Fall Fun

I love fall - it has to be my favorite season of the year. It just brings so many great things along with it - crisp temperatures (but still nice enough to enjoy being outside), open windows, boots, scarves, and cute sweaters, yummy smelling candles, pumpkins, hay rides, s'mores, soup and chili, and so much more. I just love everything about it!

Today, I decided to surprise my girls with a special treat when they got home from school. I swiped the idea from Angela over at THIS blog - and it's by far one of my most favorite blogs that I read. She has so many cute ideas that she shares, a great sense of humor, wonderful story teller, and an awesome Christian! So just don't give me too much credit for being all creative - because this was totally NOT my idea. But, I loved it so much that I had to give it a try. Here's what I did:

1. Buy 2 boxes of white cake, food coloring gel and 3 tubs of white (or vanilla) icing. Oh and you might need to grab a few of the throw away round cake pans. They came in very handy!

2. Mix up your cake according to the directions on the box. Then divide it into 6 bowls equally. I took a 1 cup measuring cup and scooped it into all the bowls, then went back and spooned in the rest as evenly as possible. It was about 1 1/2 cups of batter per bowl.

3. Color 3 bowls orange, 2 bowls yellow and leave 1 white.

4. Spray pans liberally with non-stick spray and pour batter into pans. Heat oven to 350 and bake anywhere from 12-15 minutes. Cool completely.

5. Start stacking your layers, starting with orange. Add a thin layer of icing between each layer to help them "stick" together. Then ice the whole cake and decorate with candy corns or use the Candy Corn White Chocolate M&M's, like I did.

6. At this point, I put it in the fridge to get the icing nice and stiff. When the girls got home from school and I pulled this out - they both screamed! :) They got so excited when I cut into it - just the reaction I was hoping for!

After dinner, we did one of the girls favorite things - carving pumpkins! They love digging out all the yucky stuff and the seeds! Mabrie was right in the middle of it, too. They looked at a bunch of pictures online to determine what they wanted their pumpkin to look like this year and the winning choice was a cross. I love it! Looks so pretty with the candle glowing from it!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I just noticed that I haven't blogged in weeks! I'm sure you have all been on pins and needles waiting for an update - HAHA! It's been a busy month around here.

Mike left on September 30th for a 5 day trip back to Haiti. He went last February and was itching to get back and see the kids again. He had a great trip and said that they kids looked so much happier and healthier this time. When they pulled up to the orphanage and they got out of the car, several of the kids ran up to him yelling "MIKE" - he said that was one of the greatest experiences of his life. To think that they remembered him and remembered his name was just awesome. It was a fast a furious trip as there were just 2 guys (Mike and our Children's Pastor, Bro. Stuart) that went. They had a lot of business to take care of, but also tried to spend as much time as possible loving on those sweet kids. He's already looking forward to going again and if possible, I'm going on the next trip with him! I look forward to the day that these kids become more than kids that I know from pictures!

We've enjoyed the beginning of fall around here and while for the most part, it's been unseasonably warm, this week we have finally been blessed with that crisp, cool fall air that I just love!

Our Sunday School class had a get-together a couple weeks ago at a farm/pumpkin patch and the kids had a ball. They took us on a hay ride, let the kids go down a slide that was built on a mound of mulch, walk through a corn maze, feed and pet some farm animals and then picked their pumpkin from the patch. After they were done, we ate a picnic lunch together. I hated that Maddie had to miss out (she was sick and had to stay home with daddy). But, it was a nice day and a fun time with some great friends.

The girls are doing great in school. We had parent/teacher conferences this week and they are making us so proud. Straight A's across the board and nothing but great reports from their teachers. We are so blessed to have kids that have a desire to learn and that always strive to do their best. I pray that they continue to be good students that respect their teachers, work hard, show leadership and share Jesus with their friends.

The littlest Cash is doing well also. She's as feisty as they come. She's saying more and more words each day, it seems. She can now say: Daddy, momma, ball, nose, uh-oh, no, YAY, dog, baby and book. There may be one or two more, but that's all I can think of right now. She is running all over the place and doing what a 1 year old does best - MAKE MESSES!! All. day. long. But, she is also learning what "put that back" means and will go return things to where she found them. We are working hard on getting her whipped into shape as early as possible. I'll let you know how that works out for us. :)

I imagine that the next couple of months will be just as busy. Hard to believe that the holidays are just around the corner and we'll be in full swing of shopping, decorating, traveling and spending time with friends and family. I'm looking forward to it. It's always a special time of year.

Happy Fall, Y'all! :)