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.