It's Fall Time to Cook

Apparently, it's was time to cook today because I got the bug. I tried oatcakes from a blog called One Golden Apple http://onegoldenapple.blogspot.com/2009/09/oatcakes.html and an apple cake from one called Maya Made http://mayamade.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-grandmas-one-bowl-apple-cake.html. Both turned out great although I don't have any pics to go with the recipes. I added some pumpkin puree to the apple cake and doubled the recipe. It was totally moist and super delicious! Next on the list...some quick breads. Gosh, I never get tired of them! Then maybe a good old chocolate cake soon.

Pumpkin Pancakes

This morning I was ultra motivated to make a super yummy Fall breakfast and since I had canned pumpkin and Bisquick Mix I thought I would look up a recipe for pumpkin pancakes.

2 1/3 cup Original Bisquick Mix

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

1 1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup oil

2 TBL sugar

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 eggs

Mix ingredients and pour batter into heated griddle or pan. Makes about 12 large pancakes. I didn't have quite enough mix so I used some oatmeal to round out the dry ingredients and it worked fine. As you can see they turned out really nice. Tim and Frank agreed too!

Creating Fun!

WA Cousins

This week we were lucky enough to have a visit from my Washington State cousins. Stephanie stayed with us for three nights before her husband Mike flew out to meet her. It was great getting a chance to introduce Frankie to some more great family members. Frankie spent Wednesday showing off for Stephanie pulling drawers open and walking around everything. Thursday night we took Stephanie to one of our favorite restaurants The Chatterbox for some great food. Then on Friday Mike flew in and hung out for a little while before he and Stephanie had to leave. It was so wonderful to see them both.

Frankie and Stephanie

Mike and Frankie

Stephanie, Mike and Frankie

Frankie's Ready for the Cold

This morning's picture taken by Neighbor Laura in the carpool.

Off to the Children's Museum

Many moths ago Grandma Nancy and Auntie Kathy gave Frankie a membership to the Children's Museum. We waited till this month to start using it (kids under one are free) so we could use it more while the weather prevented us from going outdoors. This weekend was a perfect excuse. Thank you Grandma Nancy and Auntie Kathy for such a wonderful gift.

Frankie's biggest thrill these days is crawling up things.

He was a little frightened of going down.

Get that fish Frankie.

He's going to be one great MN fisherman.

Frankie rings the bells.

Playing with blocks.

Frankie loves climbing

Frankie climbing the rope ladder.

Biting the spider.

Climbing the web.

The Recycle exhibit--they had a bunch of doors laying sideways to make a ring. Inside the ring was a bunch of toys, puppets and cardboard boxes.

Ahhh the water exhibit--Frankie's favorite.

Checking out the colors and shapes.

I can grocery shop with the best of them.

Pushing buttons makes things light up.

What a strange round ball.

Jump, jump.

I can walk on this too Daddy!

The New Kitchen Floor

Last weekend with the help of our neighbors we ripped up our kitchen linoleum and had our kitchen floor refinished. It turned out amazing.

I took the incentive to take everything down off the walls and give the kitchen a good cleaning.

This is my "Tim why are you taking a picture of me watching dishes" face.

Mason helped Tim pull up the linoleum and plywood.

I have no idea what Mason was saying here, but it's a pretty funny pic.

Tim working hard.

They had to move the fridge and oven into our living room. In order to do this they had to remove the doors off the fridge. I took that as another incentive to clean. So, J9 came over and helped me clean out the fridge while Lois (Miles' and Frances' grandma) took Frankie to the park. It was wonderful having so much help.

The floor bare and ready to be sanded.

After day 1 of sanding.

Close up

This is after day 1 with the poly 1st coat.

Birch refinished floor--It's beautiful! The colors are all marbled together. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it makes our other floors look horrible. Thank you again to everyone who helped. We couldn't have done it as easily without you.