Apple Picking with the Family

Remember a week or two ago I posted a FALL BUCKET LIST? Well, yesterday we marked off one the activities on the list---Apple Picking!

Ray and I took the kids to Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, NC! I have to say, the ride up was BEAUTIFUL!

 



This was our first year attempting this trip, and we were highly impressed.
When we arrived at the orchard it was busy, but everything was very organized. There were attendents out directing us on how/where to park (side note: parking & admission into the orchard are free!). We walked down to the main building to get our map of the farm and our basket for our apples and the staff was SUPER nice! Everyone was very friendly and more than willing to help with anything!

Once we got our basket & map, we headed out into the orchard.

 



Our first "stop" was at the Granny Smith trees. Bless Taylor's heart, she was too short to reach any apples so Ray had to hold her up into the tree! LOL!

 

 

 



 

Next stop was at the Arkansas Black Trees.

 

 

 

After our trip through the orchard, picking apples, we took the kids over to see the animals, explore the bamboo forest, and to feed the ducks!

 

 

After we did all of that, we took the kids up to the main building to get an apple cider slushie ($2/ea if you're wondering) and some fresh, hot, homemade apple cider donuts ($5 for 1/2 dozen) and let the kids play on the playground before we had to head back home.

 

Needless to say, we will definitely be going back every year!

 



 



31 Days of Halloween {Food Edition}

Cooking is a passion of mine. Add holiday {JOY}on top of that and WOW!!

The hubs says I get carried away around ANY holiday--I don't think so.

 

For the past 3 years I've done a NoRtH PoLe breakfast for Christmas. During that breakfast, our ELF makes her appearance. She brings along a couple goodies for the kids and everyone has a great time.

 

I figured for Halloween, I would do something similar. Only with Halloween, I want to do it ALL.MONTH.LONG! Crazy, I know!

 

 

My plan is to go as below:

1. Candy Corn Pizza
2. Used Bandaids
3. Orange & Black Pasta with Bones & Blood
4. Candy Corn Cupcakes
5. Jack-o-Lantern Burgers
6. Orange pancakes with spiderwebs
7. Dirt 'N Worms
8. Pumpkin Brownies
9.  
10. Apple Teeth
11.  
12. Jack-O-Lantern Quesadillas with Bloody Mary Soup
13. Mummy Sausage, Tombstone Hashbrowns with Spiderweb Pancakes
14. Witch Wands
15. Mummy Meatloves
16. Skeleton Cookies
17.  
18. Cauldron Cupcakes
19.  
20. Jack-o-Lantern Pumpkin Muffins (pumpkin muffins baked in pumpkin molds)
21. Spider Cookies
22. Chicken Pot Pie Pumpkies
23. Candy Corn Fruit Cups
24.  
25. Apple Cider Donuts
26. Mummy Dogs
27. Ghost Pancakes with Milk Shooters
28.  
29. Mini Pumpkin Pies
30.  
31. Snack-o-Lantern Fruit Cups
    
    I'm coming up short for 7 days! SO, if you have any suggestions feel free to comment & let me know! I'd love to know what YOU do for Halloween themed food!

Fall Bucket List

 

What's on YOUR bucket list for this Fall?!?!?!

September 7th, 2007

That, ladies and gentlemen, was the day this little stinker came into our lives....

 

 

Taylor Nicole was born on Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 12:47 pm. This little chunk was a whopping 6 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long! September 7th was the day that our little family became complete!

 

 

Our princess @ 1 year old

Our 2 year firecracker

 

Our 3 year old prissy pants

Our 4 year old DIVA!

Our 5 year old tomboy

Our little girl is a 6 year old,  silly, rotten, spoiled by some--loved by all, tomboy, DIVA! We wouldn't have her any other way!!

Labor Day Weekend

What better way to spend Labor Day weekend than:

1. With Family
   
2. At the Lake
   
    
   
3. Fishing!

 

We did all three!

 

My parents hosted a family gathering at the lake. My sister's family was there, my parents were there, and my family was there.

 

We went down on Saturday night and camped, fished, watched the kids play in the lake and, got a good laugh at my brother-in-law acting as a human diving board with the kids in the lake and got a lesson in redneck breakfast A.K.A sautéed Vienna sausages & pork 'n beans! Bleh!

 

 

 

Everyone had a great time!

Hawaiian Chicken Dinner

With school starting back for the kiddos, and football & cheer practices being in full swing we've been relying on the crock pot more. It's just easy to pop the food in the crockpot before I leave for work and dropping the kids off at school, and we come home to a finished meal!

Today's meal was

Hawaiian Chicken w/ Pineapples, Green Beans and Rice Pilaf!

 

I used the recipes for tonight's meal from these sites, just tweaked a bit!

Hawaiian Chicken w/ Pineapples (we couldn't find the BBQ sauce listed, so I used carribean jerk marinade)

Rice Pilaf (I didn't have any stock on hand, so I used chicken boullion cubes & water. Also, I used whole wheat spaghetti)