Welcome to the Jungle...

So, our garden is very overgrown. I think we may have put just a little bit too much in our beds this year. But we are producing very yummy results. Our strawberry plants put out about 15 berries each day, which was enough for the girls to have a snack. We have gotten some quite a few zucchini off the plant and there are still many more to come. The green beans are getting pretty long, it will be time to pick them in about a week, I think.
We also got a very yummy green pepper off the pepper plant and there are more growing. Our corn is coming in, although not very many stalks came up. Our pumpkin plant is over shadowing our strawberries and I fear that we probably should not have planted one this year. But we will see how it does. We have a ton of flowers on our tomato plants which is very exciting. I am hoping to make lots of salsa this fall with them. Even our broccoli and carrots seem to be doing well. The only plant not doing much is the cucumber plants. They have flowered but nothing else seems to be happening. We will just have to wait and see what happens with them.

Here is our Jungle of a Garden.

The tomato plants are so big, they are out of control!

See our big pumpkin leaves in front of the tomatos?

Here are the first fruits of our zucchini plant.
I made Em's delicious zucchini bread and
tonight I am making her yummy
Cheesy Sausage Zucchini Casserole.

On Saturday, I went to pick blueberries at a local farm. I got 8 pounds for $11.00. A pretty good price. I would have gotten more, but it took me 2 hours just to pick that many.

We got a food dehydrator last year for Christmas from my mom-in-law and M has been using it a lot lately. Right before Independence Day, he made beef jerky and then dried some cherries. We still have a lot of berries in the freezer and jam from last year, so we decided to dry the berries I picked. They turned out pretty good, though I don't care for blueberries.

Here is a close up of the jerky, cherries, and blueberries. All of them are a hit!

Thanks again for a wonderful present, Mel!

Independance Day

We got together with our friends for our 4th Annual Independence Day BBQ. I can hardly believe we have been doing it this long. We started at 5pm and enjoyed some yummy food. Then the kids played in the water features while the parents visited. When it got dark enough, we went out front to light off some fireworks. The neighborhood we do it in always has one person down a few houses that has great fireworks, but this year, we had a few of them too. The Dad's put on the show while the rest of us just sat back and enjoyed it. The kids really liked the fireworks and even played with some sparklers. We all had a great time.

The littlest one of our clan this year in her adorable patriot swimsuit.

Playing in the yard.

The kids really liked the slip and slide, although they never

really got the hang of the whole "slip and slide" part.

Playing in the kiddie pool.

The kids played with sidewalk chalk for a while too.

Dinner was so yummy! We had BBQ beef sandwiches, baked beans,

deviled eggs, green salad with strawberries,

watermelon, chips, and lemonade. For dessert we had

chocolate chip cookies and a delicious Trifle.

Here are the boys relaxing after a huge dinner.

The girls visiting on the patio after dinner.

Most of us are lined up here to watch the show.

Kids getting ready to play with sparklers.

K really liked the sparklers.

Look at the pretty sparks. I love fireworks!

Honey-Do List

While K was gone, we took the opportunity to get a couple of projects done around the house. K as been wanting her bathroom painted for a while and she finally picked a color she wanted to paint it. While she was gone, M helped me tape off the room and then I painted it. I think it turned out pretty well. I would like to paint butterflies around the top of the walls as a boarder. But that will have to be done at a later date.

Before we painted.

After we painted. M made the metal picture you see here.
I think it looks really nice on the wall there.

As you can see, she has a butterfly theme.

I think the turquoise really looks good.

Our house has wire shelving in all the closets. I HATE wire shelving. Not only does it look tacky, but things are always falling through the shelves.

We decided to take this time to put in new shelving.

M put it up while I was painting the bathroom and L was napping.

This is my side of the closet. I have lots of hanging space and shelves to boot. We will be putting in a few drawers for me too.

My side of the closet.

M's side of the closet.

I still need to straighten up a bit, but you get the idea.

Doesn't it look so much better?

While K was Away

L and I had a wonderful time together while her sister was at G-ma's. I noticed that L was different when her sister wasn't around. She was much more relaxed and never screamed. She would sit on our laps or next to us on the couch for long periods of time. We were even able to read whole stories to her. It was a very interesting transformation, although she didn't stay that way when her sister came back home.

Here is L riding her horse. She really liked it.

L playing with the hose.

There was beautiful weather this week so M decided to go get a little pool.

L kept putting her hands in and then shaking them all around.

She decided she wanted to get into the pool. After feeling

how frigid the water was, she pulled her feet back out again.

Luckily, the water didn't stay cold for long.

L pushing her little swing.

Hey Mom, catch!

The Joys of Grandma's

K went up to Grandma's on Tuesday for a little visit. Grandma just got a new horse that is good with little kids, so K has been chompin' at the bit to go up and meet her. K always has a good time up there. She does chores, plays and eats lots of food from the garden with Grandma. I am going up this afternoon to pick her up. Hopefully she won't be too disappointed about coming back home again.

Here is K enjoying the view with Jack.

K playing in the pool.

K feeding Red, her new horse.

K had to wear the helmet in order to ride Red. She was a little stubborn about it last time and Grandma said she couldn't ride Red unless she wore it. I am glad to see she made a good choice.

Climbing the gravel pile: "I'm Queen of the World! "

Eating Blueberries off the bush.

Eating Raspberries off the bush.

Movie in the Park

One of K's friends from preschool called to see if she wanted to go to a movie with her at a local school. K was thrilled to go. We went around 6:30 and the girls played on the playground for a couple of hours. Before the movie we bought a hot dog meal for each of us that was being sold by the same people putting on the movie. Then we watched the movie with some real movie theater popcorn. The girls were only interested in the movie for a little bit, then they wanted to play on the playground some more. We ended up staying until 10:30. K had a wonderful time with her school buddy and L really enjoyed the playground too.

Walking to the playground hand in hand.

Hotdog dinner before the movie.

Watching a movie in the park.

Portraits

We took the girls to get their annual pictures done. K did a fantastic job and her pictures are so adorable. L, on the other hand, was a nightmare! She wouldn't sit still, she kept lunging for the camera and other equipment, and she screamed pretty much the entire time. Luckily we were able to get a couple decent shots of her. I was actually surprise there were any at all. She seriously would NOT sit or stand for more than a second. Every time the photographer was able to focus on her, L would run.

Here is a closeup of L, she was headed for the camera.

We tried to distract her with the toys that were there because ours were not
working. She seemed to like the train for a brief moment.

In this one, M had a hold of her. It actually turned out pretty cute.

We brought K in to try and help keep L calm, but it didn't work either.

However, this picture turned out pretty cute too, even though L is yelling.

Here is K for her 4th Birthday shot.

I thought this was a very cute little pose.

This is my absolute FAVORITE of the shoot!

K looks so beautiful here. It is just so perfect.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny, and slightly windy day. We decided to take the girls to the park to try flying K's butterfly kite. We were all very successful and everyone had a wonderful time!

Here is K with her kite. She is a great kite flier.

She was able to keep it in the air pretty well.

Here she is running around with the kite.

L wanted in on the action too so M held her while she held the kite string.

M decided that she was a natural and let her fly the kite solo.

She did an excellent job as well!

Here I am flying the kite. Can you believe I have never flown one before?

It was so much fun and really relaxing. Definitely a fun time at the park!

Strawberry Season

We loaded up the family and headed out to a local farm for U-Pick Strawberries for our Family Home Evening activity yesterday. I had heard from a friend that the season started last week so I was surprised that they still had some left when I called to check. However, we were disappointed when we arrived and saw how small the berries were. I don't know if it is because all the good big ones were picked last week or if the crop was just small this year. But they were easily half the size of the ones from the store. Most of them were about the diameter of a nickel. But, we weren't too picky. We planned on turning them into some yummy jam. It took us a while but we were able to get 2 buckets full of berries. The kids had their fill of them and were covered in berry juice when we left.
After we got home, M and I got the kids cleaned up and put L down for the night. Then we started making jam with K's help. We cleaned and stemmed the berries. Then K got to mash them up. We cooked them on the stove while we sterilized our jars and lids. Then when everything was ready, we made our first batch of jam. We got thirteen 8oz jars which we then gave a water bath to. When they were done we set them aside to cool and started our second batch of jam. When we were all done we ended up with twenty-two 8 oz jars, two 4 oz jars, and three 12 oz jars. We still had quite a few berries left too. The sight of so much yummy jam makes my mouth water. I am so glad we are set for another year of jam.

Father's Day

We had a peaceful and relaxing Father's Day with just our family. The girls got M a few small presents: a BBQ meat thermometer, popcorn flavoring, and a bookmark with K's little footprint on it. We enjoyed the nice weather in the backyard and even saw some cute creatures.

M opening his gifts.

K finds a little green frog.
She wanted him to get in her hand, but he wouldn't.

After K looked at him for a while, M put him on our zucchini plant.

We have white butterflies that come to our garden quite often.

K loves to see them but is disappointed that they won't land on her hand.

Sometimes she calls to them, it is really cute.