Autumn activities

We go apple picking almost every year. And almost every year, out of all the apples we pick (usually 2 bags...) we eat maybe 3 apples, tops. And I feel terrible about it!  But this is because almost every year I declare that I am going to make an apple pie. So we pick a lot of apples. But every year, I do not make the apple pie and the apples sit on the counter, then in the frig, then in the garbage. It is wasteful, it is sad, but it is what I have done in the past.

Well, this year is different! This year I am going to make an apple pie. Yes, sir. Apple pie.

You see, while I don't believe I suffer from full blown Mageirocophobia (fear of cooking...), I do fear cooking in a BIG way.  I don't cook.  I am seriously afraid of it for some ridiculous reason.  Maybe this is why the only things my girls will eat are mac and cheese (from a box, duh), chicken nuggets or raviolis...Hmmmm...
BUT, I am actually a good baker. I know, it doesn't make sense that I could fear cooking but would be okay with baking. Maybe it has to do with food being a necessity and dessert being fun and so I don't worry so much about wrecking it. Maybe it's because I am deathly afraid of undercooking meat. Maybe it's because I'm not very good at it and screw something up EVERY time.  Maybe it's because I married a chef who is SO good at cooking that it makes me look really bad...  I don't know, but I fear cooking.

Anyway, despite the cooking fear, I can bake. I've made amaretto chocolate dessert tarts, I make a mean banana bread and I have created really cool and yummy cakes over the years (cake that looks like a hamburger, Backyardigans, tennis ball, pool ball...the list goes on). I enjoy baking chocolate chip cookies (probably because I enjoy eating them) and I really like baking sugar cookies to decorate with my girls.  So, this year I am making an apple pie. With my friend Amy. She's going to help. Because in my world, I see bread, cookies and cakes in a different category than an apple pie.  Apple pie falls into cooking and it scares me. Maybe it's because it's unknown, maybe not.  I don't know.  My fear of cooking is irrational, so why not add another irrational factor to it! So Amy's going to hold my hand and cheer me on while I make an apple pie.

And hopefully she'll peel some apples.

Here are some pictures of our apple picking adventure and the corn maze:

The corn maze... For the last 2 years (and once in 2002 with X) we have brought the kids to get lost in a corn maze. They have so much fun running through the corn and meeting each other in circles and hitting dead ends and it truly is fun to watch them do this!  It is absolute torture for me to be lost, especially in a maze, and I tend to feel a lot of anxiety but they enjoy it and a lot of times being a mom means doing things your kids like even if it might feel like a circle of hell for you...I just try to keep remembering to breathe & know that it's just a stinking maze of corn!  They even have "corn cops" to help you if you need to get out.  So I do it.

Sick days & a rainy day

We've had two sick little girls in our house over the last few days and to say it's been trying is an understatement. There's nothing more frustrating than seeing your children sick and suffering and not being able to do much to ease their pain. They've been writhing in pain with fevers, stomach aches and joint aches. I'm not one to rush to the doctor's office but I was tempted this time around - and I did call twice...

Not sure what they had/have, but I think/hope/pray it's on its way out! Just in time for a rainy day...sigh.

BUT I bought this puppet activity a while ago and had saved it specifically for a day just like today!

And boy did the girls love it. It was worth each dollar. Thank you Martha Stewart (and Big Lots). This entertained us for over 3 hours today!!

This is entitled: Froggy, Rabbit and Piggy having fun until Lion wants a tasty dinner...and then his tail falls off...



While we were creating and playing with puppets, this is what Bella did:

Found the camera! . . . Lost the tooth . . . literally.

So we found the camera & here is how excited Sofia is: 

But . . . The night she lost her tooth she was so excited about finally losing her tooth & wanting to show it to Daddy the next morning that she took it out of the plastic bag and jumped around with it and it flew out of her hands & came to rest somewhere on this carpet:

I never realized that the carpet looks like a bunch of little teeth until I had to search (in vain) for a tooth on this carpet...

Sooooo...I'm not sure how to handle the tooth fairy.  How can she come if there's no tooth to exchange for money?  But how can the tooth fairy not come when a first tooth is lost?!  What do we put in place of the tooth?  I thought maybe a nice picture for the tooth fairy to find...Or a fake tooth made out of playdoh...We've got to figure something out because that tooth is L-O-S-T.

Guess What!?!?

Sofia lost her first tooth!  It was on the bottom!  And I can't find my camera!  Anywhere!  ACK!!!

She's very excited so I drew a picture of her, but it won't scan in!  The computer can't talk to the printer/scanner for some reason!  So...you'll just have to settle with the knowledge that the first tooth has been lost by our little girls!  Ava got her 6 year molars first, but Sofia lost a tooth first!

It's an exciting night here in our household.  I'm trying to get her to delay putting her tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy b/c I really want to take a picture of it before the tooth fairy takes it!  I hope I find my camera before her permanent tooth grows in...She's got a cute smile :o)

Interlude

I know, I know...I said I'd continue with summer BUT . . . I haven't set aside enough time to get a summertime post together SO . . . Here is a picture of my girls with their favorite blankets in the whole wide world!  They started first grade with their new transformer & batman backpacks & lunch bags.  They love this stuff.  And I love them. 

And here's our new pet.  We keep him outside.  On the deck.  We actually never invited him to come live with us.  He invited himself.  And built his own house.  We avoid him at all costs.  The dude is SCARY.  He can stay with us as long as he likes.  I'm not kicking him out.  He might bite me.  Or wrap me up and eat me over a few days. The dude is BIG.

Summertime! (part 1)

So I'm having issues with blogger & posting pictures. It's not showing my pictures when I create a new post so I have no idea what the post will look like. So, here's one short post & I will try to figure out what's going on & create another post soon. (I know, promises, promises...)

Our summer was full of swimming & fun. We did a lot this summer, but I don't have a whole lot of photographic evidence because when I wasn't forgetting my camera at home, I was forgetting to get it out of the bag to take pictures! I did take some pictures with my phone, but there are 2 issues with that. 1) I'm not sure how good the quality will be when I upload them, and 2) I have no idea how to upload them.

So, until then, here are some pictures of our summer.
Tree climbing, fudgesicles and the beach...What can be better than all that?
Oh yeah, a pose with the pine man in there, too!






More pool, beach, local food fest and wave pictures to come...Once I figure out how to fix this picture upload issue...

Parades

Nothing special this post - just some parade pictures!
But first here are Ava & Sofia on a climbing wall! They made it all the way up several times!!






Above was 4th of July, below is Gaspee . . .