Long Lost September

This is for sure the fastest moving time of my life.  SLOW DOWN!!

This fall has been full of fun and stress and stuff.  Here are pictures of some of our September Times.

It was my 10 year high school reunion.

Homecoming Carnival and Game.

My Peeps

Linds, Jess and Serena

Can't have a high school reunion without at least one member of Instant Winner.

It was great to see Evan and Jeff!

Sofie is becoming a great photographer!

Derek's parents came to town, so we had a backyard party.

Dia enjoying the swing with Sofie and stranger neighbor girl.

Meili LOVES her Papa!

He really does love me, I promise.

She gets more beautiful everyday!

We headed up to Bridal Veil Falls to see the leaves.  It was freezing!!!  And too late in the day for good pics, but it was fun.

Feeding the fish in the pond.

Dia was there too, she was taking pictures...

Payoff

I worked really hard in the spring and then all throughout the summer.  And now I am proud to present the yard transformation!  I'm excited for next spring when the grass is even healthier!

Before

Before

After

(I used a seed/fertilizer/mulch mix that Scott's makes for patching lawns)

Before

Scott's patch mix

After

(lawn did great, tree from costco, not so much...)

Before

After

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

I grew my tomatoes vertically this year on some poles.  Worked excellent!  They grew so tall that there were tomatoes growing 10 feet high in the neighbor's hedge!

My beautiful Zucchini plant that was taller than Mei.

(I say was because the last few cold nights has turned the whole plant black and soggy...)

I hate watching all my plants slowly die.  We had a wonderful garden two years in a row!

Can't wait for the next growing season.

Sofie is 4!!

Wow, she's 4!

For lunch we took her to Pizza Factory, they do a birthday pizza in the shape of your age.

\

She got a new doll house for her birthday.

The night of her birthday I made cute pink cupcakes and we celebrated with a few cousins that were over.

That weekend we had a birthday party in the park.

Rainbow!

This cake turned out so cute!

But it was the biggest pain in the neck to make!

Delicious! 

The fam, minus Dia because she was taking the picture.

Lotsa friends and family and food.

I love the fact that her birthday is at the end of the summer.  It's a little cooler, but perfect for an outdoor party.  The kids are entertained without games, lots of space for crazy kids, clean up is much easier!

I found this perfect rainbow number 4 pinata!

The kids loved it!

Stuffing Ourselves Hungarian Style

One of the many advantages to hosting an exchange student.

Exotic cuisine :)

First we made Toltot Paprika.  Stuffed peppers.

Rice, Meat, Onion, Spices, stuffed into a pepper, covered in a tomato sauce.

We only had bell peppers, I'd love to try it in a Hungarian "T.V. Pepper"

Dia says it wasn't her grandma's Toltot Paprika, but we got close.

For dessert we made Turorudi Torta.

The only way I can explain this is to compare it to a cheesecake.

It's made from turo, a Hungarian cheese that is usually called "cottage cheese" but is way different. The closest we could get to was Ricotta.  

It's basically cheese, eggs, sugar, a little flour.  This was an apricot Turorudi, so we added apricot jam and dried apricots.  The bottom of the cake is made from spongecake.

It was FANTASTIC!

Then of course, it has to have chocolate.

Turorudi is actually a Hungarian candy bar made from turo cheese and then dipped in chocolate.

So, the turorudi cake is a dessert fashioned after the candy bar.

I could eat it every day.

Here's Meili pigging out on a palacsinta.

The Hungarians eat this often.  You may know it better as a crepe.

And if there's anything else I could eat everyday...

Paprikas Cserke on Galuska.

Paprika chicken on egg noodles.

Basically it's chicken cooked in onion, broth, paprika, and then covered in a paprika and sour cream sauce.  The noodles are very unique because they're more like a droplet of dough about the size of a skinny wiggly almond. :)  I love them and years ago I bought Derek a Galuska maker...

Now I'm hungry.