Fun at the Fair

On Sunday we took Addison to the St. John's County Fair. She had fun looking at all the animals and teasing the goats. Unfortunately she wasn't able to ride any rides because you had to be 36 inches for all of the rides :-( Thankfully they had the pony rides though!! Did I mention that it was close to 90 degrees that day...uh...I'm so ready for fall temperatures to arrive.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: First Pony Ride & Blog Feature

My blog is being featured today over at The Boys Mama blog. Make sure you stop by to link up!

Tasty Tuesday: Meal in a Pumpkin

MEAL IN A PUMPKIN

Image Source

Ingredients:

Medium sized pumpkin (4 pounds)

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1/3 cup chopped green pepper

3/4 cup chopped celery

3/4 cup chopped onion

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon

pepper

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoon brown sugar

1 (4-ounce) can mushrooms

1 (10.5-ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup

2 cups cooked rice

Black olives

Steamed carrot

Whole cloves

Fresh parsley

Directions:

1. Using a sharp knife, cut lid from pumpkin and scoop out pumpkin seeds and excess membrane with a scraping tool.
2. In a large skillet, combine ground beef, green pepper, celery and onion; cook over medium heat until ground beef is browned. Add next seven ingredients to skillet. Mix well and place mixture into pumpkin cavity.
3. Place lid on pumpkin. Place pumpkin on a foil-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 1/2 hours.
4. Just before serving, embellish pumpkin by placing (with toothpicks) black olives to make eyes, a steamed carrot to make a nose and whole cloves to make a mouth. Use fresh parsley leaves to make hair around the opening.
5. To serve, scoop out part of the baked pumpkin, along with the meat mixture, onto each plate.

Our Weekend

We had an amazing weekend. Brian and I both took Thursday and Friday off work due to his Dad and wife Beth visiting from up North. We had a wonderful time watching the girls play at the beach and spending lots of quality time together. I can't say enough about how great it is to have family come and visit and how much it means to us that Addison gets to spend time with her Papa and Beth. We were sad to see them go but anxiously await their next visit.

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to the world's best Mom and Nana!! Hope you have a wonderful day and can't wait to see you soon!!

Flashback Friday

I got glasses when I was in preschool and thankfully was only called "4 Eyes" a handful of times ;-) Brian's Burger King shirt was his favorite as a kid and his parents told me that he used to wear it all the time...lol. Oh how I love old pics!!

Deserted Island Blog Award

A big thank you to Tiffany from Shhhh! Just between U & Me for awarding me the Deserted Island Blog Award. I am so shocked and grateful for all the blog awards I have received lately!!



By accepting this award and copy and pasting it on your page, you are accepting the honor of passing it on to some blogs that are a must have if you were stuck on a deserted island.

1. Ashley...plus three
2. Life with the Lebedas
3. Shibley Smiles
4. My Life in Jenga

Wordless Wednesday: Let's Go Fly a Kite

Tasty Tuesday: Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

PUMPKIN BARS WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Image Source

Ingredients for Bars:
2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup butter
4 eggs, beaten
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions for Bars:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 10x15 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the pumpkin puree. Combine all the dry ingredient to the pumpkin mixture. Mix well. Add in walnuts. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting. (Recipe below)

Ingredients for Cream Cheese Frosting:
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions for Cream Cheese Frosting:
In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Spread over cooled pumpkin bars. Cut into squares.

Mini Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday Brian told us to get ready and that he was taking us somewhere fun. As we drive south and take the exit (which we almost passed because Brian was busy talking...imagine that...lol) we drive and drive and drive and Brian (aka Clark Griswold) starts to think he may not know where he's going. We stop at a couple gas stations because Brian then admitted that he was taking us to a fall festival that his co-workers were talking about. Turns out the festival is next weekend but as we were driving around we happened to find a mini pumpkin patch at a local church. They had games and several pumpkins to choose from.

Stylish Blogger Award

Thanks to Marie at The Things We Find Inside for awarding me the Stylish Blogger Award. I'm so honored to be the recipient of this award.


Rules for accepting this award are:
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pass this on to 5 other great bloggers you recently discovered
4. Contact the selected bloggers and tell them about their awards.

So 7 things about myself...
1. I lived on a farm until I was 17 years old.
2. I love college football...especially the Nebraska Cornhuskers...GO BIG RED!!
3. I traveled to Germany when I was in High School.
4. I love sweets.
5. I love romantic movies.
6. I don't like french fries but loved them when I was pregnant.
7. I am adopted.

These are who I will be picking for the Stylish Blogger Award:

1. The TRUTH about Motherhood
2.Three Jewels In My Crown
3. Sevin Family
4. Raising Little Women
5. Cole's First Blog