Fall Cookie Recipe

Recently, I was looking for a new recipe to try and I found this very easy and delicious recipe for Black Cat Cookies. I am not a very good cookie baker, but these turned out great! They have the great taste of chocolate with a peanut butter accent. Very good, and something different! We turned the M&M's different ways for different looks on the faces. Children could help with this because it's so simple! Here's the recipe:





Black Cat Cookies



1 cup crunchy peanut butter

2 eggs

1/3 cup water

1 box chocolate cake mix

Plain M&M's

Red cinnamon candies



Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, beat together peanut butter, eggs, and water. Gradually add the cake mix. Mixture will be very thick. Mix well. Form dough into 1 inch balls.



Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten balls with the bottom of a glass dipped in granulated sugar. Pinch out 2 ears at the top of each cookie. Add M&M's for eyes and red cinnamon candy for a nose. Press a fork into the dough to form whiskers. Use a toothpick to draw a mouth. Bake 8-10 minutes. Makes about 54 cookies.

Thanks for stopping by. I will be doing my weekend giveaway on my next post. Thanks for stopping by...

Jack-O-Lantern Poem For Christians/Friday Giveaway

Recently our church had a Fall Family Fun Night. This is the jack-o-lantern that was used as an illustration for the devotion. I don't have the material that was used for that particular devotion, but I found a poem that I'd like to share. I hope you enjoy it.

Jack O'Lantern Poem

I am a Jack O'Lantern
My lights will shine so bright
For I'm a Christian pumpkin
My symbols tell what's right.

My nose is like the cross
On which our Savior died
To set us free from sin
We need no longer hide.

My mouth is like a fish
The whole wide world to show
That Christians live in this house
And love their Savior so!

The story starts at Christmas
My eyes are like the star
That shone on Baby Jesus
And wise men saw from afar..

My color, it is orange
Just like the big bright sun
That rose on Easter Day
Along with God's own Son!

And so on Halloween
Let's set our pumpkins out
And tell the trick or treaters
What God's love is all about!

I hope you enjoyed this Jack O'Lantern poem. Isn't it wonderful that someone thought of a way to use a simple Jack O'Lantern to teach about Christ? I do not know the name of the author of this poem, but I know that she was a pre-school teacher.

Now, for Friday's giveaway! This weekend I will be giving away this neat Backyardigans interactive book/game. It talks, sings, and there is even a game that you can play with it. If your child is a Backyardigans fan, they will love this book.

All that you have to do to have a chance to win is pick a number between 1 and 40. Whoever comes closest to the number picked by Random.org--without going over--wins the book. You can pick up to three numbers, but you can't choose a number that someone has already picked.

I will choose a number via Random.org sometime after midnight Sunday night. I will notify the winner on Monday. Good luck to all who participate, and thanks for stopping by my blog.

Click here to see the entire Giveaway Blog Hop List....

Fall Family Fun Night--The Hay Ride

Our church had their monthly Family Night last night. Since it is the month of October, it was called Fall Family Fun Night.

The evening began with a hay ride. The children met at the church, piled in a trailer full of hay, and began the journey to a remote location where the adults had gathered to cook and set up games for the children.

At first the trailer looked rather large, but by the time we tried to cram 38 children inside of it, it looked as if the sides were about to burst! Madison and Cade were among the 38 children participating in the hay ride--along with their mothers.

Brandy and Christina both stated that it was an interesting ride. Both had seats at the rear of the trailer, and both said that they thought they were going to fall off a few times. In addition to that, some of those 38 children were feeling rowdy.

Soon the ride ended, and the games began. Cade was too small to enjoy any of that, but Madison had a very good time. That was her first experience playing carnival games, and she enjoyed herself. She even managed to bust a balloon by throwing a dart at it!

After the games, hamburgers and hot dogs were grilled and served along with potato chips and an assortment of cupcakes and cookies. We enjoyed the delicious food in the beautiful
atmosphere of a country setting nestled in the woods overlooking a lovely pond. There was a bon fire, and there were benches surrounding the fire.

It was our first Fall Family Fun Night with our grandchildren and their parents (except for Madison' s daddy who had to work). I sure hope it won't be the last...

Thanks for stopping by, do come again!

Our Little Pumpkin Visits The Pumpkin Patch...

Last Friday Cade went to visit The Pumpkin Patch with his Aunt Lisa's preschool class. Cade's mama helps at the preschool two days a week. Lisa had graciously invited me, Brandy, and Madison to go along, but we backed out at the last minute when we found out about Madison's low hemoglobin.

I've never been to The Pumpkin Patch, but it looks like a neat place to visit. They have several activities for the children to do, including riding a cow train, a petting zoo, and an activity called duck races. Christina took several pictures and the children looked like they enjoyed them all. T

Cade thinks he's as big as the other children at school. Christina said that he enjoyed the cow and the goat at the petting zoo. I know from his visits to my house, that he likes animals. He's fascinated by my cats!

I hope that next year it will work out for me to visit The Pumpkin Patch. It looks like a lot of fun, and I would love to share the experience with the grandchildren. It's funny to think that next year Cade will be able to run all over the place. He's already practicing by walking down the couch holding on...

Tuesday's Blog Hop, Fall Family Fun

One of the things that our family always looks forward to in the fall is going to the county fair. We always took our children every year, and now our daughter and her husband are carrying on the tradition with Madison. My husband and I went with them last year so we could experience Madison's first visit to the fair...My husband and I actually rode the ferris wheel for the first time in many years.

Another thing that we like to do around Halloween is to bake and decorate cookies or cupcakes. These are some of last year's creations...We used Brandy's old toy cake pans to bake some tiny cakes in for Madison. I kept all of Brandy's tea sets, pots and pans. They are over 25 years old.

We've always taken our childen trick-or-treating on the night that is designated by our town. It's usually a Tuesday or Thursday night the week before Halloween. Last year Madison dressed up as Minnie Mouse. Madison and her family are posing in front of their yard decoration. Brandy, Madison, and I made the stuffed scarecrow.

This the the pumpkin family that Madison's family carved last year. I thought they were so cute. I just loved the baby pumpkin! Putting the ribbon on the stem was my idea...I love how Clint gave each jack-o-lantern a different expression. He's very artistic.

Madison's daddy and mama working hard to get those jack-o-lanterns carved last year...Brandy doesn't look like she was enjoying her job of cleaning out the pumpkin! This year she decided that they would paint the pumpkins instead of carving, and they turned out cute.

I love to decorate outside and inside. This was some of the outside decorations last year. We live back in the woods and nobody sees our decorations, but I still enjoy decorating. Notice the cat on the rail behind me..and the tip of a cat's tail at the bottom of the picture? I have 16 cats, and they are always lurking around in the outside photos! I don't know why I bought that fake black cat, I have several real ones!

This was Madison in 2007 dressed up as a pumpkin. I thought she was so cute! Where has the time gone...Now we have another grandbaby who will be dressing up as a monkey this year! I can't wait to share those pictures...Thanks for hopping by to share our fall family fun. What does your family do?

Not Me, Monday...After the party!

The annex...just before the guests began arriving for Madison's party.

Birthday girl, getting to blow out the candles on the Mickey cake...our matches wouldn't light!

Our youngest party guest, Layton, at just 8 weeks old...isn't he a cute "Mouseketeer"

This was Mickey's companion cake, Minnie Mouse...

Wow! Is it Monday already? It doesn't seem like the weekend should be over already! The picture above should give you a hint of how we spent our weekend...that is Madison celebrating her third birthday! Now to be brutally honest about what we have NOT been doing...

Brandy, my daughter, has NOT been planning Madison's birthday party for about a month or more! She has NOT made countless trips to party stores and Wal-mart, gathering party supplies...

Brandy did NOT plan a large party this year because so many people complained last year when they didn't get to spend Madison's birthday with her...She did NOT invite around 50 people! Two-thirds of the invited people actually came--most of them were Madison's daddy's family.

Brandy did NOT originally plan the party for the park, only to change her mind because she was afraid it would rain--it did, but stopped before the party. The party was NOT held in our church annex instead. We did need the large space to accomadate so many guests!

We did NOT make two batches of cupcakes on Friday morning because the first batch turned out sort of ugly...We did NOT end up with over 70 cupcakes! My grandmother used to say that ugly cakes tasted the best, so we kept the ugly cupcakes at home to eat. Grandma was right. They were good!

In addition to all of those cupcakes, Brandy did NOT purchase two birthday cakes because she was afraid one cake would not feed the crowd. Both cakes came complete with candles and Happy Birthday Madison on them(a Mickey and a Minnie Mouse) Brandy did NOT have a lot of cake left over...

I did NOT temporarily lose my sanity and wear shorts and a t-shirt to Madison's birthday party because I'd been so busy and was too tired to change...I was embarrassed when someone wanted a picture of all of Madison's grandmas...I was NOT the only one dressed like they'd been working in the yard..did I mention that Madison has six grandmas--2 grandmas, 2 great-grandmas, and a great-great grandma! Only one of us looked like a bum!

Brandy did NOT ask me to be in charge of the party games, which I did...my son-in-law did NOT nickname me H.O.P. for head of the party! I do NOT love party games...I'm not so sure about my son-in-law...just kidding, Clint!

There was NOT one child at the party who insisted in "helping" Madison open all of her presents, despite our efforts to move her so we could get some pictures of Madison opening the gifts...Madison, on the other hand was not as interested in her gifts as she was in the children playing on the floor...

We were NOT all "dead tired" after cleaning up after the party...We are NOT all glad that it is over for another year....no, wait! Grandson, Cade is turning one in just about 8 weeks! Here we go again....

If you are not "dead tired" from reading about this party, head over to mckmama's place at http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ and check out the blog carnival of Not Me, Monday posts. Thanks so much for visiting me here, and I hope you will come again...

Oh, wait! I nearly forgot to announce the winner of the Rainy Day Giveaway from the weekend! The winner is...Amanda! This is one lucky person, this is the second week in a row that Amanda has won! Congratulations! Amanda may need to go and buy a lottery ticket! LOL Thanks so much to all who participated!