The Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend we went to the Hillcrest Farms Pumpkin Patch. We had so much fun riding the train ride, bumping along on the hay ride and picking out pumpkins for Colten and Mahala. Nick, Brandy, Abigail and Ethan also went with us. We made a day of it and it was such a nice day. Between Brandy and myself we took soooo many pictures, but I left the other disc in Brandy's bag so I don't have a lot of them here. I cannot wait to see the rest of the pictures, but I wanted to share a few of the ones I do have. I might expand this post when I get my disc and some of Brandy's pictures. Until then, here goes:

This is the train ride we took. It is a real steam engine at the little kid size (I can't remember the exact proportions)


Going thru the tunnel ~ woo-hoo!!!

I took this picture about 5 minutes before my sweet little girl fell into this miniature pond. Although this is not the actual moment that she fell in, it is approximately the position she was in when it happened. It was inevitable.....

So, here she is after she fell in. As you can tell, she was quite upset while I was a bit amused! I didn't say "I told you so" but Oh how I wanted to!!! My little Mahala tends to be the one who has to learn from experience. What's really funny is that a little boy had fallen in just before her and she still didn't get it! She literally had to fall in before she learned not to lean over the water.

This is the hay ride we were all waiting to go on when Mahala fell in the little pond:


Yay! We finally got to go on the hay ride! (I think I was more excited about it than anyone)

This was Anastacia's reaction to the hay ride. The guy who drove the tractor asked us if we wanted to take the adventuresome route or the "sissy" way? What would any guy say to that - our guys chose the adventuresome way!!!! (I told the man he was manipulative and he said that was a mean thing to say). The "adventuresome way" meant lots of bumps and a hidden sprinkler that soaked all of us!!! I tried to hold Anastacia so she wouldn't get bumped, but the sprinkler was a shock to all of us and I couldn't hide her in time!!! Of course, I had to get a picture of that face!

After the hay ride, we all sat around on hay bales and recovered for a little while. It was a nice peaceful time, Daddy sucking on his piece of grass (can we say redneck?), Anastacia sucking thoughtfully on her fingers...

Did you notice Colten's head sticking out in the picture above? He and Mahala were going round and round this tree behind Daddy, playing hide-and-seek (getting extremely dirty, but what's a little dirt? That's why they were in playclothes).

Colten found a rope on one of the hay bales, so he was practicing lasso-ing everything in sight. I finally had to make him put it away when he lassoed Anastacia!

I just had to stick this picture in here cause I thought it was cute! Look at the drool hanging from her mouth ~ how adorable is that?!!

Ok, now back up the hill and under the train to the food, cause mama promised the kids snow cones (what was I thinking - they were only a couple of miles back up the hill!!!)....

And then after we all got our snow cones, back again down the hill to pick out pumpkins. We couldn't leave the Pumpkin Patch without getting pumpkins!!!!


Wow, we did a lot of walking on our trip to the Pumpkin Patch!!! But it was all worth it. We all had a blast and the kids ended up with some cute little pumpkins after all. I'll post more when they actually finish carving them. We started to carve them on Sunday afternoon and got attacked with some kind of stomach flu!!! Right in the middle of carving pumpkins. So, the pumpkins are sitting half-carved in the fridge while we all continue in our healing. We are all doing great today, just taking it easy. Anyway, when we get them finished I will post more pics! Until next time.......love you all!!!!!!!!!!

Homemade brownies

As part of Colten's school work this Thursday, he was learning to follow a recipe. We chose to do homemade chocolate brownies. He made them completely by himself, from start to finish, and they turned out to be really tasty. The only help I gave him was to lay out all of the bowls, measuring cups, etc. Mahala greased and floured the pan in which they were to be baked cause she HAD to do something (it was so hard for her to sit by and watch Bubba cooking without her). I was so proud of both of them - they did a really great job!! Here are a few pictures~~


Here, he is just getting started with measuring everything:

"Oh, yeah, gotta preheat the oven!"

He's mixing everything up:

Of course, he had to lick the spoon!


This is Colten, realizing that part of cooking is cleaning up the mess! Look at that face!!!





This is the recipe that he used:

Absolutely Best Brownies

½ cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
½ cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8x8 or 9x9 inch baking pan.

2.In a medium bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Combine the flour, cocoa and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in vanilla. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

3.Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven, or until edges are firm. Cool before cutting into squares.

And here is the finished product:

Mmmmm-mmmmm good!!! These were a great basic recipe for brownies, but next time he has decided to add some chocolate chips to the mix. (We've already gone to the store and bought them - he's decided that this will be HIS special recipe and he will just add nuts, chocolate or caramel to change it up).

I know, I know-long post with lotsa pictures. But this was Colten's first solo baking experience! And he did such a great job! I'm so proud of my boy!!!