her best friend talk about the amazing mother's day meal I made them when I was 12. Again, I'm not sure if it really was amazing, but it was a 3 course epic project for someone not much taller than the stove!


Anyway, I came across this recipe for Candy Corn Bark and thought it looked pretty cool. I was also able to really let Autumn in on the creation of this dessert so that it wasn't just me giving her flour, water, and salt to mix for an hour.


The site I linked has a nice recipe and better pics but here's what we did. I put 14 oreos in a plastic bag and let Autumn break them up. She was having so much fun that I think we made them a little too small for this recipe. So if you do it, make sure the chunks of cookie are pretty decently sized. You can see the intensity in Autumn's face here, haha.


We already had pretzel rods so I guessed at how many would make 1 1/2 cup pretzel pieces. Same thing, don't let them get too small. By the way, I'm impressed with Autumn's left handed mallet work here! She's actually kind of right handed. :P I know it's silly but I was kind of hoping she'd be a lefty. Maybe she's got a touch of both in her!


Here are the oreos, pretzels, and 3/4 cup candy corn spread on a baking sheet. You can use wax paper but I have a silpat mat that I used. Also, spread it in a pretty thin layer. I was concerned when I was spreading the bits but thin layer is the way to go.


I melted a pound of almond bark. I actually added a touch more because I got nervous when I saw how it spread out. Didn't think I had enough but the amount the recipe calls for would have been plenty. Autumn stirred for me.


Autumn helped pour the chocolate from the cup onto the mixture but I had to spread it a bit. I've never made a bark so this was a new experience for me.


Sprinkle 1/4 cup candy corn and some brown sprinkles on top (and orange but I didn't have any), pop it in the fridge to harden annnnd voila! Or, as Autumn would say, tada!

Candy Corn Cookie Bark

14 whole Oreos, broken up.

1 1/2 C pretzels, broken into pieces.

1 lb. white chocolate, almond bark or melts found in the bulk food section

1 C candy corn

brown and orange colored sprinkles

Cover a large cookie sheet with wax paper. Spread broken cookes, pretzels and about 3/4 C of the candy corn onto the waxed paper. Place white chocolate in a container and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Stir and then microwave for another 30 seconds until melted and smooth. White chocolate melts faster and burns easier than chocolate.

Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookie mixture, spreading with spatula if needed to coat evenly. Sprinkle remaining candy corn and colored sprinkles over the chocolate while it is still wet. Do not let it harden. Place cookie tray into refrigerator until set and firm. Remove and gently break bark into small pieces. Store in air tight container.

And, to end, have some Autumn in boots and a hello kitty tutu feeding her baby doll a bottle while holding her by the hair. :D

A Halloween Fairy Tale

It was a dark and stormy night.

Well. Not really. It was a bright and sunny day. The first bright and sunny day in some time. But the sunniness of this afternoon belied the darkness that is inherently Halloween.

Well. Not really that either.

The truth was...this was a halloween of light and smiles and joy. It started with a little girl who, through the magic of eyeshadow and glitter and wings and a pretty dress, was transformed into a little fairy.


The little fairy was a patient fairy. She knew fun things were to come but the big people had lots of things to say before she could get started. And so she waited.


And waited.


And waited.


And then finally, the little fairy got to embark on her Super Awesome Halloween Travels.


She played games.


And showed off her spoils.


And played more games!


And showed off her spoils.


And then the little fairy visited the Very Big Hospital. She walked across a big walkway and went up a really fast elevator! It was so exciting! While she was at the Very Big Hospital, the little fairy shared her m&m's and a candy bar with two new friends she met in the hall. And, she got to visit with her Very Favorite Nurse!


After visiting her Very Favorite Nurse, the little fairy walked back up the big walkway and then rode all the way to see her Honorary Fairy Family.


And she showed off her spoils.


The little fairy and her Honorary Aunt sat together while the little fairy learned the names of all her yummy candies!


The played for a very long time and it was fun.


The little fairy took off again, this time to snuggle with a Very Silly Mama.


Who was dressed like an aikido instructor--which wasn't really much of a costume at all since she wore it to class that morning! Silly Mama!


And her Very Silly Lula who was dressed as a hair stylist. That wasn't much of a costume either! Silly Lula!


So the little fairy went on a search for something a little less silly. She knocked on a door and said, "trick or treat!" Well. Not exactly. She patted a door and said, "tweet!"


And she got one!


And guess whose door it was! The little fairy decided to show off her spoils...to a very appreciative and perhaps envious audience.


The little fairy had one more stop before dinner and night-night time.


She rang a doorbell...and was greeted by the melodious sounds of lots of little doggies greeting her. The little fairy was surprised by their enthusiasm. And so was the Official Costumer of the Fairy Family.


Now, at this house, there was dancing.


And friends


And doggies


And best of all...babies!


The little fairy loved babies and took her chance to give the baby lots of kisses.


One more good-bye, a yummy fairy dinner, and a ride home later, the little fairy shed her wings for the night. She washed off her glitter and said, "night-night, Wings! See you tomorrow. Muah!"



A very special thank you to everyone who had us over: Penny, Stephan and Maddie and DeeDee, The Yopps. Also thank you to Lula and Mama Lainey and Papa D for a super fun night. And, a special hello to all the Ridgeway ladies for all your kind words about our little blog!! To all our readers: you have no idea how much it means to us that you take time out of your busy schedules to read about our silly adventures. :)

Little Colleys on the Farm!

We went to Tyler's birthday party two weeks ago and it was so much fun!! It was at this little petting farm place in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, Nanny was just joking that we were going to run out of asphalt WHEN WE DID. We were sooo cracking up. Now, I have approximately 800 photos from this event. I have narrowed it down to...64. Ha! Way too many to put here on the blog. So, I made a picasa slide show. If you want, you can just click through these photos ordered and captioned for your viewing pleasure. Seriously, you won't regret it. I mean, you'll see my favorite Autumn expression:


BUNNIES


Little Colleys on a PONY!


And so much more!



By the way, family who forgot cameras, I uploaded these in sharing size. So, feel free to download!

One more by the way--if you want to stop the auto scrolling of the pics in the slideshow, hit pause and then you can go forward at your own pace.

Misc. Adventures

Autumn and Mike are very, very expressive. Hahaha. I think it might be the Italian in them. I love watching them talk together...it's so cute!! I think here they might have been talking about planes. Autumn looooves planes.


I'm in the process of reorganizing the attic (yay...blah) and Autumn entertained herself by stripping and settling into a box of clothes with her blanket. She stayed in there quite a while.


We've been working on Autumn's phone skills. It's usually on her whim but she does manage a few little conversations now and then. But when it's on her play phones? She's a busy little business lady.


One of my favorite things to watch Autumn do is take care of her "beebees." I especially like it when she does something I know I do for her, like pat her and say, "it's okay." One day, Autumn was feeding her kitty in the high chair and saying, "ok, Miss! Eat Eat!" Or, "ok, Miss, let's wipe!" And she wiped the tray and the kitty's mouth with her hanky (I've been trying to teach her to use a handkerchief).


Not too long ago, I had a facebook status that read something like, "Mike thinks the living room looks like there was a fairy war...so much glitter!" Yeah. We live in the land of dress up. Mostly Autumn plays on her own, decking herself out in hats, sunglasses, necklaces, and headbands. And Tink dresses. But she also like to bring others in on the act sometimes.


One morning at about 2 am, Autumn came into our room very pitifully. Her shirt was soaked with sweat and she was sad so I couldn't bring myself to take her back to her room. I let her sleep with us and about an hour later, she sat up saying what I thought was peepee. :) Oh no. She was saying beebee. Autumn marched to her room and came back carrying the three little loveys that kind of live in her bed. It was funny enough that I got the camera to commemorate the moment.


Last Friday we went over to my friend Penny's house. It was her husband Mike's birthday and Penny wanted to make a rainbow cake for him like the one we had at Autumn's birthday party. I made Penny an apron for her birthday earlier this year so Autumn and I brought ours over, too, and we had a matching apron cooking party!


Here they are with the dyed cake batter. The cake itself is pretty easy but getting the colors right and all that is really time consuming! (By the way, Penny, when Autumn saw this picture, she said, "there Penny!")


This is the finished product! Pretty cool, huh?


Oh, and here's Autumn on the day she had her first school pictures! She accessorize herself. :P


Ok, is this crazy or what? I mean, really...I'm not ready for her to be this grown up! Sigh. Autumn doesn't quite have pedaling down but she's working on it!


And, last, this is one of my mom's favorite pictures of Autumn:


And that's the Miscellaneous Adventures of Autumn!

So much awesome stuff to come!!!