Day 31.
Halloween!

We went to a Halloween carnival that we’ve been taking Shae to since he was 3. A decade later, Shae decides to dress up as Silas’ favorite animal, a penguin. The mustache made it cooler I guess? Silas was a dinosaur, his brothers old costume, but fitting since he requests we read his dinosaur abc book to him every night.

Mustache gone before we leave the parking lot…

Then we spot people he knows…

And next thing you know, Matt’s the penguin.  Shae did help Silas & his friend trick or treat, so he’s not too cool for us, just for the penguin costume.

Here are the eye-less mummy dogs we made today.  Pretend they look more like this please.  I used biscuits instead of cresent rolls and ruined a few with giant blobs of ketchup as eyes.  But whatever, kids were into it.  Thanks, pinterest.

Also:  Silas helped carve his first pumpkin today!  I have cute pictures of him doing it, but I’m just too damned tired.  Instead, blurry photo of him kissing and grinning and his new “happy” jack-o-lantern.  Happy Halloween!  And happy last day of mofo!  Went by in a hectic blur.  Maybe I’ll keep blogging this time.

Day 30.

Turns out Pinterest actually makes me do things.  At first, I just pinned and stared at all the amazing, time-consuming, costly crafts that I know I’d never ever do and bemoaned my horribly lacking wardrobe.   But then I started making to do list boards and it has been so helpful to me!  My board for planning Silas’ 4th birthday party kept me so on track and everything I needed in one place.  It was so successful for me that I made one for each of the major upcoming holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.   I narrowed things down as we went and didn’t force myself to accomplish everything that I had pinned for Halloween, but I did use any spare time we had to squeeze in a little holiday fun and I know the kids (especially Silas) really enjoyed it!  Definitely saved me a ton of time in the moment, looking for crafts or fun ideas.  I’m bumping a few pumpkin-y things to my thanksgiving board that I just didn’t have time for this month, but really, does it matter when we eat pumpkin cinnamon rolls?  NOPE.  Anytime and always, please.

I knew from the second I saw these spider pancakes that the kids would flip for them!  A squeeze bottle!  So smart!  I would have never thought of that and I see it being a reoccurring thing around here.  I did have trouble finding a squeeze bottle, but my mom found one for us.  I must have been looking in all the wrong places? Definitely work the effort to find one though!

It’s super easy to draw with it!

Silas’ brilliant addition was chocolate chip eyes on everything.  I like the way this kid thinks.  And you know, last year he hated chocolate chips!  Finally came to his senses.

He also recommends eating them eyes first.

Of course I needed pancakes too.  Obvs.

The only issue I ran across with the squeeze bottle is how much air it put in the pancakes.  Not sure how I can fix that for next time?  Maybe a thicker batter?  I’ll figure it out eventually.

Day 29.

Mellow Mushroom is the most vegan friendly place in town and it’s a great way to make veganism look normal and easy.   Their pizza is AMAZING and they have Daiya cheese, tempeh, and a few types of tofu on the menu.  Hoagies are great too, plus calzones ya’ll!  It’s an easy atmosphere, super kid-friendly, has tvs everywhere (because I guess “games” matter) and a bar with a huge list of craft beers, enough to keep everyone happy.
We were at a soccer tournament this weekend in Daphne, Alabama (not a hub of veganism at all) and our hotel was right near a Mellow Mushroom, so of course we had to go.  We ended up there celebrating a day of victories with a bunch of other soccer families and everyone seemed pleased.

NOTE:  Make sure you tell your server you don’t want butter or parmesan on anything!  Or it will be on everything!

Okay, these are Silas’ pretzels, they are kind of blah plain, but he’s 4 and they are amazing to him.  (Not pictured: my salad, our hummus/pita app or the pitchers of Sweetwater 420 the lucky parents were enjoying)

Shae doesn’t like me posting his picture all over the internets anymore, because it will ruin his life or something.  So that’s why it looks like he doesn’t exist sometimes.  I’m just  saving the life-ruining for when he truly deserves it.
Here he is (sort of) is eating a Daiya cheese and BBQ tofu pizza.  He was in love with this thing and I don’t blame him.  I wanted to dive into that mound of Daiya myself!  YUM.

Matt and I shared a large Mega Veggie with Daiya and let me tell you, that was a mistake.  That thing was HUGE.  So many veggies.  We had half of it leftover!

When Silas got tired of making the big kids gush over how cute he is, he stared at the stuff hanging from the ceiling, until….

THIS happened.
Now, if you knew Silas, you’d know this is 100% out of character.  He does not sleep when he can play or interact.  If there is attention to be had, he’s there, doing something adorable.  He is not a fun waster.

But I guess we finally wore this kid out.  Who knew.

We left with a pile of teeny pizza boxes to fill our tiny little hotel fridge.

And so glad that we did!  ‘Cause HELLS YEAH BREAKFAST!

I fashioned a pizza box into a tiny microwave sized plate with manicure scissors.  I make shit happen when properly motivated.  Silas is not impressed.

Then we were off for another day of soccer.  Shae’s team is a first year travel team who went from a hot mess to a second place team (in overtime and PK shots!  SO CLOSE!).

I promise Silas is drinking OJ, not coffee.  I would not like to see caffeine in his crazy little body, ever.

Day 28.

My favorite place to find super fast, but decent food while on the road is Moe’s. Their tofu is awesome, plus guacamole and cilantro. I don’t need to convince you further, do I?

Plus, their burritos are the size of a small child’s head.

;

Day 27.

Cracker Spiders! We make these every year, but this year Silas made them himself! He’s so old, ya’ll.

;

Day 26.

More pumpkin today of course! The Very Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. They really are the best! I’ve made them hundreds of times, they are our absolute favorites.  This time I just substituted a TBS of the Pumpkin Pie Spice I made a few days ago for all the spices.
Silas loves them so much he said they make him do yoga.  I don’t know about that, but I did eat 2.

Bonus:  Halloween craft.  Googly eyes (Siley’s JAM.) on a picture frame with a photo from last Halloween.  That pic just won us a $100 giftcard to the halloween store in a local contest.

day 25.

Last night, I used my new pumpkin pie spice to make Joanna’s Pumpkin Spice Syrup and this morning I am enjoying the best Pumpkin Spice latte of my life!  The syrup was super easy to make, just mostly whisking it while it simmered, while I was doing other things.   It is delicious!  Just sugary enough without tasting like dessert. A definite, but slight, pumpkiny taste. Such a perfect fall feeling! Even though I’m wearing shorts and tshirt in Florida and fall feels very far away. We’ve had a few glimpses so far, but this latte feels more like it.

(don’t worry.  I was stopped in traffic.)

Day 24.

Maybe you noticed I have fallen behind on my mofo posts? Maybe not. I kind of knew this would happen with so much going around here on this month. But you know what? It doesn’t actually matter does it? I’ve been reading and enjoying everyone else’s mofo posts on the run (on my phone) and I finally found a day where I can breath again, so here I am! I’m having the urge to go back and write belated posts, so don’t be surprised if I pretend it’s day 19 again.

Today is the day where I realize how soon Halloween is and try to jam a bunch of creepy cute awesome in before the month slips away! I started a little Halloween to do list board on pinterest so I wouldn’t forget all the cute ideas before I made time to do them and we’re slowly making our way through. My house is covered in owls right now. I am not complaining.

First things first. I need to eat all of the pumpkin things. I’m going to need some pumpkin pie spice, right? A quick googling lead me to approximately a zillion blogs telling me that their googling led them to Annie’s Eats for her Pumpkin Pie Spice. Sounds good to me. Done and done. Under 2 minutes and it’s ready to go. Smells so pumpkin spicey, it almost makes me forget how hot it still is here!

The first thing I’ll be making with this spice mix is syrup for my lattes. YUM.

Day 23. (BELATED)

My parents brought us surprise Chinese Takeout! They are THE BEST.

We’ve been eating at the same little place with the same workers for over a decade. Everyone that we’ve taken there gets hooked on it. We always order the same thing, sesame tofu with white rice and spring rolls.

Here’s a pic of the leftovers (so much food!) I ate tonight for dinner.

day 22. (BELATED)

My motto is to always be prepared,  so these are the packaged foods that we brought on our last weekend road trip!