A little Harvest

We planted a watermelon this year. I envisioned my family enjoying a couple wonderful watermelons that we grew in our own backyard. Well, this was it. As you can see a watermelon grew! A very very small watermelon. I decided last week that it wasn't going to get any bigger, so I picked it. It was about the size of a grapefruit. See a large yellow squash and a stick of margarine in the picture- for scale.

 I sliced it up. It was FABULOUS! We grow really yummy miniature watermelons!

 We also have a grape vine. I harvested as many grapes as I could reach and made some grape juice concentrate. If you factor in the amount of time I spent cleaning, prepping, cooking and squishing and cooking, then this is probably the most expensive grape juice my family will ever drink. But I enjoyed it, and I hope we enjoy drinking it through the next year. I've realized lately that I enjoy creating. I like to make things, crafts, jewelry, baked goods, I enjoy the creative process.

 Here is another thing I've been creating- but this one won't be ready to harvest for years to come. I'm making a mini me! That's right, he is a boy- and that is different from me- BUT he sleeps just like me :) pillow on his head and all. (let it be known that I do not wear buzz light year pajamas, but that might just be because I don't have any).

And that is a little bit of our harvest. I am looking forward to my butternut and acorn squash, as of right now I have 2 of each :) YAY! And our tomatoes have finally started ripening, so we had some yummy yummy salsa last week, I grew the green pepper and the Anaheim pepper that went in to the salsa as well. So, this years garden hasn't been horrible after all. Yay for harvests, even little tiny ones.

Bear Lake 2012

The Turner family went up to Bear Lake the weekend before Labor day. We had tons of fun. J got this costume a couple of days before we went to bear lake. He asked if he could bring it with us to the Cabin and then he called his Grandma Turner and asked if she could bring him leash. He was a very happy and entertaining puppy.

 We watched a storm cross the lake, the picture doesn't do it justice it was pretty amazing!

 We ate lots and lots and lots of food- and B figured out the best place to sit.

 On Saturday afternoon we went down to the south side of the lake to a State Park called Rendezvous Beach. When we arrived we noticed that there were some storm clouds headed our way. We played in the water for about 10 minutes and then we started to notice that people farther down the beach were all headed  in, pretty fast, it made us wonder if they had been told to get out of the water. THEN it started to HAIL. We found out a few days later that Ken's brother from Colorado were THERE at the exact same time we were- if we had turned left when we got to the beach instead of right- we probably would have seen them!

WE took shelter for about 30 minutes, watched the storm pas, and when we couldn't see or hear lightning anymore we headed back out to the water. J didn't get too far from shore. He mostly liked to make his feet sink in the sand.

 B on the other hand thought that he should walk out as far as possible.....I wonder why? Well, lets see, he had this amazing ball, maybe he figured it would help him float......

 Or maybe he was just following the example of his Aunt Jenette. I had to use full zoom on my camera for this picture.

 I think we will go back to Rendezvous Beach again!

 There are 6 Bedroom as the Cabin- and that is pretty much just enough for each family that was there, so we set the boys up on the floor, one on each side of the bed. The first night was a little rough for B, he woke up with a bump on his head. The second night was worse, I heard B whimpering and I figured he had lost his blanket or binky. I reached down from the bed and started feeling around and to my surprise not only could I not find a binky BUT I couldn't find B. I screamed for Ken to turn on the light and then we found B- under the bed, stuck, he had a scrape on his temple and a nice bruise the next morning.

 After that we found and set up a pack and play for him, he slept great the 3rd night we were there.

It was a great weekend, we ate lots of shakes- raspberry shakes and strawberry shakes and chocolate raspberry shakes. I made Bread Bowls! They were yummy. We played games and talked and generally had a wonderful time. No one got lost this year and we even got to see people run up the mountain for the Bear Lake Monster Half Marathon. That is one Half that I will not be doing.

The ABC's of being a Pirate

Happy international speak like a Pirate day! In honor of this day, I dressed my boys like pirates and we've been saying Arghhhhhh a lot. B is actually quite good at it. J keeps telling me that pirates say OH! 

Isn't this little pirate adorable. I would most definitely let him take my ship and gold from me. I mean, who can deny a request when that smile follows it! J has decided that B is his "Matey" and he is in charge of the ship (our house) when J,"The Captain", is not there BUT, be very aware, Matey is not allowed to touch The Captains Gun! 

The captain has a gun? You ask. Yes he does, and a sword! I found the boys pants for them and they completed their own outfits, I'm actually quite amazed at how well they did, I forgot about B's skull and crossbones shirt (J actually picked that out for him), and J picked out a delightful stripped shirt for himself. It was at this point that I realized PIRATES WEAR STRIPES! It's amazing! After getting dressed I heard J start talking about needing his gun and sword, I had totally forgotten that he had a sword (made out of wood by Grandpa Turner). Here is a picture of where the Captain keeps his sword and gun.

So, on to the ABC's. Preschool started last week and tomorrow J gets to present the Sound Bag to his class. He brought the Sound bag home and it had a B attached to it. So today, J and I have been filling it with things that start with B. So far we have a Baby Bottle, a Binky, Bertie the Bus, a Blanket, a Baseball, some Bubbles, a Book, a circle of Blue fabric, a Block, and a Picture of Baby Brother B. There is a black vest that goes with the pirate pants- it had a little felt skull and crossbones glued to it, but B pulled the felt off a few weeks ago. I hung the skull and crossbones from a nail in the boys wall- so I wouldn't lose and eventually I could put it back on the vest (which I've lost). J pointed up to the skull and crossbones and said, "Mom what's that?" "That's from your Pirate vest." "Does it start with a B?" I was about to say no when I realized that we could probably print out a Buccaneers Flag.....and so we went to the computer and googled "Buccaneers Flag" and sure enough we found one, so we printed it and wrote the story about how we are dressed like pirates AKA Buccaneers! And the flag has BONES on it....I will leave it up to the teacher whether or not she wants to get into bones and buccaneers with the kids.  SO, we continue on our quest. 

"Mom, does gun start with B?"

"No, Gu, Gu, Gun. Does that sound like Bu, Bu, Bee?

"No, What about Sword, does it start with B?" 

"No, Ssss, Ssss, Sssword. Sword starts with S." 

"Oh well"

Poor "The Captain" he can't (and really shouldn't) take his gun and sword to school. 

So what have I learned from this Pirate ABC experience. Basically, I've ruined J. I started out showing him things that start with B. I would ask him what they were and he would say their names and then I would ask "Does it start with B?" and he would yell "YES!" then I started to realize that he thought EVERYTHING started with B, so I've changed, I ask him what everything is, and what letter they start with.....they still start with B.....oops. Hopefully he will get over that by the time they start learning about C.

Until then.....Yo ho, Yo ho a Pirates Life for me. (P.S. I've been typing this while we watch Peter Pan.....which, by the way, doesn't start with B)