Apple Butter Boil

The boiling pots.

Back in October, we went to an Apple Butter Boil fundraiser at a friend's mom's country church. We took all the cousins and ventured out to see what it was all about. They boil the apples in huge pots over the fire and jar the apple butter once it's all done. I know there's more to it than that, but I'm not sure each little step.  We got a couple jars of that as well as a jar of their chicken corn soup. It's amazing. We had lunch there and played out on the swing set. The kids had a nice time and we got some fun pictures too. 

Levi

Emerson

John

Peter

Ella

MacKenzie

My boys,  this picture is going in their room.

Checking out the horse and goat.

One of my top fave pictures of John and I.

I put this one in too because I think it's funny how
Peter and John are doing the same thing with their mouths,

Jenna, Me, and Renee. 

Sister and Niece.

Anna, Abbey, and Ben. It's Abbey's Mother in Law who goes to this church.

Buddies. 

The church with it's beautiful stained glass windows.

I love that in this area there is always something like this going on. The little churches, schools, museums, barns, and markets are constantly hosting some kind of gathering. I am hardly ever without an event I could take the kids to. 

The recipe for the lunch Andrew had and loved was sent to me by Abbey today just in time for this post. It was very good and you could probably use deer meat as well if you like that kind of thing :)

Hamburg Barbecue

2 pounds ground beef
1 small onion
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup mustard
1/4 cup vinegar
1 1/2 cups ketchup

Brown the ground beef and onion together.  Drain fat.  Add remaining ingredients and let simmer 20 minutes or so.  Serve on hamburger buns. 

Pumpkins to Pick

You can't come to Pennsylvania in the Fall and not go to a farm market to eat and pick out pumpkins. Usually we go to Rhorbach's Farm Market, but this year we decided to try out Ard's Farm Market in Lewisburg, one of my favorite towns around here. They had a fun playground for the kids, animals to see, and really great food. I will probably post more on this market another time. On the weekends you can go and do the hayrides, but we couldn't make it. Their BBQ pork sandwich is worth driving back.

That swing was made from a tire. Such a fun idea! The one above, not the one below. I'm well aware that the one below is called a TIRE SWING.

They have tractors for the kids to climb on.

And little tractor beds for babies who are too cute for their jeggings to model on.

Peek-A-Boo!!

This is what is called an Octodog. The mustard frown used to be a smile.

Picked the pumpkins and then we made them pose.

Oh she's so adorable. I got her that hat last year from The English Garden and I'm so glad I did.

They had fun watching the goats and the big pig there.

This little boy in orange happened to inform me while getting in the car post-pumpkin fun that his belly hurt. Part way home I pulled over to get him a bag. He said, "This bag has holes in it from the pumpkins." I looked at Renee and wondered what would happen with that hole-ridden bag. Oh yeah. He used it. I pulled over a second time (my sister following  me in another car as well) and looked back to a disaster I did not want to see. I grabbed the bag, and since it did indeed have holes, it only actually contained a bit of mess. Got Peter cleaned up and kept driving home. Then, he said again, without any more bags available, "I still don't feel good." Next thing I knew, he had used his jacket and lap as his bag and his poor cousin Levi had to witness the whole thing. They both sat back there crying, scared and disgusted. I sped home, cut through a parking lot, almost got in an accident and got us all out of the car. My sister had given me gum because I was also gagging, Renee helped with the not-sick kids and we got it all worked out. Then we waited. For days every time someone coughed we asked, "What hurts?" The kids must have thought we were nuts. We had all already shared the flu last year in Alaska. Luckily it must have been food related because everyone else stayed free of the stomach bug. 

So that was our day at Ard's. Pretty sure their food wasn't what made Peter sick so don't worry. I still plan to go there again. Probably tonight...really. I'm leaving soon.