Halloween~Warning, Picture Heavy!

I'm pretty sure this is the first time in YEARS that Caleb's helped with the pumpkins.

Isaac and Elias cleaned their own pumpkins.

Even Jude attempted to de-goo his!

Jude really wanted his pumpkin to smile so that everyone else would smile when they saw it too.

Silas made up his own design.

On our way to the neighborhood Halloween Carnival

As we were walking out the door Isaac decided he wanted a costume...black eyed peas it is!

 Jude waiting in line to make a spider lollipop.

 Caleb found his kindred spirit. Both have been wearing this same t-shirt for years. Caleb is a Halloween Scrooge!

 The older boys helped Jude play the games and make the crafts.

 Silas found his classmate Scott and played with him ALL NIGHT!

 Trunk or Treating...absolute CHAOS!

 Jude came up with this costume this morning all on his own. I can't remember what crazy thing he called it.  I'm calling it Scuba Steve.

Tonight we had the missionaries over for dinner.  I declared a cupcake eating contest.  Jude ate the most with 3 and Silas the least with none.  You might think Jude would have won but Silas is the true winner for listening to his stomach that told him he'd had too much sugar today already! It's now 9:15 and we've had NO trick or treaters.  Kind of nice! Happy Halloween!

Pizza Oven

Last month we decided to finally get a pizza oven built. It was finally complete are ready for use yesterday. This is the Chicago Brick Oven before it was mounted.

Under construction. The thing on the bottom is a wood box.  The boys really thought we should be able to build fires in there. Sorry, no chimney.

Setting the oven in place.

All done! We had to let the concrete set for few days first.  We tried it out last night and it was awesome.  We made lots of mistakes so hopefully the next use will be better. The nice thing is that it's an oven, not just for pizza. So if we lose power after a hurricane we'll still have the ability to cook.

Last nights recipe winner was a sliced mozzarella with fresh tomatoes on sun dried tomato pesto sauce!  This was Isaac's birthday dinner choice.  Be sure to see his Birthday pix below.

Isaac is 10

Isaac is 10 now which means that the Zimmerman birthday season is finally over until July. Hooray!

We took Isaac and a couple of his friends to Main Event for some Laser Tag and bowling.

The boys kept thinking we should have the bumpers put down but I'm pretty sure they would have had 90% gutter balls without them.

Being the sweet brother that he is, Silas made this Birthday card for Isaac.  Isn't it wonderful that he's learning to spell? (Translation: Suck Isaac, Isaac NO, Isaac Suck).
Isaac managed to have his birthday festivities last for days. Friday, cupcakes to school and party with friends. Saturday convinced us to let him open gifts from us a day early. Sunday, actual birthday, special meals and cake. Monday morning...singing and blowing out candles~somehow we never did that on the other days. Oops, more my fault than his. For some reason blogger isn't letting me upload the pix of him blowing out his candles this morning. Must be some sort of punishment for my forgetfulness! Oh well. Happy Birthday buddy!

Roasted Lemony Veggies w/ Couscous

I made this dish for dinner last night and it turned out awesome.  It was a great way to incorporate a ton of fall vegetables into our meal.  I highly recommend it!

Ingredients




1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped basil

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

2 large tomatoes, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound) peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks (about 4 cups)

1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 pound red-skin potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 cup baby carrots, halved

1 cup couscous

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir together lemon juice, basil, parsley, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper. Slowly whisk in olive oil; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, squash, potatoes and carrots. Sprinkle mixture with remaining 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Drizzle with prepared lemon dressing and stir well to combine.

3. Pour vegetable mixture into a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish and cover with foil. Bake at 375 degrees F for 35 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake another 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

4. When there is 10 minutes bake time remaining, prepare couscous according to package directions. Remove vegetable mixture from oven and carefully stir in couscous. Serve immediately.

Super Six/Sick Silas

Silas is 6 now...finally!  He just couldn't stand being five.  He wanted to be 6 like Maddie.  I haven't had the heart to tell him Maddie is 7 now.  Our schedule on Tuesday (actual date of his Birthday) was crazy busy so we celebrated the night before.  On the day of his Birthday I got a call from the school nurse 5 minutes before school let out saying that my Birthday Boy had just barfed.  Ugh! Good thing he was already able to enjoy his cake and presents.

He ripped through his gifts so fast it was a whirlwind of flying paper and bows.

Silas made my life easy by wanting a rainbow chip cake that he wanted to decorate himself.

We love Silas so much and have been so proud of his efforts and advances in school. He's been stubborn about learning and has wanted everything to be on his own terms.  In addition to being stubborn he's very competitive.  On the Meet the Teacher night Silas noticed some kids in his class reading.  He was initially intimidated but quickly decided to get serious about school.  We've been playing flashcard games with his numbers, letters, sounds and sight words everyday after school.  In the last 7 weeks he's gone from knowing about 10 letters (uppercase only) to sounding out and reading his beginner reader books to me every night.  He loves school and has really given his all to do well.  Happy Birthday Silas!