Flying Cloud Orchard - Acushnet, MA

How has October already disappeared? Next week is November! We've been so busy with dance, fundraising, soccer, and me working the weekends at school... we hadn't even picked out pumpkins!

With it already being the end of October, this is absolutely not okay.  With a little bit of rain and limited time before Dave had to go to work, we knew we had to stay local.  We decided to check out Flying Cloud Orchards on Main Street in Acushnet. I've seen all the pumpkins as I've driven home for school and since it opened at 8 am, we had plenty of time before Dave had to go to work.

Flying Cloud Orchards is more of a farm stand, but they have a great penned in area that has hundreds of pumpkins. They're already on pallets so less dirt than in a field and arranged by color and sizes.  Our kids took less than 4 minutes to find their favorite pumpkins.  We wouldn't have even made it out to a field at other farms in that time!

In addition to the "regular" sized pumpkins, they also had what my kids call, "baby pumpkins", the itty bitty ones. Emma picked out a tiny white pumpkin to go along with my white pumpkin that I picked out. 

While they don't offer cider donuts (sad face, but honestly I don't need them...), they did have pies and honey sticks. Emma even picked out a Halloween pencil for school! 

All in all we spent only $6.25 for 4 pumpkins! That's like the price of 1 at the grocery store and this allows me to support a local business!

We stopped by as a "hope for the best" and absolutely fell in love with it, so we'll be back next year when it's time to get our pumpkins again!

xo, Heather

King Richard's Faire - Tips for the Perfect Family Day in Carvershire

Disclaimer: We were provided admission, however, all thoughts and opinions are our own.

Happy Fall! It's officially Fall now so we spent the weekend outside at Ty's soccer practice, putting up our Fall decorations, and of course, heading to King Richard's Faire. I've been going for years and it's always a kick off to the beginning of the Fall season.

There's just something so Fall about being in the changing foliage, watching the performances and eating delicious food that is so synonymous with King Richard's Faire to me! We love packing up as a family and heading to the Faire for the day.

This year was no different... After soccer on a Saturday morning, we made our way to Carvershire to see what the King had up his sleeve for the Game of Thrones weekend.  Each weekend has a different theme or fun event and this weekend was Game of Thrones.  Other weekends include a Princess and Knight dress up for children and Wizards, which are great for the whole family, Vow Renewal weekend, and even the Cleavage contest for those Bachelor weekends-- full disclosure I would love to compete in the cleavage contest but I have so many students (and their parents) who work at and visit the faire, that I'd just never be able to!

Since we love going, we want to share a few tips for making your visit to King Richard's Faire the best!  Before you even step inside, you feel transported.  From the signs and performers, we get so excited just walking through the gates.

Tip #1. Dress Up!
King Richard's Faire is a Fantasy faire, meaning anything goes! We saw "David Bowie", Monty Python characters, fairies, characters from World of Warcraft, and so many gorgeous dresses.  There were knights, jesters, and even a centaur! You can even rent costumes for all ages and sizes right inside the front gate at Seams Like A Dream if you don't have your own! Emmalee was seriously sad that she did not dress up after seeing everyone else and has already started putting together an outfit for next time!

Tip #2. Grab a Map Program!
Just inside the gate is a Map of the Realm but it also includes the show schedule for the day! Some shows happen more than once a day and others only happen once so be sure to pick which shows you want to see!

The shows are the most amazing part of the day.  We made time to see Snorkel the Trained Pig, The Big Cat Show, Jacques Ze Whippeur, Prince and Princess Academy, Up in Arms, and Daiku (Twice! They are amazing!). We also caught a few glimpses of the Mud Show and the Washing Wenches while walking by.  Tyler's favorite though was the King's Tournament!

Tip #3. See as many shows as you can-- and get to the stage early!
Every performer at King Richard's Faire is amazing.  Whether it's a trained pig, with a very humorous handler, or an acrobat who can do a 1 handed hand stand 20+ feet up in the air... you don't want to miss them! Be sure to get there right when the show starts (after the prior show clears out) so you can get a good seat.  We were lucky enough to have front row seats to see Snorkel the Trained Pig and the kids loved it!

Tip #4. Bring some $1 and $5 bills with you.
With so many amazing performers, you may want to tip them.  The kids were so excited to put money into the buckets at the end of the shows, so even though it's not required- we still love to! In addition to the shows, you might just come across a performer in the middle of the "street".  While eating our order of unicorn donuts (more on those in a minute), a musician started playing a few feet away.  Ty was so excited to go put some bills into his bucket!

Speaking of Unicorn Donuts, oh my gosh. These were new for us and I am so happy that I can only buy them at King Richard's Faire currently, or I'd be consuming them every day. The warm little donuts are seriously my new favor treat at King Richard's Faire, and at only 5 tickets for 6 donuts, it was a great value.

Tip #5. Figure out what you want to eat before buying your tickets. 
King Richards Faire sells their food by tickets.  Each ticket is 1 dollar, and purchased in groups of 5 at a ticket booth.  Then you go to the food stands and give them the tickets. We always do a lap around the food stands to decide what we want to eat before we go and buy our tickets, so we know that we purchase enough tickets  and only wait in the ticket line once! King Richard even made sure to look out for the GF/V/LF crowd.  You can check out those menus here!

Tip #6. Carve out some time to check out the artisan shops. 
From fairy wings and flower crowns to pet dragons, leather accessories, and hand crafted items... the faire offers a variety of shops to meander through. I'm still hoping to get a henna tattoo or a psychic reading one of these times!

Tip #7. Don't plan it all, allow yourself to just get a little "lost". 
One of our favorite moments this weekend was when we stumbled upon a centaur and a fairy blowing bubbles in the fairie circle. The centaur was playing his instrument with his nose and the kids were entranced by the bubbles. Taking a few minutes of unscheduled fun, allowed us the most magical moments of pure magic for the kids. When another mom tried to tip them, the centaur told her, and all the kids, to pay it forward-- to go and do good in the world for others.  How wonderful is that?

We spent hours in the woods of Carvershire, seeing so many amazing performances and being caught up in the magic of it all. Emmalee is already begging to go back next weekend for the Harry Potter themed contests, and of course, now it feels like Fall has finally started in New England.

To get your own advanced tickets, you can order them here. You still have until October 21st to get in a visit! Have so much fun.

xo, Heather

Apple Picking at Tougas Family Farm

I love apples. They get skipped over a lot by pumpkin, but I like to give apples the whole fall to be wonderful. My favorite thing is apple picking.  We've gone every year with the kids and it's just a great day, followed by great baking.  This year we ventured to Tougas Farms in Northborough.

We met up with my mom and sisters to go picking for the morning. Tougas Farm has you pay for the bag ahead of time.  The smaller bag, a Peck - about 10 pounds, is $30 and admits up to 4 people into the orchard. The larger bag is a 1/2 Bushel ~ 20 pounds. At $40 it admits up to 6 people into the orchard. We grabbed a larger bag and hopped on the hayride to the orchards (included in price). When you get off the wagon, they give a quick overview of what apples are where and then you're off. 

I love a good crunchy Honey Crisp apple so I loaded up on those! After we were done picking, we made our way over to the playground.

And checked out some wildlife...

Our trip wouldn't be complete without some cider donuts (gone before pictures could be taken- whoops!) and a few pumpkins!

It's a gorgeous farm that is well taken care of and we had such fun for the morning!

Where do you go apple picking? I'm always looking for new places to check out!

xo, Heather

Grab and Go Apple Pies

I love love love September, or as I call it, apple month.  It is the little bit of time I get before pumpkin spice everything takes over.  I am in love with the smells of September, the leaves, the crock pot meals, and my favorite, apple pie.  My problem with apple pie is that if I make an apple pie, there's an entire pie staring at me, and honestly, I lack the willpower to say no.

These individual sized, easy to grab and go apple pies are the perfect way to limit your pie consumption, and since you can eat them in your hand, you don't need any plate or silverware!

They are so easy to make and only require a few ingredients.

You need:

2 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
6 cups thinly sliced pared apples
1 package of refrigerated pie crust
Preheat oven to 400*.
Mix all the ingredients together and then add the apples. Mix until all are coated in the cinnamon mix.
Using a large 3" circle cutter, cut out the pie crust.  I used the scraps, rolled them together and then cut out more, giving me 16 circles. 
Put half on a baking sheet and scoop 1/4 cup of the apple mixture into the middle.
Top with a second pie circle and using a fork, press the edges into each other. Also, cut a vent into the top of the pie, I did 4 to make an x, but 1 single cut is fine too. 
Sprinkle a little bit more cinnamon on top of the pie.
Cook for 12-15 minutes or until pie is brown.

We barely let them cool before we started eating them! Ha!

Emma asked for ice cream with her so instead of eating it with our hands, we drizzled some caramel and added a scoop of ice cream. So so good!

Apple pie is my favorite, but I'm sure you could make these with blueberry, peach, or cherry!

Let me know which flavor you make!

xo, Heather

Go Back to School with Help from Blogger Bash! #BBNYC

I know I've talked a lot about the toys I saw at Sweet Suite and Blogger Bash, but the conference offered so much more!

As much as I'm avoiding thinking about it, school is only a week away now so I am in back to school mode.  I was honestly surprised by how many brands were there that were more than toys, and instead really great products for every day! Here's a few of my favorites that will help me get back into the swing of school!

You can't head back to school without a new backpack and lunch box, right? I am in love with the designs from Bixbee.  They offer backpacks, lunchboxes, even duffles that make great dance bags! They have a couple great promos going on and if you order an animal bag, you get a free lunchbox! I love good savings. They're even better when they are adorable! I love that the bag holds items horizontally to spread the weight over the shoulders, rather than up and down the back and they seem to be really well made.  Emma has been loving her duffle bag! And did I mention you can have them personalized?

Another great item to pack in those bags? Drink in the Box and Snack in the Box containers! I mean, we all know how unnecessary extra sugar is for our kids, but did you know the average juice box can have up to 7 teaspoons of sugar? No thanks. My kids are already hyper enough.  We've switched to lots of infused waters or watered down juices to keep them from all the extra sugars. While I've found lots of bottles that allow me to do this, none quite stack up to the Drink in the Box containers. The containers are made with a BPA, BPS and Phthalates free material called TRITAN™, have an attached straw and are leak free. I love to put a couple of fresh berries in the containers, fill it with water, and the kids are happy to drink from them all day.

They also make Snack in the Box, which is the same concept except for snacks! No more crushed goldfish crackers in the bag! Yey! Because the container holds 2 6 oz portions, you can cut down on the amount of containers you're trying to fit into that lunchbox!

I already know my kids' lunchboxes are going to be filled with Drink in the Box and Snack in the Box containers! You can pick up a few of your own here (aff).

If you're looking to pack up more than snacks, you could always pack up a lunch in Sistema box. I am seriously in love with the Bento Box and need to add one or two to the growing collection of Sistema containers we have!

Once the kids have their bags packed up, it's time to get them dressed! I am in love with LittleMissMatched and Triple Flip!

It's really important to me that I find clothes that empower my little girl and are age appropriate. I hate how quick girl's clothing makes girls grow up.  I want my daughter in clothes that aren't low cut or too short. I want her to be comfortable but still feel fashionable. LittleMissMatched has bright, exciting and fashionable clothes but they are totally age appropriate for girls.

My favorite pieces are the Hi Bye Baseball tees and Cotton Candy leggings. Emmalee asked if I'd buy her the Royal Cat sweatshirt! In addition to clothes, LittleMissMatched carries lots of accessories, like hats, notebooks, and bags, and great shoes! One of the most fun things about LittleMissMatched is that they sell their socks in packs of 3, and none technically match! Ha.

Triple Flip is another amazing shop directed at tweens.  There's an obvious gap in clothing for tweens and Triple Flip is doing amazing addressing it. For starters, they don't use models. They use everyone, seriously, you can sign up here and when they're local to you for a photo shot, they'll let you know! The whole brand is designed around empowering girls and creating clothes that fit their lifestyles, not creating a girl to fit the clothes. Triple Flip carries everything from leggings and shirts, to skirts, jackets, hats, and clothes for sports like dance, gymnastics, and skating.

But let's be honest, no matter how gorgeous your new back to school items are, or how good you look, we all feel a bit of anxiety when starting anything new, and a new school year is no exception.  I really love the concept behind Worry Eaters, when you're nervous or afraid or worried about something, you write or draw it on a piece of paper, unzip the Worry Eaters mouth, and tuck the fear inside.  Then the Worry Eater takes care of your concerns.  As someone who has battled anxiety, it's so great to see a child friendly way to cope with those feelings.

Now, I know many of my readers have smaller children, but lots also have older students heading back to school/college or are looking for  a few back to school items for themselves.

I have already told David I'm grabbing myself a new tote bag, a new phone case, and a new agenda to get me ready for the school year. Whaaaaaaat? Teachers need new stuff each year too! :)

Zazzle makes great custom items, like tote bags and mugs, that are great quality.  I'm a hug sucker for mugs, I have like 100. I always buy them when we go somewhere (seriously I have the whole Starbucks/Disney set).  One's that give me a chuckle or motivate me are my favorites, like some of these ones.

Shoulder bags are practical and these ones are gorgeous.  I love that my favorite ones on the site basically have my initial and Emma's name on them already!

I'd seriously monogram everything if I could. I've been looking at these new sparkle cases from Speck and think they'd look perfect with a monogram, right? I love that Speck offers so many styles for so many different devices.

Another great new product I saw at Blogger Bash to help me get ready for back to school is TUL at Office Max.  It's a discbound system notebook that is so convenient! I LOVE notebooks and planners; I mean I had 3 planners last year and I personalize notebooks for school and home so these drew me right in.  Office Max is currently rolling out more items that word in the notebooks, so I'm excited to see what else they come out with.

I also grabbed a Finder's Key Purse at Blogger Bash. I can't tell you how many time I would get to my car and have to dig for my keys since they fell to the bottom of my very large school tote.  It's super obnoxious, and if I'm being honest, not very safe.  Schools are not the completely safe space they once were and having your keys at your fingertips is much safer.  I'm picking one up for my sister too; as well as their drink test kit.  I know it's scary and not something we want to think about but my sister is a gorgeous, friendly young woman who has a good heart. She lives on a college campus and while I wish I didn't have to think about it, I do, and I can't think of anything better as a back to school necessity for her.

And finally, the cook book Lick Your Plate by Bite Me More (aff link to buy it here) will be coming in so handy after next week! Working all day makes it more difficult to come home and cook dinner and do the night time routine but I'm excited to make some of these delicious looking, easy recipes! 

It's crazy how much work it takes to get ready to go back but the kids are excited for their first days of day care and kindergarten!

Even more exciting? A few of the brands are offering a giveaway to you!

The winner will receive a prize pack that includes gifts from Drink in the Box, a $30 credit to LittleMissMatched, a phone case from Speck, and a Worry Eater Doll!

Contest is open to US residents only.  Prizes will be shipped by the individual companies.

Winner will be chosen on Tuesday August 30th and will have 48 hours after being sent the email to claim or a new winner will be chosen.

Entry-Form

Good luck!

xo, Heather