So I spent last night baking.  I finished up my apple butter and then started on these cookies for the Halloween party this weekend.  It is a simply sugar cookie dough recipe (found here), I halved the recipe for this and it still made a bunch of cookies.  Once the dough is made, you spilt it into 3 equal parts.  Keeping one the plain and then coloring one orange and one yellow.  Once you have give it an hour-ish in the fridge, you will layer the dough on top of each other to make a sort of brick.  Orange and yellow on either end and the plain color in the middle.  

The finished product should look something like this:

I stole this picture from the internet, so I obviously did my pattern a little differently.

As you can see above, the idea is to then cut the cookies into triangle shapes to look like candy corn.  Here is my finished product:

Since I had some extra dough, I went ahead and made a cookie for Corbin too....

Looks just like him, huh?

Anyway, I hope you all have a weekend full of fall goodness!  Have a....

(stole this picture from another blog I follow--7th house on the left)

Pumpkins and apples and leaves, oh my!

Well even though I object to it, fall has decided to arrive.  Every year I try to protest the onset of fall/winter and just stay with summer all the time, but every year, the seasons change.  So instead of boycotting it, I decided to embrace the changing seasons and celebrate with friends.  

This weekend, two of my dear friends tied the knot!  Patrick and Lila got married at my church and then had their reception at the Virginian Historical Society.  It was a beautiful wedding and Anna and I had a ton of fun dancing the night away.  

Selfie in the bathroom to show off our matching earrings!

Kathryn and me

CJ, Lila (the bride), and me

After the wedding, we got a group together to hit up Bandito's for a fun dance party.  Needless to say, my feet were killing me by the end of the evening.  On Sunday Kathryn, CJ and I headed up to Charlottesville to get our apple picking on.  I left with roughly 15 pounds of apples, about half of which I am currently making apple butter with!  

While at Carter Mountain, we obviously sampled some of the delicious apple doughnuts, and did our fair share of walking and picking and climbing trees!

 We also made sure to take in the beautiful scenery!

Check out this beautiful view!!!!

Why hello!  I am a worm in an apple here!

 After we finished picking the apples, we had worked up an appetite.  So we headed over to The Market, Charlottesville's best kept secret.  It is a gourmet sandwich shop inside of a gas station mart.  It is sooooo good.  We all got various editions of "The Farmington," and not one of us was disappointed.  With sandwiches in hand, we headed back toward Richmond and stopped at Cooper Vineyards to sample some wine and to have a picnic lunch.  

Cheers!

 It turns out The Market also has super yummy pickles in a barrel like old country stores, so Kathryn and I got one to split.  Turns out if you mix some wine with us girls, we take crazy pictures....

What fall activities have you been doing?

Reading Update--October

Reading Update - October

Books I have read:
1. Because I said So by Ken Jennings
2. Mary Mary by James Patterson
3. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
4. When I Don't Desire God by John Piper
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. 40 Love by Madeline Wickham
7. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
8. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
9. She's got Issues by Nicole Unice
10. Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
12. The Guernsey Literacy & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
13. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
14. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
15. Private Berlin by James Patterson

Books that I plan to read:
16. Private London by James Patterson
17. The Light in the Ruins
18. The Aftermat


Also, you can now follow me on Good Reads to see what books I have read in the past and what I am planning to read next...my list is under my email (Laking05@gmail.com).  Happy Reading!

36!

36 days stand between me and epic relaxation!!!

To break that down a little more, it is
* 5 weekends
*27 work days
* 2 flights
* at least 1 visit to Norfolk
* 1 Halloween
* and a few hours of packing!


I am not 100% sure I can wait, but I will have to just keep dreaming for the time being....

Weekend in review

I was trying to write this out and I literally could not remember what I did Friday night, eek! But I thought long and hard and figured it out! Friday night, CJ came over for dinner (Chicken Philly Cheesesteaks), a pinterest recipe I found here!  I did not take a picture, but it was definitely a quick and easy meal.  Not my favorite of all times, but something that is easy to whip up for company (feds about 5-6).  Then we just hung out with the Bons. 

Saturday, I slept in and then the Bons and I went out to run errands and do a little shopping.  We hopped into "Once Upon a Child" and we found these, which I thought would be perfect for the twins (get it--just like two peas in a pod), but Tiffany did not agree.

Twin halloween costumes!

Saturday ended up with pedicures and dinner and a movie at home (The Sessions with Helen Hunt).  

Sunday morning, I was up for church and then came home after to try a new cookie recipe, also a pinterest find (here).  They are called Peanut Butter Monster Cookies and are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  So I made the Monster cookies for my youth group girls to try it out and it was so good, I used the rest of the dough to make 3 dozen smaller cookies that I froze for Halloween!  Sunday I also actually spent some time reading (Private Berlin) too, which was just wonderful!  Then of course onto youth group.  

What did you do this weekend?  Have you tried any new pinterest recipes? What are you reading these days?

It feels like home to me....

So I was born and raised in Richmond and have lived here my whole life, with the exception of my four years in college which were spent in the lovely little town of Blacksburg, VA.  I loved college: loved the people, loved the school (Go Hokies!), and I even loved the learning part, but I really loved Blacksburg.  It always felt like a second home to me, so in my adult life it always feels a little bit like I am traveling home when I go there.  Except now I look 10 years older than the majority of the population and I sound like an old fart when I talk about how I remember when that building didn't used to be there.  Even still, you just cant keep me away!  The allure of Hokie football, orange and marroon, and cheap GOOD food is enough to bring me back again and again.

So this year, it was appropriate that the game I made it back for was in fact the Homecoming game.  Sara, CJ, and I all traveled to the 'burg to meet up with Amanda and the McHugh's for some weekend fun!  We all got in town for a late dinner on Friday night then went back to Sarah and Matt's house to start round 1 of "hand and foot."  

Saturday morning we got moving at about 9am, so we could make it to the free homecoming tailgate and grab some grub before the game!  You know what is better than cheap food?  Free food--thanks Lowe's for sponsoring some Hokie fun!

A+ Breakfast!

Homecoming Tailgate!

Not sure where Sara, Matt and Kyle were we we snapped that picture above, but no worries, I found them soon enough and stole little Kyle for the morning!

Kyle and "Auntie" Lala

Eventually Sarah & Matt had to leave us to head over to meet up with the band, so Amanda, Sara, CJ and I made our way back to the car for some legit tailgating (see there is the tailgate!)

Eventually we made our way over to Lane Stadium for some Hokie football, aren't we cute in our Marroon shirts??

Loving the new scoreboard!

Needless to say, by the end of the 85+ degree game (in the month of October, mind you), we were all feeling like a shower might be important so it was back to the Mchugh's house for a quick change of clothes and then onto my favorite Blacksburg restaurant, Slouvaki!!!  Then we picked up some Gobble cakes and went back to the house to celebrate Amanda's 30th birthday (a few weeks early) and to finish up our hand and foot match up!

Amanda blows out the candle (aka tealight)

Minion love!

Kyle also managed to show us his all star pole dancing moves!

Cat checking out CJ's oreo!

Sunday morning, CJ, Sara, and I got up and said our goodbye's to the McHugh's and headed to Radford to check out Amanda's digs and grab a quick brunch before we were on the way home!

CJ with her baby cat, Me with baby Kyle, and Sara with her baby cat--please note, I did not hold a cat!

CJ, me, Sara, and Amanda outside the restaurant

State Fair Fun

So the Friday before Corbin's birthday weekend, CJ and I headed to the State Fair after work!

Pretty Ferris Wheel!

Of course, we had to check out everything and that includes the fried food---we got fried oreos and fried reese's cups (we both liked the Oreo better)!

Fried food!

They had a big monster truck and since Corbin loves them, I had to get a picture with one!

They had fun interactive signs all around, here is the cotton candy one: 

 Next up was the petting zoo, here is an alpaca--my favorite animal!

A pig:

Look a horse, oh no wait that is just me with a tail!

  

Cute kiddie ride

 All in all, it was a great time, there were not many animals there but we were thinking maybe since it was the first night, they were still planning to show up!  We had a great time and CJ was able to experience her first State Fair Ever!!!