3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

This is our 4th year carving pumpkins in Grand Rapids, and our 3rd annual Pumpkin Carving Party! We have food (chili & corn pudding this year) apple cider and tons of treats, as well as pumpkins to carve and their seeds to roast and eat.
Here are a few pictures from our party...

Jadon and his scooper - no, he's not licking it, contrary to what it looks like - though he really loved the squishy sliminess of the seeds... hmmm, my boy!This year we also got to celebrate Uncle Lonnie's birthday...

Aunt Pat getting the cake ready with Elie's help.

Uncle Lonnie & Uncle Nathan roasting seeds... well, actually, Uncle Lonnie did the master work of roasting - blanching them first before seasoning them to perfection. Seriously, we all agreed we have never tasted better pumpkin seeds!!!

Everyone hard at work.

Aunt Bethany's pumpkin - whoohoo!

Bryce's masterpiece...

Thanks to the Eaton family and Aunt Pat we got some amazing pumpkins carved this year - Thanks guys!!!

Elie Ballerina

We are giving Elie Ballet classes again this year, but privately with a teacher from a professional troupe, through the home schooling program.
The teacher is so good with the girls, and makes a lot of the really boring parts fun for them. The mom's share turns sitting in with the class, and this week was my turn!
There are only 4 girls in the class, one of them being Grace, our next door neighbor. Here are some pictures.

Gracie getting help... Elie waiting her turn.Jumping over the "mud puddle"

They are doing an actual dance routine! It's so cute!!

Following the teacher in ballet steps

Just checking in with mom:o)

Watching her teacher very closely

Counting steps

First position

Doing her own ballet step walk

Taking turns...

Elie is loving it so far & can't wait to perform.

Half Marathon

In the car at 6:15am... we're really doing this...At the YMCA & it's still so dark out! And COLD!!!

We did it! We actually made it through!!!! Boston here we come... syke!

And we got these really cool space blankets:o)... but wow, they helped!

I can't say it is something I'm excited to jump back in and do again, but it was a really neat experience. We got to run with a friend of ours from our house church group, and as far as weather, it was unbeatable!!
There were people who's sole job was cheering us on all along the way, plenty of water & energy drinks, potties and even a gummy bear stop.
The course was really flat (a few hills for Michigan, but having the bulk of our training take place in Portland, these hills were nothing at all), and totally beautiful, following the Grand river most of the time & with a ton of fall foliage it was spectacular in places.
I made it strong through the first 6 miles, then hit a half way wall. I worked through that pretty well & went strong until mile 11... then it got really hard. My toes were numb & my legs were a jelly/led combination. I had to walk for about 30 seconds at mile 12. Once we made it back onto the street where we could the Finish banner I was in pain! But, the whole street was lined with people cheering and ringing bells... it was a surreal feeling. I totally made it strong over the finish line & even avoided collapsing - Yay me! Not really, it was a lot of fun walking around behind the finish line with total stranger congratulating total strangers & volunteers handing you space blankets and praising us & offering food and drinks.
Oh, and Bryce could have run circles around me, the entire run was a breeze for him... I have the best hubby in the world, who could easily have run the whole marathon & is even competitive enough to do it with a really good time, but will keep my pace & encourage me the whole way... You're the BEST Babe!

Oh yeah, our time was 2 hrs, 47 minutes and 38 seconds!
(Okay, so that actually isn't very fast, as we had people who ran a whole marathon come in way before us... but it was good for me!)

I'm still basking in the reality that I did this!!! I can do pretty much anything now, I think:o)!

When the GR Marathon pictures are up I'll post the link.

Fall Playdate

This week we had a chance to get together with our friend Rachel and her son, Collin for a nature walk. Here are some pictures!

Elie's perspective.Knocking for squirrels

Swimming bugs

A cool wigwam type thing in the forrest

Hiking

Trip to Indiana

We just took a quick trip down to Indiana, about an hour south of Indianapolis, for Bryce's work.
Aside from amazingly sunny and warm weather, the fun part of this trip was that we got to take our neighbor, Gracie with us!
The kids and I played around while Bryce worked hard... poor guy:o).
See more pictures here.We found this incredible park that had about every piece of play equipment you could think of. It was the size of a city block, with huge covered BBQ areas and hardly anyone there! We had a pick-nick lunch there.
We also took advantage of the hotel pool, did school work & the kids played in the "pool in our room" or jacuzzi tub :o) - it was great fun!
I think my kids were spoiled by having a friend along with us:o)! It will be hard to travel w/o her next time...

Thanks for coming Grace!!!

Corn...

upon request, here is the corn instructions...

We got ours farm fresh, and in bulk, so we had to husk it, then wash it.

After that, place it in boiling water for 3-4 minutes.Then in cold water to cool for handling

Then we cut the corn off the cob & bagged it up in quart size freezer bags.

One bushel made 13 quarts - and we have farm fresh sweet corn for the rest of the winter!
It's great in soups, chili, stews & as a side.
All credit for this goes to my neighbor, Sheila - thanks friend!!!

Apple Orchard Pictures

Here are a couple pictures of our time picking the apples we sauced...

Here we are!Jadon's prize!

Elie, the hard working apple hauler...

We picked Jonagold, Gala, Ida Reds & Mutsu to make sweet apple sauce with a bit of tang.
More pictures will be on Facebook soon!

Oldfashioned Chunky Apple Sauce

Okay, so I have been a huge blog slacker these days... or months... And all of that will change soon, promise.

In the meantime, it's apple season in the Paulson home!

We've been making old fashioned chunky apple sauce. The house smells of cinnamon and apples - YUM!!!
Here's how...

Wash the apples...

Peel, core & slice, place in pot, add just enough apple cider to cover the bottom of pot plus some.
(the cider is a natural sweetener and reduces the amount of sugar needed - if any - and we use a fresh milled cider w/o any preservatives)

Sprinkle cinnamon (and for the very brave, a dash of allspice) over the top of apples...

Cook until really mushy, so much so that you mash most of them just by stirring. Use a potato masher to mash the rest & add brown sugar to taste.
(about 1/4 cup to a 5 quart pot... more if you have tart apples or like your apple sauce really sweet. I like to use dark brown sugar because you get more sweetness/taste with less sugar.)

Scoop into freezer jars and away you go!

A bushel of apples makes 16 32oz freezer jars, 1/2 bushel makes 8... and so on.
Bryce calculated that we will save $62 in apple sauce this year - and the whole venture only cost us $25! Plus we have already sunk the cost into the freezer jars, so next year we will save a tiny bit more!
The best part is that the kids got to pick the apples themselves!

(Our next adventure will be to freeze our own corn & pureeing veggies like squash, zucchini & cauliflower to freeze & use(hide) in meals such as meatloaf, lasagna, spaghetti and casseroles. we'll save ourselves close to $40 dollars in frozen corn and only have spent $13 for the year!)

We are Home!

We are Home!! After 3 days of driving, one all nighter and more junk food than we hope to see in one year - we pulled into our drive way Tuesday morning. After a change of clothes and a quick potty break we jumped back in the car to drop Bryce off at work.

Elie started ballet class the next day, as well as Sparks (AWANAS). Jadon started Cubbies too!!

It's hard to believe that we are home. It's hard to believe that we're in Fall now - full force! We're just jumping in with both feet, and scurrying around to catch up. We'll start school next week, Elie can't wait... neither can Jadon. We may be doing a bit of preschool with him after all.