Fall Harvest MTM

Today's Muffin Tin Monday is Fall Harvest/Halloween theme. I LOVE Fall flavors so we went with a Fall Harvest Tin. We had Pumpkin Muffins, Baked Apples, and Apple Cider.


Just for fun I let the kiddos eat outside using the hay as their table. They LOVED it!

I have been looking for a low sugar pumpkin bread/muffin recipe because it seems like every recipe out there is loaded with sugar. I tried this one out today and it was pretty good, it needed alittle something so I topped it with cream cheese and sprinkles for the kiddos and brown sugar and almonds on mine.

Pumpkin bread

4 eggs
1 cup honey
2 cups mashed cooked pumpkin
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup yogurt or buttermilk
3 3/4 cup whole wheat flour or all purpose
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat oven to 325. Butter 2 9x5 inch loaf pans
In a large bowl beat eggs and honey together. Add pumpkin and oil.
Dissolve baking soda in yogurt or buttermilk.
Sift flour (I don't) with spices (I just mix well) and add pumpkin mixture alternately with soda mixture, blending after each addition. Pour into prepared pans.
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes (for bread) or 30 minutes (for muffins). Remove from pans. Cool on wire rack. Makes 2 loafs. Not sure when a baby can have honey but I think it is definately a better option than refined sugar.

Open Ended Art ~ Black and White

This weeks open ended art is black and white. I gave the kiddos black paper, glue, eyes, and toliet paper that was cut in half long ways.

This is AB's, I LOVE it and think it looks like a mummy.
Here is Aidman's, he decided not to use any eyes and and broke all his tp into smaller pieces.

Lyssy surprised me. She was working beautifully and then....

decided to take all her tp OFF her paper. She got pretty ticked off everytime tp got stuck to her fingers.

And then she glued more back on, the big balls are what she took off from the first time around. I just stood back and watched her create, she must not have liked the way it was looking the first time around.

Scarecrows!

Today we had a playdate where everyone came over to make scarecrows. This is Aidman's scarecrow.

Of course the kiddos couldn't resist playing in the hay first!

My scarecrow.

I's scarecrow.

First they stuffed the heads with hay.

Then we colored on faces.

The moms had to put the clothes on bamboo sticks and the kids stuffed the scarecrows with hay.

We then read this great book The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anyting.

S and S's scarecrows.

We ate yummy pretzels.

G and J's scarecrows.

Afterwards Aidman helped my clean up the leftover hay.

Isn't it too cute for words?!?!

Happiness is...

Riding in the car with the windows down, the radio up, and...

Pretending you are in a ROLLER COASTER!!!

I LOVE these kiddos!!!

Halloween Tree

Last night I went to my friend T's house to make a Halloween Tree.

She had all kinds of goodies ready for us.

Here I am getting ready to make my tree.


I LOVE it!! And my kids LOVE it! I'm pretty sure I'm gonna add alittle more stuff to it though, maybe I'll spray paint the tree black and add orange lights.

The idea of a holiday tree is fabulous to me! I think I'm gonna make a Valentines and Easter one too.

Tt Activities

Teddy Bears... I got these wooden teddy bears at the dollar tree. The kiddos color them with markers and then we add a magnet to the back.

Tissue Paper... fun and simple gluing activity.

Toothpicks... They love playdough and I thought it would be fun to add something alittle different to it this time.

stART

I've been wanting to participate in A Mommy's Adventures Story + Art = A great stART for awhile now, I finally got around to it!! In preparing for the movie we decided to read Where the Wild Things are and make these cute wild things. We LOVE that book! I got this basic art idea from No Time for Flashcards.

The kiddos have been playing with their wild things nonstop and love them!

Open Ended Art~ Orange and Black

The theme for Open Ended Art is Orange and Black, because of Halloween no doubt. Everytime I think of Halloween, I think of the colors orange, black, and purple. Don't know why that is, but I decided to give the kiddos all 3 colors to paint with.

Aidman's

Lyssy's

AB's

Open Ended Art ~ Fall Colors

For this weeks Open Ended Art, I simply gave the kiddos red, yellow, and orange paper, scissors, glue, and pens and then went on my way to get housework done.

I came back to this.

Pretty good if you ask me and Lyssy even wrote her own name!

Kids in the Kitchen ~ Pumpkins

For this weeks Kids in the Kitchen we decided to use one of the pumpkins that we got from the farm yesterday. I LOVE cooking with pumpkins, during fall (while they are available) I like to cook at least one pumpkin a week. I freeze the pumpkin and then am able to use it in lots of different recipes.

Today the kiddos cleaned out the pumpkin for me (they ALWAYS love doing this).

Aidman loves to be silly and said he had a goop beard.

They Lyssy and I had some alone one on one time and she made the pumpkin seeds. She put 1/8 teaspoon paprika, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder into an empty spice container.
Then she shook it.

And sprinkled it on the seeds.

After baking, I put the seeds in a pretty leaf dish...

And the kiddos attacked it! They LOVE pumpkin seeds and the 3 of them ate the entire batch in just a few minutes.

For lunch I made pumpkin pancakes.

And for dessert tonight, I made a pumpkin pie. The wonderful thing is that I still had 2 cups of pumpkin left to put in the freezer!

Go check out more Kids in the Kitchen.

Green Meadows Farm w/ PALS

Today we went to Green Meadows Petting Farm with our Playgroup. We had a FANTASTIC time even though it was in the mid 90's here.

Each of the kiddos got to take home a pumpkin.

Lyssy liked feeding the sheep.

But did NOT want to touch the ducklings.

Aidman LOVED touching and seeing every single animal that was there.

Lyssy pet the goats.

And chaed the ducks.

This is what I LOVE about PALS... the friendships that the kids AND the moms form!!

Lyssy petting a chicken.

Lyssy, AB, and Aidman getting ready to take a train ride.

PONIES!!


Aidman milked a cow.

Aidman was petting the turkies.

This is the 3rd year that we've gone to Green Meadows Farm and every time we have such a fun time!