First Day of Fall

Ok so I know that was a little while ago, but cut me a break ok! I am just now getting around to blogging about it. I am so not ready for summer to be over. It seemed like a way short summer. No fair. Now it's raining, and we have to wear jackets. Although to falls credit, I do love it WHEN I AM READY FOR IT AND WE HAVE HAD A DECENT SUMMER!!! (which we have not). Anyway, fall is here i am now getting in the pumpkin and costume mode. Holidays here we come! (didn't we just celebrate new years not to long ago.) You know your getting old when the years just fly by right before your eyes.

Hike up Millcreek

We went hiking with the fam - Adam's brothers. You know, hiking with a very heavy baby on your back who likes to pull your hair out is not very awesome. This was like straight up hill and my neck was killing me cause of Ariah within like the first five minutes. But you know what, I love to sweat and get a good workout and that is what happened. Nothing like an hour and a half tough hike. It was fun to go with the fam. My kids did awesome.

Nice booty shot.

I'm not sure about this canning thing...

So this year I made a goal to preserve some fruit from my fruit trees. We have two apples, plum, cherry, nectarine, and apricot trees. We also have 2 raspberry and 2 blackberry bushes, a grape vine, and a massive garden. This year we did tomatoes, cucumbers, cantalope, cilantro, lettuce, beans, onions, strawberries, carrots, and broccli.

I have so enjoyed using my the fruits of my labors this year, but canning is a massive pain in the butt!!!! My first canning expeirience is that I decided to can the plums off my tree. I picked my whole tree (hours) then the next day I started canning. I canned 42 quarts of plums (hours and huge mess) and then tasted them the next day. GROSS!!! They were like mush. We undid all the cans and blended them up to make fruit rollups with our dryer. (At least they didn't go to waste.) The worst was the aftermath, my stove was black for weeks and the fruit flys were so bad we needed mosquito nets to walk around the house. We had to disenfect every inch.

After that experience, I tried applesauce. Another nightmare. I hate canning applesauce.

Ok, now that I have vented my bad experiences, I did have some good ones. Although the first batch of applesauce ended up to only my husband being able to force it down, the other two batches I did, turned out great ( I still hate it though). I also canned nectarine jam. OOOHHH that turned out good. (top picture). There is this feeling I get after a canning session, and it is one of accomplishment and satisfaction. Now that I have a few sessions under my belt, it isn't so bad. I know a few tricks of the trade and I don't have a black stove anymore ( no more fruit flys either.) We have been LOVING the fruit rollup mix. I freeze it until I am ready to use it. We have oodles of bags. I did pear, apple, nectarine, and plum. Yummy they are so good and my fam eats them like crazy.
So my first year of attempted domestication. Half nightmare, half endurance. We'll see how it goes next year.

My fairy princess.

We are making these tutus and wands for our super saturday. I was doing it for Ambra but Ariah is the one in love with it. I thought she was still to young for all that, but apparently not. I found her wearing this holding the wand and twirling (as she was singing to herself). It must be an innate thing with girls. What a little princess.

Funny Playdate!

So my kids were having a play date with some friends and this is what I walked upstairs to find. I love it. Prince and princesses dancing at the ball. Can you tell that my kids are like a foot taller than thier cute little friends. My friend Chalyce calls us giants. I guess most of the members of our family being an average of over 6 foot (including women) we can't help it. Can I tell you how much I love dress up play. It is my favorite and my total weakness. My spoiled kids have seriously over 75 dress ups. I am a sucker for them and I love to foster imagination. They get oodles of use and I still have others to grow up to use them so its ok right? (this is what I tell myself).

My Little Boy is in Preschool!

So we started preschool last week! I am doing a Joy School. I did this with Ambra and I love it! I have to teach 5 times the entire year and we have everything very organized and planned. We are having so much fun. I am the first teacher and there are seven kids in the group. We made cookies today, had a teddy bear picnic, wrote the letter B on the sidewalk and sorted and counted plastic toys that we fished out of a pool. They love the show and tell and music time. Cole will have preschool for two years because he barely misses the cutoff (Bday Sept. 3). He is such a cutie!

Happy Birthday Cole!

So the night before, Adam and I blew up 100 balloons for his party and we put them all in his room to wake up to. This was classic and I totally wish I had video cameraed. We were outside the door spying when he was waking up and it was totaly worth the hurt fingers and sore cheeks from those dang balloons. As he was coming to, he just barely opened his eyes and was about to rollover to go back to sleep and when suddenly he shot up and looked around like, what in the... He mumbled something about balloons and then jumped out of bed. So fun.

We let him open presents first thing that morning and made him milkshakes for breakfast. Then we took him to Toys R Us where he got to spend his gift certificate from Geoffrey the Giraffe and his birthday money from Grandma H.
My poor children have been deprived, this is the first time I thought to teach them how to stick balloons to thier heads.