Fall Cuteness!

Happy Fall from Peppermint the bunny!

Peek-A-Boo!

 

We had a fall fun day on Saturday.  We went to a couple of apple orchards, went through a corn maze and picked our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.  When we got home and set up our pumpkins, I thought it would be fun to take a few pictures of our new bunny (Peppermint Twist) with the fall decorations.  Turns out, she loves to play with straw.  Thankfully, she did not take a bite out of any of our pumpkins during my photo shoot with her.  She's such a little cutie!

Kid's Favorite Homemade Potato Soup!

My kids really like my homemade potato soup so I thought I would share my recipe here.  It's a great way to get them to eat a bunch of vegetables.  I've been enjoying the cooler soup weather lately :)  I rarely measure anything but I'll do my best to give you a good idea of how to make my soup.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Ingredients:
Two large carrots peeled and chopped
About 12 medium to large potatoes peeled and chopped
1 stalk of celery rinsed and chopped
Dried Parsley
Favorite seasoning if desired  (I like Zehnder's chicken seasoning)
Salt and pepper
Cream cheese (I use about 2 Tablespoons of Fat Free)
Milk (I use about 1/2 cup of 2% milk)
Butter (about 2 Tablespoons)
Chicken Broth (32 oz)
One small onion (chopped)
Yellow bell pepper (you could omit this, I normally don't put it in but I had about 1/4 of a pepper that needed to be used and it turned out to be a nice addition)
Shredded cheddar cheese (I used a couple handfuls)


Directions:
Wash, peel & chop all veggies and add to a cooking pot.  Pour chicken seasoning and milk over the veggies and add to stove top.  Sprinkle seasonings, herbs and add butter if desired.  Simmer for about 30 minutes or until tender enough to mash.  When mashing veggies, you may want to leave a few chunks.  I like ours this way.   After mashing, add desired amounts of cream cheese and cheddar cheese (this will help thicken the soup).  Enjoy!

Fun and Cute Apple Themed Treats!

The leaves are just starting to have a hint of color and the temps are getting a bit cooler.  Fall is in the air!  This has me thinking of apples!   Today I was looking for some apple themed treat ideas and I found some cute stuff to try.  Check these out!

The Apple of our Eye Cupcakes from Family Fun


Krispy Apple Treats from Gourmet Mom on the Go


Caramel Apple Cookies (on a stick with no caramel or apples) from The Decorated Cookie


Mini Oreo Apple Pops from The Crafting Chicks

Silly Soup Switch-Up

Sometimes, it's just fun to break out of the routine and have some crazy, out of the ordinary fun at meal time.   I called everyone to the kitchen.  I let everyone (kids first) choose one item that would be used for eating or drinking and then directed them to the place where they would be sitting.   I gave instructions about the items on the table and how they would be "re purposed" for our silly soup meal.   Some people would be eating soup with stirring spoons and others eating out of a mini bread pan.  Some would be drinking soup from a mug and others would be drinking water from a measuring cup or bowl.   Rather than just putting out soup bowls and spoons, I thought it would be far more fun to enjoy our meal in a non-traditional way.  Everyone had a great time and there were lots of giggles around the table.   

Gluten Free / Wheat free Chocolate Chip Pancake Bar

I bought some allergy friendly pancake mix (Cherrybrook Kitchen, Gluten Free Dreams) and allergy friendly chocolate chips (Enjoy Life) and decided it would be fun to have a little chocolate chip pancake bar for a Sunday lunch.  I set out some fresh raspberries, syrup, whipped cream, squeeze yogurt and dried fruits.  Fresh blueberries and strawberries would have been great too but mine are frozen so I didn't bother with those.  Really just about any fruit would probably be good.  I told my kids they could serve themselves and decorate their pancakes anyway they wanted.   They had a ton of fun creating but most of the fun was eating.   They said it was better than going to a restaurant.   I enjoyed eating them too!  Above is a picture of my creation :)  I was going to take pictures of the kids pancakes too but they started eating them before I had the chance!

Back to School Fun!

Those of you whose children have started school already (home school, private school, public school, etc...), any fun first week of school traditions? If you have yet to start, anything special planned? I know some people go out for a special treat after the first day of school. Every new school year, I like to give my children one small surprise for each day during the first week of school. I spend one day by myself shopping for inexpensive but fun little items and then I hide one item per day in their rooms or place it on their pillows. Usually the last day is the Grand Finale with two small things, a treat or an outing to celebrate the completion of the first week of school. It gives my kids something to be really excited about & look forward too after the school day is over. My mom did this for me when I was in Kindergarten and to this day, I have wonderful memories of it.   I started this tradition with my kids the first week of Kindergarten too.  They loved it so much that I decided to do it each new school year. If you do anything special, no matter how big or small, please share. I love hearing new ideas.

End of Summer and another new pet!

I hope everyone had a wonderful summer.  We still have about a week left before a new routine is underway.   School will start here on September 4th.  We had a wonderful summer filled with many fun adventures and activities.    It's always hard to get back into a routine after so many fun filled days and no alarm clocks.  A couple highlights were a visit to a theme park and a week of vacation at our favorite cottage in northern Michigan .   After a lot of pressure, I finally opened the box of our cotton candy maker this summer and made cotton candy for my kids and neighborhood friends.  It was a pretty big deal.   My twins were given the machine back in February as a birthday gift and I figured, if I'm not going to let them do it during the summer...when will I ever do it?  It was a little messy but great fun for the kids.   Our most exciting news is that we brought home a new furry family member about a week ago.  A Rex bunny that my girls named Peppermint Twist.  She is almost 5 weeks old and super soft and cute!   She belongs to my twins and is supposed to be their responsibility.  We will see how that goes.  Our dog Charley is doing great with her but needs close supervision ;)  We've also had a summer filled with doctor appointments.  Allergy doctor, Pediatric Gastroenterologist and ENT doctor.  One of my daughters struggles with terrible acid reflux and we are spending a lot of time & effort trying to get that issue cured.  Both of my girls had their tonsils and adenoids out on August 23rd so they are currently recovering.   They are eating lots of frozen treats and watching more movies than I would typically allow.   They are also keeping me really busy waiting on them.  I gave them bells to ring and they have done a good job milking it.  So that is a quick recap of our summer.   I would love to hear about some of your summer adventures too.