Pumpkin Patch

We went to Farmer's Daughter today. It's a little farm market down the street. They always have the prettiest decorations and the weirdest pumpkins! Ever seen anythign like these before? They look like brains! I love the way the vines look rotting in the fields all twisted and empty.

We filled up a wagon full of small pie pumpkins after I gave the children a ride of course. They loved going down the hill on the bumpy gravel.

They have a snoopy themed pumpkin patch. Fiona and Gwen ran around to each cut out and posed. Of course Snoopy is everyone's favorite. Someday I will let them actually watch the movie, they still don't know it exists. Fiona picked a lovely green pumpkin to hold for her photo. She said she likes the shape.

Owen didn't care as long as he could hug it. Gwen thought they might have the plauge or something. Took a bit of convincing to get her to even hold ot like this.

Miles picked the biggest ugliest pumpkin to hold. I like this one better. He's helping my pick the pie pumpkins.

We had a great time and got a great bargain. It pays to go at what is the end of the season. We filled a wagon for the all you can carry price. I have 13 small pumpkins and they threw in 3 medium sized ones for the children. I also got a fairytale pumpkin, its supposed to be meatier and good for cooking with. And I thought I was done with storing food. I promise this is the last of it, I am so ready to be done!

The many faces of Gwen

While waiting for the boys to finish up their school work I decided to take some photos of Gwen. This is one of my favorites. Don't you just love the lip? She is just to much fun. Here she is reading her Biscut book.

I'm a BIG GIRL!

Sheer joy.

Concentration at its best.

And who could resist the finger in the nose?

Cheesy smile.

Big brother addoration.

Thoughtful and contemplative.

Aren't I pretty?

Full of wonder.

Pure Gwen all in the span of 5 minutes.

Greenland Gap

Here are some pictures from our trip to the family lodge in West Virginia. We had a great time and the children got to play with their cousins that they don't get to see very often. The weather was beautiful.

Here is the photo I will use for the Christmas Card. So excited about this one! They are all smiling AND looking at the camera.

This is the view from the lodge early in the morning, you can barely see that David is out fishing on the lake while I made breakfast, eggs, bacon, and blueberry muffins.

Small waterfall on Patterson Creek.

My girls! Aren't they cute! I just love Fiona's hair in the pigtails.

Here we are skipping rocks.

Patterson Creek. It runs right through the gap, there are big rock formations on both sides.

We played a little football on the front lawn.

Gwen showing off, she does this well. :)

The boys walking down the road into the lodge, the foliage colors were at their peak so pretty!

Fiona getting ready for her turn on the boat.

The girls walking up the hill. Gwen asked Fiona to help her. They can be so sweet!

Afternoon view from the lodge. Its so pretty I always take tons of pictures from this spot.

Owen catching a fish. You can see the lodge in the background.

The boys took turns going out alone. The lake is so small its a good place to practice. Miles rowed out and sat for a while.

Well thats all for now I won't bore you with the other 200 or so that I took.

Bad Hair Day

So I think the story goes something like this...

Fiona and Owen were playing quietly in the girls room. I came upstaris to put them all to bed, and noticed a trash can with two pairs of sissors and some gardening gloves in it. I thought that was rather strange but I just put everything away and went about my buisness. This morning I was in the school room putting in a flat extension cord when Miles pulls out from underneath the credenza a large clump of hair. Thats when it all clicked. Fiona had cut her hair AGAIN!!!!!!!

Finding the hair hidden under the furniture gave me a pretty good idea she know she had done something naughty. I really don't know how I missed seeing it for half the day.

This was not the nice stylish angled cut she did at 2 1/2, no this a hack job, pure and simple. So after taking these before pictures off to the stylist we went.



I was so upset knowing we would have to cut of at least 4 inches. Fiona has such beautiful hair I knew it would be hard. What I didn't expect was how much older it would make her look. I am NOT ready for that.

She does look rather cute don't you think???

Missing tooth

I ran out to the store to get a movie, since the children are sick. When I got some I saw this!!!


Owen has lost his first tooth! He is quite facinated with it as you can see.

Here is his new smile, it's kinda staged as you don't normally see his bottom teeh when he smiles, but he was very excited to get his gold dollar coin in the tooth pillow.
Thank goodness he does not believe in the tooth fairy because at our house she is VERY forgetfull. He got his coin at breakfast after giving a reminder. "Hey MOM my tooth is still in here"

Adventures in Applesauce

Step 1. Go get apples. This year we went to Ringing hill, they sell out of the back of the storage facility. You can watch them sort apples and see where they store them. The children like the stuffed deer and moose on the wall. I got 2 bushels of MacIntosh, 2 bushels of Smokehouse, and one bushel of Golden Delicious.Step 2. Tuesday morning wake up early and get everything set up! I brought the apples in from the garage and lined them up. Its always nice to know how much more you have to do. This is when the children nibble on fresh apples all morning for breakfast. They are still excited about making sauce. Step 3. Wash the jars for filling later. I think I only ran two loads, a dishwasher sure holds a lot of jars!
Step 4. Wash the apples! This is where I mix the varieties together.
This picture is out of order but Gwen could not leave the applesauce alone! I caught her a couple of times trying to lick the bowl!
Step 5. Cut the apples into quarters removing the stems. The strainer takes care of the rest! Both Miles and Owen were excited to be able to use the knife this year. They did a great job helping with this step.

Step 6. Fill stock pot with cut apples and about 1 cup water. Cook until mushy, careful not to burn the bottom of your pot. I had blisters on my hands at the end of the day from stiring.
Step 7. This is the strainer. On one side is the yummy sauce and on the other is the peel and seeds. I usually send this through anoth 2 times to get all the good stuff out.



Notice Gwen had lost her clothes by now. She ate bowl after bowl of sauce.

Fiona helping me with push the apples into the strainer.
Owen taking his turn, he is very good at turning the crank. Step 8. Fill the jars with sauce, wipe clean the rims and then process. this is also where you could freeze instead, but I would have to buy another freezer for that!
Step 9. Ahhhh its done and it only took 16 hours with the children helping and Gwen getting into everything and refusing to nap, she wanted to "help". All in all a good day. Each year just gets easier and each year they children are able to help a little more. They still were tired of helping after 8 hours.
I made 78 quarts this year. I hope it lasts until the next time!