Happy Halloween!

I can only remember ever dressing up for Halloween one time during my childhood. That was in second grade while we were on furlough in Escondido, CA and I was an Alaskan Princess. I remember everything about that night. We went to my friend Missy's (she dressed up as a cheerleader) house and her sister, Lynette, who was much older and way way cool put tons of makeup on us. I remember getting lots of candy and being so excited because we didn't have candy like that in Indonesia. But that was the only year I ever dressed up. Somebody can correct me if I am wrong, but we didn't ever have any Halloween celebrations in Irian, did we? I don't remember any, but I could be wrong.

So anyway, I never thought much of Halloween, because we didn't celebrate it (not for any specific reason, I just don't think we really thought of it, and when it's 100 degrees outside with 100% humidity, who wants to put a costume on anyway??). But in the last couple of years since we've had Ivy and now Genesis, Jake and I have really begun to enjoy it, through a child's eyes. Everything seems better that way. When Ivy was about 8 months old, we dressed her up as a cute little duck and headed out into Branson to go Trick-or-Treating. She doesn't remember it, but Jake and I had a great time. Then when she was about 18 months old, she and I were in Ohio visiting relatives and my uncle David and I took her trick-or-treating there. She was a penguin that night. She remembers that to this day and still talks about all the yummy chocolate she got at Marie's Candies. Last year Ivy was Minnie Mouse and we also had Genesis, who was only about 2 months old, but we didn't dress her up as anything, cuz she slept the whole time anyway! We took Ivy down to the Branson Landing where all of the stores were handing out candy. She and her buddies, Zane and Alex had so much fun. And now this year, Ivy was a fairy and Genesis was a butterfly (for trick or treating) and then a penguin for the Hallelujah party at our church tonight. Speaking of which, was amazing and our church did an awesome job hosting the party. They had a meal, jumping houses, face painting, crafts (beads, etc), ring toss, bball hoops, and a lot more stuff too. It was a lot of fun, and Ivy was so wound up when we came home  that I had to chase her and Genesis through the house for a while to get her energy out.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment with a doctor for following up on my Optic Neuritis that I was diagnosed with a couple of years ago. I am supposed to get an MRI every year to make sure that everything is clear and that I don't have any lesions. As defined on Wikipedia, optic neuritis is the inflammation of the optic nerve that may cause a complete or partial loss of vision. My right eye was affected, but I only lost a small amount of vision in it. The only reason I need to keep up with the MRI's is because ON is 20-30% of the time the presenting of the onset of Multiple Sclerosis. Naomi is going to sit with the girls here at the house while I go, hopefully it won't take too long!

I usually make pancakes on Sunday mornings, as I did this morning. The girls love them, as does my husband. So I will leave you tonight with that recipe.

1 1/4 c. milk (or more, if you prefer thinner pancakes)
1 egg
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tbs. brown sugar
2 tbs. oil
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. vanilla

I make mine in my kitchen aid mixer, so I add the milk and egg and mix really well and just leave the mixer on while I add the rest of the ingredients. This recipe makes very thin pancakes, but you can add more milk if you want even thinner. Pour onto greased griddle (set at  350 degrees). I make smaller pancakes because of the girls, but you can size them however you want to :)