Outings, School Pics, and Thanksgiving

Time is flying, I only made one post in November!! Now I am posting Thanksgiving and Christmas is knocking on the door.

We've been having fun here and trying to enjoy the last bits of "warm" weather before hibernation in the snow sets in! We all took a visit out to a friends' farm in town where the boys got to bottle feed a calf, as well as hand feed their Halloween pumpkins to the cows!

After that we headed over to the chicken coop where they braved the crowd and went inside to play with them! Brad didn't want to leave.

My big boys are growing up!! This is so evident in their school photos. I of course keep each and every one in their own album! Wow!

On one unusually warm day we all went to the town park where the boys rode their bikes one last time around while I walked behind them. The leaves were so pretty!

Our old man Cuddles got to take a nice bath. He's a bit too old to bathe himself properly so we help him out and soak his old man bones to relax him.

Then of course there is Thanksgiving! As always it's just us 4 so we have a nice quiet dinner at home with tons of great food. We go very traditional for Thanksgiving, but Christmas is a different story!

As for me, I've been beyond busy with my craft business. Tons of orders going out online as well as a farmers market every weekend in Dec and 2 different craft shows this coming weekend! I'm looking forward to January being much more chill.

Check back soon for more updates!

Halloween Fun 2022

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays and full of family traditions we've started with the boys! This year we went to several "trunk or treats" offered around our area before the big night. This gave the boys several opportunities to wear their costumes while getting a head start on candy!

Jacob was a Ghostbuster, and Bradley was a "shadow man".

One place even had a bounce house inside for the kids!

Thankfully we had amazing weather for all of these. The night of the 30th the boys carved their pumpkins for the porch! 

For Halloween day it was rainy but cleared up right as we left for trick or treating! The warm air plus the humidity that evening made for a spooky foggy night as we walked the neighborhood. Nick stayed home and handed out candy until we ran out!

One house had a fellow Ghostbuster handing out candy, so they had to pose together of course!

The boys had a great time and got tons of candy. They promptly dumped it all and sorted their stash to see what all they got! They were nice to mom and dad and have been sharing.

We've had some unseasonably warm weather for November in NY, but I think this weekend it will turn more into fall and cooler temps. Check back soon for more updates!

FOOD!

Here in the Pierce household, we love food. And since I'm the cook (and the grocery shopper) I like to make new foods when I can! I get 99.9% of my recipes from Pinterest, and 80% of the time I adjust them, ha!

But sometimes we treat ourselves and eat out! Our favorite place for a lunch date is in Buffalo at Saika Sushi. All you can eat fresh made to order Japanese. Soooo good.

With our leftover homegrown grapes, I decided to try making grape jam from scratch! I wanted to keep the skins but discard the seeds so that added extra work and little yield, but it turned out so good! Best Concord grape jam you've ever tasted.

Sometimes I make a big batch of Bolognese sauce, then I can use the extra for future freezer meals! This time I made a lasagna for dinner, an extra to freeze, plus some freezer meals with spaghetti squash I had cooked. Quick and easy lunch or work meals!

We also had some homegrown Golden Delicious apples left, so used several of those to try making apple fritters for the first time. Those of course were delicious!!!

One beautiful afternoon Nick and I packed a picnic lunch and headed up to Point Breeze for a date next to Lake Ontario.

The lighthouse caretaker was there, so we got to go up to the top of it for the first time.

At work one of my lovely co-workers gave me a dozen of her farm fresh eggs! I love the colors.

And with a few more of my apples, plus some fresh apple cider I made a delicious triple apple cider cake! Apple cider, sauce, and fresh. So good!!

I also finally tried my hand at making some "farm cheese". It's made with whole milk and it's not quite mozzarella...more like ricotta. It made quite a bit, so I ended making another big lasagna! So yum.

With the leftover whey I made some homemade ranch dressing, and some biscuits.

For another sweet treat I made the boys some Fruity Pebbles treats! Delicious and sweet!

And now the Halloween festivities start! Check back for more....