Together Again---Our Beautiful Cimba

Babe, Buddy, Cimba

Cookie, Buddy and Cimba---Buddy's first day with them---he spent a LOT of time with these girls--Cookie taught him all the tricks, and Cimba, "his mommy" watched over him.

 Cookie, Cimba and Buddy are together again, which brings us all great comfort knowing that, and knowing they continue to be with us, love us, and watch over us--our angels.

 We Love You Beautiful Cimba!  

We know we'll all be together again--please give lots of kisses to Buddy and Cookie for us!

Art Gallery: Halloween Exhibition

 

Art Gallery

 

Homeschooling Field Trip to Holiday Farms

Scenes from October Ohio

 

 

Fun Fun Fun with our Fellow Homeschoolers

Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch---Charleston

 

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread/ Muffins

3 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin
1-1/4 cup oil
1-1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
opt. add or replace with nuts, chopped cranberries

--In a large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda.  In another bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil.  Stir into dry ingredents, just until moistened.  Fold in chocolate chips.
 Pour into two greased loaf pans.  Bake 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes, or til toothpick comes out clean.  (I also made a batch with mini muffins--about 8-10 minutes bake time--and regular sized muffins, about12-15 minutes bake time.)

Potato Soup---Slow Cooker

6 cups of cubed peeled potatoes
5 cups of water
2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots
1/4 cup butter, cubed
4  tsp chicken bouillon granuales or 2 vegetable bouillon cubes (I didn't use these)
2 tsp salt
1.2 tsp pepper
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
3 tbsp minced fresh parsley
minced chives, optional

DIRECTIONS:
in a 5 qt slow cooker, combine the first nine ingredients.  Cover and cook on high for 7-8 hours or until vegetables are tender.

add milk and parsley.  Cover and cook 30-60 minutes longer or until heated through.  Garnish with chives.    (note: I also added Brady Street Sprinkle, paprika, and a red pepper seasoning blend)

Friday Fall Fun--A Look Back

Fruit Burritos (snack pack lunches)

1 cup of vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup peanut butter with honey
4--8 inch flour tortillas (optional, use whole wheat)
2 cups sliced strawberries
1 cup fresh blueberries 
1 sliced bananas 
(basically, fruit of choice:)
2 tsp cinnamon sugar (50/50 of each).

combine yogurt with peanutbutter in a bowl.  Evenly spread mixture on tortillas.  Top with berries, then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Roll and fold filled tortillas.  Slice into smaller snack sizes if desired.

***this is mother tested, kid approved!  this one is really good!

 

Crescent Veggie Pizza (snack pack lunches)

2 packages of crescent rolls
2-8 oz packages of cream cheese
1 cup of mayo
1 package of Hidden Valley Garden Green Onion dip
2 tbsp of dill weed
veggies of choice, black olives, etc

preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spread crescent rolls on a cooke sheet, press together to for the crust.  Bake 8-10 minutes, til golden brown.

Mix together cream cheese, mayo, dill weed,  and Hidden Valley dressing.  Spread on cooled crust.  Add veggies.  Top with grated cheddar cheese (optional).

***the original recipe called fro Hidden Valley Ranch Original Dressing.  I tried it with the green onion dip--holy moly is this super yummalicious!

A Race to Holiday Farms--Pumpkin Patch

We don't have very many pumpkin farms in SC--we were VERY spoiled with those in WI!

But I can honestly say, that though we lived in America's Dairy Land, this is the first time milking a cow!

I've done a maze or two in my day--corn mazes, right?  How many of you can say you've done a cattail maze?

Having an utterly good time:D

Gosh, and tractor racing was a first today too!  (a few of us grown-ups were going to attempt this, til we saw the weight limit:D)

Gosh, tractor races just weren't enough for us, so we added duck racing to the mix!

I guess we were in the mood for adventure, as we decided to try to rope a steer!  I did it, have you ever done that?

The theme of the day must be  racing--here's some barrel racing for ya!

And when the day's all done, we still want to cuddle with mama and daddy!
Holiday Farms