Trunk-r-Treat and Vote for Cookies!

Last night I took the kids to Trunk-r-Treat at First Baptist New Orleans. Keeleigh dressed up as a cheetah girl, literally...

And Jathan was a spider.

They really enjoyed themselves playing on the bounce houses and getting candy!

Last night Jackie and I did our patriotic duty...in our pajamas! We received our absentee ballots in the mail and got right to filling them out so that we could send them back today. Keeleigh was totally impressed with the teeny tiny pencils they send you to fill the ballot out with. She had to use it for school today. Until she got tired of trying to hold a teeny tiny pencil, that is!


Today has been an as-usual day. School went well this morning and thankfully Jathan finally decided to take his morning nap about an hour late. Tomorrow is Halloween so we are just going to do our necessary end of week tests (math, spelling, reading) and I have fun and games planned for the rest of school time.

This afternoon I took the time to make some cookies from scratch! They are officially called Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk cookies but I just call them awesome.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to give them a try.

Ingredients:
2/3 coup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salk
1 6 oz. package Craisins Sweetened Dried Cranberries
2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips

Directions:
Preheat over to 375 degrees F. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together in a medium mising bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in Craisins and white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Make approximately 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Saturday: A Day in the Life

Today our family went to Red Bluff Farm's Pumpkin Patch. We had so much fun! The farmer did a tour of the farm and the kids got to see him shear a sheep and milk a cow. Plus everyone got a chance to bottle-feed a calf and fish with a cane pole in the pond. We also went on a hay ride and saw the horses, cows, and chickens. Keeleigh's friend, Stuti, went with us so she enjoyed herself all the more.

After leaving the farm we ate and went to Fountainebleau State Park. It was awesome. The park has a nature trail that leads you into the marshland at the edge of Lake Ponchatrain where we actually saw an alligator sunbathing on the grassy bank.

The park also had a beach where we got our feet wet and searched for seashells. People were fishing off the boardwalk and we got to see a lady catch a fish and learn about crab fishing. (You could see the crabs underwater in the marsh!)

We had a wonderful day and will definitely return to the state park to explore more. Here's a slideshow of our day:

Detour

This weekend Jackie was scheduled to preach at a church in Kentwood, LA (HOME OF BRITNEY SPEARS!); the church is seeking a pastor and had received Jackie's resume. We set out early Sunday morning since the church is about an hour and a half away from NOLA but unfortunately we never made it to the church. On our way there Jackie and I noticed a strange sound which seemed to be coming from our car. We suspected a problem with the tire but the car didn't seem to pull one way or the other so Jackie switched lanes to see if perhaps it was just the road. When he did we experienced a blow out. We did have a spare but it looked quite low on air itself and we also noticed that we'd picked up a screw (which was probably what punctured the front one, too) in one of the rear tires. So we checked the GPS for the nearest service station. It directed us 15-20 miles away! We thought we'd try the next "town" up about 5 miles away, however. Seriously this was the most podunk town ever. Ha, ha! There was one street which some shotgun houses down it leading to the fishing docks. No gas station. No stores. Only a dock. There was however a volunteer fire department where we talked an apparent "firefighter" into setting down his Budlight for a few minutes to air up our tire. Then we hobbled to the nearest Walmart where we had to buy two new tires.
After getting the new tires at Walmart we ate in La Place. Then after confirming with the church that they didn't want us to come for the evening service (we're going to try again next Sunday) we decided to go to the Oak Alley Plantation which was hosting an arts and crafts fair.

We first heard about the plantation from it's Ghosthunters episode a week or two back. (It's reported to have some supernatural activity going on inside it.) It really is beautiful there! The plantation sits just beside the Mississipi River and is surrounded by 300 year-old oak trees which Keeleigh thought made really great climbing trees. There were also beautiful flowers and shrubs along the brick pathways while sugar cane fields flanked the plantation on each side. We wandered around the grounds and visited the arts and crafts fair which featured some great local art and cute crafts as well as some mouth-watering food.

We also got a chance to tour the mansion where we learned the history of the place. The house was built by a frenchman and his young bride (or rather their numerous slaves) over the span of 2 years. The wife, Selena's, father was an architect who designed the original French Market in NOLA as well as Cafe du Monde. There was a large dining table set with extra-large silverware (to show their wealth by how much pure silver they could buy) over which hung a fan with a cord leading to one corner of the room where a young slave would have set pulling the cord to fan the people at the table. After dinner they would have retreated to the sitting room where the men enjoyed rum and the ladies ate pears (soaked in rum because it was unladylike to drink--ha ha!). We also saw the "haunted" bedroom where Selena and her husband slept and which still contained the elaborately carved wooden bassinet that one of the six children slept in. There was also a sick room for family members when they were ill and for after they died for viewing. Across from that room was the nursery decorated in the palest blue. The rooms on the second floor all led out to the 13 foot veranda where you had an incredible view of the oaks. In the first owner's time they could see the river but now the levee is built up too high.

We didn't see any ghosts but we did enjoy ourselves highly! It was a certainly a nice end to a day which started out kind of bumpy.