Day 2233 | Fall Hiking
/We went back to our favorite spot for a fall hike today. Isn’t it just beautiful? The sun was shining, the boys were laughing, the scenery was breathtaking…it was a nice reminder of all that is right in the world.
We went back to our favorite spot for a fall hike today. Isn’t it just beautiful? The sun was shining, the boys were laughing, the scenery was breathtaking…it was a nice reminder of all that is right in the world.
It turns out bunnies aren’t huge fans of hardwood floors. Their adorable furry paws can’t get traction, I guess. This has worked out well for us as Flopsy gets used to our house (and the excessive volume of the youngest residents), but now that he’s acclimated, we wanted to give him more space to roam. Enter…the carpet tiles. For $3/each, we connected our rugged family room with our carpeted living/dining room. All of a sudden Flopsy’s roaming space tripled! And he’s very excited about it.
Robbe requested a leaf pile big enough to jump in. He got it. I may have went a bit overboard (it took nine yard bags to clean them up at the end), but it was worth it.
What do you do when it’s almost 80 degrees in October? Swim of course. Twice, actually. Go for a walk to see the new mural. And let the bunny frolic in the front yard. Ok, fall, now I’m ready for you.
I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted a recipe. I swear I’ve been making some really delicious meals and treats lately…I just never think about taking a photo before I dive in. Not this time. I just knew these muffins were going to be amazing. I even used some of the fresh-picked Cortland apples from our apple picking trip last weekend. What’s better than that? This recipe made 12 muffins and I still had some batter left over so I made a mini loaf out of it, too. Twelve muffins AND a mini loaf? That makes the recipe even better! Try it. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
INGREDIENTS
Muffin batter:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
2 [heaping] tablespoons apple sauce
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup grated apples
½ cups chopped apples
Strudel topping:
⅓ cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan (or use liners).
In a medium bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugars, applesauce, and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.
Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack. *If you end up with extra batter and want to make a mini loaf in addition to the muffins, I let mine cook an extra 6 minutes.
Look at these handsome guys. They might be our best school photos yet! Also, why do school pictures always make them look so old?!?
I’m in love with this photo. It’s my new favorite.
Photo credit: Chris
Even after five years, I will never forget how lucky we are to be able to pop down for a birthday dinner.
We’ve been waiting for a fall weather day so we could go apple picking (I refuse to pick apples in 80 degrees). Today was the day. It was mid-60s and perfect for a fun fall outing. We popped over to our favorite orchard and enjoyed a wagon ride, a corn maze, some outdoor games, delicious apple treats, and picked enough apples to last us the winter (or at least it feels that way). We also found this adorable rope swing. What a photo op!
I have a feeling I’ll be trying out some yummy apple recipes in my near future.
I promised a big reveal, and here it is! We adopted a Mini Flop bunny named Flopsy. It was quite the process to win over the rescue organization, but we did it and Flopsy came home tonight. The best news? He’s litter trained and should be able to free roam around the house most of the time. Fun, right? You know I’ll keep you all posted on the adorable bunny antics happening around here.
I’ll post this right here as a teaser. More details tomorrow. I promise.
Robbe got to go on a field trip to the Beaver Creek Nature Reserve and I got to go with! It’s been a long time since these kids have had a field trip and this one was just about perfect. A gorgeous day spent in nature discovering bugs, exploring the creek, and learning a lot. Robbe loved every second and, honestly, so did I.
We dropped the boys off at my brother and sister in-law’s house last night and had a crazy fun evening celebrating two friends and their new life together. It turns out leaving the house can be kind of awesome.
We visited these ginormous pumpkins today. They were as advertised.
Isn’t this the cutest little flower arrangement? The kindness of others goes a long way to brighten a day, doesn’t it?
This is just what I needed after a day like today: snuggle time with my favorite humans (Chris was there, too, but someone needed to take the photo). Also, a couple episodes of Lego Masters. That was a nice bonus.
Sunday felt Ike summer. Today was decidedly fall. And it felt pretty wonderful.
We attended today’s 4-H meeting in a barn! Nothing screams 4-H more than that.
Today was the day for picking our pumpkins! They’re perfect, aren’t they? And very heavy. Now they just need to survive the next month so we can carve them. Fingers crossed!
We thought we’d be crazy tonight and grab some takeout for an impromptu picnic in hopes of taking advantage of a beautiful evening. It turns out the restaurant we decided on closed at 5:30pm. What?!? The backup plan ended up being an indoor restaurant a block away. It was still delicious but not quite the al fresco experience we were looking for. At least I didn’t have to cook!
small city | BIG DAYS
home | about | meet the team | work with me | contact