Fall

This weekend was one of those weekends that come along every now and then that wasn't busy, over-planned, rushed or gone in the blink of an eye. All too often it seems like Chad gets home from work on Friday evening and an hour later he's rolling out of bed for work again on Monday morning. And especially when he's back in school (he's doing an MBA program and each class is a 6 week session. They pack a lot of work into that six weeks--usually 30+ hours per week on top of his full-time job!) things can seem anything but calm. We always hold our breath right before a class starts and hope that the workload isn't too insane, that the professor is one of the good ones, and that his teammates in his group assignments pull their weight. Sigh of relief--it seems like those three stars have aligned nicely this time around.

We took Charlotte to the fall festival at Gale's Garden Center on Saturday. We snatched up the last few cupcakes from Alyssa's Cupcake Confections before she sold out--I think her tent was the most popular! We let Charlotte play in a big pile of pumpkins:

This weekend truly felt like fall--and with good reason, since Saturday marked the official start of my most favorite season! Chad and I got a chance to go out on a date (alone!) Saturday evening and on Sunday we just hung around here all day. It was chilly and a little rainy, perfect weather to stay inside with the fireplace going and football on TV. There were pillows and blankets and baby books strewn all over the living room rug and mug of hazelnut coffee in my hand that was refilled way too many times. Charlotte fell asleep in my arms, something she rarely does anymore, and we napped on the couch for over an hour. I made the best simple fall dinner I could think of: grilled cheese and soup. For dessert? Lazy Cake Cookie, found on Pinterest (go here for the original recipe where it was pinned).

I promise you that this dessert will knock your socks off. Just mix together a box of yellow cake mix, 5 tablespoons of melted butter, 2 beaten eggs and a few handfuls of mini chocolate chips. Toss it in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees and viola! A delicious sheet cookie.

I'm thinking of trying it with chocolate cake mix and peanut butter chips--doesn't that sound good??

And going on behind the scenes? Day 1 of the installation of our built-ins. Day 2 (and hopefully the last day) will be next Sunday. Here's a sneak peek:

I also got a lot of sewing/crafting projects underway--some even finished, woo hoo! More to come later this week on those.

Happy Monday!

~Stacy

P.S. This is my little peanut last year before we went to the Gale's Fall Festival. Sigh.

Without realizing it, we ended up getting her the same pants in a different size this year. What we couldn't do this year? Get her to sit still. She's a busy, busy girl. And for some reason this picture makes her look 4 feet tall (actual height? 2 ft. 6 in. She's itty bitty).