First day Blues

The first day of school has come and gone. Gabe seems to be adjusting to school quite well but his mom (me) not so much. He gets up each morning with the anticipation of putting on new clothes and dresses himself happily. I stand in the doorway and start my daily 20 questions." Gabe did you find clean socks, Gabe did you make your bed?, Gabe where are your sneakers?, Gabe what do you want for breakfast? I ask all these questions not for his benefit as much as for my sanity. I fear every morning that I will forget to make him breakfast and he will go to school with a rumbly tummy or I forget to ask about socks and he has to sit out in gym class because the teacher doesn't want 15 second graders with smelly sock less feet trotting around the gym.i have to commend him, he is very patient with me throughout the first five questions and then responses start getting longer and slower. It starts out as " yes mommy I did", and it turns into " yeeees moooom!!!!"It's ok because he still bounces happily to the bustop and faithfully wait for his bus.And there is mom standing in the doorway to the garage looking as if I was in a bar fight with a Brillo pad and wiping the baby drool off of several parts of my bed worn shirt. Pretty isn't it. Although I have my two little ones to keep my company during the day I miss the half hearted {on Gabe's part} conversation that I would have every day with my little guy. Most of the time the conversation was a combination of Gabe jumping around playing the xbox and inviting me stare at the screen with him as he changed all the characters on dragon ball Z, to stories about playground chatter between him and his best friend and ended with,"Mom {jump} can you {jump} get me a drink? Because {jump} I am really thirsty, thanks mom!" I 'll take the crazy rantings about game playing and spiderman toys if it means that I can talk to not quite and adult but thinks he is at times man child. Sweet child of Mine. I am tempted every morning to get teary eyed as he makes his way up the bus steps and slings his bag into the seat , while consciously ignoring my cries of love from the garage door. He doesn't need me everyday for 7 hours a day everyday, everyday,everyday. But he will need me when he descends from that bus everyday, everyday,everyday. I am still his mom.

Fall Weather and Pumpkin Cake

So because of the weather at this very moment as I sit at my dining room/kitchen table, I am feeling the fall vibe. This is a very special time of year for my family. It is almost as if new life is breathed into all our relationships. My husband and I tend to get very nostalgic with our stories of what we have done each fall. This is followed by moans and groans from our six year old . I think the fall tends to be important to us because with every year that we have been together it has gotten better with each addition to our family. Some of the things that we love to do are the obvious: pumpkin picking, apple picking, apple fest, halloween and thanksgiving. Halloween is so great when you have kids that love to dress up . We live in a predominately old neighborhood, old as in old people. Which makes for a very quiet neighborhood but a very interesting Halloween. There were a couple of pieces of candy that were thrown in my sons bag last year that were let's say "questionable". There was a neighbor that came to the door dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz , my son says" trick or treat "and she proceeds to stare us in silence and drop a melted snickers in the bag. Gabe later asked me what she was dressed as and I said "a very creepy Dorothy" and secretly removed that "questionable" piece from the bag. My toddler dressed up that year as a duck and it could not have been cuter, this costume even had the stripe stockings and a duck tail, the hood went over his head with a beak. This was thrilling for us parents taking pictures an arranging poses.As for Apple picking I think this one might be my husbands' favorite. A couple of years back we went to an Apple Fest in Lafayette,NY and he bought a bench for me that has since then been several different colors and in many different rooms. It currently resides buried beneath my sons stuffed animals decorated with peeling stickers. I think the biggest reason that we love fall so much is that all of our birthdays are in the fall except for my daughter she just had to be different. Every year we set out to have these wonderful cozy birthday parties and end up having a thrown together shindig. But I guess those are the best kind.So I decided that this fall I would start a new tradition, to make one dessert every month that represents one person in our family. This month I would like to make a pumpkin cake that represents my toddler round and yummy. I'm using these photos for inspiration.

This one is my favorite.

 

 

 

I haven't quite found the perfect recipe but I am diligently looking.So far this one sounds good from tasteofhome.com:

Ingredients

• 2 packages (18-1/2 ounces each) banana cake mix
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 
  BUTTER CREAM FROSTING:
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 to 4 tablespoons milk
• Red, yellow and green food coloring
• Ice cream cone or banana

Directions

• Prepare and bake cakes in 12-cup fluted tube pans according to package directions; cool.
• For filling, melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a smooth paste. Gradually add cream and sugar, stirring constantly until thick. Boil 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and salt. Fold in pecans; cool.
• Cut thin slice of bottom of each cake. Spread one cake bottom with filling; put cakes together with bottoms together. Set aside.
• In a bowl, cream butter and shortening. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add milk until desired consistency is reached. Combine red and yellow food coloring to make orange; tint about three-fourths of the frosting orange. Tint remaining frosting green. Place a small glass upside down in the center of the cake to support the "stem". Put a dollop of frosting on the glass and top with an ice cream cone or banana. Cut the cone or banana to the correct length; frost with green frosting. Frost cake with orange frosting. Yield: 12-16 servings.

The banana sounds interesting in this recipe.If anyone has any suggestions please send me a comment.  I love to cook fall food it sets the mood for the rest of the season and my husband loves coming home to sweet treats. Get ready for fall!!!!