Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and family! My Canadian family celebrated on Oct.14th, so we here "state side" are WAY behind. It does feel like we are a watch running a bit slow with Thanksgiving being almost at the end of the month. I think I'm going to have to work like crazy to get everything done before Christmas. This year I decided to try something a bit different and bake a Pumpkin Cheesecake instead of a pie. I always bake my caramel apple pie for my sister Clare, but I found this great recipe on the Sweetest Occasion blog and had to try it. It was amazing! Of course we had all the traditional favorites, casseroles and potatoes, and we all ate more than we should. 

Since we were all together I figured this was a good chance to take some family photos. They turned out pretty well for no planning involved. So in the spirit of today, I would like to say that I am thankful for my wonderful family and I am grateful that we could spend this time together today and everyday.  

Mermaids and Pirates! Maya turns 5!

Photo by Clare Dieter

Maya turned 5 today and she wanted a Mermaid and Pirate party. Thank goodness there was a lot of inspiration on Pinterest to help Clare and I make her day special. So even though in was raining and we couldn't play outside, the kids had fun running around and playing pirates. 

Clare found this amazing cake on Pinterest, so I did my best to make it close to the same, but not as large. I think it turned out perfect! The cake inside wasn't half bad either, with the bottom being double chocolate, French vanilla in the middle, and fresh strawberry for the top layer.

Clare also found some really cute candies and snacks for the table. 

All the kids dressed up as either a mermaid or pirate and it made for some great pictures!

And one more picture of Ella as a pirate, just because she is the cutest pirate ever!

Give Thanks for Pie

Every Thanksgiving I make a pumpkin pie and an apple pie. The apple pie is by far the favorite. The recipe is a little different than the average pie but I thought I would share it in case you wanted to give it a try.

Ingredients
1 double crust pastry

8 medium Granny Smith apples

¼ cup all-purpose flour
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½ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup water
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup white sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar

Directions
1.         Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
2.         Peel, core and slice the apples. Toss them in ¼ cup of flour.
3.         Place bottom crust in pan, and fill with apples (should be mounded very high) Cover with 
         lattice work crust.
4.         Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in ¼ cup all-purpose flour to form a paste.
5.      Add water, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and bring to a boil. Reduce
         temperature and let simmer for about 5 minutes.
5.         Gently and slowly pour sauce over pie so that it goes into the pie.
6.         Bake 15 minutes in the 425 degree oven, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F
         for 35 to 45 minutes until apples are soft. If crust begins to brown you can cover with tin foil.

Sullivan's 3rd Birthday Party

This Saturday we went to the Playstation in Cedar Rapids to celebrate Sully's third birthday. The Playstation is this huge play structure that the kids can run and climb in. It's pretty amazing. The Iowa cousins were there and some friends from Sully's school. The kids got pretty sweaty running around! Sorry for the blury photos sometimes. It was hard to slow them down. Everyone had a fun time. Only one more party to go this month...Riley's. I hope I get it all done!  

Costumes and Fun

This year for Halloween Riley wanted to be Super Mario so I was Princess Peach. He wanted Max to be Luigi but Max really wanted to be a death knight. So both boys got to be what they each wanted. I'm glad we didn't have snow or rain and everyone had fun trick or treating. Jered took the picture below at Max's school Halloween Parade.

Rowan's 2nd Birthday Party

On Saturday we went up to CR to celebrate our nephew's 2nd birthday. He is really in to cars and trains, so basically anything with wheels! Rowan is growing up to be such a sweet little guy with a playful additude. The boys had a great time playing with cousins and new friends. (Mom had a great time hanging out with old and new friends too!) I was super happy Riley didn't steal the cars off the the cake Clare made, and Max didn't get hurt running around with the kids. All and all a successful 2 year old birthday party.