Pumpkin Carving

With our two big pumpkins to carve, we showed Alton several different face or design possibilities to let him choose what he liked best. He specified that he wanted a "happy, not scary" face, so he selected a goofy, grinning expression in a magazine for the smaller pumpkin, and opted for a haunted house design for the larger pumpkin.

After he and Daddy scooped out all the insides, it was time to spec out the design.

The bowl at Alton's elbow is full of popcorn, not pumpkin guts--he wasn't snacking on raw strings and seeds! (Although he definitely enjoyed the roasted seeds, mmm.)

When all the carving was finished, they took the two gourds into the garage for a lighting test-run.

A ghostly, glowing Alton photo with the flash off--the whole garage is orange!

More Fall Fun!

I've been slow on posts, but we've been fast and furious on the fun. In October, our playgroup went to the same apple farm that we visited last year. We bought tons of apples that I intended to bake into a pie, but I hesitated over the high amounts of butter to be found in piecrust, and the apples were all scarfed down by lunchers!
Alton and I on the tractor hayride...Alton does not want to be distracted from his cool surroundings!

Our whole group poses in front of the tractor afterward. Alton is second from left, and his cousin *P is in the red at far right.

Auntie Karen helps Alton and *P check out the little goats.

Alton has also been making great strides in his swim lessons. He does many more things in the pool independently now, including holding onto the handrail and ducking underneath the water!

Still loves splashing...

...and jumping!

His good buddy *B turned 3, so we met her family at a local pizza place/fun center to enjoy some food, cake, and playtime.

We romped for awhile in the bouncy house, which was totally empty!

Then he spent his fistful of tokens at the arcade. We tried to find either simple games he could play on his own, like this "hit the button and knock over the rubber ducky" game...

...or action-driving games that didn't win anything, but were superfun to play on with Daddy!

Two man biker gang.

Zoom!

...mmmm... beeer...

This post was actually written a couple of months ago and I'm just now getting around to adding the pictures... enjoy!!

-Andy

For the last two years, Genentech Hillsboro has had an annual beer fest. Each year people volunteer to participate by bringing in their own home-brewed beer to share with the site. It's set up like a tasting with each brewer providing a taste of their brew to employees as they mosey from table to table. There is voting for best beer over all as well as best beer of each type. When you volunteer for this, Genentech helps you get started by giving you an "allowance" at the local homebrew shop in downtown Hillsboro. This lets even the novice brewer get involved and have fun doing it.

Our cooking set up. The grain was just added.

This year, Zach and I were both selected! (Selection is actually a first come, first served set up. The first ones to respond to the email, get in. And the last two years, spots have been filled up in a matter of minutes). We decided to collaborate on our beers - helping each other with understanding the process since we are both new to home brewing. We set off for the local homebrew shop with the knowledge that we knew nothing. By the time we left, we had a lot more equipment and our heads were swimming in the information that was just passed to us by the homebrew shop owner.

Cooking and stirring.

So we dove right in. We were given the right amount of grain, malt extract and hops. All we had to do was cook it to the recipe's instructions, handle appropriately afterward and we would have beer. We started by adding our grain (in a mesh bag) to the water and boiling it. Once we had reached the specified temperature, the grain bag was removed and the 8 pounds of malt extract was added. With these two ingredients added and the mixture now at a rolling boil, it was time to add the hops. We've all heard about hops and beer and even heard some people describe beer as "more hoppy" or "less hoppy." Finally, I feel I have some sort of understanding of what the heck this means. Here's the scoop: Cooking the grain and malt extract removes the sugars. This sugar is what gives the beer a sweet taste. The hops, on the other hand, are what give beer it's characteristic bitterness. The hops are added through the boiling process of the beer and then removed for the beer to ferment. In short, the later you add the hops, the more bitter (or hoppy) your beer will taste.

So we added the hops as we were told to at various points throughout the hour-long boiling of our mixture. Once the hops were all added and the boiling time was complete, it was time to transfer everything to the fermenter. In our case, this fermenter is a food-grade plastic bucket with a hole in the top for the air-lock. More on this soon. We utilized a block of ice (a gallon of distilled water that was thrown in the freezer days before all of this was started) to help cool our mixture. We put the ice in the fermenter, poured the now cooked mixture over it (via a strainer to keep the hops out of the fermenter) and then filled to 5 gallons with cold water.

Hops. Divided out for addition into the mixture at different times.

From here, we had to monitor temperature. The fermenter bucket was equipped with a stick-on thermometer on the outside of the bucket, not unlike the kind we used to have on the fish tank when we were kids. Once the temp reached 80 degrees or less, we added the yeast. This is what ferments the whole mixture to make it taste like beer. And so it sits in this fermenter until it's all done fermenting. We check this by installing an "airlock" in the top of the bucket. This is an S-shaped device, half filled with water that keeps outside air from getting in the bucket. As the pressure in the bucket increases as a result of fermentation, this airlock bubbles, allowing fermented gasses to escape. It's this bubbling we watch to know when it's done.

Boiling the mixture.

Record keeping so we know what our recipe was for this batch.

After 4 days, it was ready to go into a secondary fermenter. This transfer helps us remove the yeast from the solution and gives the beer a place to sit for a week or two to allow any particles still inside to settle.

Secondary fermenters. Zach's brew on the right, mine on the left.

Now it's time to bottle. We chose 22oz bottles for a couple of reasons: 1) it's fewer bottles to fill than using 12oz bottles. 2) bottles are cheaper than a keg 3) bottles give us more mobility with the beer and we don't have to have a spare refrigerator for the keg - we just put some bottles in the fridge ahead of time. When you bottle, you add corn sugar. This is was natural carbonates the beer. Once it's in the bottles, it sits for another 2-3 weeks before consumption to ensure carbonation is complete.

Bottling. Zach at the helm. I was capping.

Alton helping me to put empty bottles into a bucket of sanitizing agent.

When we bottled, we took the left over (all the stuff we couldn't get to go into the siphon for actual bottling and took an alcohol reading. We use a hydrometer, which floats in the beer. The specific gravity of the beer makes it float at different levels (the heavier the beer, the higher it floats) and a reading is taken off of the hydrometer. From this, we were able to determine that each beer was right around 5% alcohol. We also tasted some at this point. It truly is beer at this point - just luke warm and not carbonated. So we were able to get a feel for its taste. Not bad!

Trying my beer. Zach's hat and my shirt were unintentional, yet strangely appropriate.

The hydrometer reading for my beer right at 5% alcohol.

And finally, the last piece of the recipe - Drinking! The picture below is from a visit my buddy Ryan and his girlfriend Christina paid while on a trip up to a concert. Beers all around!!

..mmmm..... beeeer...

Beautiful specimens, if I do say so myself.

What a Difference...

Wow, what a difference a year makes! Gaze on photos of Big Man Alton at a park one year ago versus a few weeks ago.
October 2009

Today

October 2009

Today

October 2009

Today

October 2009

Today

October 2009

Today

Playtime with Mommy (by Andy)

These last couple of nights, AJ has had some play time with Katie. They were too cute to pass up snapping a few pictures.

Breaking into the PlayDoh and exploring allll the shapes and possibilities.

And putting together a puzzle! Alton was very insistent on being "nudie" for the night's activities of puzzling and dinner.

Clifford!

With Halloween a week away, our toddler playgroup had a low-key costume party to get some little one excitement out before the REAL October 31st. We signed up for different pot-luck dishes, organized activities, decorated our hostess's house, set out candy...what a celebration!
On his way to the party...Clifford the Big Red Dog! The costume didn't take as long as I thought it was going to for me to make it--really just took one day--and we received many compliments on it at the party, so more than worth the effort.

We added the black collar and still felt like it needed something, so Andy and Alton went to Petco that morning and made Alton a custom doggie tag in the shape of a bone that reads "Clifford." Then it was off to the party!

The kids practiced trick-or-treating at bedroom doors, got their photos taken, frosted cupcakes, and in Alton's case, asked Uncle Zach to read about 10 books.


Alton with his cousin, *P, who is dressed as the Abby Cadabby character from Sesame Street.

The kids trick-or-treating at the bedrooms upstairs; with all the partying beforehand, the house was heating up and Alton got too warm in his costume. But this should bode well for Halloween night when it's brrrrr chilly!

Alton with his candy haul.

Then it was time for cupcake decorating. (Yes, I am wearing Shrek ears.)

He didn't want frosting: just sprinkles. I had to convince him to let me smear a little frosting on top to give the sprinkles something to stick to.

Then he wolfed it down!