Captive Mommies

One yummy week of great “Fall” recipes that you can make with your kids!

Pumpkin Tartlets

What you need:

* 12 mini graham cracker pie shells
* 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
* ½ cup packed brown sugar
* 2 teaspoons cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
* 2 pints vanilla ice cream, softened
* Whipped cream, toffee candy bits, and fresh mint (optional)

What to do:

1. In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Blend in softened ice cream. If mixture is too soft to mound, refreeze until it reaches the desired consistency.

2. Pour ice cream mixture into each pie shell and freeze until firm. Cover with plastic wrap until ready to serve. Garnish with whipped cream, toffee bits, and fresh mint or cinnamon, if desired.

One yummy week of great “Fall” recipes that you can make with your kids!

Acorn Squash Canoes

What you need:

* 2 medium acorn squash
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* Salt and pepper to taste
* 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (chopped if desired)
* ½ cup maple syrup or brown sugar
* ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
* 2 tablespoons butter, cut into 8 cubes

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and line a baking pan with foil.

2. With a large, sharp knife, cut squash in quarters through the stem or “blossom” end to resemble a canoe shape and remove seeds. Brush with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast cut-side up for 20 minutes.

3. Combine cranberries, maple syrup or brown sugar, and walnuts. Set aside.

4. Remove squash from oven and fill each quarter with cranberry mixture. Dot with butter and roast 15-20 minutes longer or until squash is tender when pierced with a knife. (To save time by microwaving.: Place squash in one layer in a dish. Fill with cranberry mixture. Cover with plastic wrap; cook on high 8-12 minutes.)

5. Drizzle with extra maple syrup, if desired, and serve.

Your child can help by:

* removing squash seeds
* lining pan with foil
* brushing with oil and seasoning
* combining cranberry mixture
* spooning mixture into squash

One yummy week of great “Fall” recipes that you can make with your kids!

Baked Apples with Gingersnaps

What you need:

* 4 large apples
* ½ cup crumbled gingersnaps (about 8 small cookies; to crumble with no mess, place cookies into a zip-sealed plastic bag and carefully crush with a rolling pin.)
* ¼ cup brown sugar
* ¼ cup raisins
* ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 fresh lemon, halved
* 2 tablespoons honey
* 1 cup apple cider
* 1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces (if desired)

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Peel apples halfway down from top. Remove core, leaving the bottom intact. Place in a shallow 1- to 1½-quart baking dish large enough to hold apples without touching.

2. In a small bowl, combine gingersnaps, brown sugar, raisins, cinnamon, and juice from one-half lemon. Fill apples with mixture. Pour cider into baking dish. Squeeze remaining lemon over apples, dot with butter (if desired), drizzle honey over each, and cover tightly with foil.

3. Bake 30 minutes, uncover, and baste with syrupy pan juices. Bake uncovered 10-15 minutes more or until tender (but still intact) when pierced with a knife. Serve with vanilla ice cream and warm pan juices.

Your child can help by:

* crushing cookies
* squeezing lemon
* drizzling honey
* filling apples and pouring cider

by Nicole Calhoun

When my son Jordan turned ten, we wanted to do something fun, yet inexpensive, for his milestone birthday. After all, the kid was growing up. He would no longer be in the single digits, anymore, and we wanted to celebrate in a way we hadn’t before.

My husband and I both have large families, and there is a great mix of ages. There are grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and all range from the late sixties to two years old! In order to have a party that would not exclude anyone from being able to enjoy themselves took real creativity on our part, but we pulled it off!

We wanted to have a celebration that would be memorable for our son and still be able to make sure that everyone would have an activity that would cause them to feel appreciated that we considered them, as well.

So, what did we do? We thought about the times we had gotten together as family and tried to remember when everyone had the most fun. That simple exercise helped us remember the perfect venue for holding our son’s 10th birthday party.

The park! But not just any park. This park had it all: barbecue grills, a tennis court, a basketball court, a sandy volleyball court, a playground, a walking trail, numerous picnic areas and huge shade trees scattered abroad!

I mean there was something for everyone! The tinier tikes played tirelessly at the playground that had equipment suitable to their needs. The ‘tweens (eight to twelve year olds) enjoyed everything! If they weren’t playing on the playground, they were on one of the sports courts.

The teenagers played basketball and volleyball and made new friends with the others who were their enjoying family time, as well. The folks in their early twenties to early thirties enjoyed playing against the teens…just to show them that although we’re older, we could still kick their butts in a sporting event! And for the record, we whooped them in every sport…but the next day, we were all feeling it!

The more mature adults, our parents and aunts and uncles, chitchatted at the picnic table over hot dogs and hamburgers that had been grilled to perfection!

So, for a child’s birthday party, the park is a great place to hold the party to rival all parties. It’s free to use, and it comes equipped with everything you need for everyone in attendance to have an enjoyable time.

Our son and lots of his guests (young and old) tell us to this day what a great time they had at his birthday party. Everyone’s excited to see what we have in store for him, this year!

You know what? We figure, if it’s not broke, we won’t try to fix it. I’m thinking the park is going to make a great place to hold number eleven, as well.

So if you’ve been painstakingly thinking about where you could hold a party for your precious little pumpkin, the park is a fantastic location. All your guests are guaranteed to have a good time!

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Nicole enjoys spending time with her son, Jordan and her husband, Muri. She loves to travel, work her home-based business, shop and meet new people. If you would like to spend more time with your loved ones, please contact Nicole. http://www.fulltimefamily.com
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Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com
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by Stephanie Foster

Back to school means it’s time to go over your child’s wardrobe. What fits, what doesn’t, what’s stained, what’s plain worn out?

Even if there’s still a good selection of clothes you’ll probably still do some back to school shopping. What child doesn’t like having a new outfit for the first day of school?

This can also start the annual debate… what kind of clothes are you willing to buy for your child?

I’m lucky. My daughter is 6 and still doesn’t care about brand names, although if you put a princess on it she’ll want it. I don’t expect that situation to last forever. Not for the brand names, and please oh please not the princesses!

But problems can be more than just the brand names. You may not approve of current fashions. Too short skirts for girls, questionable sayings and sometimes just plain ugly (to your eyes anyhow) clothes. Shopping’s a pain if you don’t agree on the basic styles to buy.

Fortunately when you’re the parent, you can decide what you will spend your money on for your child’s wardrobe. You earned it after all. If he or she doesn’t like it, that’s their problem.

And if they’re old enough to buy their own, you’re still the parent and you can set rules for the kinds of clothes that can be worn.

I don’t recommend being an utter tyrant about it, of course. Appropriate compromise can make life much more pleasant for both of you.

At my daughter’s age, we start out with appropriate clothes, but she gets to decide how she combines them. As she has absolutely no sense of what goes with what, her clothing combinations can look ridiculous, but she’s happy. I’m content so long as it’s appropriate to the weather.

In contrast, I see many of her classmates already in carefully coordinated outfits. I don’t know whether it’s the child making that choice or the parents, but that makes little difference to me. My daughter is happy and in clothes that she is not feeling self conscious about.

I gather it can be somewhat different for boys, as many are reputed to care less about what they wear, or have a single favorite item that must be worn repeatedly. My son right now has a few favorites, but at age 3 it’s out of sight out of mind.

But just as with girls it comes down to which battles are worth fighting. So long as the clothes are kept reasonably presentable, is it a disaster if he chooses to wear the same shirt frequently?

That said, there are some fashions I really hope aren’t popular when my son gets older. Just for the sheer sloppiness of it.

Whatever your family rules are, start out by shopping accordingly and don’t overdo it. It’s very easy to buy more outfits than a child needs, which wastes money and increases the mess in their bedrooms. Remember that you can always add more if what you start out with at the beginning of the school year turns out to be insufficient.

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Stephanie Foster blogs at http://www.homewiththekids.com/blog/ about being a work at home mom. Get more tips on getting ready for back to school on a budget