Summer 2010 Update #3

The last couple months have been a bit of a whirlwind and as much as I thought things were going to settle down, they really haven't....and with the upcoming holidays, I don't anticipate that life will slow down too much, but I'm back!! I've decided that I'd like to cut back on blogging, though, so you probably won't see posts as often as I had been (before the break), but I am hoping to have something up at least once a week.

So, for the summer update! WAY back at the beginning of August, the neighboring town had one of my favorite groups perform at their Music in the Park, so I made sure to take the kiddos and we thoroughly enjoyed them! (The group was Three Men and a Tenor for those of you who may have heard of them.)

The following day the same town, that had the music in the park, had their Art Fair. I made sure to get some kettle corn while I was there (it's the best!) and my brother's friend was doing a book signing for his newest book, Michigan's Mysterious Lighthouse. It was a beautiful day and there was some truly amazing art there!

The 2nd weekend of August we had a birthday party to go to for my friend's little girl who turned 4 (she's also Morgan's best friend.) I also got to see her new little baby who was only a couple weeks old, then drove to see my other friends' new little one the next day. That Sunday we picked up 2 more calves, too, so that weekend was a weekend of getting my baby fix! ;-) It also ended with truck problems...with our brand new truck...but it was a fairly quick and easy fix...thankfully!

Two weeks later was another birthday weekend with my Aunt's surprise birthday party and Blake's birthday. (They share the same birthday-kinda cool!) Plus we went to Rich's old fire department's pancake breakfast that Sunday and followed that with his fire department's picnic....it was in the mid 90's that day and I really didn't need to eat anything! LOL!

Speaking of fire departments, Rich's burned an old house which I got pictures of, but on my dad's camera :-/ Then a few weeks later his old department burned a house that was on his grandma's new property and Rich had the opportunity to help with it!

This is the house being burned on the family's property. Rich is the one with the yellow helmet.

Watching the fire was so interesting! And the darkness in the picture is from the thickness of the smoke!

Rich is on the nozzle spraying down the tree to keep it from burning.

Family picture :-)

Labor Day weekend was a little more relaxed and on Labor Day we had a picnic with the family. The weekend after that, though, we had a wedding to attend. The wedding was Friday afternoon, so we dropped the kids off with my parents', who were going camping, then carpooled with Rich's parents and some family friends. We stayed that night, came back the next day and ran up to where my parents' were camping to get the kids....a lot of time on the road! The wedding was fun, though, and the kids had an awesome time with my parents' attending The Thumb Octagon Barn's Fall Family Days where they got to milk a goat, card wool and have it spun to bring home, make greeting cards using dried & pressed flowers, take train rides, pump water at old-fashioned pump and lots more! (I'm thinking I'll have to go there next year-sounds awesome!)

Rich and I ready for the wedding! Had to get a pic of us, since we don't dress up often :-)

The newlyweds :-)

A quick pic of the Octogon barn...we drove by since Rich had never seen it before.

Morgan started preschool the following Monday and has been LOVING it! I take her to school in the morning, so she doesn't have to ride the bus with the big kids and she rides the bus home right before lunch. It was a tough decision to let her go, but now that she's going I know we did the right thing :-)

Rich took a couple hours off to drop Morgan off at school with me on her first day...another family pic.

The next weekend was the fireman's memorial festival and the weekend after I had another Girls' Night Out with the girls from high school as well as an open house for a couple who is expecting their first in October. (SO many babies!!) :-)

In between all that I've picked, husked, hung, dried and shelled my popcorn. I ended up with a gallon bag full even though I cut back! I made sure to get them done asap this year and only lost a little bit to the chipmunks who decided to infest our mudroom (they are quite cute little pests though!) I also got 42 quarts of tomatoes canned and 14 pints of salsa...so far....all the tomatoes are picked (due to a frost threat) and I'm just waiting for them to ripen. The garden is basically done for the year-the only thing left out there is our pumpkins! :-)

The kids and I have also been working on several activities/crafts/projects that I hope to share with you in another post....this one is long enough! ;-)

Delicious Fall Recipes

I happened across some recipes this past week that I tried, loved and had to share with you guys-they're delicious!!

The first one I tried was Pumpkin Spice Popcorn that I came across on Jolly Mom. The kids and I had this for a snack just a couple hours after I saw it...I couldn't wait to try it and it is YUMMY! I actually made it 3 times that day I liked it so much!! (One batch was for my father-in-law, because it reminded me of him.)


Pumpkin-Spiced Popcorn

3 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. canola oil
3 Tbsp. butter
2/3 cup popcorn kernels

Combine sugar, spice, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

Stove top method:
Add canola oil and a 2-3 popcorn kernels to a large, heavy bottomed pot on stove top over medium-high heat. When those kernels begin to pop, the oil is hot enough to begin popping the corn. Add 2/3 cup popcorn kernels to the pot. Cook, covered, on medium high heat until fully popped--shaking the pot every 10-20 seconds to ensure that all kernels are popped and that popcorn doesn't burn. Turn off heat. Quickly add melted butter to the popcorn and immediately sprinkle spice mixture over popcorn. Stir or shake pot to coat.

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The next one I tried is Butternut Squash Soup that I saw on Momtrends. I had a HUGE butternut squash that my mom had given me and needed ways to use it up without having to eat it all plain(I'm not a big squash eater). So I thought I'd give this a try, especially since I could use up 6 cups of squash at once ;-) This was SO worth it! I never knew squash could be SO good!!! Delicious!!

Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:
6 Tbslp minced onion
4 Tblsp butter
6 Cups butternut squash (peeled, slightly cooked is better)
6 Cups chicken broth
1 chopped red pepper, or roasted red pepper
1 clove minced garlic
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 8oz package cream cheese (light if you prefer)

Directions:
Slice the squash in half and bake just enough to soften the insides. Remove from skin, set aside.
Saute onion, garlic and red pepper in butter till soft.
Combine onion/garlic, broth, squash, and cayenne pepper in a pot. Simmer until the squash is tender.
Remove from heat, puree in a blender, until squash is smooth.
Add cream cheese, puree again, then return to heat and simmer for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve with soft fresh bread and a bit of cream on top.

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The last new recipe that I tried was for this Pumpkin Bread that was on allrecipes.com. I had to make a dessert for workshop we had for Morgan's school and I always consider quick breads like a dessert, since they're so sweet....plus I STILL had more squash to use up! Yes I used squash instead of pumpkin, but I'm pretty sure there probably isn't a difference in the taste of the bread......it's still yummy! :-)

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3 cups white sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups solid pack pumpkin puree
2/3 cup water

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two loaf pans.
2.In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and cloves.
3.In a large bowl with an electric mixer, blend sugar, oil and eggs. Stir in pumpkin. Slowly blend the flour mixture into pumpkin mixture. While blending the mixture add water incrementally. Pour the batter into two prepared loaf pans.
4.Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 90 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pans.

I'm entering this post as part of the Gooseberry Patch Blog's Halloween Party. Head on over and join in on the fun!! :-)

Michigan Fireman's Memorial Festival

We spent this last weekend camping at Higgins Lake and enjoying the Michigan Fireman's Memorial Festival. We went up on Friday and had a steak dinner at the campgrounds with the guys from Rich's fire department and the neighboring town's fire department. Rich went out the the guys afterwards to the barn on the festival grounds for a few drinks while I slept! :-)

Rich's past chief's name on the wall.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to go to the memorial service. As we arrived, the rain started, came down hard during the whole service then, in a very timely manner, stopped when the service was over and the sun came out! Rich's fire department had his past fire chief's name put on the wall and they laid a wreath in his honor. The family also gave a donation in memory of him.

The kids trying to stay dry during the service.

Rich's fellow firefighter speaking about their past fire chief.

Rich, some of the firefighters and their past chief's mom by the name on the wall.

We skipped the parade and went back to the campgrounds to dry off a while before going to watch Rich in his Search & Rescue competition. He and his team (4 of them all together) had 15 minutes to get suited up and go into a dark, smoke-filled, three story structure and try to retrieve two rescue victims. The team did an awesome job coming in 3rd place and was the only team to find both rescue victims. (They were unable to get the 2nd victim completely out before they ran out of time, so they didn't receive points for it.)

The Search & Rescue team waiting anxiously.

Their time has started and they're getting their gear on.

Heading into the structure.

Rich waiting outside for his turn to run in.

The cheering section....my in-laws, their dog and the kiddos.

Morgan cheering "Go Daddy Go!"

The team!

Aww :-)

After the guys got their plaque and other prizes we went out for dinner at the local bowling alley and then back to the campgrounds. Sunday we packed up and did some more looking around at the festival grounds before heading home.

Posing with their plaque.

It's awesome to be able to go to such an event each year. Not only do I learn more about what goes into being a firefighter, but it's just a wonderful way to remember and honor those who gave their lives keeping their communities safe.

CSN Stores $60 GIVEAWAY *Closed*

Congratulations to the winner comment #1-Domestic Diva!! :-)

I'm a bit behind on getting this post up, so I'm going to keep it short and make it simple! After my original teaser post a couple weeks ago, CSN Stores offered one of my readers a $60 gift code to any of their 200+ stores! Isn't that great!? Thank you CSN Stores! So here are the rules:

GIVEAWAY:
To enter to win the $60 gift code to CSN Stores, please visit CSN Stores and tell me, in a comment, what you might like to get if you were to win!! (Don't get lost over there...I know I could spend hours looking around!) Make sure to leave your e-mail address in your comment so that I can contact you if you are the winner.

Giveaway will end in one week on Sept 28th at 10:00 pm EST. I will choose a winner using Random.org and contact the winner shortly afterwards. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and if I don't hear back from them, they will forfeit their prize and I will choose a new winner. Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

*Disclosure: I was offered to either do a review or host a giveaway in return for doing a teaser post and the review or giveaway post. All opinions expressed in the post are my own.

Birthday Boy!

Blake turned 3 last Saturday. If I think about it too much, I'd probably tear-up. I love his sweetness and cuteness at this age and I really don't want him to grow up, but unfortunately he will and is. (Although he promised me he would try to stay little.) :-)

Blake is a Lego lover (along with many other things-the little guy really knows how to play!), so when I saw a block cake on Betty Crocker's website, I had to make it for him! It fell apart on me while I was taking it out of the pan and crumbled like crazy when I tried to frost it despite it being frozen, but I still think it turned out cute :-)

At lunch, we had Blake's traditional McDonalds. We usually do McDonalds for breakfast, but we forgot. It's been a tradition since the day he was born. I went into labor super early in the morning and had been up so long that by breakfast I was really hungry. Morgan's labor had lasted SO long that I figured I might as well eat because it would be a while and Rich grabbed us some McDonalds....we've been doing it ever since :-)

Party time started at dinner where we had hot dogs, meatballs and a BUNCH of veggies! I even tried some new recipes to use the veggies up and everything went over really well! I know what to make next year! ;-)

Next, he opened presents and got all sorts, but only needed one! He was so anxious to play with his first toy, that it was like trying to pull teeth to keep him working on opening the rest! It was super cute though!

Blake with his cake, anxiously waiting for some fire to blow out! ;-)

This was taken as he was being sung to. He played shy and looked away from all the attention :-)

We also did little party favors for the kids for the first time this year...maybe jumped the gun a bit with him only being 3, but the kids loved them!

Blake had a really fun birthday and has been talking about it all week! I just wish it didn't mean my little guy is getting older :-/