"its the great pumpkin, charlie brown"

today was pumpkin day.

after breakfast, we went for a walk. it was quite exhilerating. once we got home, i thought that a nice calm thing to do would be to paint the pumpkin that erica picked on saturday. so, we went downstairs to the hard tiled floor [for easier clean up] and got out the finger paints. erica painted in the buff [hmm... i probably shouldnt be posting this picture] so that her clothing wouldnt get ruined. i would let her pick a color, then i would open it. she then stuck her finger in and preceeded to rub it onto the pumpkin. then i would close that paint jar and let her pick a new color. for some reason, she liked painting the stem more than the orange part. oh well. i let her do her own thing. [btw: you can see her haircut in this picture. i've gotten over the initial shock, and dont think its bad at all. i think at first i was just so astonished at the change. i'm glad that i cut it, b/c its no longer in her eyes.]

we then cleaned up and moved on towards cooking a neck pumpkin to eat. first we had to peel it, which was really hard to do. erica sat on the counter top and would take turns peeling. [picture to the left.] she didnt actually get anything done, but she had fun trying and thinking that she was helping. then i cut it into smaller pieces and let her put them into a big cooking pot. then i added water and let it boil for 15 minutes until soft. Meanwhile, we cleaned pumpkin seeds in order to bake them for a yummy snack. there werent many, but ah well. i found a very yummy recipe at recipezaar.com, which adds pumpkin pie spices and sugar. [i did not put all that much sugar in though. i thought 1 tsp would suffice.] erica LOVED LOVED LOVED them. in fact, she ate most of them. i'm not quite sure if pumpkin seeds are "safe" for kids this young, but she did fine. didnt cough or gag on them at all.

i then tried putting her in her crib for a nap. she slept, but only for 45 minutes. not long enough at all... she's sleeping now though. I had started making pancakes [to freeze for the next few days/weeks] but wasnt even close to finished when she woke up. So again, she helped cook. i decided to put some cooked pumpkin aside to later make a pumpkin pie. with the rest, i made pumpkin pancakes. [instead of the carrot pancakes i normally make.] i followed my same recipe [times five though so i had lots and lots to freeze] but added the pumpkin and other spices: ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon. i ate one, and it tastes great... erica ate two, what a little piggy :-)

to finish the day off, i should go rent the movie: "its the great pumpkin, charlie brown." i'm not sure what erica will think of it, but i'm sure i'd find it fun to reminisce over my childhood and the times i had watched it growing up. maybe once erica wakes up, we'll go to the library to get it; i know they have it there, and it'll be free to check out.

the picture that i have here was taken before her haircut. the only reason i'm posting it is because i think its STINKIN' CUTE!!! i've always wanted one of those big puffy vests, but never got around to buying one. so, i bought one for her. i'm living vicariously thru my daughter, i guess.

TO END MY PUMPKIN DISCUSSION:

i would like to get you full of giddy anticipation, i found another recipe that uses pumpkin. Only, this uses a jack-o-lantern type pumpkin, not a neck pumpkin. its a dinner recipe, and it uses the WHOLE pumpkin... hmm... arent you wondering what it is? Well, i'll be making it on Halloween. then i'll post pictures of it and let you know how it turned out. i'm really really excited to try it.

HAPPY FALL!