More Apples

Saturday we headed to my folks house to pick apples for ourselves and for Dom's mom and aunt. This time I got to spend time taking pictures and watch Dom pick most of the apples. I think the girls spent more time running around then picking apples too!

This is the typical "maybe if I make a funny face mom won't take my picture" face. Doesn't work. I just file these under pictures to show future boyfriends.

Tween attitude. We dealt with a lot of that this weekend. I can't wait til she's a teenager...

Notice the ominous clouds in the sky. And how everyone watches daddy do all the work. Becca did hold the basket for a little while. Kenzie learned not to stand directly under the tree or you can get beaned off the head by a falling apple.

This is Dom in the tree before he remembered about the handy dandy picker. He kinda has a look on his face like "how do I get down with my hands full?" The girls were supposed to be waiting to take the apples from him but they kept running away. This may have been because of the random apples that kept falling on their heads...

And Kenzie stretching for the perfect apple.

Field Trip

Today I got a chance to chaperone a field trip for Mackenzie's class. We went apple picking at Applecrest Farms in New Hampton. It was lots of fun and luckily the rain held off!

We got to get a tour of how they make cider, we got to learn how important bees are, we got a hayride, we ate cider and donuts and we of course got to pick apples! We will be enjoying more apple picking adventures tomorrow, this time as a family, at Grammie and Grampies house!

A Taste of Fall

The cooler weather always makes me want to bake so I decided to make an apple pie. I do not bake pies that often and didn't have a recipe so I did a little hunting online, found a basic recipe and tweaked it just a bit. And I cheated and used the store bought pillsbury crusts. I've always heard the crust is the hardest part of making a pie so if I can get a decent one at the store and not stress about it why not? But someday I'm going to try making the crust from scratch.

I made homemade vanilla ice cream to go with it too. And since I had already crossed the quadruple digit calorie mark I added cool whip too. I love cool whip especially now that it comes in a can. MMM..tastes just like fall.

Snack Attack

It seems everytime I turn around this kid is in the fridge or on the counter scrounging for something to eat.
Mackenzie is what some might refer to as a grazer. She eats a little of this and a little of that throughout the day. I am not complaining as most of what she eats is fairly good stuff and she is not nearly as picky as her sister. In fact most of the time I find it quite amusing, especially since she' s nothing but a pint of peanuts.(she has yet to break the 40 pound mark)!
The good thing is that she does appreciate good food and is always willing to help out in the kitchen.

The same but different??

The girls have decided what they want to be for Halloween and I sat down today to order them online. (What they want to be will remain a secret until I can bribe them into posing for pictures. ) They had chosen some from a catalog I received in the mail so what could be easier? Little did I know it was going to be harder then I thought. I had actually received two catalogs in the mail, one several weeks ago and one about a week ago. At first glance I thought they were the same company. Both had the same special deal on the front.... and both had the same coupons on the back. And the costumes inside were all the same. Though one catalog featured more adult costumes than kids costumes.

So I just grabbed one of the catalogs and went to the website listed and put in my order. Everything was fine until I tried to use the discount code on the back of the other catalog. They looked the same so no biggie, right? Wrong! It wouldn't work! After a little frustration I realized that the web address was not the same for both catalogs and was finally able to get the girls costumes ordered with a discount. I am still a little confused and not completely convinced they are two seperate companies, despite the different websites, and yes the websites did look different but still had the same costumes. I imagine this is some kind of clever marketing tool but to me it was just confusing!

Little Artist

Becca has always enjoyed drawing and I would say her skills were normal for her age. That was until this past summer when she spent almost every free moment drawing. She went online and taught herself to draw. And this past week on a trip to the library she took out five books. All about drawing! I think she has improved enormously and I am a proud mom. Her favorite thing to draw is animals, especially dragons but the picture of the horse above is one of my favorites.

Fun Guy

Okay, bad play on words with the title. It should actually be Fungi, but Fun guy has so much more appeal, right? I think mushrooms are kinda cute and interesting to look at and to photograph especially when you get right down to their level. Plus then don't complain about me taking their picture and that is always a plus in my book. Not that anyone I know would ever complain...

So here are few pictures of some of the mushrooms growing in the yard. No, I do not know what kind they. I attempted looking them up but there are so many kinds of mushrooms that it got a little daunting. Please feel free to tell me what they are if you know!

I do believe that the first picture and this one is called an alcohol inky.

And this one I think would make a perfect little umbrella for a fairy!

Spooky Spiders

Kenzie and I made these spooky spiders to decorate the house for Halloween. The idea came from Family Fun magazine. They are pretty simple to make and super cute, uh I mean spooky.

First we cut up some egg cartons and used a hole punch to punch two holes in the front for the eyes and four holes on each side for the legs. Next we painted them.

Once the paint was dry we added the legs. I cut one pipe cleaner in half to form two legs. I just poked them through the holes on the sides and taped them. The bottom of the spider is a battery powered tea light. The ones I got were white so I just wrapped black electrical tape around them to make it black. Next use the tape to tape the egg cup to the top of the tea light so the little bulb is now inside your spider. Now just bend the legs how you want them and turn on the tea light to light up your spiders eyes!

Cat Curiosity

I am always amazed at how the cat seems to appear out of thin air everytime I open a can of tuna. How does she know? I think if we had an electric can opener I could understand her hearing that noise but it's just a little hand held and I don't think it makes that much noise, but she just seems to know.

She also has a habit of disappearing when we have company and then reappearing as soon as they are gone. I imagine that has something to do with the noise level of the house. I have in fact, had more than one person remark that they didn't even know we had a cat because they have never seen her. I had a cat growing up that did the exact same thing.

And yeah, the cat gets on the counter, and the table. I don't like it but she didn't do it until we got Boomer who likes to chase her and eat her food. It took her awhile to learn that if she doesn't run he won't chase her. Now she rubs up against him and he just looks confused!

I think she is my favorite cat out of all the cats I've had growing up. She was a stray we adopted from a shelter. They had named her Misty and we decided to keep that as a name. That was after I asked Rebecca, who was two at the time, what she wanted to name the cat. She looked around at the toys on the ground and answered "Bucket!"

I picked her out from a picture online because she had double paws and was only about a year old. She had been brought into the shelter with her litter of kittens. Most of the kittens were quickly adopted except two that were not quite normal. They couldn't walk straight and may have had cerebral palsy. (possibly due to the fact that Misty was so young and may have had an infection while pregnant) They were nicknamed "the bobbles" and I was happy to learn that not long after we adopted Misty they too, found a home.

Anyway she is a such a good cat. She is friendly and gets along well with the kids and the dog. I couldn't ask for a better cat!

Clearing out

It was 38 degrees outside when I got up this morning. Fall is definitely in the air today. I love the cool crisp air, the colorful leaves and no bugs! The cooler weather also makes me want to bake and craft. But before I can get back into crafting mode I have to find my desk which has spent most of the summer buried under a pile of books and papers. Of course having a messy desk doesn't always stop me from crafting, I of course just move to another area of the house but that means dragging all my stuff upstairs and then dragging it all back down when I am done. Not fun. So I decided to clean it up. Here is a picture mid-process. Please notice that the desk is clean, The floor is another story. And just for the record not all the mess on the floor is mine, though I will of course be the one to clean it all up.
Please also notice the black blob in the lower right hand corner. That is the dog who will insist on trying to fit in that little space with me while attempt to clean.

Locke Hill hike

Last weekend was beautiful and we took a hike up Locke Hill in Gilford which offers a nice view of the lake. Our friends the Beikmans joined us and we packed up kids, dogs and lunch as well as the GPS to do a little geocaching. It was great fun until we were almost to the top and poor Becca got stung. Again. Many of you might remember her getting stung nine times several years ago. Well this was the same trail in almost the same location. Not sure what it is but wasps/yellow jackets love this kid. I mean, what were the chances of seven people and two dogs just hangining around and the only one to get stung was her. Poor kid! After a little first aid treatment we continued our hike.

We came across a nice outlook of the lake and lots of stones arranged into stadium seating-very cool! We found three geocaches during the hike and during the last one Kenzie slipped and scraped one of her legs all up. She was a real trooper and after our second first aid stop of the day we continued down the hill without incident!

The kids checking out the cache!

Dom checking out the view from his seat.

Boomer sharing a seat with Kenzie.

The crew in the stone seats.

Tom checking out the view with Sophie.

Dog-sitting

A few weeks ago we did some dog-sitting for friends of ours. They have a dog named Sophie and she and Boomer became instant friends. They are close in age, size and energy level so it was a good match. No one is quite sure what kind of dog Sophie is as she is a pound puppy all the way from Florida. The main guess has been a chocolate lab mix but after spending 10 days with her I am not entirely convinced. She doesn't like water and is quickly bored with playing fetch. My amatuer opinion, is german shorthair pointer and rhodesian ridgeback. She pointed on several occasions and she has a smaller head and longer snout like a pointer. Along her back is a slightly darker fur that would stand up on end sometimes while playing with Boomer and she is much more red than chocolate in coloring. But this is all just speculation on my part. What I do know for sure is that she is a great dog and was a joy to have around!

We be Jammin- Take Two

Despite the not so good luck with the raspberry jam, I decided to try again with blueberries this time. The girls and I were invited to pick at a local farm with friends and the girls picked a bunch! I guess things are always more fun with friends!

I was pretty sure that the reason my raspberry jam didn't work is that I added the pectin too soon. So with the blueberries I made sure that I reached a full rolling boil and added the pectin for only a minute and this time success! Blueberry jam!

We be Jammin or Not...

Last week I took the girls raspberry picking hoping to gather enough raspberries to try making a batch of raspberry jam. The girls started out strong and Kenzie is always game for anything that involves food. Of course getting her to actually pick the berries and put them in the basket and not her mouth was whole 'nother challenge.

Becca quickly lost interst in picking and didn't even want her picture taken. I used bribery to get her to continue picking and took her picture anyway. Such fine parenting skills, eh?

Back at home I attempted my first jam session .....

And failed. The jars look really pretty and all the lids sealed properly but the jam itself didn't set so what I have is raspberry sauce which, I quickly discovered, is a good thing. It is yummy over ice cream and we plan on trying it over pancakes and waffles next. I will attempt to make jam again but for now I will enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Lots of Visiting

This weekend was full of visits with family. Saturday evening was spent at a cookout at my uncles house where we got to visit with my cousin Tracey and her daughter Caitlin. Caitlin is the same age as Mackenzie and all three girls hit it off very well, diving right into making Fairy Houses together. Silly me though didn't get any pictures of the three of them.

Sunday my niece arrived with her husband Micah and their daughter Abby. We also got a visit from Mark and Ellen who were out house hunting and will soon be moving back to the area. Very exciting! It was of course Abby who stole everyone's attention without even trying but how can you resist this face?

Abby found Kenzie and Becca very entertaining.

Enjoying the swing.




Swinging with the big girls

Good friends, Good Fun

Earlier this week we had a great visit with our good friends the Child family from Colorado.

They were able to spend the night with us which gave us a great opportunity to catch-up and hang out since it has been awhile since our last visit. The sun actually came out on Monday so we were able to take them out on the boat and have a nice little cruise around the lake.

Back at the house we had homemade sausage and a campfire with s'mores and sparklers. Due to several Star Wars fans we even fit in a lightsaber fight, though I won't say wether it was the big kids or the little kids who enjoyed that more!