A day at the museum.....The American Museum of Natural History!

I found out one night studying at the library that NY has a program similar to Chicago where the residents can check out museum passes like books. These were great in Chicago and we took family and friends to see the sights often without the growing admission price tag! So this last weekend we took the kids down to NY to see the Natural History Museum. This had to be the coolest Natural History Museum I have ever been to! Usually I like the aquarium and the zoo....or the art museums, but this is already a favorite!

There were several floors of these glass enclosed taxidermy animals. Most of them I had never heard of. It was fun to see the girls' reactions to life size alaskan moose, elephants, and bears! The lighting was ambient, so the pictures aren't fabulous especially because they were all taken with my phone but not to bad considering. I couldn't resist taking this picture of David with the girls! I love to see how they interact together, truly he has a special relationship with them that I adore! He was telling them about how he used to shoot these animals when he was a little kid in Wyoming. I didn't know they had African Bongos in Wyoming!!

The museum is known around the world for two specific things. Their 94' life size replica of a Blue Whale that hangs cantilevered from the ceiling, and their dinosaur exhibit. The girls will remember the dinosaurs even though they were getting pretty tired by that point in the day. The presentation was immaculate! Couldn't be any better.

They perked right up when we got to the "touch" room called the Discovery Room. They had clipboards with things to find in the room and trivia....the girls went straight to a set of three tables that contained memory match games.

Anastasia liked the bugs too! My big girl isn't as girly as her younger sister. Ereland was a little timid about the enlarged house fly.

But perhaps my biggest smile of the day were the hats!

We live in NY now! Never thought I would say that, but here we are, enjoying the view!

Cardin's Wardrobe!

My little boy is a chunk! I feel like I can't keep up with my growing boy! I got a sunday shirt and a halloween shirt just so that I felt like I could cloth him in something that fits! What do you think of my stylin' little boy?

Time for CORDS!

I love fall when you start to bring out the warmer clothes! The days seem to be so beautiful especially with such a wet summer! Yeah, for (coordinated) courdoroy!

And yes, Ereland is nursing a pig!

Sweet Love!

David called one day before coming home from work and we talked, well I talked. I was having a more difficult day than most. When he got home my sweet man brought home a white rose for me! Awwwwh! I love him for those tender moments! I have been looking at it now every day and it makes me grin all over just like he made me 7 years ago!

So to return the gift, and let him know I love him just as much, I got him his "white rose" and we had floats later when the kids went to bed!

Love you Babe!

Familiar Mornings!

This is what our mornings look like lately. What about yours?

Yep! We're eating baked brown bag for dinner!

Okay, so I had to do something with all those apples we picked! I didn't like seeing all the half eaten apples on the floor that Ereland had "finished". So we decided to bake our own pie! Thanks to my super mom, this was a fabulous pie! Rich but good! Deffinately not "diet" food!

Too bad making anything in my small kitchen makes a BIG mess!

I hope I am not giving away any family secrets here but the recipe is this:

The Crumb Crust:

Mix together dry ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of flour

2 tsp. sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

Emulsify:

1/2 cup salad oil

2 tbs. milk

Add wet and dry mixtures together and piece into bottom of pie pan.

Filling:

6-12 apples depending on the size, tarter ones work better than sweeter ones to help balance out the taste.

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

2 tbs. (+) flour. Mom told me that this was what soaks up the juices. So if you have really juicy apples, you might want to add a little more. (I used Macintosh apples that were pretty dry and tart, and 1/3 of gala which were much sweeter and juicier. I added 3 tbs. of flour and that seemed to work out perfectly.)

Pour a heaping! pile of apples in the crusted pan. The apples will bake down so you want a pretty good stack!

Streusel Topping:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

Mix these together until it makes a crumb like texture and pat on top of apples.

Carefully put the pie into a brown paper bag, and bake for at least 1 hr. 45 mins at 350 degrees.

Thanks Mom! I love you!

Conditioning at its finest!

Here is a clip I caught Anastasia singing to this week. Wow! What do you say to this? I just want to know what government lobbyist got funding to create such a music video for kids! Hmmmm, what will be next? Oh, and by the way the pie was good, but maybe not $18 dollars good! I think that my mother can bake the world's best apple pie! Yep, thought about it, took a vote, and mom wins hands down!

Baby Cardin Finn!

I finally caught Cardin on film....He is adorable and we love him! What a sweet boy!

{Apple Picking!}

Saturday has every reason to be one of my favorite days! David is home, we get to sleep in as late as the kids will let us! And there are usually no "obligations" we have to keep. So today when we woke up (we are spontaneous people, with few exceptions nothing is planned out in advance!) we decided to go to a cheese festival and go apple picking! I have been looking forward to the orchards here because they are everywhere here and I can't help feeling more complete when taking the kids for some good nostalgic fun like apple picking. New York is truly a beautiful part of the country and I can't wait for the fall when all the leaves come alive with color. The weather is gorgeous and I love this time of year when all you need is a light jacket.

I was at the cheese festival when I realized that the girls had escaped the house with their butterfly wings on. Everyone (myself included) thought that they were pretty cute. Someone called them angels and I called them butterfly fairies, but David said he just called us "flies--they all have wings anyways"..... what a funny man!

We saw David's boss at the festival, and she gave the girls plastic bracelets supporting her local softball team. The girls loved them. The girls also scored free snow cones, a coloring book from the local "Christian" group, stickers and balloons. The balloons were a big hit! We watched some of the locals dancing and even though I was game, no one else wanted to make a move with me, so we thought it was time to go.

On the way to the orchard we saw some signs for homemade fresh pies. I wanted one, partially because it sounded good, but also because I know that off all the sweets out there, pies is one of David's favorites. So we stopped, and David handed me the wallet...so I thought we were buying a pie....well I get back in the car with an apple pie and David leans over and asks,

"So how much, $5, $10?"

"No way, it was $18 bucks!"

"WHAT?! You got TAKEN! $18 Bucks, Tiff wow!!!!"

So ok, I splurged when maybe I shouldn't have. David and I talked.... We talked about what was a fair price for a freshly made pie and lets just say I don't think I will be buying any other pies.

The orchard was next and it was cute! We drove up and they had a cute store and farm where we picked up the half bushel bag....$25 for 23 lbs.! Not nearly as bad as my pie splurge considering the "sale price" at Walmart is a $1/lb. anyways.

I really enjoyed myself. I love watching the kids in those moments. Anastasia kept picking apples before David could give the approval to put them in our bag....so we might have just ended up with worms, but she was excited to help. Ereland just decided to pick the ones that were closest to her....the ones on the ground. Eventually they got the hang of it. And Cardin offered his stroller seat to carry the apples for us.

This is Ereland after taking a bite out of a particularly tart apple!

We were "done" for the day until we passed a Creamery on the way home. Had to stop...those are the rules. We got "Calf Tracks" (like moose tracks... if you have ever had that) and Strawberry. Let me tell you what, that was the best dang ice cream I have ever had! Soooooo Good! Good enough to make our $18 dollar dessert more like $26 with an added pint of Calf Tracks for later! Why do I think I just gained 3 lbs? I'll let you know what the damage was later. An enjoyable day for sure! So now we are thinking that when the leaves change we need to make a trip up to Maine for the leaf festival! I think that sounds great!