Yikes, almost a month since my last post. Bear with me.... Lots to say!

Thomas and I took the boys to a few pumpkin patches this weekend.  We visited Warbington farms and Kinsey farms which are just five miles or so from each other in the Northern end of Cumming.  Kinsey farms we visit each year, lots of pumpkins, yummy stuff to eat, great/clean atmosphere and the photo ops are amazing.  Warbington farms was a new one for us this year due to the fact that they had a Groupon.  It was okay, needs to step it up next year if they want to hang in the fall pumpkin patch madness.  The best part about the Warbington farm was the hayride through a cow field and then feeding the cows.  Never really been that close to a cow, the smell was alarming and the flies all over their backs was both disgusting and sad.  The kids loved it though.  Here are a few pics from our pumpkin patch adventures.

       Just for fun....Here are the pictures of our last three years visiting Kinsey Farms

                                                       October 2009

                                             October 2010

                                            October 2011



In Cupcake News..... I made my first vegan cupcakes.  They were a chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter icing.  The icing was delicious, but my cupcake can use some work.  I had heard how moist vegan cupcakes were so I gave it a shot. 

My summer garden is beginning to fade, boo!  I pulled up a lot of stuff like the melons, cucumbers and other vine plants.  I began to worry about my tomatoes, they were all green and the weather was so chilly that I was afraid they would not turn red.  Also, my bell peppers and banana peppers were popping up everywhere so that the plants could not hold uptight.  I did some googling (how did we love without google?) and found some canning recipes.  I canned some green tomato relish and pickled some banana peppers.

                                                               green tomato relish

                                                        pickled banana peppers

I was having a blast canning, and dreaming up what I could can next.  Until I saw this picture during one of my google adventures.

THIS IS NOT MY PANTRY.  I saw this and thought, STOP Gina, just stop.  I do not want to end up like whoever this lady is.  I mean what the heck are those white things?  Looks Ewwww.  Unless I am stocking up for the next Y2K chaos or starting my own Little House on the Prairie General Store, I should stop while I am ahead.


Finally, Dylan got a new bed.  A full size bed with a sports quilt and pillows to go with it.  His bed is very comfortable, he loves it!  My little boy is growing so fast.  Sniff!  Sniff!  Here are some pictures of his bed.

Thank you to my loyal followers who read this far down my seriously long blog, I cannot believe I got so far behind.

Wedding, Braves game and stomach bugs...... Oh my!

So we are just settling back into our routine.  Thomas and I traveled to Hilton Head for four days for a gorgeous wedding.  My parents kept the boys at their house.  I missed my boys, but had an incredible time at the Morin-Shearer wedding.

                            Here is the beautiful couple Kate and Rion
                            Amazing weekend and the reception was way too much fun!!!!


So my children were beyond spoiled while in my parents' care.  Everyday was full of parks, amusement centers, museums, nightly wagon walks, etc.  Meme and Papa had a great time with the boys I think.  Thank you guys so much for taking such wonderful care of the boys so Thomas and I could have a fun weekend away without worrying. 

We got home on Sunday, I had the 24 hour stomach bug on Monday.  Where the heck did that come from?  Dylan came down with it on Tuesday night.  Please stay away stomach bug, Owen and Thomas do not wish to meet your aquanitance.

Thomas and I took Dylan to a Braves game on Tuesday.  Thank you Nana for watching Owen so that we could have a Dylan date.  Dylan was more interested in the rowdy fans, loud vendors, insanely huge television screen and fireworks than the baseball game.  The Braves hit not one, but two homeruns while we were there.  Such a great game to take Dylan to!  Owen would have never sat still long enough to enjoy a baseball game.  We sat right at first base about seven seats from the bottom.  It was a fun night.

In other news.... Dylan is totally potty trained.  He will now even use public toilets without the potty chair.  Woohoo!  The public toilet was our last obstacle.  Dylan refused to use them, he wanted his potty chair sitting on top.  Thank goodness his unwillingness to pee in his big boy underwear overrules his diva potty needs. 


Owen is talking up a storm here recently.  He is constantly saying words that just about blow us away.  Blowing bubbles recently, he said "Bubble".  Wow!  It just amazes me.  His recent words are to point his fat little finger at his brother and say, "No!" So funny.  Maybe we should not laugh and encourage that one, huh?

                                Cannot publish a new blog post without a pantless Owen

Cupcakes and Kids

    The first week of school is complete.  The boys both seemed to do very well.  Dylan got to have a little party on Friday.  His teacher threw them a Orange you Glad School is Back party.  They drank orange soda and had snacks.  So cute!

    Thomas bought the boys a new movie (cartoon) called Rio.  It is about birds.  Both of the boys are crazy about this movie.  There is a lot of fun music.  I love watching the boys dance while watching the movie.  Dylan and Owen are finally starting to enjoy each other, it is such a beautiful thing.

    I am continuing with my cupcake obsession.  Here are some pictures of my newest creations.

I made these for a jewelry party this week.  They are milk chocolate

raspberry with raspberry cream cheese icing.

We have a neighborhood party tonight so I made these.

Almond vanilla cupcakes with almond amaretto buttercream icing. 

First Day of School

      The boys are home from their first day of school.  They go for three hours each time.  Owen will go two days a week and Dylan will go three days a week.  I boohoo'ed my eye balls out leaving Owen there.  We are hoping he will have fun, socialize and learn something.  Owen did great even though it was in the middle of naptime.  His teacher said she laid him down in one of their classroom cribs and he was too busy to sleep.  He is napping now bless his heart.

      Dylan did good.  I was worried that he would not use their classroom toilet.  He is hesitant to use toilets he is unfamiliar with.  His teacher said he did great and had no accidents.  YES!!!!!!  Here are a few pictures from their first day (same ones from Facebook).

      A little late, but here is a picture of the cupcake I made last week.  I am still on my ambitious pursuit to  make the perfect cupcake.  It is fun!!  This cupcake is a Dulce de Leche cupcake with chocolate shavings.  It actually looks better than it tasted.  I found a recipe online for the cupcake and it tasted a lot like sweet cornbread.  The icing was yummy.  Everything made from scratch.



Okay, Who pooped the floor?

Fun night on Planet Doiron tonight.  After the boys ate dinner, I gave each one a cupcake.  Since Dylan's birthday party, I have been obsessed with making beautiful cupcakes.  His birthday cupcakes were an ugly disaster, despite my overly ambitious ideas and expectations.  I digress...  So, Dylan and Owen are munching on their cupcakes and loving life while I clean up dinner.  Owen had created the MESS or all MESSES with his cupcake so into the sink he went for a minibath.  I dried him off and put him down naked.  I figured he would be fine running around naked while I cleaned the cupcake off his high chair.  It could not have been two minutes when Owen fell on the hardwood floor of the kitchen.  He got up and fell again.  I looked around the island to investigate why he was falling and if he was okay.  "Holy, smell and crap".  I could not believe that my beautiful baby boy was slipping and crawling around in his own poop.  How the heck did he poop so fast?  Thomas says it is a guy thing.  Back into the sink he went, as I gagged on the smell and idea of it all.  Thomas threw the dog out as she would have probably eaten the poop.  Owen now fresh and clean, I observed the cleaning process being conducting by my husband.  Poor guy was scrubbing with floor cleaner and using toothpicks to clear out the cracks between the wood boards.  No one ever fully prepares you for parenthood. 

P.S My floors are now clean, and I have learned my lesson.  :)


On a side note, here are my beautiful cupcakes. 

                        Double Chocolate cupcake with pistachio buttercream icing (totally homemade- go me!)

                             Same cupcake, but crumbled pistachios on the top instead of chocolate

Exhausted

The past two weeks have been a blur of rushing around, shopping, cleaning, cooking, planning, and if you ask Thomas nagging.  Our boys are just two weeks shy of two years apart.  That means two birthday parties back to back.  Yikes!  Owen's party was a small family gathering and was pretty low key.  Dylan's party was yesterday.  It was the shingdig of all shindigs.  Dylan loves trains, so we had a trackless train come and drive the children around the neighborhood for two hours.  We also had a bounce house.  Luckily the weather behaved.  The rain ended early enough to set up.  That glorious rain also cooled things down a bit.  Yipee!  Everything went perfectly.  My children are still exhausted though, they had way too much fun.  SO now I am a mother of a one year old and a three year old.  Wow!  Time is flying, it needs to slow down just a bit.  Here are some pictures from the party.  Happy Birthday my Big Boy Dylan James.

Conductor Hat and Train Whistle- all set for his first ride

                                                                           All Aboard!

Handsome boy

Owen liked riding the train too!

Oh Just go ahead and blow out the candles ladies, geez!

pinata

Child and germ heaven

Icing face and his favorite gift- Thanks Aunt Kathy

Owens First Haircut

After being ragged forever about my sweet baby boy's long hair, I caved and went to get his first cut.  We went to Snip-its in Suwanne.  Cute place for kids, but holy break your wallet.  There is a $3 coupon (unlimited printing) on their website if anyone is interested.  Thomas wanted a baby mohawk, not happening.  Here is some before and afters.

                                                                     BEFORE

AFTER



Owen was not exactly amused with the haircutting process.  The very patient stylist gave him a lolli.  She totally spoke Owen-----FOOD!  I miss his puffy hair.  :(

Dylan stopped playing in the toy center to see why Owen was crying. 

 He loves his brother........... well sometimes.

Hummingbird Visitors

I have noticed these past few weeks that the hummingbird activity has picked up.  I try to keep the feeder supplied with fresh nectar so that we do not serve fermented sugar water.  Hummingbirds are erractic enough without being intoxicated.  Here are some pictures that the hubs took this morning with his Mac of all Daddies camera.

Hummingbird Fast Facts (Thank you Google)

* Hummingbirds flap their wings 80 times a second.  While they are courting a mate they can flap their wings as fast as 200 times a second.  How is that even possible?
* Hummingbirds have no sense of smell.
* Hummingbirds can migrate up to 500 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.
* A hummingbird egg weighs about as much as a penny.
*  Last one, I am getting bored and Owen is pulling crap out of my pantry.  At rest a hummingbird's heart beat 250 times a minute.  Told you they were erratic.