Blackberry picking

We have a ton of blackberry bushes lining the mile-long dirt road to our house, so I thought it would be a good idea to stop and pick some on our way home from school one day. I thought ahead and remembered to throw the buckets in the truck before heading off to school.

What I forgot was a change of clothes! Both boys were in school uniform (white top...) They actually didn't do too bad!

It was Addison, in her brand new WHITE and multi-colored polka dot skirt that made the mess, and it wasn't even blackberries! She decided it would be fun to jump in the nice mud puddles along our road. If you've ever been to visit us, you know there are MANY! After she snuck the first one in, I didn't see any reason to stop her fun.

Zachary helped himself to about as many as he picked...

and for some unknown reason, Addison had a melt-down when we got home. I think one of the boys offered to "help" her with the bucket and she didn't want the help. At any rate, this is one of the sadest pictures I've seen! Just look at the angst on her little face! If you look closely, you can see where the tears washed away the blackberry from her cheeks.

There's a GREAT day coming...

Isn't it amazing how music affects your mood? I am making a conscious effort to play music between my classes, so it is usually on when my students enter my room and have found it a source of encouragement for me, personally. I carry the words to those great gospel songs, old hymns and chapel music with me even when I'm not listening to a CD.

In fact, today it served me especially well. We had our first real day of PE (we hadn't dressed down yet) so I had the girls run 12 minutes and counted laps so we'd know how far we'd eacg gone. I say "we" because I decided I should run, if I expected them to. Needless to say, I am WAY out of shape and huffed and puffed the whole way, but didn't stop to walk. It could have been miserable... but, half way through, I started singing to myself and before I knew it, the minutes passed and it was time to stop and I found that I was in a great mood, to boot!

Then on the way home, still singing in my head, I decided that although I was tired and wanted to be home, this beautiful day called for McDonald's 50 cent ice creams. The kids were thrilled and rewarded me with lots of laughter and genuine helpfulness when we got home. What a blessing after a long day at school for all of us! To top it off, we finished up the chores in no time and decided to take a dip in the pool... it may be the last chance for the year, after all. The house work and laundry can wait another day. As I sit here on our patio swing and the kids are busy playing, I feel refreshed and ready for another GREAT day!

First Day of School

Hard to believe it's the first day of school for our family and the first day ever for little Zachary. He is starting K-4 preschool this year! Since I am teaching, I had to be in my own classroom and didn't get to walk Zach to class on his first day, but I know he's in good hands and he seemed pretty excited. The highlight for him was the new spiderman backpack he finally got to use! Raymond is in 3rd grade this year and hesitant as ever to try something new. I know he'll get use to whatever lies before him. It's almost as hard for me as it is for him when he's so shy. Not the problem we have with the other two, for sure! Addison will spend another year in the nursery with Mrs. Cummings. There are only 2 little girls in the nursery (instead of the 6-7 kids she had last year!) so I'm sure Addie will get all the attention her little heart desires! Say a prayer for us as we all start a new school year!

The fruits of my labor

I am very excited about my first (hopefully) successful attempt at canning this year. As I mentioned in a previous blog, we recently drove to Yakima to check out some fruit stands and ended up bringing 5 boxes of various fruit home with us. I was really looking for peaches (which we bought plenty of) but there were also some plums, apricots and apples that looked pretty appetizing, so we got them, too. It was all quite a learning experience and after the nectarine fiasco, this endeavour was certainly more productive!

I still have plenty of fresh fruit that needs to be eaten or canned soon, but so far, I have: 6 quarts of peaches (3 I spiced), 6 pints of apricots, 7 jars of nectarine jam (not too confident with this) and 6 jars of apricot jam that looks pretty good. On the advice of a lady from church, I also tried drying some fruit in our convection oven. It turned out so-so... maybe not dried enough? and I didn't do anything to stop the browning process, so it's an ugly color, but it doesn't taste too bad. I fed it to my 8th grade math students and nobody's died yet! Now to find a guinea pig for the jam!

Good Night for a Bonfire

Sunday night and our summer officially ends tonight! It was a beautiful, clear night, so on the spur of the moment, after church, we decided to get together with the Minge's and have a "back to school" bonfire, roast some marshmallows, make smores and see the summer out.

It was tough work keeping the little kids out of the fire, but they had a great time "roasting" (read 'burning to an inedible crisp') their own marshmallows and hot dogs. Addison and Riley always have such a good time together. It's been fun watching all the changes just over the summer.

And of course Zachary was his own personal entertainment, complete with Build-a-bear cape. The goats even came up to join in the festivities. Sorry to see summer come to an end, but excited about the new school year, too.

Cutest Ring Bearer ever!

Several months ago some friends asked us if Zachary could be the ring bearer in their son's wedding. I immediately thought about my mom's wedding when Zachary refused to hold the pillow or even stand still for a picture (he was only two) and then more recently at Jessica and Derek's wedding photos when he wouldn't get close enough to poor Jess to even look like he was with the wedding party, not to mention a constant pout look instead of the smile we were hoping for.

Nevertheless, he's a cutie and who could resist trying to get him into a little mini tux? Thankfully, he was game this go round and we have some great pictures to prove it. It was a long and gruelling day (pics at 12:30 for a 3pm wedding and more pictures after the ceremony)... he stayed relatively still during the 30 minute ceremony... well, a couple of fidgets and some squinty-eyed looks and a nose pick or two... he was the highlight of the wedding! or at least the comic relief. Let's hope he looks this hansom on HIS wedding day!

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Our little man Zach, turned 4. We really had no idea what to get him, but he's pretty easy to please...almost any new toy will do! But we thought he'd be pretty excited about some new tranformers, so we made it a theme.

He really liked the cake, believe it or not! Although he didn't end up wanting to eat any... strange kid

He did like opening the presents... can you hear the sound effects going on here? Imagine the transformer fighting it's way out of the paper and you might get close to the sounds we were hearing when I took this picture!

And of course the costume was a huge hit! So if Zachary temporarily forgets is name and only respond to Bumblebee for awhile, you'll know why.

Yakima Trip

We spent the last day of our summer vacation making a family trek to Yakima to buy fruit. We had the BEST time, stopping whenever we felt like it, checking out all the cool vistas along the way and generally enjoying each other's company. The kids actually did really well, considering it was about a 12 hour day! Some highlights... breakfast at McDonald's, stop to play in Orting (didn't get far!), creek and beautiful mountain views over Chinook pass, LOTS of fruit stands and samples of fruit through out the day (you should have seen the girl's diaper later!) and some more great views on our way home over White's Pass. Too many pictures to post individually, so check out the slide show!

Another day on the farm

Frequently, we all head to the barn to take care of the chores. It becomes quite the family affair! This time, Addison hitched a ride from Dad, then got a chance to feed the goats from the (relative) safety of the wheel barrow.

Zachary finally caught his chicken (with a little help from Raymond), and Raymond was able to get his chicken to sit a bit on his shoulder... always fun!

We have discovered that the horse thinks he is the "herd leader" and tries to herd the baby goats around. We've also found that Addie is not as afraid of the horse with the trough between them and Max (our dog) still wants to be part of the family, after all of these years!

While mommy's away...

I had the chance to meet my old friend Brenda for lunch the other day. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera to take a picture. We had a nice time catching up on new things and reminiscing about the old. I wasn't gone long, but when I got home, you'd think a hurricane at hit our house! There were toys everywhere inside and apparently the kids got tired of "cleaning out their closets", so they'd moved outside to play.

Addison was still in her PJs

and quite the grubby girl! All three kids were having a blast racing various scooters around the patio.

The stopped for a minute to say "Hi"

and I tried to get them all to pose for a photo op on the swing, but everyone wanted to get back to playing, so this was the best I could do! Didn't take much time to clean up (it really wasn't all that bad...) and I'm so thankful that my husband is one that is willing to "baby-sit" his own kids (joke!) and they are all happier and better for it.

Ferry boat ride

We had the chance to go to work with dad today. Our day started by driving out to Port Orchard to see my friend Jan, who Kevin had recently done some work for. Kevin wanted to do some touch-up and I was happy to go along and chat a bit with Jan.

As it turned out, we were able to catch a ferry from Port Orchard to Seattle, were Kevin's next stop for business was.

I don't think any of our kids have been on a ferry and they all thought it was pretty neat

a little chilly, but still very, very COOL! I don't know why I did't take more pictures of our day, but after I dropped Kevin off at Husky Stadium (where he was checking on doing a concession stand fundraiser for our school), I drove the kids through the UW campus. The little ones had fallen asleep, so we didn't get out. Besides, it's $15 to park on campus! I showed Raymond the dorm I lived in and some of the buildings that I had classes in. I was amazed at how much had changed in the few years it's been since I was up there. Several new buildings. From UW, we stopped and visited with Freeman and Elizabeth (again no pics!). They are interested in having Kevin build a new deck for them. The kids had a great time playing downstairs in the "play room" with aunt Elizabeth while Kevin and Freeman talked decking material. Would it really be possible to use some of this cable my dad stashed here years ago? Probably not, but it was fun talking about it!

Canning nectarines

I was out and about yesterday and decided to stop by a fruit stand to see what they had. Among many delicious choices, they had 25 pound boxes of nectarines for just $8.00. What a deal, right? But honestly, what are you going to do with that many nectarines that are already ripe? I decided to try canning them. I've canned peaches before, how much different can nectarines be? Answer: VERY. First and most troublesome, the fruit does not come away from the pit nice and neat like peaches. In fact, I ended up making quite a mess of the first batch and then finally resorted to cutting parts off and throwing the pit away with all remaining fruit still in tact. Secondly, everything I read said not to peel the nectarines like you do peaches. Not sure yet how this will affect the final product, but it isn't "pretty" like I was hoping it would be... guess I'll wait a few days and actually sample some of the fruits of my labor (it was truly an all day endeavor). After several pints and many, many nectarines still looming, I decided to try and make some preserves. These are currently "plumping"... (don't ask!) so a task not yet complete. I think I have exhausted my homeyness for one day!

Farming 101

I've been trying to read everything I can about goats and chickens... it seems there are opinions on everything related to the two. Who knew? This may prove to be more difficult than it seems. The first order of business is to get the chickens to lay eggs. At least one has laid several for us, but not in the designated "nest" we've provided. I read in one of the books that hens need "optimal" conditions to lay. Unfortunately, that was not further defined. I decided that maybe cleaner would be more optimal... can I say that?! ANYWAY, we ventured down to the hen house this morning and tried to do some cleaning. Slow work with 1.5 arms and a little girl who's somewhat sceptical of our neighbor's horse, who is also living here. We introduced him to the goats yesterday and that is a whole other story! Anyway, got the nesting area cleaned out and restocked with fresh hay (think I'm gonna campaign for straw...) and finally cleaned and hung the hanging poultry feeder. The chickens were VERY excited to have so much food available. I better get back to reading and see if they can be over fed!

Addison's 2nd birthday

Addison turned two and didn't know what to make of the candles...

Once the cake was cut, she dug right in! And when the fork didn't move fast enough, she resorted to eating directly off of her plate!

Happy birthday pretty girl!

At Spanaway Lake with Grannie

We've been spending a lot of time on our boat this summer!

We invited Grannie to come down and enjoy the day with us. The boys both wanted to ride on the tube with her.

Zachary has become what my dad would call a "water buffalo". He LOVES the water and will jump right in, so daddy has to always be ready!

Addison would prefer to stay dry and on the boat, but she loves to watch the action.

Grannie and Raymond on the tube...