Birthdays

I am now the mother of an 11 year old! Every time I think of my little girl as being a middle schooler I am flabbergasted! I don't have another word for it... I can't believe it but my baby is growing up. I know, this post is a month and a half late but that's ok... so is Mia's birthday gift. She is so hard to find the perfect gift for because she doesn't ask for "stuff". So although her birthday was the 9th of November I just this week figured out what we are giving Mia for her 11th birthday. She decided for her birthday she wants to give her school library money to get more Accelerated Reader tests. What a girl!!!

Gabriel's Birthday #3 being the day after Thanksgiving was pretty low key. Mike and Gabriel went on a BIG tractor at Grandma Kathy's cousin's and Mike's mom and dad came over along with my mom and Jon for cake (cranberry coffee cake) that Mia and I made. He is growing up fast and before I know it he will be 11!!!

Croissants

Going to Paris so often has definitely spoiled Mike in the food and drink categories. His usual French breakfast is two croissants and an espresso. Every time he comes home he wants to try to make croissants and we finally did.

It is a long process so we decided to grab a wine six pack from cork n' cap and spend the night at Ron & Chloe's and give the croissants a try.

After making the dough roll it out and let it chill for an hour




While the dough is chilling the fun part comes... pound the butter flat with a rolling pin.




Roll the dough out again and fold it into thirds around the butter







Now for the next few hours the dough has to be chilled-rolled-folded. So it becomes layers of dough and butter.

(Chloe had a few 1/2 bottles of wine in the fridge so we hardly touched our six pack)



When the rolling and folding is done let it chill overnight.

In the morning you shape the croissants, let rise for an hour and bake.







They turned out so yummy! I also read you can freeze them after they have risen. Then at night take them out of the freezer to thaw overnight and pop them in the oven in the morning.

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Vacation

Back in the summer of 2009 Cori and Paul found out that Paul's sister was going to be getting married in Orlando in the fall of 2010. Cori thought "Orlando, YES! I haven't been to see my Nana in way too long and she is only and hour from Orlando." What a perfect opportunity to get us together and spend some much needed time with our Grandma. So the planning began...

Mike, Allison, Jacob, Mia, Gabriel, and I flew into Orlando on Friday (the same day as the wedding) and drove the hour and twenty minutes to Paisley. When we got there, of course, Nana had food waiting for us (tortillas, pork chili, and beans).

Saturday Cori and Paul drove up and we spent all day sitting around talking and "practicing to be old ladies" (a.k.a. crocheting and knitting), oh and eating.

Sunday Nickie and Rascal drove down to spend a couple of days with us. It was so great to be able to see them! Sunday night we had a fire at my Aunt & Uncle's house by the lake and drank some wine. Thankfully the bear waited till we went to bed before coming to see if we left any food unattended.

Monday we got up at 5:00 to say goodbye to Cori and Paul. After a little bit more sleep Allison, Nickie, and I took the big kids to Universal's Islands of Adventure so we could go to the new Harry Potter theme park and Mike took Gabriel to Disney's Animal Kingdom! The kids (and adults) had a great day. Mia rode her first, second, and third roller coasters and Gabriel got to meet one of his new favorite guys, Donald Duck!

Tuesday we spent the day relaxing. Nickie and I went to check out a few hiking trails and springs before she had to go back home. We took the paddle boat out on the lake, played in the sand pile, and went to bed early.

Wednesday off to the beach we went. We drove down to Cocoa Beach and spent to day in the sun and waves. Gabriel loved the water and Jacob had fun burying Mia up to her neck. We all slept very well that night.

Thursday was another day of relaxing and homework! I know homework, on vacation? But that's what happens when you skip school to go to Florida!! Allison and I took the kids to the library (that's a new thing in tiny little Paisley, FL) so they could cram in lots of homework time.

Then it was Friday, time to fly home. It is always nice to come home after being away, but coming home to a house you love is so much better. Mike's cousin Hillary stayed at our house with the dogs and everyone did great.

Keeping Warm

What kind of old farm house would we have without a wood burning furnace?

So far heating with wood is going great. We did have a few days that is got REALLY warm in the house (so warm we had to open all the windows). But after Mike got the furnace figured out it stays pretty consistent. We are also very lucky to have an abundance of dead trees available for us to use (saving money). Not to mention cutting the trees and splitting the logs are great exercises for my computer geek. ;-)
It is a lot of work but over all I think we are going to like this chore. The kids are pitching in as well, gathering sticks, loading the wood onto the trailer to bring home and piling it into the basement.

They took the wagon around the yard looking for sticks

and got quite the pile!

Helping daddy start the fire.

"Mommy don't touch it. It is berry berry berry HOT."

Into the basement it goes.

Papa O had the brilliant idea to use an old slide for this job.

Blueberry Oat Muffins

Today was the perfect day to try out this delicious looking blueberry muffin recipe in my new issue of Hobby Farm Home magazine. So this morning Gabriel helped me whip up a batch. They are super yummy... this is definitely going to be recipe used regularly around our house!

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
2/3 cup sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups blueberries
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In large bowl, combine dry ingredients and stir well. Fold in blueberries. In small bowl, beat eggs, milk, oil & vanilla. Add liquid to dry ingredient and stir until thick. Bake in muffin tin for 20 minutes.

He even lined the muffin tin all by himself

Broken Computer: Update

We got our computer back from Apple yesterday... the hard drive was dead (just what we thought) and NO I didn't have it backed up. Most of the pictures from before Gabriel was born I had on disks. A lot of the pictures I took in the last two and a half years have been from my phone (all still saved on the phone thank goodness) but I have no pictures from Gabriel's birth or his first 8 months. I am just really glad we have lots of Grandmas that like to take lots of pictures of the kids cause I am going to need some. (I bet I have some on Facebook.) The only other thing I am bummed about are the 100+ episodes of Curious George we had on it! George is on iTunes so we can just save up our "Entertainment" budget and get them that way (or hope for iTunes gift cards for Christmas) and back them up!!!

What is this THING?

I found this at the local farm market (Adams Farm) and couldn't pass it up!







They had it labeled "Peanut Squash". After googling "peanut squash" all I could find were links to Delicata Squash (also called a peanut squash). So I did what any other googler would do... I googled "squash with peanut like wart" and found some people are calling them "Peanut Pumpkins". Come to find out it is called Galeux d'Eysines and it is a French heirloom traditionally used in soups and sauces. YUM!! I plan to put the 15 pound giant in the oven today.


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Oh no... a broken computer

I have a few updates but the computer broke (with pictures already on it). So I decided I had better get an app for blogging.

The best news is that Mia is LOVING her new school. She has started band and is playing flute. Her papa Ron (the Douglass one)(She has 3 papa Rons, a papa Jon and a papa Don!! That's a lot of "ONs".) has been working with her this summer because at her new school they start band in 5th grade. She also is running for class representative for student council. It was very surprising to me because Mia is very shy before she gets to know people. (according to Mike she is shy for a minute then she is in your lap.) But she told me "I'm going to be more outgoing and less shy at my new school". So, I guess a new school, a new Mia. We will find out if she will be on student council on Friday... I will keep you posted.

A Winter Garden

We are starting to prepare our winter garden! The plan was to get a hoop house but we don't want to spend all that money right now. So we are going to go with low tunnels this year. I am very excited about veggies from the garden this winter cause I had a lot of fun with my garden this summer. BUT next summer should be even better if I get a earlier start (we couldn't start the garden till June this year when we got the house) (that's 3 month later than I would have liked to start things). Here are some pictures...

Bean plants (before beans)

Crookneck squash

One of the 37 tomato plants (all kinds of varieties) this happens to be one of the 2 kinds of cherry tomatoes we had.

Watermelon

Eggplant (I thought I had a picture of this guy when he was all grown up but I can't seem to find it.)

I also planted Beets (never made it past the sprouts cause I put them in the ground too late), Zucchini (just started making its fruit cause I started them too late), Sweet Potatoes (not time to dig them up yet), Peppers (got about 2 bells and 10 jalapeño), Cantaloupe (got one that we ate today it was yummy!), Broccoli, Cabbage and Cauliflower (that the woodchuck ate ALL OF the same night I put them in the ground!!!). That's what is great about having a garden... There is always next year.

But we did get 21 bags of this Tomato Glut Sauce roasted and in the

freezer for the winter. I can't wait to eat it!!

Our Monarch Butterfly

Between having Nickie and Aunt Cori home, Mia had her cousins spend the night. As Cora was dropping Ryan and Emma off she found a monarch caterpillar in our field that was ready to form its chrysalis. We took it in the house with some milkweed and put it in a box with plastic over the front so we could see what it did. Cora told us what to watch for so we could see it form the chrysalis and watch it when it was opening up. We missed watching both of these amazing acts of nature because when we woke up the next morning it was a chrysalis and it popped out when we were shopping for school clothes. But the kids LOVED watching the butterfly fly away!

Cori's Visit Home

As we all know Mike is traveling a lot for work these days. He had a two week trip to Paris in the middle of August but didn't leave me home to fend for myself this time. He used some of his airline miles to fly Cori home for a week (what a great husband)! We had a lot of fun and even got a few things done around the house, like painting the playroom. We didn't tell my dad she was coming home and that made a great birthday surprise for him.

Nickie's Visit Home

Nickie hadn't really planed on coming home for her birthday this year. I told her I was going to have a party for her 30th birthday with or without her, so north she headed!! She had a family reunion the same weekend so it worked out great. She and Rascal drove up on a Thursday and stayed with us until Wednesday. We had a great birthday party on Saturday and did a lot of "home" running around getting things for her to take back with her that she can't get in Florida. We of course HAD to go to Ann Arbor and we snuck in a trip to IKEA. The visit was way too short and I miss her already.

Picnic In The Yard

Having a big yard that isn't taken over by dogs for the kids to play in is the best thing! Mia loves being able to take Gabriel out for adventures and to explore. They also love to pack their backpacks to have picnics. I snuck along the first time and got some cute pictures.

Cupcakes From The Last Few Months

Kathy's Birthday

Nickie's 30th Birthday Luau

Chloe's Birthday