Hazel's Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we attended a new employee function out at Hazel's Pumpkin Patch near Lodgepole. The road out there was a small country road, pretty dusty! Amelia was super excited to find out what a pumpkin patch was all about. Brother Campos spear-headed the event. We were met with a smile and handshake, fun treat bag and a wagon to boot. First, we tried the corn maze. A Charlie Brown scene was hidden somewhere in the maze. If you found the scene you could pick out a rock from Charlie's bucket and trade it in for a treat at the main house. Pulling the wagon loaded with kids and camera equipment really taxed my vigor. Phew, it was hard! Phillip was enthralled with the ride swishing his tongue from side to side. Poor kid has a huge spit rash from licking his chops so much. Justin scouted ahead finally locating the center. We went out to the pumpkin patch to collect two pumpkins for the kids. The kids were goobers because they would not cooperate for pumpkin posing photos. Stinkers.

Cabela's arranged a dinner of hot chili, hot dogs, chips, and drinks. Amelia discovered a small playhouse just her right size to play in. Phillip entered the costume party losing by a small margin. Amelia got a heart painted on her cheek. She sat so still I about laughed. She would not talk afterwards in fear of messing up the heart. That lasted a couple minutes before she melted into tired crying. Amelia was asleep before we got to the highway.

I made an impromptu trip to Sterling on Friday. I had some yarn to exchange at Fiber Space. I finished shopping for the kid's winter clothing and shoes. All I need now is a coat and snow pants for Phillip. Amelia always talks to the Walmart checkers. Her conversation this week went like this:

Amelia: My mom likes the color green
Checker: That's nice
Amelia: My mom loves doughnuts more than my Dad
Checker: Laughing hysterically, "REALLY?"
Me: sinking into the floor

So not true, I may love doughnuts more than Justin....does, but not more that I love Justin. She heard that one wrong, lost in translation.

Today I made four quarts of spaghetti sauce out of my garden tomatoes, herbs, carrots, and peppers. Yum! I may have one more batch coming in the next week or so. Grandma Lance gave me our family recipe for Texas Sheet Cake. She said the recipe came from her mother. I thought it was Aunt Laura's recipe. So good! I did not have the buttermilk so the cake did not set right after using milk. Don't look too closely at the ingredients or else you might feel guilty.

Texas Sheet Cake
3 T cocoa, 1 cup water, 1 1/2 cups oil, 1 stick of butter
combine and bring to a boil then add the hot mixture to:

2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
combine then add:

2 eggs, 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla
bake at 350 for 20 minutes (I increased baking time to 30 minutes)

ice when the cake is hot with:
3 T cocoa, 1 stick of butter, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/3 cup milk
bring to a boil then add

2 1/2 cups of powered sugar (I added 1 tbs of corn syrup and reduced the sugar by a quarter cup)