The Colemans Enjoy Autumn

I don't know how this happened, but it did. We were talking in the kitchen and my hair got all twisted and sticky outy without anyone touching it.

Seth being as silly as my hair.

Rachel smiling at my hair and Seth's muscles. Actually I don't remember what was making her laugh.

My hair is under control and Kate is taking my picture.

Liam is so happy to have anyone take his picture. Look at him pose.

I get a picture of Kate. This is her special silly grin. It was a very silly day.

The hydrangeas in autumn colors.

The mums are blooming.

The front yard curvy bed. The mums have been very colorful this fall.

To celebrate Columbus Day we started cleaning out the garage. Just some of the stuff.

More stuff

Such an array of stuff.

Boxes of stuff.

The garage at this point was abut half way done. I look at these small pictures of what we took out of the garage and they do not do it justice. The garage was full of boxes, buckets, garbage, wood. So much stuff. In reality it took us five days to clean out the garage, sort the stuff, pare it down and put it back in. I wish that I had before and after shots to show the results of all our work, but by the time we finished I was so sick of it all that I didn't want to spend one more second out there. Now that some time has gone by I'm amazed at what we accomplished. It was dirty, filthy and germ ridden. Thank goodness that we don't have Hanta virus because we were sweeping up mouse poop all the time. The truth is that I had forgotten all about Hanta virus until it was all over and I was talking to Lizzy and she brought it up. I panicked, because we had been breathing in that nasty dust for hours every day we were working in the garage. Now, three weeks later I guess we are all alright.

This is Seth and Stephanie. They went to Homecoming together. No she is not a Mormon. She is Catholic and she attends a parochial school. She is very sweet and quite innocent. They met at Drivers Ed. By the way they had a good time at the St. Francis homecoming dance.

This is a picture of Kate arranging Seth's hair for the homecoming dance.
I still forget to put my pictures in backwards for the blog.

Let me tell you about Penny Pancake day. There are nine or ten Colonial restaurants in our area. In the fall they all have a day where pancakes are a penny a piece. You can eat as many as you want and the price stays the same. Of course, it is very popular and there are lines out the doors so that everyone can eat pancakes. They serve them all day long.

You don't have to order pancakes, like this fellow, but most people do.

Seth ordered more pancakes. He and his friend Mitch could have eaten more,but they were being polite.

After we got the garage clean it was time to clean out other things, like the long flower bed.

It fell to Seth to clean it all out and as you can tell from his demeanor he did it cheerfully. NOT

A big wind storm blew down all the leaves. They made the front porch look all Halloweeny.

One of the ceramic pumpkins. We stopped carving pumpkins when the kids got older. These pumpkins are a happy replacement.

Halloween Costumes.

Seth is a nerd, I am a vampire and Rachel is an officer from Star Trek the Next Generation. She gave herself a name. Lieutenant Commander Rebecca Cooper, Xenobiologist. A xenobiologist is an expert in alien life forms.

Errata Corrected

Sorry about the recipe at the end of the blog. I was trying to do two columns, then I aligned right and everything smashed together. I didn't catch it in the preview, cause I didn't do a last preview. When I read my blog and saw it all smashed I thought that I had lost the second column ingredients, so I shoved them in at the end. So who could tell how many bananas actually go into this recipe. Is it three twice or is it just three mashed bananas. You actually should say smashed bananas in a high-falutin English accent. My spell check doesn't like the way I spelled falutin. How do you spell that word. I don't want to look it up. So anyway, here is the recipe. Everything will be in one column so there will be no chance of messing up again.

Sour Cream Banana Bars

1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup softened butter (not melted)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (three large bananas) (don't forget the accent)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Turn on your oven to 375. Mix the sugar, sour cream and butter. Get them nice and blended.Add the eggs, banana, and vanilla. That has me thinking does everybody need
more Mexican vanilla. I still have a stash. I should have sent some out with Seth. Oh well. Noah and Becky are probably coming here for Thanksgiving and we can send some back to Utah with some. I should have sent some with Shelley when she went to Ethiopia for the first time. Now I'm feeling guilty because of my vanilla stash. Back to reality. The Mexican vanilla is good in this recipe, but so is any other vanilla. Add your flour. Mix it in well. Add the baking soda and the salt. Last of all stir in the nuts. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. When it has cooled frost and enjoy. Oh I'm sorry I forgot to tell you to bake this in a jelly roll pan. PLEASE READ THE RECIPE BEFORE YOU START PUTTING THIS TOGETHER. (So you can get the jelly roll pan part.) Hope this is not too crazy. Well maybe a little crazy, but not so crazy that you can't make the recipe.

Not So New Toy and Mom's Party

This is our not so new toy. It is called a "Red Dragon" and it shoots out flames that are very effective at killing weeds. I asked for it for Mother's Day a few years ago and and then it got shoved into the back of the garage and I forgot that we had it. However in our fervent battle against the weeds in our yard we found it and promptly put it to work. It makes a loud roar of a sound and the weeds end up decimated. Unfortunately we can only use it on stone, brick or dirt. If we use it on the weeds in our wood mulch Smokey the Bear would be right on us telling us not to start wild fires. It is a fun tool, but hand weeding has still not been eliminated.

The weeds did not have a chance.

It was great to see them wither away and die into a heap of cinders.

I'm starting a contest. The contest is for the longest root on a weed. This is the weed root we are entering. It was a red root weed (Say that five times really fast). Seth is the person who pulled it. We didn't measure it but it was the longest one that we have had this whole summer.

Now for the party. The yard has never looked so fine. It was just beautiful.

I love this window box.

My hydrangeas are blooming, and they have been blooming all summer long.

Rachel weeded the curvy bed for me. She worked so hard to help get the yard looking so pretty.

More of the curvy bed. We've had so much rain lately that I don't have to fill any of the bird baths.

These little flowers are right next to the street, underneath my mailbox.

The patio is all ready for my guests.

We had fruit kebabs, a cheese tray with french bread, cut vegetables with dip, sour cream banana bars (the recipe follows) and mango sorbet. Plus punch and water.
Now you see the other end of the food table. This was not the glamorous end of the table.

I had such a good time hosting the party. We talked and laughed and ate ourselves silly. When the party broke up we were surprised that the three hours had gone so fast. It came together cause I had lots of help. Maurie shopped, Rachel helped me prepare the food and Kate arrived early and helped pull everything together. It was a lovely evening and the only thing missing was that all of you were not here with me.

And now for that recipe. Sour Cream Banana Bars is a family favorite. The recipe makes a lot, but still they go fast because they are so delicious. One tip, you have to make the frosting. The frosting just makes this a real treat.

1 and1/2 cup sugar 2 cup flour
1 cup sour cream 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup softened butter 1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 and 1/2 cups mashed banana Browned Butter Frosting
(about 3 large) (below)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon slat
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Brown Buttered Frosting (below)


Heat oven to 375. Grease and flour a jelly roll pan, 151/2 x10 1/2 x1 inch. Mix sugar, sour cream, butter and eggs in large mixing bowl. Beat for one minute. Beat in bananas and vanilla on low speed. Beat in flour, salt, and baking soda on medium speed. Scrape bowl and stir in nuts. Spread dough in pan. Bake until light brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool and frost with Brown Butter Frosting. Cut into bars about 2 x 1 1/2 inches. makes 4 dozen cookies

Brown Butter Frosting

Heat 1/2 cup butter over medium heat until delicate brown; remove from heat. Mix in four cups of powdered sugar. Beat in 2 teaspoons vanilla and five to six tablespoons of milk until smooth and of spreading consistency.

We love these treats and we think that you will too.

Summer Fun

Rachel took this picture because she believes that it looks like a face. You have to look hard with your eyes in a squint. Oh yeah, now I see it.

When my kids were little I would tuck them into bed really tight. They were very snug and I called it making a pie. The other morning Maurie wanted to have me make him into a pie and so I did. I still have my skills.

The boys were decorating there very own cupcakes. Sean went for chocolate and mustachios.

This is Jack and his creation.

Ewan has an ocean theme. Very creative.

Liam with more ocean theme. What else are you going to do with the Swedish fish?

I got my pictures out of order. Jack and Liam are making the cupcake batter. They helped make three different kinds of batter. We had chocolate, yellow and carrot.

Now for some pictures of the yard. The front flower bed withe window boxes in the background.

The orange section of the long bed.

My herbs are doing very well.

If you look close you can see some baby green tomatoes.

Here are some green peppers.

This is Seth's foot by a zucchini. The foot is so that you can get an idea of how big the zucchini is. We picked all the zucchinis last week. We gave some away,some went into the best zucchini bread ever and I still have three more to do something with, I'm not sure what.

Here is Seth's zucchini plant. The great producer.

The turtles with the stones finished underneath. Please pay no attention to the weeds. I'm going to pretend they are not there.

It's madness. Everything is growing like crazy.

This is Rachel's statue. The girl is lying down reading a book. Of course it's Rachel's statue. That is huechera growing up all over her.

The patio. Please notice the party lights. Maurie bought them ages ago, but Rachel just put them up.

The bench area under the lilacs. That one chair in the middle is supposed to be back by the fire pit, but it wandered up so it could be cool in the shade and have a nice friendly conversation with more mature benches.

The Karl Forester tops have turned golden.

This my Mother's Day present. It's getting giant big.

This a picture of normal Seth.

This is a picture of husky, muscular Seth. What makes the difference, you ask?

Twenty five t-shirts. Yeah the boy put on twenty five t-shirts. Next it will probably be socks. What can you put twenty five of on? He did have some help getting all the shirts on. Why does my son need twenty five of anything?