Lindsey Unedited: Birthdays and Fall Fun!

Last week we had the neighborhood Trunk-or-Treat at the church. We decorated the trunk of our car very spooky! It looked really cool in the dark. All the lights were glowing and flashing, we had spooky music playing and a big bowl of candy. The kids took a leg from a baby doll and we hung it in spider web from the roof.

I entered my chili recipe that I have made every year for the last 14 years at every chili cook off contest we have been invited to. It finally won! There were about 25 entries and my tall batch of chili was about the only chili that was empty by the end of the night. Every year it's always empty but never has won, I guess it depends on preference of whoever is the judge. This year the judges liked Sweet & Savory Smokey Sausage and Bacon chili! It's loaded with about 5 lbs of meat which I think makes all the difference. There's maple bacon, Italian sausage and beef. I add sweet peppers, onions, tomatoes from my garden, brown sugar, garlic, cumin, chili powder, salt, liquid smoke (for the smokey flavor) and my secret ingredients are cinnamon and cocoa. It's addicting!

I won the golden spoon which means my name will be engraved on the back. I also won a gift certificate to Target. Everyone learned how to do the Thriller dance in the parking lot. It was really cool. There was even a missionary (Elder Kirby) doing the dance in his nice shirt and tie. So funny. Gabe and Paisley really got into it and they were amazing!

The kids had a costume parade and contest and there was also a contest for the best decorated car. It was a fun night. We have the best neighborhood ever!

On Cambrey's real birthday we celebrated at breakfast. I made her birthday pancakes and put candles in them. She opened all her presents. She was invited to another birthday party on her on her birthday - so she went to the party. It was for a little boy from her preschool. He had a pirate party - it was so much fun! We asked Cambrey where she wanted to go for her birthday dinner and she chose Arctic Circle because they have the indoor playground. So, we went there and bought the pumpkin kids meals and the kids got their Halloween flashlights (I think that's a tradition here in Utah). I loved the gyro sandwich and Manuel loved the cheese stuffed bread sticks. I also love the flavor station at the drink counter. You can add any flavor of syrup you want to your soda. We add fun mixing flavors.

After dinner we went to the scarecrow maze across the street by Warren's. We got to see all the the scarecrow entries - it was fun.

On Manuel's birthday, Cambrey me and Tatem decided to be sneaky and we snuck into Manuel's work without him seeing us and we put a giant birthday balloon and specialty drink on his desk. The drink was called "Doctor Better" which I figured might be a version of "Dr. Pepper" but supposedly "better" than a Dr. Pepper. Manuel said it was better than a Dr. Pepper - he loved it! When Manuel got home I told him to choose a restaurant for dinner. He told me to save my money but I insisted. He picked sushi of course. So we went to Happy Hashi for dinner. It was super yummy. When we got home he opened his presents and we sang to him and gave him a cake. I made an apple pie cake. It was a yellow cake with homemade apple pit filling in top and a Bavarian cream with cinnamon on top of that. He like it. It was a good night!