Official Start of Autumn in Our House!

It's officially Autumn. The weather is changing, hearing the boys pant during walks is quickly becoming less and less frequent. I found my Fall décor items. Last year I couldn't find them. After moving in together I had this large container of Autumn and Christmas décor items that seemed to get lost in the shuffle. Last Christmas I looked around at our holiday items and thought there was some stuff missing. As the stuff we had out was Brad's and what we had acquired as a result of having a Christmastime wedding. A few months back I finally came across my container of holiday décor. Woo-hoo! So Fall decorations are on display in our place. 

In recent days I've even done some Autumn baking.  I made banana chocolate toffee breads along with two different types of apple flavored cookies. I'm VERY experimental when it comes to baking breads. I'll throw just about anything into the batter just to see how it comes out.  At special holiday times of the year, look out, there's likely some candy floating about in the batter. Perhaps I think to throw candy into the batters because I'm a sucker for limited edition candy and cookies introduced to the market at holiday times. Just the other day I came across caramel apple Oreos.  I had to buy them! My husband is SUPER traditional when it comes to his desserts. So when I arrived home with the caramel apple Oreos the look on his face wasn't as giddy as the look on my face as I quickly ripped into the package. After I said they tasted quite good he had enough courage to take a bite of my cookie. He hasn't needed to have a full caramel apple Oreo cookie of his own yet. The caramel apple Oreo experience I suppose led me to get into the kitchen to bake some apple flavored cookies of my own. I baked two different kinds. The first type of apple cookies I completely dreamed up on my own.  And much like with the caramel apple Oreos Brad was somewhat apprehensive to taste test the "dreamed up" cookies. Once he did....well....he had quite a few! The second batch of cookies combined peanut butter and apples.  What could be better, right Simon? Actually Simon isn't too experienced with apples just peanut butter.  Over the years he's sampled apple peels that have accidentally hit the floor. But his true expertise is in peanut butter.

This Autumn in our household, not only means our football obsession grows week by week, but it now means not one but both ladies in the house are about to celebrate a birthday. The men in the household better recognize!  Ha-Ha! First comes mommie's birthday then comes little Piper's birthday.  Piper is about to celebrate her very first bday! Congrats Pipe!

My husband has attempted to turn this weekend into my "birthday weekend".  However, I like waiting for my birthday, celebrating it then letting the good times roll a bit longer.  Once the birthday occurs there's leftover cake to eat not to mention just a good overall feeling going on. Therefore, I'm all about, shall I term it....the after party! 

My grandpa had to celebrate every birthday of his 3 times before he was completely satisfied with his bday festivities.  He would celebrate with a longtime friend by going out to lunch near his birthday if not on his birthday. Our family would of course gather together to celebrate. Plus he'd go out to celebrate in a quieter fashion with only my grandma. So you see, I learned how to extend a birthday!

As for Piper's birthday, that milestone occasion will occur 10 days after mine.  It's quite interesting the way our "kids" bdays stack up.  Cody's bday is before Christmas which means the boys always receive a new Christmas toy as well as Christmas related treats.  Simon's birthday hits right before Easter.  In his 12 years of life Easter has never occurred before his birthday. A day or two after or a week or so after but never before.  Therefore, his birthday is perfectly placed to get the boys Easter/Spring toys and treats.  And now there's Piper.  Her birthday is aligned in front of Halloween, meaning her and her brothers will be getting Halloween related gifts!  So be ready for something spooktacular kids! LOL!