Costume Party

Liz and I decided to throw a Halloween party together and I must admit it was fun preparing for it. Besides the sweet treats and festive decorations Scott had set up all of his D.J. equipment which included numerous black lights, two disco balls and some cool music. We had a donut eating contest, a guys vs. girl charade/clay-mation game, played signs and enjoyed each others company. Below are some of our friends that came.

Mickie&Minnie-Awarded Best Costumes
(they are homemade and put mine to shame)
Josh (pirate) was the champion of the donut eating contest

For those of you wanting to see Carson dressed in his costume, you'll have to be patient a few more days because I'm saving those pictures for Halloween.

28

Happy 28th Birthday Andrew!

For Andrew's birthday we went and got sushi for lunch with his parents, grandparents, Eric and Robin. Carson got a present and it wasn't even his birthday-lucky-they both now have matching checkered Vans, they are styl'in.

Tonight is our Halloween costume party...yes on his birthday, he is such a good sport! We'll have pictures up soon.

The Art of Candy Making

Picture of perfection (left)
Reality (right and below).

Last night I decided to make some caramel apples. I had the recipe, all of the necessary ingredients and a picture of what the end result was supposed to look like, easy enough. The recipe told me to let the caramel simmer until it reached 270*, about 15 minutes. Then it was supposed to thicken while cooling for 6-8 minutes. Things were going well until the caramel boiled over and made a gooey, sticky mess all over the range. I cleaned that up while the caramel was supposed to be thickening. After a half an hour the caramel was still not sticking to the apples but just running off of them like a fountain.

Flashback: Last Christmas I attempted to make homemade caramels and they ended up being so hard that it took me three days to soak the caramel out of my pan layer by layer. I vowed that I would never attempt candy making again but time has a way of dulling such memories.

So I waited, and waited--keep in mind that it's Tuesday and Andrew plays basketball late, so I had a free go to bed early card--and waited. Eventually some of the caramel decided that the apple wasn't it's polar opposite and began sticking, a little. So I dipped and swirled and decided to call it a night.

My swimming apples

Lesson learned: I may be a baker but I'm not a candy maker.