Sunday, October 31, 2010

trick or treat

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Wolf Acres creek farms

I had wished to post this sooner, as we went there 2 weeks ago.  what can I say I am a busy gal!  But here is my review and recap of wolf acres in Oneida, NY

It’s a great place to take kids for a fun fall afternoon.  There is a lot of things to do and some at extra cost.  My kids loved most of the things that were included in the price such as:

007The duck races

053The corn maze

056The peddle bikes

125The cow rope thing!

134the corn bin (We so need this at home)

170Milking the cow and playing on the swings/pile of dirt

The following cost extra (you do get a ticket to do one with your entry) but over all the cost of adding these to your day were like a dollar each:

012The big bouncy thing

033The corn cannon

040Potato launcher

082Cow train!

I think the kids had a great time we were there close to 3 hours.  We actually ran out of time to go on the hayride (I had a date with the Syracuse crunch!!).  Its not really a pumpkin farm – unless on the hayride you go to the pumpkin field.  We only saw pumpkins on pallets by the front gate.  I feel with fall you need the experience of going into a pumpkin field and finding the perfect pumpkin!  But this is still a great way to enjoy your day with your kids!!  We would probably go back next year!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

look out for the spiders

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Girls weekend 2010

I have been in scrap-land all weekend!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Best Mistake cupcakes

On Friday I was making cupcakes for my in-laws harvest dinner to end their first CSA season (get more info here).  They had asked for about 4 dozen cupcakes but I of course planned to make more to take with us on our weekend adventures (I am hoping to post that tomorrow).  The plan was to make Smores’,  Caramel Apple, pumpkin and applesauce…all mini-cupcakes.

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My Smores, graham cracker crust with a chocolate cupcake mix.  Sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs, topped with a marshmallow frosting and grated chocolate.

I started around 730pm after a long day and intense workout by baking the the Smores.  I was surprised that my batter made over 72 and because of the graham cracker crust i could go made another 2 dozen..I opted to make hubby a mini cake in my pampered chef mini pan!  Once those were cooking I started the batter for the caramel Apple.  I was also listening to the Crunch hockey game on the internet and watching Sabres on TV.  Big Mistake! 

As I pulled the last pan out of the oven, I noticed that I still had apples on the counter.  Then it clicked….OMG I never added them to the batter. 

I had planned to add the chopped apples to batter and then dip them in caramel, sprinkle nuts on them and add a stick – just like you would have with a caramel apple.  So now I just had a yellow vanilla cupcake…hmm what's a girl to do?  I decided to go to bed. I was so tired and I just need to sleep on it. No way was I going to make another 72 cupcakes and no way did I have the time.

The next morning after a good 6 hours of sleep (that's sleeping in for a mom!) and a cup of coffee, I had an amazing idea.  I was going to make apple pie cupcakes

I chopped up some apples and put them in a pan over medium heat.  I added lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar.  Once the apples were soft I added in the caramel topping and mixed together.  I cut out part of the center of each cupcake and filled it with my apple mixture.  Then I mixed up a simple powered sugar glaze and drizzled a little bit on each one.

So what do you think…look yummy (or as Rachel Ray would say Yumm-o!)?

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I actually didn’t make enough apple filling.  I took my remaining vanilla cupcakes and made Vanilla Nut Glaze cupcakes:

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Are you hungry yet?  I am…boy this is not helping my weigh loss attempts!  This is how I displayed my cupcakes at the dinner:

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There were not too many cupcakes left!  Almost all the apple pie were gone!  I am certainly going to try these again..I may try doing this with regular sized cupcakes!  I will someday make the caramel apple ones (after all i do have the sticks).  I have some other cupcake ideas I want to make…I wonder if they will also be cupcake adventures!  Either way, remember to embrace your mistakes they could turn out to be the best thing ever.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Rock Mountain – Inlet NY

Its a pretty regular thing for us to hike bald mountain when we are in Old Forge.  We have seen the parking lot for Rock Mtn and Black bear mountain but never stopped.  I think it was fear of the unknown.

During a camping trip to 8th lake in august a lady with a yellow lab and  I started talking.  Funny how labs link people!!  anyway her family had just hiked black bear on the day we did bald mountain.  She told me that you could see 7th and 8th lake and about the path.  Right then I decided we would climb it during one of our fall trips.  My plan was Rock Mtn while we were camping at Nicks in September and Black Bear while camping Columbus weekend.  So my plan didn't really workout…we hiked within nicks lake park in September and decided that tyler was not up to the 1.9 or 2.2 one way trip up black bear last Saturday.

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A so the hiking began.  Emma strapped to my back, Wyatt pulling David up the mountain and Tyler looking for “Clues” (aka trail markers).  It was a beautiful trail, I love the fall colors.  The recent rain had made the trail kind of muddy and the leaves were all over the trail so at times you really did need to use the trail markers to find what way to go.

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Mommy take my photo on this rock….

128131  

The quick .5 one way hike was well worth it for the great views on this fall day:

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David, Tyler and Wyatt rested at the top..Wyatt found his inner-puppies on the way up but crashed at the top.  Miss Emma fell asleep about half way into the hike up.  See missed the entire views at the top:

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Our family photo that someone took for us after i tried to get a photo using my timer!  they turned out pretty funny – totally scrapbookable!

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Back at the bottom Tyler had fun on the big rock that welcomed you to the trail

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Some time 2011 we will hike black bear….(Maybe when Aunt heather foot is healed!)

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Who wants to do it with me??? 

Friday, October 15, 2010

ADK Adventure

Last weekend we went camping at 8th lake.  the last trip of the season!  It was a brisk trip but we had a great time.  I am hoping this weekend I can update you on the gardens a projects around the house.  but here’s the photos:

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