Fall is officially here.  That means we’re only two months away from putting away our flip flops and breaking out our favorite light weight sweater for the winter here in the northeastern part of Florida.
But, even though it’ll stay on the warmer side for a while yet, I still like to get into the spirit of this time of year by breaking out the chocolate.

Hot chocolate, to be specific.

Kait and I have a special place in our hearts for a really good cup of hot chocolate.  My whole family likes it, but Kait and I are a little pickier.  Okay, a lot pickier.  Well, she’s more picky than I am, but we both have hot chocolate issues. 
I’m getting off track here.
Last year we tried a number of recipes and found one we really liked, but can’t remember the details of it or where the recipe has been hidden.

Enter fun idea.
[insert light bulb here] 
This year we’re on the hunt for the perfect hot chocolate recipe.  Every Friday, starting in a couple of weeks, we’re going to try a new hot chocolate recipe each week until we find the perfect one.

And we’re going to post about our weekly hot chocolate adventures right here on this very blog!

So, if you have what you think is the most amazing hot chocolate/cocoa recipe ever, dig it out and send it to us.  We’ll mix it up, try it, and give it a review. 
Crock Pot, stove top, powdered mix…  We’re willing to give them all a shot.

And, if you happen to have the best hot chocolate recipe around we’re going to give you something special!

A prize!
We’re still working out the details but it’ll be a gift card to a very cool place.

Yeah for prizes!!!

Send your hot chocolate recipes to us here and tell all your friends, too!  We’ll be posting our first recipe on October 8th if everything goes well.   And don’t worry.  If nobody submits a recipe we’ll still be doing the weekly hot chocolate reviews.  There just won’t be any prizes .

I can’t wait!  This is going to be the most chocolatiest (definitely a word in my personal dictionary), tastiest series we’ve every done!

He struck oil.

Or so I thought when I first saw him. 

Apperently we have the blackest dirt God ever created right in our own backyard. And Sam, who’s not one to miss a good opportunity, was going to make the most of it.  The picture does his work no justice.  His pants, legs, feet, between his toes…

All covered in the black, powdery substance.

Yeah, he knows a good thing when he sees it.

We’re so proud.

This post isn’t about boys playing football.  See the window?

Jesse was supposed to be taking a nap.

Tip: make sure there’s no camera around if you’re going to be disobedient.

Mom, the chicken just ran away.
The chicken?
Yes, the chicken. He just ran away.
Where’d he run away to?
He just ran from the grave.

What?

In the laundry room.  He’s real small. And he’s gone.
[holds fingers at a quarter of an inch gap]

I just had this somewhat serious conversation with Sam.  He’s 3, so he says some interesting things sometimes.  Usually, after a little discussion we can figure out what he’s talking about.  But, this time we’re lost.  He’s still adamant that there was a tiny chicken in the laundry room, who’s now run away.  I have no idea what the grave had to do with it all.

Kait went into the laundry room to check out this chicken thing.  She found nothing, of course. The chicken had run away, as Sam had already made abundantly clear.

I told you if I waited long enough one of my kids would do something blog worthy.  I only needed a few more minutes.

I loved Ree’s post on what she’s learned from blogging.  You might have seen that I linked to her article on my sidebar.

#2 on her list was to blog often.  And I do blog often, but then I don’t. 

Sometimes I don’t post because I have nothing to say.  However most of the time I have a ton to say but can’t sort it all out in my head – so I don’t write anything.  Or I do write, but then I delete it.

But, like Ree noted, only a well watered blog will blossom.  My blog is not a cactus. I have 4 cacti that I wear leather gloves when I touch and I don’t want people to feel like they have to wear leather to visit my blog. I like to think of my blog as something a little less pokey.
And that means I need to water it often – else it’ll shrivel up and die.

So, I’m sitting here wondering what to post about today.  I thought about posting on my lack of motivation to blog today, but couldn’t think of what to say about that. 

Then, I thought I’d post on how well Jesse’s doing potty training, but then he peed everywhere. 

Twice.

Or about how I need to get more probiotics in my diet. But then figured nobody wants to hear about that.

So, I’m blogging about not blogging.  And I really don’t know what else to say about that.  I’m sure if I wait long enough one of my kids will do something blog worthy.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Nope.

So, this is it, I guess.

“Mom! They have Christmas here!”

Kait and I took Sam craft shopping today – We hit Target, The Dollar Tree, and then Hobby Lobby.  I’ve never taken them to a Hobby Lobby before.  I’ve never taken me to a Hobby Lobby before.

It was a first for more than one of us.

When I walked up to the doors I have to be honest and say I was expecting a Michaels clone.  But no.  This place was Michaels on steroids.

I would have said a bad word, except I’m a good Christian girl.
[ahem]

I needed mini glue sticks for my mini glue gun to complete a cool Christmas project for a Frugalicious Saturday post in a couple weeks.  It took me a half hour to find the little buggers. 

I was totally okay with that.

It’s a good thing I didn’t go in there with more than $5.  It could have been bad.  Real bad.  For now, my Hob Lob adventures will have to be few and far between. (I can call it by it’s nickname now that I’ve been there, right?)

Kait is, right now as I type this, taking her driver’s permit test.  She was nervous last night.  I’m nervous this morning.

I’m just not ready for this.

The thought of her getting married is more okay with me than this.

And that’s funny because Ryan is just the opposite.  He’s perfectly fine teaching Kait to drive, but doesn’t want to hear a word about the high probability of her getting married some day.

So I’m just sitting here waiting for word.  Has she finished?  Did she pass?

And most importantly, how did her picture turn out?

When she was 5 she lost her first tooth.
Wait, wasn’t that just yesterday?

I always said to her, “when you’re big…”, but I don’t think I believed that would actually happen.     
But now she is big.

I can’t believe I have to, I get to go through this all over again 7 more times.
It’s beautiful and it’s sweet.

And it’s agony.

Amy linked to this on the side of her blog and I couldn’t help but pass it along. 

This was a wedding surprise from a groom to his bride at their reception and it’s completely fun!  You’ll smile through the entire thing.

[sigh]

Yesterday Kelly blogged about a cool craft idea she calls ’crayon cookies’. Since my mom restocked us with crayons a couple of weeks ago, and I had a bunch of old crayons I was getting ready to throw out, I thought this would be a perfect time to try her suggestion.  It also goes along with this whole weekly frugal Christmas gift series I’ve had it in my head to start.
Christmas is in just 3 months, people!  And who really enjoys rushin’ around with the crowds in December?  I like to get started early, get done early, and enjoy that period of time we like to call “the holidays”.

Well, Kelly’s idea worked great and I decided to make my own mini-tutorial on how we accomplished this, along with a few tips.  You know, because I take pictures of everything and have to find something to do with all of them.

Things I’ve learned from this little project:

1. Melted crayons are hot.
2. Even though you may normally find your kids ripping the paper off the crayons when they’re not supposed to, that doesn’t mean they’re gonna want to rip the crayon papers off when you tell them that you do want them to.  Funny how that works.
3. They might not want to rip the papers off, but little fingers love breaking crayons. Even my teenager was into this.
4. Using a silicone muffin pan is best, the crayons just pop right out after they’ve cooled with no coaxing. However, remember to put a cookie sheet under the pan because getting a hot-wax-filled silicone pan out of the oven without dripping wax everywhere can get a little tricky.
5. Using a mini-muffin pan allows for more crayon cookies. 
6. Putting the crayon cookies in the freezer to cool greatly decreases the cooling time.
7. Sometimes they have to be stirred while melting.  We used a plastic knife and wiped it with a paper towel before stirring another color.
8. Be prepared to have to explain to your child that just because they were in the oven, and they’re neat colors, does not make them a tasty dessert.

These make excellent Christmas gifts for the little ones in your life.  In a few weeks I’ll be posting a unique create-at-home coloring book idea to go with them.  It’ll make a cute package for family members that live far away, too.

Kelly is often posting cute, frugalicious crafty ideas.  I really am lovin’ her blog lately.

For those of you who are far, far away, here is a set of very current pictures of the family. All of these were taken within the last week and can be found full size on Kait’s flickr page.

Photo credits goes to Kait
Except, of course, the one of her. That one was taken by me, though she set the camera up and all.  I was just a tripod, really.