Pumpkins

I have been browsing through pinterest looking for ideas for pumpkin carvings. I found a picture of 4 watermelons someone carved into the teenage mutant ninja turtle...they put glow sticks in them to lite them up! I remember back in the day watching the teenage mutant ninja turtles, and now Sean is watching them.
So we decided to paint our pumpkins green and carve them up like the turtles. The kids loved digging all the seeds out and making sure I didn't mess them up as I carved them. They turned out pretty good, but the glow sticks didn't last very long, so my husband suggested cutting a whole in the bottom and sticking a Christmas lite in each one and that seemed to work better!  Emilee really likes Monster High so I decided to surprise her with a pumpkin especially for her. She was very impressed!

 

So what do you think?

Fall

One of my favorite times of the year is the beginning of the Fall season. The leaves, apple picking, hayrides, corn mazes, Fall Festivals and Halloween. I love taking Emilee and Sean to all the farmers markets around the area. We went to Maple Farms for the first time this year, it was lots of fun. I really liked their corn maze. And the kids really enjoyed  the BIG huge yellow bouncing pillow, and the huge slide. They also enjoyed getting their faces painted!

Pies

I have been quite busy the last few weeks. Today I don't have anything planned until this evening so I thought I would catch everybody up on some cool things I have been doing.

This was a week or two ago, my mother-in-law came over for the day and we BAKED. I made some Cookies, White chip orange dream cookies. Here is the link to the recipe: http://www.familybalancesheet.org/2010/12/white-chip-orange-dream-cookies.html  I used orange extract and the spice orange peel since I didn't have any oranges, but they taste better with the actual grated orange peel.  Here is a picture...They are one of my favorite cookies and I just might make these for my cookie exchange this year.

Next my mother-in law made a sour cherry pie. I am not found of cherries but my father-in-law requested this one.  It turned out great and everyone loved it! We served it with vanilla ice cream! Of course there is a picture. LOL

  Next I made an apple crisp pizza! http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2012/09/apple-crisp-pizza.html  I follow this recipe BUT I doubled the topping, added at least one more apple( I piled it high, it shrunk in the oven) and added at least one more tsp of cinnamon because you can never have too much cinnamon! Here it is...

Finally we made a Warm Apple-Buttermilk Custard Pie  http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/warm-apple-buttermilk-custard-pie-10000000434581/

This pie looked awesome, but I don't think we will be making it again...for one thing it took a lot longer to make than we expected and it really wasn't that good :-(  It really did look good see...

Well that was our baking day and I had an awesome time with my mother-in-law!

apples

Friday I got to chaperone Sean's 1st grade field trip to the apple orchard. The weather was perfect for the walk to the orchard. The kids got to go through a small corn maze, went on a hay ride through the orchard, pick an apple off a tree and toured the factory. Everyone had great time. This was the first time I met Sean's teacher, and I have to say he is pretty awesome. Here is a picture of Sean and his buddy on the hay ride.

                                                      Cutties

  I finally made something new with all those apples we picked, and our house smelled so good!! I made red hot apples in the crock pot.  YUMMY!!!!  

 peel and cut about 10-12 apples, add 2 boxes of red hots and about 1/3 -1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice

Cook on high for 8 hours or low for 4 hours...more or less depending on how soft you like them. They are so good! I still have lots more apples...what should I make next??? I'm thinking maybe apple butter?

Have a great night everyone.