My Five Year Old

The day started with a little gourd painting.

My little princess likes to mix the paint colors.

My birthday boy requested a chess board birthday cake...

I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I said "yes."

I've never done a double-layered cake before.

Placing the layers of cake together wasn't the problem.

The tricky part was frosting it.

A note to anyone wanting to make a chessboard cake...

don't put the pieces on until the last minute.

We put ours on as soon as we finished frosting it

and the weight of the pieces started to push the cake out.

My birthday boy was happy with it, which was all that mattered to me.

He requested birthday hats about a month ago and didn't mention again until the morning of his birthday so

I ended up sewing a "crown" from this blog site

 http://www.gsheller.com/2010/06/how-to-make-royal-felt-crown.html

A Harry Potter outfit was his request for a birthday present.

This picture is the next morning at breakfast...he really likes the glasses.

My little man is five.  He makes me so proud.

A Night of Pumpkins

Here's my honey, helping my oldest draw the pumpkin face.

As you can see, there is already a face on the back of the pumpkin.  

If my oldest is drawing or writing and things don't turn out "perfect",

he tends to get a little agitated. 

My little perfectionist.

My little princess is not afraid to get dirty.

My little princess got some drawing help from mom...she wanted hers to be the scariest.

My oldest has been practicing this face for weeks on paper and finally got to put it on a pumpkin!

My special treat for the following day...baked pumpkin seeds.

I baked them at 250F for an hour mixed with a little butter, garlic salt, and onion powder.

Delicious!

Apple Picking

We drove up the ridge to a beautiful little orchard we had never been before...

it wasn't a dissapiontment.

This was the view from the tractor ride to get to the honeycrisp apple trees.

Here are four excited faces with bags ready to be filled!

Wait...where did our helpers go?

The two girls ate apples the WHOLE time we were apple picking...

I think they get that from me:)

Back on the tractor for a bumpy ride back to the truck.

Thank you God for a wonderful day filled with excitement, friends,

and of course, apples!



For My Sisters

My favorite time of year...

Fall

 when temperatures drop 

and the colors change.

This is for my sisters who now live in climates that don't get to witness one of the best

parts of living in the Midwest.

Oh Happy Day!

We finally got to pick up our pork today!

This makes me so happy...we haven't had meat in the freezer for far too long.

The greatest part of this process was being able to see it from start to finish.

The children and I visited the pigs every time we went to the organic farm

that they were being raised at. They even fed and played with them.

I'm happy to say that these animals had a happy life

and my children got to learn where the food they were eating came from,

which is very important to me.

I'm a happy mama with a pantry and a freezer full!

P.S. There is a great giveaway happening right now at http://www.gsheller.com/2010/10/phoebes-sweater-giveaway.html