Happy Halloween

As much as we tried, we were unsuccessful in getting Ozzie to dress up in his Buzz Lightyear costume and trick or treat in the neighborhood. He was much happier passing out candy to the kids that came to our house instead.

Giving one of the trick or treaters a high five. I have no idea why he's holding a hanger.

Here he is enticing the kids with more candy to come back. Notice he's wearing his build a bear football helmet. This year Halloween happened to fall on football Sunday. Ozzie wears his football helmet every Sunday when watching football with Oscar.

Taste testing the candy.

Happy Halloween!

Carving Pumpkins

Better late than never! Ozzie helped Oscar carve a pumpkin last night.

Drawing a template to look like Ozzie's mini pumpkin.

Cut the bottom and taking out the seeds.

 

Cutting out the eyes, nose and mouth. Ozzie inspecting Dad's work- yup looks just like my pumpkin!

Posing with his pumpkin. He decided to add his pumpkin flashlight and little person.

Happy Halloween!

REALLY High Fructose Corn Syrup

One of the pages that I follow on Facebook posted an article from the LA Times regarding the real amount of high fructose corn syrup in soda. After reading it I was furious and wanted to vent about it on my blog.

I know, vent about soda? Aren't there other more important causes I can find worthy of a good rant? After all, we all know that soda is bad for us and that we shouldn't drink it. Fortunately our family doesn't drink soda or much juice for that matter. We are lucky that Ozzie loves his water. But here is why I was am upset.

"Fructose and glucose are simple sugars. Fructose is sweeter than glucose and has been shown to do more damage to your metabolism. Sucrose – better known as table sugar – is a 50-50 combination of fructose and glucose. The HFCS used in soda is supposed to contain no more than 55% fructose and 45% glucose, according to the Corn Refiners Assn. (Another popular formulation is 42% fructose and 58% glucose.)"

Researchers found that the sweeteners in Coca-Cola and Pepsi contained as much as 65% fructose (and only 35% glucose), and Sprite, the soda that parents feed their kids in order to feel slightly less guilty, registered as much as 64% fructose (and 36% glucose).

Okay so the soda manufacturers lied- big surprise there. BUT here is the kicker- "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows for some wiggle room on nutrition labels. Sodas are allowed to have as much as 20% more of a nutrient – including sugar and HFCS – than is indicated on the side of the can. Even Cokes and Pepsis with 65% fructose instead of 55% are only 18% higher than advertised."

Once again the FDA sides with big business, aka big money, at the expense of its citizens. A 20% wiggle room on food nutrition labels? I'll say that again 20%!

Imagine if everyone was able to fudge 20% of their job. Today I will make sure Ozzie gets 20% less sleep than the recommended amount for his age, or give him 20% less milk than he needs for his health, or 20% more food (in the form of sugar) than he should eat- ridiculous!

How long can we continue to allow our government agencies that are supposed to protect us hurt us for their own financial gain? More importantly what, as the average citizen, can we do to stop it? I really do not know the answer.

And that's the end of my rant. Click HERE to read the full article.

Pumpkin Patch

As I said in my previous post, we went to Thomasson Farm for our pumpkins this year. They have a huge u-pick patch that is fun for the kids to run around while Mom picks out the perfect front porch pumpkin!

"There's a good one Mom!"

"Or maybe over there?"

This is the closest thing I could get to a smile.

 

Looking for pumpkins is hard work.

"I got it!"

Another fantastic day with the family!

Thomasson Farm

We went to our favorite local pumpkin farm, Thomasson Farm, again this year for our pumpkins. The farm is loaded with fun stuff for the kids to do along with a huge u-pick pumpkin patch. Once again we were blessed with a warm Fall day. That makes two years in a row. Who says it always rains in Seattle?!

Here are some pictures of our adventure on the farm.

First up were the huge bubbles. Ozzie didn't quite understand and tried to blow the bubbles out of the wands instead of waving the wand around.

After a quick turn down the slides, we moved on to the water table.

Oscar and Ozzie lassoing a calf.

This is as far as we got in the corn jumper. He pretty much hated it and wanted out immediately.

I have no idea why but for some reason Ozzie kept yelling at the farm animals. So we high tailed it outta there before they started yelling back.

Down the huge slide and the toddler sized hay maze.

Oscar and Ozzie in jail. After going in alone, Ozzie asked Oscar to join him. He's no fool, no one wants to be in jail alone. I love the pictures where they are pleading to be released!



Apple and mini-pumpkin sling shot. I don't know who had more fun between the two of them.

Ozzie multi-tasked the tractor ride with lunch. There was way too much going on to stop for lunch.

Playing with the "cows".

Once we hit the sandbox, we had a hard time convincing Ozzie to do anything else. He is all boy and loves his trucks and construction cars.

You can see why this is our favorite pumpkin farm, all of this for $6 (parents are free) and we haven't even got to the pumpkin patch yet!