My Fall Simmer

When I was young I remember my mom putting some things in a small foil pie plate and setting it on the stove to help our home smell like Fall. When I saw Becky from CleanMama.net's post a few weeks ago I wanted to try it out for myself.

I didn't have any fresh cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, or sage leaves at my disposal (and I wouldn't have a use for them outside of this activity) so I just faked it. I simmered this all morning and when I came out of my room to grab a drink (I work in my bedroom while a nanny sits my kids for a few hours) I was so happy to smell deliciousness wafting through my home! Here's what I did:

1/2 water
1 tsp vanilla (I just did a lidful)
1 slice lemon (it was even old)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

I placed that in a glass oven-safe dish on LOW on my back burner for several hours. I'm pretty sure that Pyrex isn't 'stove safe', but I have done this with wax melts and haven't seen any issues because it doesn't get very hot. I was able to move the dish off the stove with bare hands, but if you're uncomfortable with it, you could probably just throw this in a pan like CleanMama does.

Here's the thing. It's not near as pretty as fresh herbs and spices........

My husband says that it smells like Christmas, which, if you're like me (and not ANTI Christmas until after Thanksgiving), that is a great thing!

What are some cheap ways you like to scent your home? Let me know if you try this!

Applesauce Painting

This year is the first year that our oldest understood Halloween a little bit. He was SUPER excited to be a Kangaroo for Halloween and to go Trick-or-Treating. He was still too shy to really actually say trick-or-treat, but he was excited about all his candy.

In perfect Halloween tradition, we picked up some pumpkins to paint and carve the Monday before Halloween. Even though our oldest was on board and loved painting his pumpkin, our 10 month old wasn't sold on being contained in his highchair for the extended period of time we anticipated our festivities. To hold him at bay I decided to mix up something edible and fun to keep him occupied while we perfected our pumpkins.

I simply mixed some food coloring into a few dallops of unsweetened applesauce and voila -> applesauce paints.

And now here are an abundance of adorable pictures of my babes (YWIA) ;)

So happy he gets his own spoon!

Want a bite?

Little goblin hands (eating some shredded cheese with dinner adds a nice touch)

Baby D with his 5 teeth and no hair (stem)

Besties

Our friendly Jack-o-lantern

So much concentration

After we got started and Baby D became greener and greener I got a little worried that he'd be stained green for a while. We usually bathe the boys at night right after dinner, so after our pumpkins and dinner were done D got a rinse-down and then a bath (didn't want to have applesauce and cheese floaters... ew). To my great relief, the green was completely gone by the end of D's splashing frenzy.

What are some things that you like to do to keep your smaller kids entertained while your bigger kids work on projects? Leave your comment below! I'd love to hear your suggestions!