I ♥ Faces for Nov 17th

This week's theme at I ♥ Faces is "Autumn Beauty"

It is all about capturing a photo of a person surrounded
by the beautiful colors of autumn. Since we live in MN
we have great colors to photograph!



Click on the button below to visit the I ♥ Faces website, where you too can join in the fun and share your "Autumn Beauty" with us, or just come on over to enjoy all the beautiful fall pictures!

And feel free to visit this post to see more beautiful fall colors and my family enjoying them.

Mary, Mary Our Pumpkin Fairy

If she were older I am sure that our little
Mary might not like what her siblings
have been chanting all day:
"Mary, Mary our sweet pumpkin fairy"
But for today she just giggles and enjoys the attention!

Fall Photos!

I figured that if I shared the photos that did not turn out in my previous post, I should probably also post the ones that did turn out! I think we did good:

My sweet Rosebud


Our adorable Gus-Gus


Very handsome O


Z-man, our champ!


And tiny little Mary girl


All of us together:

Let's Celebrate Fall

Let's Celebrate Fall at Tiffanie's Blog, Three Peas in a Pod!!!

Today's theme at Tiffanie's Let's Celebrate Fall Extravaganza is Halloween. What are you doing for Halloween this year?

We don't really celebrate Halloween. I'm not into the spooky scary stuff and the kids really don't need candy. We do like to let the kids buy or make costumes to wear to the church harvest parties and to wear to the big bonfire our city has on the 31st. And honestly the creative play that occures over the next few months in the costumes makes them well worth the money. Over the years We've had various Disney princess costumes, Peter Pan, Captin Hook, Buzz Lightyear, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Winnie the Pooh and Elmo ... but this year they choose:


Baby Lady Bug (ok I choose that one)



Fire Cheif


Ninja


And a gymnast

Lets Celebrate with Fall Crafts!

Let's Celebrate Fall at Tiffanie's Blog, Three Peas in a Pod!!!

Today's theme at Tiffanie's Let's Celebrate Fall Extravaganza is Fall Crafts. Come check out craft ideas and share yours with us!

My kiddos love to find beautifully colored leaves this time of year and we usually try to dry and press a few to keep.

Here are a few great websites if you are looking for instructions on pressing leaves and crafts to do with them:

www.kidsturncentral.com/crafts/leafcrafts.htm
www.crafts.kaboose.com

Here are a few good pages for lapbooks or notebooking:

www.homeschoolshare.com

www.kidsturncentral.com/coloring/leafcolor.htm
www.kidzone.com


And one of my favorite things to do is take pictures of my favorite people in the pretty fall leaves:

Celebrate Fall

Let's Celebrate Fall at Tiffanie's Blog, Three Peas in a Pod!!!


Today's theme at Tiffanie's Let's Celebrate Fall Extravaganza is Halloween Past. Our past memories or photos ... hmmm makes me wish my scanner was working ... I have some very cute photos from the years before I kept photos on the computers. But I think these ones from last year are cute, too:







We don't participate in trick-or-treating. I'm really not much for celebrating Halloween, but we do get costumes and goto our church's Fall Festival and our city has a huge bonfire ... I'm talking HUGE, the pile of brush they burn is much bigger than our house! The kids get free hotdogs and chips and cookies. Its sponsored by the police dept. and fire dept. so there are fire engines and cop cars to look at and climb in. Its a fun time.

Happy Fall Ya'll and Happy Birthday To Me

Let's Celebrate Fall (and my birthday) at Tiffanie's Blog, Three Peas in a Pod!!!

Fall is here and with the season comes memories from the distant past, traditions, and fun times. Fall evokes a feeling of warmth and happiness. The air is filled with falling leaves, crisp cool air, apple pies, warm sweaters, and comfort foods. Tiffanie figured, Why not celebrate this season with fun prizes and sharing memories. So everyday there will be a new theme on her blog that she will ask us to write about on our own blogs and then sign Mr. Linky back on her blog. At the end of each day (midnight) she will pick the winner using Random.org. Sounds like fun, right? And she has some great prizes!! So come on over and join us!

Let's Celebrate Fall Extravaganza will run from October 20-26th.

Honestly fall is my favorite season, and not just because I have an October birthday. All those things mentioned above like, the crisp air, leaves, apple pie ... mmmm, give me that warm fuzzy feeling.

Today's theme at Tiffanie's Let's Celebrate Fall Extravaganza is Favorite Fall Recipes, there are lots of good ones! And I bet each of us have one we could share! I actually have a two to share. The first one that came to my mind is:


My Mom's Russian Tea Mix

2 cups of Tang
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1 cup Lipton lemon instant tea

(also possible to use Lo-Cal sweetened tea mix and omit the sugar)

I mix all these together and store in an air tight container.
When you are ready for a very delicious cup of tea with a fall feel, heat one cup boiling water and add 1 to 2 tsp of mix per cup.

Mmmm, drinking mine as I type. When ever we got fall colds and sore throats my mom made this tea for us ... eventually we asked for it even when not sick ;-)

My next recipe is Swedish Meatballs. I heard the story over and over through the years that this is the recipe that my dad found to make for my mom the day they brought me home the hospital back in 1973. Yep, that makes me 35 today!!! Most years on my birthday we would have Swedish Meatballs for dinner. Oh! and my mom made them for me the day I brought my first daughter home from the hospital.


Swedish Meatballs

1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 cup minced onions
3/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 Tbsp minced parsley
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/8 pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1/2 cup milk

mix all ingredients thoroughly
shape into balls the size of a walnut
brown in 1/4 cup hot fat(I use veg. oil)
remove meat balls & make gravy (below)
return meatballs to gravy & cook for 20 min.

Serve meatballs and gravy over mashed potatoes or egg noodles

Gravy:
STIR 1/4 cup flour, 1tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp pepper into hot fat (or oil) in skillet.
STIR in 2 cups boiling water and 3/4 cup sour cream

Let me know what you think if you try either of these. And please share your favorite recipies with us over at Let's Celebrate Fall Extravaganza



Here I am with my kiddos, my parents and my niece and nephew having my birthday cup cake. No Sweedish meatballs this year, though. We decided to order out from a very nice Italian place this year, I wanted real Gnocchis this year and yes they were delicious!!! Thanks Papi for running all the way into St Paul to pick them up and thanks to my sister, Amber, for hosting my birthday dinner at your house so all our kiddos could enjoy running around together! Its tough to take 10 kids out to eat ;-)

Ahhh ... Fall is almost here. Everyone needed long sleeves and long pants today. I love MN seasons! By the time we reach the end of winter we are ready to see the snow melt and feel warmer temps, but by Sept. we welcome the cool crisp mornings and the need for a sweatshirt. Leaves are mostly still green, but we'll soon see bright reds, yellows and oranges ... then before we know it there will leaves all over the ground.

This is only my second entry for 2007. The idea of keeping a blog has proven more difficult than I had imagined ... or maybe its the 4 kiddos that keep me too busy to ever sit down and think long enough to type anything :) But honestly, I love being busy with my kids ... they are one of my greatest reasons for rejoicing. God has truly blessed us!