Picking Pumpkins!

Traditions. Aren't they swell?! Well every year we try to find some time to pick out a pumpkin or two for Jack-O-Lantern carving. This year we tried a different farm with fantastic results! The whole family

My cutie pie kids

Tim, Gabe Brennen and Lizzy

Every kid's dream~a tractor to play on!

Brennen and his pumpkin choice

(this is the one of the only hoodless shots I got!)

Timothy drivin' the tractor

"Scarrrryyyyy!"

And yet Lizzy is fascinated with the scarecrows...go figure!

Jeffrey hauling our pumpkin picks~10 in all!

(and I have to add, you see that load of pumpkins...$10!)

Preschool...day 2

Life is full of choices. Sometimes we adults take those choices for granted. For instance, when was the last time someone else chose my outfit for the day? So for day 2 of preschool, I let Lizzy choose her outfit all by herself. This was the result...

Through the years there have been many times that I want to hang a sign on my children saying, "He/She picked out her clothes today". And this time was no different.

Everyone's 1st day!

When I was a kid, I used to love the crisp smell in the air that signalled the end of summer. The smell that meant backpacks, sharpened pencils, new stiff jeans and cuddly sweaters. That smell that is unfortunately absent when my kids go back to school in the middle of AUGUST! Instead of jeans and sweaters, my kids are in tees and shorts, braving the triple digits to walk home in the heat of the afternoon. Ugh!

I also used to love posing for my mom's camera on our sidewalk as I walked out the door that first day of school to catch the bus. My kids, well they tolerate (just barely) their mom's camera before walking out the door...

My Timothy, still smiling in 2nd grade...let's hope the smile lasts!

Gabe is a big 5th grader now, and gets up extra early to be part of the safety patrol in the morning.

Brennen is too cool for smiling as he gets ready for his first day of middle school.

This is Lizzy avoiding the camera as she enters preschool for the very first time!

Chinatown

Every summer starts with big plans, chore charts, reward systems, vacation and day trips planned...but come mid-July after more than a month of breakdowns, tantrums, and fights, the summer becomes more about survival than family fun. Anyone with me on this, or is it just me? (Please say it's not just me!) But one thing I wanted to do this summer was to take a trip to the great city of San Francisco. And even though survival mode was already in full swing, I gathered the troops (and Grandpa for backup) and we boarded the train to enjoy a day in Chinatown!Here is Brennen enjoying the park, while I enjoyed the view!
My kids take a moment to pose with Grandpa at the spot where the first American flag was raised in San Francisco. (Does anyone else find it ironic that the spot is in the middle of Chinatown?)

Grandpa and Lizzy in the alleyway where we found the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie factory.

The boys watching the fortune cookie machine and hoping for a taste or two!

Posing at the gateway to Chinatown.

Timothy's Photo Shoot

Timothy loves the camera. And the camera loves Timothy.
You just gotta love this kid!

Oooo, la, la...Olallieberries!

Every year in the month of June something special grows just over the hill...Olallieberries! Some say oh-la-lee, I say oh-la-la. What is that you say? I can never remember so I typed in my handy dandy google window "What is an Olallieberry?" And our trusty wikipedia said this, "...a cross between a loganberry and a youngberry, each of which is itself a cross between blackberry and another berry (raspberry and dewberry, respectively)". Also defined as scrumptious, delicious, bursting with summery goodness...you get the picture. Growing season is nearly gone, so I enlisted my four helping hands (which would actually be a total of eight hands) to pick some berries.

Lizzy and Tim were busy picking...

(Brennen, Gabe and I were busy too, but sadly, no photos)

and eating!

Here are our four buckets...(it would have been five if Lizzy wouldn't have dumped her pickin's on the ground every time she had any amount in the bucket!).

After rinsing and picking through the berries to weed out the foliage, I scattered some on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet...

...and placed them in the freezer. Once the individual berries are frozen, I will put them in a freezer ziplock bag and store them in the freezer, from which I can pull any amount that I wish.

The rest went straight into ziplock bags in the amounts that I need for specific recipes, i.e. jam, pie, and cobbler.

And the grand total for today was (drumroll please) I can make 2 batches of jam, 2 cobblers, 3 pies, 2 batches of pancakes, and still I have 4 cookie sheets worth left over for any of the above or anything else I can think of!

Olallieberries...yum!!!

Fore!

For the last five weeks Gabe has been taking golf lessons. He has learned putting, chipping, and spent the last three weeks on his full swing. Golf peaked his interest when his cousin Kaleigh took him to the driving range....he was pretty sure he could go straight to 18 holes from there, but I thought he could benefit from a lesson or two. What I really wanted was to take the "mom and me" lessons that our rec center offered, but alas, Gabe wanted to try it on his own. Now he really thinks that he's ready for a round or two. And with a little more practice, who knows? Watch out Mr. Woods, here comes my "tiger"!