Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! So much to be thankful for!

This morning I got to sleep in for a whole extra 20 minutes! WHOO -HOO! (Hey, I'll take what I can get!) 

Soon after we woke Kailani saw a rainbow....right next to the moon that hadn't yet set:

WOW. What an awesome way to start the day!

Another awesome thing was that I wasn't expected to cook a big elaborate Thanksgiving feast. Whew! Thank goodness for Thanksgiving dinner packages offered by nearby restaurants! So, without having to dedicate all that time in the kitchen I used the time to do some fun domestic stuff with the girls. 

Since I opted out of ordering or making the traditional pumpkin pie I decided to have the girls help me with a local Hawaiian/Japanese favorite, pumpkin mochi! If you've never had mochi it's a bit hard to describe. It's gooey, it's sticky, it's yummy....but a lot of people can't get past the texture. Having grown up eating it I don't have any problems with it. The problem I DO have with mochi is that, well, I LOVE it TOO darn much! 



Busy at work!


Using the recipe from AllRecipes here's how it came out:

No.....it's not pumpkin pie but pumpkin mochi with a dollop of whipped cream!

I don't normally cut pumpkin mochi this way but I thought I would try to psych Kailani out and it worked. She truly thought it was pumpkin pie but was not at all disappointed to find out it was pumpkin mochi. 

 

Pumpkin Mochi

Usually I cut the mochi into bite size pieces. BIG bite size pieces. HA!

After we made the pumpkin mochi we then made pumpkin pie playdough! It was easy, fun, and smelled heavenly! And it was SUPER soft....but not so soft that you can't mold it. According to the instructions the play dough will keep for about a week if you store it in a sealed plasItic bag. (By the way...it also says you need 2-3 hours to make it but it took more like 45 minutes - and that's with having to stop to help the girls with the mixing.Thought it was worth a mention.)   

Pumpkin Pie Spice Play Dough

The girls attempted to make some pumpkins out of the pumpkin play dough.

The play dough kept them occupied for a good chunk of the afternoon. Kailani also used cookie cutters and had her own little bakery going. Check out the sign she posted for her shop:

Notice that the cookies are $.25 but tips are $1.00 or $.50. Well, that is if you don't get the "other cookies" for $.99. What an imagination this kiddo has! 

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!