Pumpkin Patch-ing!

I love fall, and I love pumpkins and pumpkin patches!  This year we wanted to go to a patch where the pumpkins actually grow on ground :-) so we made our way back up to Julian with my sister and brother-in-law and their four kids! We had such a fun day! 

We picked pumpkins, made apple cider, fed the farm animals, made candles, and went on a hay ride! 

Is it weird that I love this picture? Its cool right? Baaaa.

All that's left to do is carve them! 

Happy Pumpkin Day!

Three!

Last weekend we celebrated Jack's 3rd Birthday!  It's hard to believe he is already three, and he is definitely not a baby anymore.  In the week leading up to his birthday we were talking about turing three and he said, 

"I'm going to be three, and then I'm going to be a man!"  

Even when he is a man, he'll always be my precious little boy. It never ceases to amaze me how much he knows and how much he is growing and changing every year.  He is incredibly smart and funny, so loving and sweet, and yet still all boy. He already has a heart for the Lord, and loves reading his little Bible every night. I am so blessed to be his mommy and his life has been one of the greatest gifts the Lord has ever given to me.  

We had so much fun at his Dino-mite Dinosaur party!  He was so cute- when I set up the table he said, "Mommy, it's beautiful!" He loved every minute of it, which of course, made it all worth it!

We had a couple little dinosaur activities for the kids to do. The first one was the "Dino Dig."  We filled a little kiddie pool with sand and buried dinos inside for them to dig for and sift out of the sand.  

His birthday present...the jumpy!

We also had a "Pre-historic Ice Pick" activity where we actually froze dinos in tuperware so each child had their own ice block to chip away at! It was really funny watching them hammer as hard as they could on these blocks of ice! They of course loved it, although, it did take a little longer than we anticipated and some of the mom's helped out a little :-) It was also quite a warm day, so it was fun for them to play with the ice. [Sidenote: Jack is always super hot, and his little cheeks turned so bright red, and he was all sweaty from running around and jumping in the jumpy!]

After the ice picking, we had Jack's favorite food...pizza!

Bretters & Reecey

T-Rex Pinata!

T-Rex was actually a tough cookie to crack! It took a little assistance from Papa :-) Then it was cupcake time! 

He was a happy boy with his cute little chocolate covered face! 

Such a fun day, and such sweet memories!

I love this little boy...so much!

Happy 3rd Birthday Jack Hartley Bradford!

Mmm D'Licious: Apple Crisp

There are few things more wonderful than the tastes of fall. Apples, cinnamon, pumpkin, I love them all.  After our apple picking, I knew I would have to make something tasty out of our apples, so I dug up a couple different recipes for Apple Crisp. One was my great grandmothers, and the other was from my aunt.  I sort of combined the two and did what I thought would work best.  The result was *amazing.* I mean, so so good. If you love fall and warm ooey gooey goodness topped with vanilla ice cream...make this...asap.

Ingredients:

7 apples (mine were small, so I used twice that)

1 Tbs cinnamon

1/2 Tbs nutmeg

1 Tbs lemon juice

1/4 C water

3/4 C white sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1 C flour

1/2 C cold butter

1/2 C quick oats

Directions:

Peel, core and slice apples. If you have one of these nifty little things, its done in a flash!

No he's not wearing lipstick...he had a red lollipop. (I know...bad mom)

Combine apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice and stir. 

Combine sugars, flour and oats. Cut butter into flour mixture. 

Place apples in greased pan. I poured a little water in with the apples for a little extra moisture. Sprinkle flour mixture on top.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes (or until the top is golden brown).

Serve warm, topped with vanilla ice cream :-) 

Enjoy!

Apple Picking & Bluegrass

Fall is finally here! To ring in my favorite season, we took a little drive up to Julian in the beginning of September for apple picking! We had lunch in the town and then drove to a nearby orchard called Raven Hill Orchard.

Jack had a blast running up and down the rows of apple trees, and since they were all dwarf apple trees, he could reach the apples himself!

Of course I helped him reach the ones at the top of the trees :-) 

He thought it was so cool that he could eat the apple he picked!

Claire helped Daddy pick some apples too!

At the orchard there were also two little wineries where you could enjoy a little wine tasting after the apple picking. They even had "apple pie" wine made from the apples grown there. Jacky enjoyed some actual apple juice :-)

After our apple picking adventure, we found out there had been a bluegrass festival going on in Julian that was finishing up, and the musicians were heading to a little pizzaria called Wynola Pizza.  So we headed over for some pizza and bluegrass! 

With a big red barn as the back drop, we listened to some really good bluegrass as we enjoyed our dinner. Jack was so cute and clapped along the whole time!

Little Peewee conked out after a long day of festivities.

It was a really special day with my little family.  And we took home a huge bag of delicious, fresh, apples, so of course I had to make something yummy out of them! Recipe coming soon :-)

Happy Fall!

DIY Dresser (Almost-Disaster)

Everybody is doing it. And everybody is doing it themselves...right?  Well, I was always taught I could do anything I put my mind to, and up until recently, I would say that I believed that little adage. And after a month and a half, priming, sanding, painting, [insert disaster here] which led to re-sanding, changing to spray paint, re-priming, sanding, re-painting, sanding, followed by painting, sanding, painting, sanding, painting, sanding....you get the idea.  It was a long process.  Sean and I did it together, which was kind of fun, we got to mess up together, share the frustration, and fix it...together. See the life lesson brewing?  It was fun though, and definitely a learning experience.

My little helper

Sean's parents gave us this little brown dresser for Jack {since now his white dresser is filled with pink and flowered dresses, onesies, and rompers}.  The dresser was originally Sean's Grandpas, then his dad's..so it an old piece of furniture, but it was still in pretty good condition, with the exception of some nicks and scratches mainly on the drawers. I always wanted to get Jack a blue bedroom set like this one...but since the little brown one was free we of course took it.  Then after reading a few DIY blogs, I thought I'd try my hand at a little makeover. So we headed to good ol Home Depot and stocked up on all the materials we would need.  Long story short, our first attempt was a heinous disaster. I used a Painter's Touch Navy paint, which was more like bright sea foam florescent royal blue. Seriously. It was horrible. I thought {being a novice} that it might darken when it dried, since the paint in the can looked navy. When it didn't I thought maybe a second coat might darken it. It didn't. I was too frustrated to even take a picture/ did not want to remember the disaster. The good news is that spray paint really can cover a myriad of wrongs.  And we were able to salvage our DIY disaster. 

Sanding, filling the holes/scratches, more sanding...

all primed and ready to go

Skip ahead a few steps...[painting...lots of coats....and finish...lots of coats]

We switched the old hardware out for the sailboat knobs from Jack's white dresser. I love how it turned out, and actually still kind of think I can do anything I put my mind to. It just might take a lot of help from my hubby, a lot more time than I first estimate, and a few frustrations along the way, but that's ok.