We have a new addiction in our house — Caramel Corn Puffs.

A local bakery sells small bags of these for outrageous prices. I knew I could make them myself for much cheaper. It’s really easy. There are only a few ingredients.

An 8 oz bag of corn puffs (just like cheez puffs w/out the cheese (yeah, right, as if that bright orange stuff is really cheese)
1 cup of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of corn syrup
1 teaspoon of baking sods

Put the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup in a pan and bring it to a boil. Boil for 1 minute and then add the baking soda.

Dump your corn puffs into a large bowl (or pot as I did). Pour the hot caramel over them. DO NOT try to photograph yourself while pouring the SCALDING hot syrup over the corn puffs. OOOOUUUUCCCCHHHH!

Mix it all together really well. Pour the carmelly puffs onto two cookie sheets.

Bake at 250 for 45 minutes. When it comes out of the oven, stir it a few times so it won’t stick to the pan. Let it cool. Go crazy.

This stuff is sooooo good we’ve been calling it crack around here. It’s addictive. My 6 year old woke up early to sneak downstairs and eat some before breakfast. I caught him. Then we sat down together and polished off a couple handfuls together. It’s our secret. Shhhhhh!

I love halloween. I’m a little late this year in getting out all my decorations but I am finally doing it. Over the weekend, I finally dug into my boxes and started decorating. Each year, I wind up with a few “new” favorite items. This year, this one is at the top of my list.

My neighbor was pitching the bird cage and it was perfect for my little witchie. She is sitting on an armour behind my desk with my birthday sign below her. We make a perfect pair.

A few weeks ago, John went outside to let the birds out and feed them and was greeted by this:

A missing roof board. This board had been loose for some time but we had wedged it into place and that seemed to be doing the trick. We should not have been so lazy, especially since we knew we had a raccoon in the neighborhood. Yes. Mr. Raccoon was back and he was busy. He slaughtered them all.

So ends our chicken keeping experiment. Maybe by spring we’ll feel up to trying again but after such a dismal end, I’m not so sure. The raccoon won.

The other morning, we heard a sound we are in dread of hearing in our yard —– “Cock-a-doodle-dooooooo!” Yes, another bird turned out to be a rooster and had to go. In the past I had luck finding places for them to live out the rest of their natural chicken lives. This time, I needed to act quickly since we were leaving town. The only place I could find for him to go was a Wild Bird Sanctuary. He will be part of their, errrrr, feeding and nutrition program, if you catch my drift.

The kids will be happy to know he went to a favored place. We visit the sanctuary often and marvel at the birds they keep. When they ask if they’ll be able to visit their chicken, well, I guess I can tell them “Yes.” It’s true. Though they won’t be able to see him strutting around, he’ll be part of all those magnificent raptors they look at and admire. Fare the well, Fozzie Rooster.

I’ve been doing a bit of sewing lately. This was particularly fun to make and just in time for creepy halloween wear.

We joke that it’s perfect to wear in our house with the myriad of spiders we having living here. If we can’t exterminate ‘em, we might as well celebrate ‘em!

It was gorgeous earlier this week and I was a lucky momma to go apple picking with the first graders. There were lots and lots of apples.

The orchard had a fun play area. Oli liked the hay-bale maze.

I liked taking pictures of my littlest guy.

And everyone liked the pie that we made (and devoured) when we got home. How I love fall!

I saw this on the shelf at the grocery store.

I just about fell over laughing. I’ll bet it’s “spicy.”

Some women, they decorate with beautiful new furniture. What do I get?

A 4ft X 8ft plywood lego table smack in the middle of my family room. It’s time for First Lego League. DNA, Mojo, and a group of kids are competing this year. They have been gathering, building, programming, and practicing several times each week. This table is dominating my room and a bit of an eyesore, but I’d venture to say that a new couch or some other pretty piece of furniture would not bring nearly as much joy or excitement into the room.

My garden is in its last gasps now. We’re finally getting ripe tomatoes and still more squash then we can eat but it’s clear things are winding down. I’m looking forward to pulling up all the plants (goodbye, at last, squash!) and letting the chickens loose in the yard to forage. My garden is not the only place where veggies have been springing up, they’ve been coming off the knitting needles, too.

These three will be finding new homes with my niece, nephew and a friend. Perhaps I should send some squash along with them.

Look what John brought home.

This was on the curb in a box of of yard sale leftovers awaiting trash pickup. Isn’t it cool? The original price tag was still in place. Any guesses how much it cost? $1.69. Awesome. Perfect timing, too, since Oli just started taking hot lunches in a thermos last week. His thermos does not fit in his regular lunch box but it fits in this one. I had to customize this so it suits my boy. Since today is Talk Like A Pirate Day, I knew just what to do.

I’d say it’s perfect for “me little scurvy lad.”