Fall pictures

Nature Discovery Center Fall Fastival

Today after the soccer game we decided to give Daddy some time to himself at the house to finish his paper (that it seems like he has been "finishing" for months now) and we went to a little fall carnival in Bellaire. We bought some tickets and painted tombstones, played games, won little prizes and ate a sno cone. It was HOT but shady and the kids loved it.

Feeling a little orange

It is cold out today! 50 degrees and sunny and we are loving it. I really just LOVE dressing my kids in jeans and cold weather clothes. We sure hope this weather sticks around for Halloween! It is starting to feel how fall ought to feel!

Down on the farm

It is hard to believe we have lived in Houston for over a year now and it just blows me away when we do something that we did the same time last year...it has gone by so fast! Just take a look at how little my kids were last year we went to Dewberry Farms! So many things have changed (my love of collages being one of them!)
This year it was cooler and Sawyer was a little bigger and we had a lot of fun. We got there around lunch time so we started off with that. This year they said on the website that they had reasonably priced food so they weren't going to allow food being brought in. We were a little bummed because we had brought in a nice picnic last year, but we looked forward to checking out these reasonable prices. Upon arriving we realized that we are apparently not reasonable people....it was expensive! And basically it was all fair-like food....not so great for a diet competition participant like me! I should have known. But we enjoyed it anyway. And while we ate we sat next to the singing chickens which made it even more fun. Then we saw some animals, my favorite was the little piglets, and fed the goats (although Kate was definitely not as brave as last year!) We raced some rubber ducks, rode a corn barrel train (Sawyer wasn't a huge fan but warmed up to it eventually), and then Kate had fun swinging on a swing that we weren't sure she would be brave enough for (or even that she should feel brave enough for!) It ended up that she was and she did it and she loved it!
Then it was time for the main event, the pumpkin patch. Why have I not learned to do the main event first? By the time we rode the hayride out to the pumpkin patch we had 2 grumpy kids on our hands. Sawyer because it was past nap time and Kate because she had a seaweed like reaction upon stepping on the pumpkin vines and we couldn't calm her down. Sigh. So it was straight back on the hayride out of the patch and goodbye Dewberry farms. I was so bummed because Kate has talked about picking a pumpkin out all week long! Now I guess I'll have to let her pick one out of the pile at Kroger. Oh well.
So it was a fun day. And an excellent birthday celebration. It reminded me of the hayrides I used to go on for my birthday's back in my Ohio days. Only it was cooler and more fall like there. And we could pick Indian corn. I was telling Ryan about it and he didn't know what Indian corn was. Is this a regional thing, or is my husband just a little unobservant?
On the way home we went to dinner at my favorite Chili's (when you blow your diet on fair food for lunch, you might as well give up on the day, right?) to cap off my birthday celebration. It was a great day!
Here are the pictures to prove it!

Pumpkin cranberry bread

INGREDIENTS

3 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups granulated sugar
1 (15 ounce) can 100% Pure Pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (I used Craisins)



DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.

Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and orange juice in large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 60 to 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

***I LOVE the tartness it has when you use fresh cranberries!****

pumpkins, caramel apples and cold

last night we carved pumpkins and had a fun fall family home evening. the pumpkin kate got at the pumpkin patch was a little small for carving so I thought she might enjoy painting it more. we went to target after the gym and bought the paint and afterwards she talked about it constantly. I told her she had to wait until daddy got home and she kept saying "when daddy comes home, I'm going to paint my pumpkin!" here she is in her painting glory

she had fun and I think she's a pretty good artist. after the millionth time of her asking me to wash her paintbrush so she could switch colors, I got her a cup of water to wash them out herself (pictured in lower right corner). I went to work on carving mine and I heard ryan say "kate, is that drinking water?" she totally chugged down quite a bit of paint water. they're crayola...non toxic...right?

sawyer had fun eating his first baby food

not-so-pureed pumpkin guts. he loved it and ryan thought it was hilarious. kate found it all quite disgusting and I could tell she was glad to be just painting hers. we were going to put sawyer inside like we did with kate but ryan had cut the hole on the top a little small.

kate thought ryan's pumpkin was really funny and kept trying to imitate the face it was making. after I cleaned up dinner, helped kate and made the treat, I didn't have much time to carve mine. but I saw the hole punch effect on someone's blog and thought it would be fun.

to make it feel even more like fall we made caramel apples. I think I did a really good job making them thick enough that they didn't drip...too much.

It was a fun night. then this morning I woke up to a cold bedroom. anyone not in houston...or tucson for that matter....might think this isn't so weird. but it was the first time I've actually felt cold and it was nice. it was the perfect morning to just lay in bed relaxing for a while....but no one told my kids that. sawyer woke up at 6:00, crying and not being easily comforted. I finally got him to sleep and snuggled in bed just as kate woke up and came in my room. sigh.

but I had fun dressing them up in some cold weather clothes. I've been dying to have kate wear this sweater ever since I got it from hilary!

and here is sawyer as I attempt to have him sit up so I can take a picture. he prefers laying on the ground....as evidenced by the fact that he kept flopping down (intentionally and happily) as soon as I sat him up.

its fun seeing them in some winter clothes! now I need to go take a warm shower and cuddle up on the couch!

Dewberry Farm

On Saturday we went to Dewberry Farm for a little bit of autumn fun. 80 degree autumn fun. It had SO much stuff to do and we had a great time. Here are some picture of the fun swings and slides and hay pavillions and jumping pillows and wildflowers.

Sawyer got to ride in the backpack for the first time and he liked it....for a little while. Once he got tired he wasn't liking it as much.
Kate impressed me by actually feeding the goats herself! The first time we bought some food she was too afraid but then we did it again and she walked right up and fed them! AMAZING!

Kate LOVED the big roller slide. She would have done it oever and over again.

And we rode the train 4 times.

The last thing we did was a hayride to the pumpkin patch. Sawyer was hungry by then and I hadn't brought my nursing cover or a blanket so here I am nursing Sawyer with our backpack sunshade.

There were lots of pumpkins to choose from, but most were HUGE. It was hard to find a Kate-sized one.

And here we are on the hayride home. Sawyer was fed and happy and Kate was happy to play with him
More happy Sawyer

We were all really tired by the time it was over, but it was really fun. It kind of made me wish we lived somewhere where it FELT like fall...but we have some fun pumpkins to carve tomorrow night!