On Friday night Seth and I hosted a dinner party…a fondue party at that. I shouldn’t even call it a party because it was super low key. Just low lighting, 2 pots of cheese, lots of dippers and good company. With the craziness of last week Seth decided to come home a bit early on Friday which allowed me to sneak out on a “date” with Jackson to the grocery store for our dipping bread. Jackson had been in a funk all day so I thought it might be good for him to get out. When he zipped his coat he said “mom, I think I am wearing the same shirt I slept in last night”. Poor kid. We had had a home day with lots of cleaning and prepping for our visitor so I had let him stay in his sweats. He was a little self conscious but I reassured him that no one would know he had slept in his baseball shirt. Bad mom, I know.

Before we left home Jackson caught on to the fun of the fondue party plans and actually started to cry that he wasn’t invited. This wasn’t like him to be so disappointed. I remembered that the store sells little individual tubs of fondue and I asked if he wanted to have his very own fondue pot for dinner. He was thrilled. So, we got him his own little “Gerber” pot of fondue. He proudly dipped and enjoyed. He’s such a character.

When the fondue pots were scraped clean and the house got quiet we started hearing Jackson coughing. Poor kid hadn’t been able to sleep well and was wide awake and coughing up a lung. Seth had to go out to a friend’s in the middle of the night to get medicine because there wasn’t a 24 hour (or even after 8pm) place near our home. Don’t get me started….I get grumpy when I get talking about conveniences that they just don’t get here. I was happy to have a friend we could call! Anyhow, seems the crying for a pot of fondue may have been linked to being sick which we only learned later! My mom used to make us chicken rice soup or poached eggs on toast when we were feeling sick…much more sensible than a tub of cheese!! But he loved it!

Saturday night we had a group over for pumpkin carving! It was such a fun evening. Most of our friends had never carved one before but they all dove in and seemed to have fun.  We covered the dining room table with a plastic table cloth and newspapers and told everyone to bring a pumpkin and a knife!

I set out a few appetizers to munch on while we carved and then kept dinner super simple!! We had hot ham and cheese sandwiches (thanks for the recipe, Amy!) and a fall salad. We followed it up with homemade pumpkin pie and a friend brought some cake! I must say that might be the first and last time I make pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin! It was wonderfully delicious and better than from a can but I must say took waaaay more time than I had! Another friend brought Gluwein that simmered on the stove!!! Maybe this week I will try to post some recipes for that so you can try it in whatever corner of the world you are!

Here are some pics from the festivities…

caramel apples…darn things stuck to the buttered wax paper but they looked pretty!

a little hesitant to pull out the “guts”!

it was serious work folks!

most of the kids showing off their creations!

thanks for a fun night, friends!

We finally got around to getting our pumpkins this year. I must admit that I missed the hay ride and hoopla involved in getting pumpkins in the US…next year you will find us at Cox Farms or the like! This year we found a cute farm stand.

We are throwing a pumpkin carving party on Saturday night. It will be the UN of pumpkin parties with a Swiss family, a German family, an Italian/American family and a Hungarian/American family!  It will be a fun group of kids and parents and we are hoping for a really fun night….very messy but fun. I will post pics after the fun!

this is the pumpkin pie that Seth was wishing he had gotten to eat. We delivered it to my friend on our way out to get pumpkins…she is German but had lived in Canada and was missing pumpkin pie. It happened to be her birthday so we surprised her and took over a hot pie! Again, Seth is still jealous!

Happy Fall Y’all!

ps-I made these cookies that I mentioned last week. They were SO good. Like pumpkin spice snickerdoodles!! They were so good that I send almost the whole  batch to work with Seth so I wouldn’t have any!

Over the past few weeks Owen has been making his booster seat his platform for battle. At the ripe age of 10 months Owen refused to eat for 7 days for no exact reason except that he didn’t want to. So I can’t say that I don’t know of his stubborn streak or that I am shocked but it is still not fun. Teething typically contributes but since he continues to eat a variety of textures it is hard to say that something is just not comfortable for his teething mouth. Anyhow, I have continued to present Owen with whatever I have made for the family for dinner and just let him deal. He doesn’t have to eat it but I am not making anything special for him.  If I make something spicy or way out there like Indian curry or something I know they won’t love I will, on rare occasion, make something to go along with it that I know the kids would enjoy more. But typically it just is what it is, and I enjoy making things that they like so it’s a win for them anyways.  And how could you not love a veggie mix that includes carrots cut into fun shapes?! Cars, bunnies, stars, mushrooms, flowers. Come on now, could it be any better?

2 weeks ago he downright refused his dinner, twice, settling for his cup of milk and not a bite. Now don’t feel bad for him, he gets puh-lenty to eat. And these phases do pass. Jackson wasn’t a “food jagger” so when he refused to eat I knew something was not quite right. Owen however does this every few months, gets it out of his system and then gets back in his groove. There is no joke in the phrase “eating us out of house and home”. It really may be true for us one day. ha!  When he is in the mood this boy eats. We are learning to let him be a toddler that can refuse and speak his mind without his parents running around making back up plans and meals to make him think he’s running the show!  It’s tough!  PB&J would brighten any screamy meal but since I want him to enjoy family dinners we persist!

A few funny pics for you!

but before you feel bad for him, just envision him with a banana and nutella crepe, see, life is good for sweet Owen!