Amazing Apple Bread

With all of the apples that we recently picked, I have been attempting to find lots and lots of apple recipes. This apple bread recipe that I found on allrecipes.com is OUTSTANDING. It is also particularly yummy when you put homemade apple butter on top of it.


Apple Bread

3 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup applesauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups apples, coarsely chopped
1 cup walnuts, broken (optional)

Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Combine applesauce, oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and apples; stir into flour mixture. Divide into two 8x4 bread pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes (until knife inserted comes out clean).

Discovery Place Kids, part II

These are the last of the pictures from the most recent visit to Discovery Place Kids. This trip was, in many ways, more relaxing than the first visit, as the boys played in the respective rooms for longer periods of time.

THE BOAT

I like how with this picture, it actually looks a bit like they are on the water.

While the boys played, I attempted to get Evelyn to smile.

RACE-CAR DRIVER

PLAYING WITH BRICKS

Stephen and Sebastian played with this thing for about 40 minutes.

Sebastian would put the bricks in, and Stephen would turn the crank to make them go up to the top, they would then fall down on the other side, which is what Sebastian is looking up at in the previous photo.

MECHANICS SHOP

Stephen and Sebastian were fixing the cars together.

WATER WORKS

RAILROAD TRACKS

Sebastian couldn't reach a train and Stephen was helping him.

GROCERY STORE

flower counter

pushing a cart

making a birthday cake from the bakery

THE FIRE TRUCK

I think he thought it was a real man.

THE AMBULANCE

Discovery Place Kids

Today we went to Discovery Place Kids with Lori and the kids. The first time that we went, I forgot the camera, so today I tried to take lots of pictures of the things that the boys did. Here are a few, I will post more another time.

THE FARM


Gathering eggs

Playing in the Silo.
The Restaurant




The Water / Ship Room

Looking out of the the porthole of the submarine.

Inside the submarine.

Outside the tackle and bait shop.

Glasses

Today we picked up Sebastian's glasses from the eye doctor. So far, he has been very good about keeping them on, and when he does need to take them off, he does so very carefully. He is still getting use to them, but hopefully, his eyes will adjust soon. Here are a few before and after pictures.

The Swing

Here is Evelyn in her great new swing that I got at a consignment sale. It hangs in the doorway into the kitchen quite nicely, and it is something else for her to do. She doesn't spend too much time in it quite yet, as she is a bit young, but I am hoping that the future will see her using it quite often.

She kept her tongue out the entire time she was in it. As she would bounce up and down, the tongue would go in and out.

Evelyn's Room

After much rearranging , lots of taking books off of shelves and putting them back on, Evelyn finally has a room that is not doubling as the office. Her room will still double as the guest room, but at least for the majority of the time, she has an actual bedroom.

The view out of her nice new window and the kiddos playing together.

He is teaching her how to read, and she just loves looking at him.

View from the door.

Changing table and closet.

The perfect place to read books while feeding her in the middle of the night.

Being alone

Sebastian doesn't particularly like to be alone. He will sometimes play in a room by himself for a while but then he wants someone to come and watch him play. This morning, I discovered the solution. Sebastian wanted to play in Evelyn's room, but I needed to go and get some work done in my room, so I told him that he could either stay and play, or come with me. He informed me that he wanted to stay and play, but that Evelyn needed to stay with him so that he wouldn't be alone. Unless he thinks that this 12 week baby is going to protect him from anything scary, he just likes the attention.

Sebastian says...

While outside hanging laundry on the clothesline, Sebastian was playing with the basket that I keep the laundry pins in. He was attempting to place the basket on a scooter, and then ride around on the scooter without the basket falling off. Obviously, this was not working. When I told him that it probably wouldn't work he replied, "It will work. Trust me! It will work."


The other day we explained to Sebastian what it means to die (he has recently had two great-grandparents die.) That same evening I was putting a band aids on his thumbs so that he would remember not to suck them and he said, "We can keep them on til I die and when I die we can take them off. Or, we can keep them on when I'm in the sky (meaning heaven) then I will remember not to suck them in the sky. Whichever you want."

Patrick: "Sebastian, did you take a nap today?"
Sebastian: "I took a perfectly fine nap."

Apple Picking

Yesterday we went apple picking, unfortunately, so did the rest of the world. We drove 1 1/2 hours and enjoyed an afternoon of picking apples, feeding some animals, eating lunch, and playing on the play area. I would have liked to enjoy some freshly made apple donuts (which are absolutely amazing) but I decided not to wait 45 minutes (at least) in line in order to obtain them. The weather was quite chilly and breezy (we were on top of a mountain) but it was also sunny and the day was just lovely. I carried Evelyn around in the carrier and we ended the day with almost 100 pounds of apples. Of course, this means that I spent some of today making an apple pie and applesauce. Tomorrow I will work on canning some apple butter and we will see where we go from there. I am striving to make the perfect apple pie as, as Patrick informs me, grandmothers have to be able to make Amazing pies. Well, I am no where near being a grandmother, but I'm also no where near making an amazing pie, so I figure I need to start work on it now.

Feeding the sheep. You can by corn for a quarter.

Evelyn in her carrier. She was definitely the warmest person there.

Patrick and Sebastian did most of the picking as I couldn't bend over, and I didn't want to drop any apples on Evelyn's head.

I'm not really this wide, it was the coat over the carrier that added Some of the width. =)

Here, while Patrick picks apples, Sebastian was doing what he did most of the day, eating an apple.

Patrick finally got him to stop eating for one picture.

Feeding the geese and ducks.

Driving the tractor. I think this was Sebastian's favorite part of the day.