Man, it was a gorgeous day. My cousin and I snuck away to the lake house with just the little siblings for a wonderful day of activities: chatting by the lake, frolicking at a playground, paddle boarding, delicious food, and a perfect campfire…to name a few. November in Wisconsin doesn’t get much better than this.
These cards disappear for months and always come back with a vengeance. And this time around, there a helpful bunny to offer advice during the games.
The book festival wrapped up on Friday and all the events were really inspiring and thought provoking and interesting. The group of volunteers that selects authors really outdid themselves this year. And the live + virtual options worked out perfectly. Now there are just a few odds and ends to take care of and we can all take a bit of a breather. Thanks to any of you that joined us for an event. I hope you enjoyed the authors as much as I did.
Halloween 2021 was a big success. We had a Greek mythology theme featuring Ares, God of War (Robbe) and Poseidon, God of the Sea (Chase). The boys came up with the costume ideas all on their own. Pretty sweet choices, don’t you think? A special shout-out goes out to my mom for helping me with my vision. I couldn’t have done it without her. I love a good homemade costume….can you tell?
Enjoy a quick history of all of the boys’ costumes over the years. I love looking back at all these photos, so I thought you might as well.
2020 - Legends of Zelda Family Costume
2019 - Ninjas
2018 - King and Knight
2017 - Scientist and Spider
2016 - Frozone and Tool Guy
2015 - Firefighter and Dalmation
2014 - Hedgehogs
2013 + 2012 - Goldfish and Owl (just Chase)
Mike and Andi hosted an epic 20s party tonight. We were so thankful to be back in Chris’s hometown for the weekend to help set up and partake in the festivities. So fun!
Isn’t this so beautiful? It’s entitled “Sanctuary” and it’s my new favorite mural in the city. It’s funny how that’s a category in my life now. Yay for public art!
I can’t get a link to work right now (technology and I are in a bit of a fight these days), but here’s an article about the mural if you want to learn more:
https://volumeone.org/articles/2021/10/06/284041-finding-sanctuary-madison-based-artist-integrates
No, he’s not our bearded dragon. A new bunny is plenty for us right now. Instead, his owner is my sweet niece—which makes my boys and that reptile cousins. Parmesan seems like he’s going to be a great cousin.
The book festival is officially underway. If you’re local, I hope you’ve seen some of our promotional materials and are already signed up for an event or two (or all of them). If you’re not local, good news! All six of our author events are being streamed live (at no cost). I’ve been living and breathing these events and books for the last five months and I’m beyond excited to actually hear the authors speak. I might be a bit biased, but I think these are going to be thought-provoking, and entertaining, and educational. Please join us!
Check out these beauts. A classic jack o’ lantern by Chase and a bunny pumpkin by Robbe. Pumpkin carving: check!
Everyone celebrates that, right? Substitute teaching has its perks.
Look who joined Robbe on the couch for morning reading time (and Flopsy jumped up there on his own)! As you might imagine, everyone was pretty excited.
You know about our love for the library by now, right? And how it has temporarily moved while the building goes through a massive renovation? Yep. That’s still going on…for about another year yet. We’ve been frequenting the temporary location and are so thankful to still have access to all those books (because we didn’t have that at the beginning of Covid), but, man, do I miss walking to the library as a fun outing with the boys. I walked by it today and couldn’t help but miss spending time there. We’ll be counting down the days until reopening over here!
We had such a lovely visit from my Uncle Dan and Judy this weekend. They joined us for dinner on Friday night and even braved the cold for the morning soccer games on Saturday. That’s dedication!
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
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