A good day for carving

Here is how we spent a beautiful Thursday afternoon.....

All ready to be lit up tomorrow night.

We also turned this:

Into this.....yum.

Hope you have a safe & fun Halloween!

Just enjoying the view

I was standing in the kitchen yesterday and as I walked by the door to the dining room, I happened to glance out the window and this is what I saw.......

Look at all of that beautiful fall color.

I decided I needed to walk out on the porch to get a better view.

Let's take a look around from the backyard.

Everything is so beautiful right now. Glad I was able to catch it before all of the leaves fall.

Hope it's beautiful where you are......now back inside to tend to a sick little girl.

Showing Daddy Some Love

Yesterday was Daddy's birthday, so after school, work, gymnastics, soccer game & banquet we finally got to show him a little birthday love.

The kids look forward to this every year because they love to pick out his gifts and they love to eat red velvet cake which is a tradition every year.

I had a little help making the cake.

Gift time.

Red Velvet Time.

Daddy, hope your birthday was great. We love you!

A Day to Celebrate

Today is a special day in our household......

it's Daddy's 39th Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to a man who is a wonderful husband and father. He is always putting our needs before his and we are so blessed to have him in our lives.

We love you and hope that you have a great day! (Sorry you can't go fishing.)

A Day Trip

Hi! It's me and I'm actually working in time to do a post. Yay me! (Disney reference - sorry.)

As some of you know, my mother came down from eastern NC for a visit.

I thought it would be a great opportunity to hit the road and see a little fall color in the glorious western NC mountains.

Come along, won't you?

The leaves still have some changing to do but we ventured on anyway.

Here's where we ended up.....The Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

If you've never heard of it before, it's an old stone inn and resort spa that has been known to have a very famous clientele including the current President.

This is on the front porch. It's lined with lots of old wooden rockers just inviting you to sit for a spell.

Here's one of the two huge fireplaces that flank the hotel lobby. They have little verses etched into the rock.

These rocking chairs were lined up in front of the other fireplace. I could definitely see myself sitting there on a cold evening sipping a cup of coffee.

There is a beautiful open veranda on the back of the inn that overlooks the golf course and mountains. The last time I was there, you could go out and sit in the rocking chairs but not now, they've turned it into the dining area for one of their restaurants. Darn.

That's a quick glimpse at one of my favorite spots. I've never even actually stayed here (yet). I'm hoping the hubby and I will be able to take a quick trip up one weekend. We'll see.

Here are a couple of the houses you'll pass on the road up to the inn - just beautiful.


Thanks for coming along. I hope you get to see it in person one day.

Busy Times

Just a quick explanation for why I haven't posted as much as I'd like:

1. I have children.

2. They have activities.

3. Their lives are much busier than mine.

4. Sleepovers, soccer & baseball games.

5. Birthday parties.

6. Husband's out of town on business.

7. Therefore, it's only me left to handle things. (arguements, meals, taxi svc, world peace, etc.)

8. I'm tired.

9. My mom's coming for a visit. (This is good - it's been a while.)

10. Upcoming gymnastics meets. (G is super excited - so cute.)

12. Too busy writing up a "honey-do" list - I then laugh & realize that he has no time to complete said list & then I bang my head against the wall & try to figure out how to add board & batten to every room in my house on my own.

13. We homeschool.

14. My kids like to eat & wear clean clothes.

15. A friend has lent me First Family by David Baldacci & I'm trying to read it quickly so I can return it.

16. I'm tired.

That about covers it. Hope y'all are enjoying your weekend and hopefully I'll have something interesting to post about soon.

When It's Yucky Outside....

When it looks like this outside:

(rainy & windy with temps in the 40's)

I love to see this in the kitchen:

I made apple crisp this afternoon with some of those delicious apples we picked at the orchard last week.

All I can say is........YUMMY!

Here is the recipe I found on Food Network.com if you're interested.

Apple Crisp

Filling:

5 apples (they recommended Granny Smith but we used Fuji)

peeled, cored & chopped small

1/4 cup finely chopped pecans

3 tbsp all purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp lemon juice

Topping:

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp chilled butter, cut into pieces

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients together. Place into casserole dish or ramekins.

Mix topping: flour, brown sugar, cinammon, & salt in large bowl. Blend butter into the mixture until it forms pea size lumps. Stir in pecans & sprinkle over filling.

Bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy.

We went pickin'

On Friday morning, I decided the kids (and I) needed a field trip.

It had been kind of a tough week. So, I got online, googled apple farms and off we went.

I have to admit that I did bypass a few of the local orchards in favor of one that was in the NC mountains.

We have mountain views from our neighborhood and I knew it would only be about a 40 minute drive (and I didn't even use my GPS).

I'm so glad we went. The scenery was beautiful and it was the perfect day to go pickin'. (It could have been a tad cooler, though.)

Take a look at what we found once we got there.

I would have loved to take some of this home.

We did take some of this home - yummy.

The kids loved this stuff.

Now, onto the orchard.
Just beautiful.

Look at all of that beautiful color that's just beginning.

It was eventually time to take our apples and head back home.

Such a fun day - thanks for coming along.