apple day, part II

After we finished picking our apples this past Sunday, we wanted to stay outside and enjoy the gorgeous fall weather we were having. So before we went back to her house to meet the others and make our pies, we joined Christine & her boys for a short hike. Christine stopped to pick up some bird seed to feed the chickadees, and we met up on the Jack Pine Trail in the Greenbelt.

Feeding the birds and spending the day outside, is something the kiddies just love to do, any time of the year. We are very lucky to have so much beautiful green space in our city.

cooking with daddy

the chicken and the egg

Today the kiddies and I baked some Easter treats.

Guess which ones came first.

The chickens...

or the eggs?

{And the answer is: Who cares...we are eating them all!}

halloween oh nine

Halloween came and went so quickly at our home. Here is how some of it went down.

We enjoyed all the sweets of the season. Like the ones that came in this box...

all the way from Winnipeg {thanks Auntie T and Uncle B}!
And these Pumpkin Fudge Brownies that Miss S and I made {a new recipe we were trying out}...

R and I made some Candy Kabobs to share with our friends. R's favorite candies were the gooey spiders and gummy worms...

We wrapped them in spiderweb cellophane bags to give them away, but this is how they looked as a candy bouquet...

R dressed in costume to parade around his school on the 30th. Miss S wore a witchy outfit for a play date party at Lee Ann's house with some of her pre-school pals.

Miss S's pre-school did not want the kiddies to dress in costume so they wore black or orange the week before Halloween. Miss S thought that was too boring so she wore a tutu and glittery shoes with her black tee {Fancy Nancy style}. When the tutu got in the way of her playing at the sand table, she just stuffed the humongous thing in her cubby.

Miss S also wore her tutu {a Halloween one that I made for her} to dancing class. I made one for The Other Miss S too. Their dance teachers came dressed as ballerinas for Halloween, appropriately so...

Monique always calls The Other Miss S her tasmanian devil. Here she is, the whirling dervish at dance class...

On the 31st, Miss S went to another Halloween party at a neighbors. R had hockey, and then went to the Sens game with K. We had squeezed in carving our pumpkins in the morning. R wanted his big pumpkin to be eating the littlest pumpkin. He sketched how he wanted it to look on paper, wrote "make this" on the top of the drawing and gave it to K to cut out...

And finally, the kiddies favorite part of Halloween. Dressing up and trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. This is where I said "if you don't stand still for at least one photo there will be no candy for you tonight"...

After hitting up all the houses on our street for candy, the kiddies and K came home to look it over. And line it up on our family room floor apparently...

And that was Halloween 2009.

And now I am going to start on Christmas, just so I can cross everything off my holiday To-Do list. {I am not kidding. Right after trick or treating, Renee called and we planned a shopping trip to the States for the next day. I'm almost done my Christmas shopping thanks to our spree!}

the girl with the most cake

Last week I celebrated my birthday. I was absolutely delighted with this cake...

that my wonderful, thoughtful husband brought home.

He ordered it from the girl with the most cake, after seeing their cupcakes at the Carp Farmer's Market in the summer. It is even more gorgeous in person, and it tastes as good as it looks.

I had a little help blowing out all my birthday candles...

and a lot of help with the eating of the cake!

My wonderful, thoughtful husband had also prepared a fabulous meal and brought me roses...

Grandma & Grandpa came over with gifts and wine...

and watched me open presents from family. Thank you everyone for the thoughtful gifts and the birthday wishes!

apple day

I am feeling fall today.

Watching the rain.

Drinking a hot cuppa coffee.

Baking apple struesel muffins.

Using locally grown apples and a recipe from this book that Grandma gave me, to make the muffins. This book is great - you use the basic recipe and then add various ingredients to make over 100 kinds of muffins. And the kiddies and I love to make muffins...

Enjoying these photos from the past weekend at an apple orchard...

Christine invited Lee Anne, Jillian, Jen and I, together with our families to celebrate fall with a trip to the apple orchard. So after R's hockey, we met to pick some apples... go for a hay ride and play in the muck...

Then the mommies all gathered in Christine's kitchen to bake our apples into pies, crisps and bread puddings. And drink wine. And make a big mess. {I made an apple crisp using a recipe from Martha. It was a good thing}.

And when we were finished with that, the dads and kiddies {all 11 of them, so we were a group of 21...yikes!} joined us for a wonderful pot luck turkey dinner with all the fixings. And many, many kinds of yummy apple desserts to choose from.

Happy Fall!