National Fair

Due to our schedule this year, we were not able to go to the fair as a family.  Since we were not able to go to the fair last year, I decided to take the girls myself. After looking at the best and most inexpensive time to go, we were left with a Tuesday morning. My girls were not too thrilled when they found out we would not be riding any rides. They did not open until 5:00. Since Ella had a ballgame that night,  we had to leave before they opened. We counted the fair as a field trip and enjoyed some animals, arts and crafts, food, shows and even a little PE time(running up and down steps). 

I heard several times from Laney how it's not fun if you don't get to ride rides.

In my defense, I did offer to walk down and look at them!

I got the...... preteen......mom your so lame look!

Pumpkin Patch

We visited a pumpkin patch a couple of weekends ago with my sister in law and her family. It was not very big and did not include all the extras but that was just what we needed! We only had 2 hours one Sunday in between 5 other activities so this place was perfect! We rode on a hayride out to a field of pumpkins, snapped a few pictures and were done.

We only had part of our family go. Carmel was out of town and Griffin had other things already planned. 

Since we had already carved a pumpkin, this one is keeping a scarecrow and flowers company.

Pumpkin Carving

Last week, our group at church had their annual pumpkin carving contest. Let me just start out by saying some people get really serious about their pumpkins. If you were to come to this event, you may see drills, huge knives, blueprints for carving plans, etc. Others(like us) kept it simple this year and just showed up with a pumpkin. Maybe next year we will step it up and at least come with a plan and a knife! 

Ella and her daddy's finished pumpkin.

Here are a couple of the top winners!

Apple picking with a couple of recipes

A couple of weeks ago, we traveled a little north to an apple orchard to pick apples. We have picked many different types of fruit and vegetables but never apples. There is nothing quite like an apple(or any fruit for that matter) right off the tree. 

We met a few of our homeschool friends there.

We picked Granny Smith and Arkansas Black. We have never had an Arkansas Black so I wasn't sure how we would like them.  I picked one off the tree and devoured it!  After that, I was kicking myself for not picking up 2 baskets. Luckily for me, they had baskets and boxes for sale back at store. I ended up purchasing a box with a combination of Granny Smith, Arkansas Black and Golden Delicious along with a basket of peaches. I don't know why but I forgot to get a picture of all the apples we bought home. I realized this halfway through cutting them into slices.

Imagine this times 6!

We had a tailgate party at church so I made Apple Fritter Cake. It was delicious!!!!!

Next up was 12 pint size jars of apple pie filling. I followed this recipe. Let me share with you 2 tips I learned from making apple pie filling. 

1. Go ahead and order clear jel online. I went to 4 different stores trying to find this stuff and no one had it.  It is different than Sure Jell. According to all the comments I read, cornstarch is a big no no when canning apple pie filling. 

2. Make sure you stir your ingredients before putting them on the stove and constantly while its cooking. The clear jel will clump if not stirred well!

After eating many apples, I had intentions on trying a few more apple recipes. Due to ballgames and going out of town, I had to freeze the rest. I followed this for freezing. The tip on soaking the apples in salt worked well!

Another season done

Ella finished up her second season of softball this week. I think she may follow in her mother's footsteps and continue with this sport. 

She was on the Pink Pizazz team. During fall ball, the league is a little more relaxed and use it as a learning opportunity. Many of the girls on our team had only played one season or this was their first time. A more relaxed season seemed great until we realized several of the other teams were travel ball teams or all star teams. This made the competition extremely unbalanced and just plain not fair!! However, the girls learned a lot and improved a great deal over the season. 

I love the way the team circles up after each game and prays!

As you look at these pictures, you may be wandering why my child is towering over the other girls. This league is for girls ages 6-8. Ella was still 8 when we signed her up to play so she is over 2 years older than many of the girls on her team. One girl turned 7 the night these pictures were taken. Sadly, Ella moves to the next league and will not be playing with these girls next season.