The Pumpkin Gospel

As we DON'T celebrate Halloween but we try to bring some light into the darkness. 

Every year we read this book "The Pumpkin Gospel" By: Mary Manz Simon and do this activity with it. We first go to our local pumpkin patch to buy a pumpkin and then we come home to do our activity. Please follow along. 

First, we wipe down our pumpkin to represent how God washes away ALL of our sins. 

Wash Me, until I am clean and whiter than snow

Psalm 51:7

Then we cut open our pumpkin to see all of the stringy slippery goo that is inside. 

This represents "Our Sin" before we knew God.

Now you are set free from sin.

Romans 6:18

We scoop out all of the seeds and goo.

This represents God cleans out all of my sins and cleans them out of me. Also how he forgives me:) 

Our God, you bless everyone whose sins you forgive and wipe away. 

Psalm 32:1

Our pumpkin is all clean inside.

Shout praises to the Lord

Psalm 149:1

Then God gives us a GREAT Big Grin. 

Our nice clean souls, after we have received Christ into our lives. 

We are smiling for JESUS!!!!

Finally we light our candle inside our pumpkin.

We are to shine for the whole world to see. 

You are like light for the whole world. 

Matthew 5:14

I then read them another book that is very much like the first but talks about the farmer and how he plants the seeds and the pumpkins grow and then we crave a big face and then we light the candle to shine for Jesus:)

This is book is called:

The Pumpkin Patch Parable

By: Liz Curtis Higgs

WE will be shining for Jesus, Will You?

Pumpkin Patch

Every year we visit this pumpkin patch to measure how tall our children are. Every year they seem to grow, how is that. 

It's just in his blood, DMan doing a straddle hold. 

Now that's a big gourd. 

DMan chilling by the Pumpkin Man. 

This is my happy boy, always joyful!!!

Ducky has grown so much this year. 

Beautiful FALL picture of Ducky:)

"Our family"

Anything tiny even her pumpkin. 

Happy Fall!!! 

Hope you are enjoying this time of the year!!!!

COOKIES KIDS FALL WARDROBE #COOKIESKIDS #CBIAS

I realized that our children needed some new FALL clothing. We decided to check out CookieKids.com. This was my first time shopping at CookiesKids.com. I was so surprised that they had many different name brands at reasonable prices. You will be savings when you shop at CookiesKids.com

Cookies Kids is celebrating there 40th year in business. Here is a little history about Cookies Kids. 

In 1972, a young man named Cookie and his brother Marvin went into business together. They rented a 1600 square foot store in Jamaica, Queens, fixed it up, bought inventory and Summer andFall, and opened a day after Thanksgiving with a full stock of holiday toys. The toys were a success and they put the extra money toward buying children's clothing for the next season. When that did well, they bought more clothing. The business was on it's way.
As the brothers Cookie, Marvin and Sonny, who had come in as a third partner in the business, began to open new stores in new locations, inventory expanded. Besides the latest fashions, our customers wanted shoes, toys, backpacks and accessories and we were prepared to deliver.
By the late 1990's there were six superstores throughout the NYC area, and though they previously had different names, by that time they were all named Cookie's Kids. Also in the late '90s came an important addition to Cookie's Kids' inventory: school uniforms. It was the steady success in uniform sales that paved the way for founding CookiesKids.com in 2007, which originally sold uniforms and soon after the entire Cookie's Kids Inventory.

It doesn't matter where you live, we all need clothes to cover our bodies. I know in this day and age, we also need to save so that's why CookiesKids.com is so great. Our children don't know the difference between name brands or not. They pick out what they like when they look at the item. It doesn't matter to me either but when I know the prices are pretty close to other brands then I would buy the name brands. 

This Levi Shirt was 33% off the original price. This was a great price and you are getting a stylish shirt for your child. DMan loved this shirt when we were looking on the website. 

Boys Department:

Boys Tops

We purchased a pair of jeans for everyday occasions. Especially for the FALL season as it will be a little cooler. 

Boys Bottoms

Alva Kids is located on the page where the size option is. You may want to get a better idea of what size your child will fit. Alva Kids will help you with this. You can download onto your phone as well for easy and fast convenience. Alva Kids will save you time, you wouldn't have to return the item after the fact. 

Our daughter choose the Skecher "Stellar Stars"Three Piece Set which can be used during the FALL during the cooler months. I can't wait to get what we ordered from #Cookies Kids. 

Girl's Sets

Our shopping cart had three items for the FALL. We only spent $49 with shipping. Now that's a bargain. 

I have some more pictures of our shopping experience at my Google Plus Story. 

When we received out package we were all excited. I love getting new items. 

Ducky in her NEW FALL Fashion from CookiesKids.com.She wore it to church today. She looked so cute in her new outfit. I love the sparkly stars on her top. 

DMan in his new Levi shirt and Mecca Pants, already for church. Don't you love the color on this shirt. 

Our two children sporting there NEW clothing from Cookies Kids. 

Today we went to a FALL Festival at our friend's house and Ducky had on her FALL wardrobe. 

How about a hayride with your FALL wardrobe, thats what DMan is doing. 

Cookies Kids has 7 stores in the NYC area in Bronx,Brooklyn, and Jamaica as well as online at CookiesKids.com. 

Please take advantage of a special promotion at Cookies Kids is giving my viewers: 

Type in this code at checkout: ourhopeisinthelord

to recieve 10% off sitewide! Exp 12/14/12.

To keep up with what going on at Cookies Kids, follow them on:

http://www.facebook.com/Cookieskidsfans

http://twitter.com/#!/cookieskids

I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and Cookies Kids.com #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own. 

KRAFT COOL WHIP FROSTING #COOLWHIPFROSTING #CBIAS #SOCIALFABRIC

I love this time of the year. When the weather is changing, leaves are changing and the smell of the air is fresh. Even here in Florida I have seen some leaves changing colors and the weather has gotten ALOT cooler. I was so excited to go shopping at Walmart to purchase the NEW Cool Whip Frosting for our delicious Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes. 

The NEW Cool Whip Frosting comes in several favors:

Vanilla

Cream Cheese

Chocolate

They all look wonderful but we choose vanilla because we felt like that was the best fit for what we were going to make. 

While we were at Walmart we needed to pick up several items for our Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes. Please check out Google Plus Story for further info on our shopping experience. 

Cool Whip is one of my favorite during the holidays or anyday for pumpkin pie and many other desserts that we love to use all year long to celebrate everyday occasions. You don't have to have a party to celebrate LIFE. Everyday we wake up to a fresh new day and that's something to celebrate. 

Although we don't celebrate Halloween, we do Celebrate spending time with each other. Before we go home to make our Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes we stopped at the Pumpkin Patch for some FALL pictures and to celebrate everyday occasions. 

This is a family affair, we didn't to have a reason to spend time, we just DO IT!!! I think cooking with our kids is so much fun and the children love it too. 

First we mixed the dry ingredients in one bowl.

Then we mixed the wet ingredients in our VitaMix. 

Stir wet ingredients into dry

The reason I picked these cupcakes was because the recipe came from my friend that made these Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes for our homeschool group one day and they were delicious.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 ground ginger

1 pinch ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie seasoning

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1/2 cup agave nectar

2 large eggs 

1 cup of canned or fresh pumpkin

Place cupcake liners in pan or grease pan and scoop batter in cupcake liners, Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.Cool and then serve with the NEW Cool Whip Frosting on top.  

Kraft has some recipes that would be great to check out:

Kraft Recipes

Let your Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes cool and spread the NEW Cool Whip Frosting on the top and top with  

sprinkles,nuts or candy M&M's and enjoy your dessert. 

 The NEW Cool Whip Frosting is in your freezer section and I was so surprised that when I took it out of the freezer it was very creamy and very easy to spread. And it tasted great!!!

I had our children frost there Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes with the New Cool Whip Frosting. I was delighted that it was so light and fluffy. 

We topped our Pumpkin Pie Cupcake with the NEW Cool Whip Frosting and topped it with the new candy corn M&M's. 

You can use the NEW Cool Whip Frosting everyday. I love to have tea parties or any occasion so I will be using this frosting instead of regular thick frosting. You can use the regular Cool Whip for Pies and many other desserts as well. Our experience with Cool Whip in general has always been positive and yummy!!!

Our whole family enjoyed our Pumpkin Pie Cupcake with the NEW Cool Whip Frosting!!!!

To keep up with the latest and greatest with:

Cool Whip on Facebook

Kraft Cool Whip Frosting Pinterest Board

• “I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and Kraft Cool Whip.  #CoolWhipFrosting #CBias #SocialFabric

DISNEY'S ANIMAL KINGDOM REVIEW

Thank you to Walt Disney World for letting review the two one day park hopper. It was a very generous gift to our family and we were so excited to visit there. Our first stop was Animal Kingdom for some animal fun. 

 We got to the park and our tickets weren't available but there was some very helpful employees that helped us on our adventure into Animal Kingdom. My husband and I wanted to recognize the people that were so helpful in getting us into Animal Kingdom. Thank you so much for your help ladies. 

With one day to cover several parks, we had to have a plan for what we wanted to see. Our first stop at Animal Kingdom was the "It's Tough to be a Bug" which is 3D. Follow us as we travel to the It's tough to be a Bug" show. 

We are almost there to sit down in the cool a/c and what a fabulous 3D "It's Tough to be a Bug" Show at Animal Kingdom but of course we had to take a picture of the Tree in which the show takes place. 

As you walk through the Tree for the 3D "It's Tough to be a Bug" Show, there are animals carved into the tree. Below is our children in front of one of the craving. Come on, we can't waste time the show is almost starting. 

One of our tradition is to take pictures with the 3D glasses on before each show. 

Add caption

 This was a very special day because our daughter Ducky has never been to Disney, This was her VERY FIRST TIME!!! On the way in they gave us this pin which makes the child feel so special. Of course we had to take a picture of that, memories to last a lifetime. 

They loved the "It's Tough to Be a Bug" Show. 

On to our next stop at Animal Kingdom. We are studying birds this year for science so we stopped at the "Flights of Wonder" Show. This show was very knowledgeable and I do believe our whole family loved it. I like how you are pretty close to some of these birds. Some of the birds you will see are: American Bald Eagle, Macaw, Toco Toucan. Gray Crowned Crane and Many More Birds. 

Our children loved riding on the Kilimanjaro Safari Expedition at Animal Kingdom.  You will see many animals on this expedition. Some of them we saw were: Zebras, Lions,Elephants, Antelope, Giraffe and Many More. The Safari is relaxing and educational too. This is one of the reasons we picked Animal Kingdom first because we LOVE animals and we love new things about them. 

We finished our time at Animal Kingdom with the Festival of the Lion King Show by this time it was pouring and we were soaked so the Lion King is in doors, this allowed for the rain to let up and for us to dry. What a production with this show, they do an magnificent job with engaging the audience and keeping everyone waiting to the next BIG thing. Our family liked the acrobat monkey's that did all of these amazing tricks. Our children have a background with gymnastics so this was fun for them to watch and recognize there skills. 

Please come back for the rest because I had so many pictures I have to split it up into three blog posts. Our next post will be Magic Kingdom.