Fall-tastic

I am not a perfect mother (obviously). One of my imperfections is the amount I bake for my family. My baking sessions are few and far in between. We do Christmas cookies, and sometimes, those aren't even from scratch (parish the thought!!). On most Sundays, I make cinnamon rolls before church, but those pop out of a canister, so I don't know if I can count those either. Most of the cookies I bake are made from pre-made dough that I shamelessly buy from the grocery store. But sometimes, I do get a wild hair and decide I am going to bake with my girls. And since it is fall, I thought I would make one of my favorite desserts in the whole world (do I detect a selfish motive...?) Apple Crisp. And since I was feeling really good about my "wholesome" decision, I decided to make a double batch . . .from scratch!

I started by tying on my too-cute-not-bake-all-the-time apron that I got for my birthday (thanks, Nicole!)

Then I peeled and sliced 8 Granny Smith apples

While I started mixing the ingredients for the topping, Jocie mixed the brown sugar into the apple slices.

Once we got everything mixed together, in just a short 50 minutes later we had gooey yet crunchy, sweet yet tart, apple crisp goodness!

(I am unhappy to announce that this huge portion of apple crisp is already gone - largely due to my lack of willpower. Yesterday, I had giant slabs during mid-morning, mid-afternoon and late-night feedings. It also didn't help that the last two helpings were a-la-mode. I could honestly feel my ass jiggling when I finally walked away from the pan.)

After all that baking, we decided to head outside to help Carl and Ella rake up some leaves. After Carl made a few swipes with the "yard sweeper" we got this . . . Mount Leaf-a-lotis!

Of course with a pile of this magnitude, came a jumping show that I had front row seats for.

the free fall

the run in

the super-hero


the cannon ball

The meditation jump

Claire didn't think much of the leaves, but she sure had fun watching her sisters!

1-2-3-4 I declare a leaf war, let's fight!

Uh, oh . . . I think they are turning on me!

Seriously, how can this season not be a favorite! The fun just kept coming when we headed off to the 101 Market. This place just looks like a big green house from the outside, but on the inside it holds a HUGE corn pit, an exotic petting zoo (they even had a kangaroo!), tons of Fall decor, a go-cart race track, a corn maze, and the most pumpkins in the most varieties I have ever seen! We had a great time with all the activities and left the market with our hand-picked pumpkins.

I had such a great time baking on Saturday with Jocie, that I decided to bake some Pumpkin Bread with the little girls on Sunday. I must admit - I did not make the bread from scratch. I was gifted a cute little Pumpkin Bread Mix from Grandma Judy a few weeks back, so I bought a can of Pumpkin (Martha Stuart would be so unimpressed) and mixed everything together.

The recipe was supposed to yield two loaves of bread, but because I don't have two bread pans (probably due to lack of need) I made a dozen pumpkin muffins too.

If I had to write out a recipe for this past weekend, it would go a little something like this:

8 delicious apples

3 adorable girls

1 yard sweeping husband

3 cups of laughter

2 cups of sugar

2 much eating

1 pit of corn

Pumpkins - real and canned

Mix all ingredients together with all the LOVE you can find. Place in an 80 degree oven for two days.

Yield - a Fall-tastic weekend