Pumpkins, apples & more pumpkins!

Two weekends ago we were able to go to a small local pumpkin patch. We got to pick out a couple little pumpkins and handpick some yummy apples. I also bought a sugar or pumpkin from Safeway to make a pumpkin pie from scratch. I've never made a pumpkin pie from scratch before.

So this weekend (the 17th-19th) we got to play with all our goodies.

It was a good, relaxed family weekend.

We decided that we would try making homemade apple cider with all of our apples.

It turned out really good! In fact I don't think the kids actually got any, Matt and I drank it up pretty fast, we also didn't get any pictures of the finished product. 

We juiced our apples then put the juice in the crock pot with some orange slices, cinnamon sticks, cinnamon, cloves & some nutmeg. I can't wait to go back to the apple orchard to pick some more apples! I'd like to make more cider and some applesauce for the kids.

Every year we let the kids paint pumpkins while Matt carves our family pumpkin. The kids have so much fun. It's so cool to watch Ava as she is getting to the point where her artwork is actually becoming recognizable. She means to draw/paint something and so she does.

After we picked out the spider template for our pumpkin and Matt had already started carving we realized we should have done the WSU cougar logo... Oh well, next year!

My little pie pumpkin baking at 375 degrees for 1 hour.

Love his little kissy face.

Ava, hard at work on her pumpkin.

The baked pumpkin has such a pretty color.

It was so easy to peel off the skin to get to the pumpkin.

Making the puree went very smoothly.

I think I got about 5 cups of pumpkin puree from my little pumpkin. It was so easy to make the pumpkin puree that I am excited to make more for some other fun recipes like Matt's pumpkin waffles!

We had enough seeds from both the pumpkin Matt carved and my pie pumpkin to make two batches of roasted pumpkin seeds to snack on.

We like making these little videos when we do our pumpkin carving. We ran out of batteries and memory while recording but it's still fun. Normally we'd do a little family dance at the end when we'd finish our pumpkins, so just imagine us all dancing and waving our pumpkins around in your head.

Christmas Prep

We had such a fun busy weekend this last weekend with Jason's birthday party and all the family in town. We rested a bit and now it's back to work. 

Today the kids had swim lessons. They are almost done with their first full round of swimming lessons (8 classes).They are having so much fun going to the pool twice a week and getting more comfortable in the water. Jason freaks out every time as he gets in the water then about 23 seconds later he is totally fine and smiles and laughs through the whole lesson. Ava's teacher lets me know how good of a listener she is and how straight she keeps her legs in the water. They are loving it!

Some Christmas Prep

I am a big planner when it comes to Holidays and birthdays, especially Christmas. I started some gift projects this summer and got my Christmas shopping lists made I don't know when. One of the things I know you can get this time of year are some great Christmas card freebies.

There have been a couple deals for free Christmas cards already and I realized that I needed some pictures so I could take advantage of these deals. So today we went outside for a few minutes and snapped some shots. The colors outside are amazing right now. Fall is my FAVORITE time of year, it's always so beautiful. We found some pretty red bushes to get that Christmas feel, I am pretty happy with how a couple of the pictures came out.

Not much Christmas shopping left for me. I think really I only have 2 gifts left to purchase along with a couple gift cards, the rest of the gifts on my list will be handmade. I have completed my shopping lists for Ava, Jason, Emma & Caden (minus 2 items) & snagged 30 out of the 40 Christmas cards I need for FREE.

If you want to take advantage of one these deals you can go to Shutterfly.com to get 10 FREE Christmas cards using the coupon code: GREETINGS

Shipping will be about $5.99

*This deal good through Monday Oct 20th

I picked these Christmas cards.

By the way...

69 days until Christmas!

(that seems like SO many!)

Jason's Spiderman Birthday Party

"With great power comes great responsibility."

-Voltaire

What a great way to celebrate a birthday, surrounded by family.

We had such a great weekend (and still going strong) visiting, eating and celebrating.

Jason was blessed with so many great, thoughtful gifts. He LOVED every single one.

I am so grateful to everyone who made the great trek out to Pullman, sent/gave Jason a present or sent a card/called. I think it's safe to say Jason had a great birthday weekend.

My hand painted semi (toddler) life-sized Spiderman

Jason helped pick out the cake design. He asked me just about everyday for 2 weeks when I was going to make his Spiderman cake.

Caden as Spiderman!

Ava checking out all the sweets

The kids' auntie Dawn!

The kids got to go play in the pool at grandma and grandpa's hotel while we set up for the party!

Doing the WSU grand tour with our tour guide Engineer Matt.

Thank you everyone for making his birthday so special!