Ahhh fall

The time of year when I get to spend my days filling bird feeders, planting Mum's and trying to convince my 3 year old that her shirt is not broken, the sleeves are supposed to be that long.


hmmmm this seems very familiar.

Letter(s) of the week - W, X, Y, Z

Well we'e come to the end of the alphabet! We started this project almost a year ago - I remember picking up the leaves we used for week L right before we made our project for week A.

We finished up these projects a few weeks back and have taken a break before we start preschool!! Yes we're going to be homeschooling this fall and we can't wait! I've reorganiz our toy room and made us a little classroom. The D0llar Tr33 has become our best friend.


Below are the slide shows for our last month of ABC's and I'm hoping to update this blog soon with some of our preschool activities.

W is for Whale!!
This project didn't come out exactly as I planned - but then again I never claimed to be an atrist!

X is for Xylaphone!
I LOVED this one! I was so excited when Allie over at NTFFC did this project because I didn't want to go with her Halloween X-ray. Everyone loved this one and I was really impressd how well they did following directions.

A Yellow Y!
There's not much to do with a Y - so we followed Allie's lead again and made a "Y"ellow Y.

Z is for Zebra!
We finished up our ABC projects with a "Z"ebra. No on wanted to make stripes - but they really enjoyed the white paint on the black paper!

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Then bookmark her or follow her because she's funny as all hell!

MoM - Apple Muffins

Apple Muffins - yield 12 muffins. When we bought our house a few years back we discovered we own an apple tree! Very cool to watch them grow each year that's for sure! Although technically the apples are free (although it would be cheaper to buy apples than pay my mortgage I guess) I still hate to see them wasted. It took me a few years but I've finally found a great muffin recipe - maybe I'll sell them in my yard sales this year - cha-ching!

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
1 1/2 cups peeled chopped apples
Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat oven to 400`

Line muffin tin with paper liners, or grease.

Cream together sugar and butter. Add egg and beat well. Stir in milk.
In another bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and spices.
Add egg mixture to flour mixture and blend until just moistened. (Batter will be lumpy.)
Add apples to batter and blend carefully.

Fill muffin cups and sprinkle each one with a little of the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

*Disclaimer - this is not my recipe, I found it in a book we borrowed from the library called Apple Farmer Annie!

well it was bound to happen!

Lorelei got into my lipstick today - she's over three so I guess I've had a pretty good run! Thing of it is though I never wear makeup - the only reason this was in the drawer is because I used my "wedding/funeral" purse last week and it was in the bottom.

Luckily she came out to show me before chasing her siblings down with it!

MoM - Spiced Nectarine Muffins

Spiced Nectarine Muffins - yield 12 muffins. Since food prices started skyrocketing last year and my kids all started eating real food, I've been doing more and more of shopping our grocery shopping at Club type stores. A few weeks back I discovered all 3 kids like nectarines so I skipped off to the local BJ's and bought a container. Of course later that week 2 out of 3 of them decided they no longer liked them. What's a mom to do!? I didn't want them to go to waste so I googled "Nectarine Muffins" - here's what I found. It was great - I even got the above mentioned 2 to eat them. ;) I've never added the pecans because I don't have them on-hand, but I'm sure they are great that way too!

1 1/2 cups diced ripe nectarines (bout 3 nectarines) peeled
2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup milk
1 large egg
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
2 tsp sugar mixed with 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Heat oven to 400`
Toss chopped nectarines with lemon juice and set aside.

Line muffin tin with paper liners, or grease.

Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon and salt in a large bowl, break up the clumps of brown sugar.
In another bowl, whisk together butter, milk and egg **be sure to add the butter to the milk first or else you'll have scrambled eggs!** Stir milk mixture into the dry ingredients and blend until moistened. Fold in nectarines and pecans (if using).

Fill muffin cups and sprinkle each one with a little of the sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool about 3 minutes in pan then remove to cool completely.

*Disclaimer - this is not my recipe, I found it when googling for muffin recipes myself!

MoM - Banana Nut Muffins

A new week a new muffin!

Banana Nut Muffins - yield 12 muffins. I just can't seem to buy the right amount of banana's! Either we run out mid week or there is 3 or 4 left turning brown before we get to them. Here's what I do with the brown ones (Oh and you can freeze bananas and thaw them out for this!)

2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup mashed banana (usually about 2 bananas)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 400`

Grease muffin pan.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl; make a well in center.
Mix milk, egg, oil, banana and walnuts in a small bowl. Pour mixture into well.
Mix batter just until moistened; do not overmix.

Spoon batter into greased muffin cups.

Bake until toothpick comes out clean and muffins are golden brown, about 15 minutes

*Disclaimer - this is not my recipe, I found it when googling for muffin recipes myself!