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Homestead Farms

One of our recent adventures took us out to a little place in Keller called "Homestead Farms". We heard about this place many months ago and we haven't found a chance to stop in until now. How cute and quaint is this little store? 

This little place is known for growing and selling goat's milk, local, fresh, produce, eggs, and hormone, antibiotic, and GMO free meats. They sell grass fed beef, pasture raised pork and poultry and seasonal produce. While reading about their history, I learned that their farm is over 125 years old. 

The first thing you see when you step in to this little store are these feed buckets for the pigs, goats, sheep, horses, and chickens that roam the farm. 

I thought these treat feed buckets were so cool for small kids and even adults! I wanted to feed the animals, unfortunately, we arrived minutes before it started raining. By the time we left the store, all the animals had moved towards shelter and were no longer outside. 

To one side of the store was the fresh produce and in the middle was different types of peanut butter, honey, breads, etc. 

Here you can see cheese, butter and eggs. To the other side of this sliding door were all the meats. We did buy some meat for our roast we were going to make in the slow cooker! 

The grounds of the farm were so beautiful. I was able to take a few pictures in between all the rainfall. 

If you look closely, you can see a few of the chickens inside! 

When we first drove up, before the rain started falling, the goats, sheep and pigs were in this pen.

We left the store with roast, a veggies for our slow cooker, jalapeno cheese, butter that I've been wanting to try and a few beef jerkey sticks. The jerkey were delicious! What's better is that these little sticks are all natural with no sugar and no MSG. And it's made right here in Weatherford, Texas! 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Homestead Farms and plan on returning in the future. We made our roast and veggies in the slow cooker and the taste of the red potatoes and the carrots were fresh and tasty! 

Not too long after arriving home from Homestead, I took a picture of our Homestead haul and began putting the food away and prepping food for our slow cooker for the next day. I didn't realize I had left the roast out wrapped in a bag sitting on the table. We went out that evening and came home late that night. It wasn't until the next morning when Colt discovered the roast still sitting on the table almost 18 hours later...

Yup. Our roast was ruined. My husband was quite displeased to say the least. Wife of the year right here, guys. 

We did manage to make a roast. One we bought from Albertsons. Kind of defeats the purpose of our Homestead trip. Perhaps we will have better luck next time and my husband can find it in his heart to forgive me! Just kidding, Colt was very sweet and understanding about the whole situation. He was much more understanding than I would've been! Love this sweet guy of mine! 

I still feel terrible about it. 

Our Albertsons roast and our homestead vegetables were delicious... in fact, we plan on having some of the leftovers tonight! 

Hoping everyone is having a great week and staying cool in this heat! 

We love you all! 

Fun, fun, fun

Good morning! Before my sweet husband awakes wanting breakfast, I figured this was a perfect time to do a quick brain dump of what's been going on in our lives as of late. We are keeping busy as usual. Slow mornings like these I relish before the hustle and bustle of the weekend begins. Here's a few snapshots of what's been going on... 

Rewind back to Memorial Day Weekend. My cousins were cooking out in Haslet and invited us over for food and fun. We got to check out my cousin Rob and Leslie's new chickens and chicken house... or is it called chicken pen? chicken coop? hen house? Whatever you call it, it's adorable! 

How cute this this thing?! I especially love the flower window box! 

3 little hens

It was a fun evening of relaxation, watching "dance recitals" put on by the kids, laughs and family time. I am bummed that somehow a picture is missing from my camera roll. I took the cutest pic of me with the 4 little cousins and for some reason it wasn't there when I uploaded pictures this morning. Boo. However, these gems were still on my camera roll from that evening... 

Yes. We're ridiculous.

I made these mini star cherry pies to bring over. They were yummy! 

On actual Memorial Day, my parents invited us over for burgers. We arrived to this festive decorated table. 

The following weekend was my friend, Shieva's baby shower. Shieva and her family are very dear friends of ours. I first met Shieva my freshman year of high school when we were 14 years old. It's crazy how fast time passes. I love getting to be a part of and seeing this next and new chapter in Shieva and her husband Justin's life together. How blessed life is! 

Shieva & Justin are dentists in the Houston area so we do not get to see each other as much as would like. Still I couldn't be happier for the both of them! When we are back together it's like we pick up right where we left off. Don't you just love friendships like those?! 

It was a fiesta themed baby shower, how perfect is this cake?!

 Baby gifts! 

So thankful for our friendship! 

Later that evening we met our friends, Britton and his wife, Sarah, in Downtown Fort Worth at a place called Bird Cafe. 

Photo cred: Google

It was our first time to eat there but we loved it! It's family style serving so we were able to try lots of mouth-watering foods such as: Roasted Beet Salad, Rabbit Pot Pie, Grilled Steak Asada on a stick, Mango Green Chile Goat Queso (which was my personal favorite), and Nueske Bacon. We topped it off with dessert... key lime pie and homemade blueberry pie! I must admit, I am not one for trying new foods, but I'm SO glad I did. Colt is always encouraging me to be more adventurous as far as food goes. This dinner was definitely pleasing to my palate! If you're looking for trying something new go check this place out! 

Bird Cafe also uses local providers for farm fresh eggs, veggies, honey, cheeses, etc. Give it a whirl some time and let us know what you think! 

After dinner,  we headed to a place off 6th street called, Lola's Saloon. Our friend, Pat is in a band called, Quaker City Night Hawks, and we went to watch them play. Live music on a summer night is our favorite! 

Quaker City Night Hawks on stage

With our friends, Britton & Sarah

Colt & Pat

With the band 

If you're looking to support local bands, consider checking out some of their music on iTunes! Their sound is so unique! They are doing some awesome things so keep a lookout! 

Side note: Some of you may not know this, but Colt used to play in a band. He has one amazing voice and is very musically inclined!  

To end the weekend, we went to a luncheon to celebrate and honor my dad and other gentleman of the church. My dad is a special part of our church called, The Knights of Columbus. KoC is basically a faith based organization where Catholic men participate in charitable acts for the community, and are of service to others. There are over 1.9 million members of this organization world wide! 

So proud of my dad! 

...

Well, my husband woke up before I could finish this post and he whisked me off to brunch. After running a few errands, we finally returned home.

 It was a lovely morning to brunch and walk around downtown with this guy. :)

How lucky I am to enjoy a chocolate muffin next to this stud muffin

Have a happy day! 

We love you all! 

Birthdays Galore

Happy Summer! While Summer doesn't officially start until June 20th, in the Miranda household, summer.is.here! Gone are the days of waking up early, setting alarm clocks, attending meetings, racing to meet deadlines, giving assessments, and working 8 hour days. Hello to sleeping in, shopping, relaxing, movies, Netflix binges, midday naps, swimming, and having the choice to decide whether or not I want to change out of my pajamas that day! Hah! I'm already missing the sweet faces of my students, but I'm thankful for this time to rest, recharge and prepare for the next school year.  

22 days before the end of the school year, I surprised my students with this balloon wall. At the beginning of each school day, we popped one balloon and one student name fell out of the balloon. We celebrated that student all day that day and called them the "VIP". This made both my kiddos and I excited for school each day. When you get to the end of the school year, teachers and students have worked so hard all year and we become so exhausted. This is the time of the year to bring something new to the classroom. This sparked new interest, excitement and helped us make it through the end of the year without going completely crazy! My kids LOVED it. I loved seeing their little faces light up with joy when it was their name that fell out of the balloon. I know I say this a lot, but I really do have the best job in the world!!! 

This was also the time of year to celebrate birthdays galore! We attended my cousin Sammie's birthday, Colt's grandma's birthday and our nephew Tim's birthday as well! 

First up, was our nephew's birthday. My sister in law and brother in law have a house and land in Denton which is about a 45 minute drive from our house. The weather was just perfect for an outdoor party. It wasn't too hot and the mosquitoes weren't too bad either! 

Football shaped cake! 

With our nieces, Izabel & Ayla

Tim requested that instead of gifts, he wanted his guests to bring canned food. After his birthday, he took all the collected canned goods to the nearest community storehouse to help those in need. I love how at such a young age he is already giving back to the community and knows how good it makes your heart feel to give rather than receive. How awesome it is to see God working in his little life! 

Next up was Colt's grandmother's birthday! Her birthday fell on the same day as Tim's party so we drove from Denton to North Richland Hills. There we met up with Colt's grandparents, Lola & Herman, Colt's Aunt Tracy, Colt's cousin, Leah and her boyfriend, Theo. We had so much fun that Sunday evening sitting around the kitchen table telling stories, talking politics, and putting away some delicious funfetti birthday cake and ice cream! Moments like these are what life's all about, folks! 

Us with gradnma Lola

Herman specifically requested we take a selfie! Too funny! 

What did we ever do before the selfie stick?!
Back row: Colt, Leah, Aunt Tracy & Theo
Front row: Me, Lola & Herman

The last birthday we celebrated was my cousin Sammie's birthday. Turning 6 years old is quite an occasion! She had her birthday dress picked out and was ready to celebrate her big day at Main Event! 

Birthday girl, Samantha

Sammie's birthday was full of bowling, arcade games, gold, glitter, pink, pizza and cupcakes! What more can a girl ask for?! ;) 

The pizza was a hit! 

Myles

Ashlyn

Carson

Daddy/Daughter pic! 

Kazen Family

My cousins Sam & Robin 

Me and my sister, Alexa

She is such a cutie!!!!!

My mom, my aunt, Adriana and me

Colt tried out this new slow cooker recipe recently. If you know my husband, he is a huge fan of green chili anything! He made this Green Chili Stew and it was scrumptious! He used freshly roasted green chilis and it was so good! We had enough for leftovers for days. Definitely a win in our book! 

Our down time has been spent with loved ones and we can't think of any other way we'd rather spend our free time. It makes our hearts so full to be around these special people. We thank God for giving our loved ones another year on this Earth and another year to spend with them. I ran across this quote recently that said "A happy family is but an earlier heaven."  I couldn't agree more! Hug & spend time with your loved ones often, friends! 

Happy start of summer! We love you all!