Tea Party

Mary Reese had all her girlfriends over today for a tea party for her final birthday celebration {yes...we are still celebrating}!!! This year I let her pick the theme, the guest list and the food. She decided on a Tea Party and instructed each guest to bring their favorite doll.

She was the hostess with the mostest! She welcomed each guest at the door...


...inviting them in to paint their own tea cup...


These girls took their paintings seriously!


While the girls were painting, their dolls were visiting on the couch...


After their cups were decorated, she showed each guest where to sit at the table...


They dined on an array of fingerfood...


...chocolate dipped marshmallows, chocolate dipped pretzels, carrots and celery with dip, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Princess Punch {pink lemonade and ginger ale}, grapes and cheese straws. She also served make-your-own sundaes and cake squares...


The girls had a wonderful time visiting with each other...




She thanked her guest for coming and sent them home with their tea cup and a special rice krispie treat...

Thankful Thanksgiving

I am thankful during this season for so many things!


I am thankful for these 3 children...


...who getting a decent picture of all 3 together is next to impossible!

I am thankful that Banks is having such a fabulous year in school and is loving every minute! His teacher has been making "Thankful Pie" for 25 years now...


...and Banks has been having a ball sharing it! You say something you are thankful for and then you get to reach in a get a "piece of pie"!

I am thankful that I got to attend a Thanksgiving Lunch prepared by Mary Reese and the rest of her class...


...eventhough I was late and missed their big performance! But I did get to enjoy Thankful Stew and homemade butter! All the children brought a different ingredient and they made the stew themselves. They also made butter for the rolls and corn muffins. It was delicious and delightful!

I am thankful for this new addition on his first Thanksgiving...


...he has the best disposition! But one day he is going to pay everyone back for all the silly things they have done to him!

Mobility

Owen has hit a new phase in his life...it is called MOBILITY! He has been really crawling all over the place for the last several weeks but last week we he started doing this...

Can you tell he is so proud of himself? He is pulling up on everything and crawling everywhere! This morning as I was heading out the door, I could hear a muffled cry. This is where I found him...
...he crawled into our closet and had gotten stuck under some of Jody's shirts!

Fall Teacher Treats - Apple Butter

This is the last week of school until after Thanksgiving! The kids are going to take their teachers a treat to enjoy during the holidays...


Apple Butter


It is super easy to make and taste delicious and delightful! {Not to mention how marvelous your house will smell while this simmers away!} Jody and Banks stopped at the farmers market Saturday morning and bought these beauties from a local orchard...


I had high hopes of taking the kids to the actual orchard this fall but we never made it! Maybe next year!

First you...

...core and slice 16 apples. {I did a few extra because I had some hands that kept wondering through my kitchen "sneaking" slices.} Then you...

...dice them up into your crock pot. Add...

...some sugar and spice and everything nice. Then you...

...mix it all up and turn your crockpot on HIGH for 2 hours. After 2 hours, it will look like this...

Turn it down to low and let it cook away for 6 more hours, stirring occasionally. When it is done cooking, it will look like this...

I use my hand held blender to...

...blend it up to my desired consistency right in the crock pot bowl.

Then I place my HOT apple butter into my HOT jars and listen for them to seal! I got 12 half pints out of those 16 apples.

I printed some stickers and wrapped them up for our teachers! We hope they enjoy them on some hot buttered biscuits during the break!

FIVE!

This little chickadee...

...turned...

...today!

We have been celebrating it since Sunday!
We had our families over Sunday night for a dinner celebrating Mary Reese and Granny LuLu's Birthdays. The menu included their favorites: fried chicken and catfish, mac and cheese, creamed corn and lima beans. For dessert...

Strawberry cupcakes with pink cream cheese icing and a caramel cake!

Tuesday afternoon she traded her flip flops in for the season for these new weather-appropriate kicks…
For those of you who know her know that putting those flip flops away for the winter is HUGE! I still haven't convinced her to wear socks but at least Jack Frost won't be nipping at her toes!

This morning we measured her on the basement door frame...

...she has grown an inch since last year!

Today she celebrated with her class at school. Jody delivered them a pizza to share at lunchtime. She also took a tray of confetti cupcakes with pick buttercream icing {not sure if the 10 boys in her class will dig the pink icing but her and Bentley sure did}!

Then we bagged up Rice Krispie Treats in the shape of a 5 for her friends to take home…

Tonight she picked one of her favorite restaurants to go to for dinner…
Happy 5th Birthday Mary Reese!

Festive Holiday Appetizer - Pumpkin Butter Spread

A friend turned me on to this... ...which can be found here. If you don't have a store near you, order it online! You can use it to make this... ...Pecan Pumpkin Butter Spread

The recipe:

8 oz. block of cream cheese
1 jar Pecan Pumkin Butter
3-4 slices of bacon, cooked & crumbled
1/4 c. finely sliced green onions
1 c. chopped pecans

Combine all ingredients except cream cheese. Serve on top of cream cheese with crackers.

*I thought the whole jar on 1 block of cream cheese would be too much. I used only 1/2 the jar of butter and halved the bacon, green onions and pecans. It was plenty on a block of cream cheese!

Quote of the Day

This child did not try his best on a paper he brought home from school today... Jody made him redo the paper. Banks told us that we were the only parents who would do that. He followed that statement with...
"I am being mistreated so just call the orphanage!"
I just had to turn my back because I couldn't keep a straight face!

Happy Halloween Week

We have been celebrating Halloween for over a week around here! It started last Friday with Mary Reese and Owen's Fall Festival. Wednesday night, the youth at church had a Fall Festival/Trunk-or-Treat Fundraiser. Mary Reese went as Belle and her friend/cousin Sarah Laine was a Princess as well... Mary Reese and Owen had Halloween parties at their school on Friday... While Banks had "Book Character Day" at his. Can you guess who he went as? Banks has really gotten into the Magic Tree House Books. So he went as Jack {one of the main characters}. They all had to take their book, put them in a pile and then try to match the book with the person in their class.

Friday night we went to Halloween Carnival at DCC complete with a hay ride! Saturday night was finally Halloween! Chipper, the Princess and her frog... ...all went over to a friend's house for Trick-or-Treating and dinner. The kids {I think we had about 15 or so} had a ball getting candy and playing! We came home with a ridulous amount of this... ...that we should never be able to eat! Thankfully this morning we enjoyed the extra hour of sleep!