PEPS Pre-Kindergarten

Before school started we had a gathering of original PEPS group.  Above is the group as it is today with our expanded families (minus Derek who is Lowen and Taytum's brother) Below is our original group of moms and babies on the same set of stairs at Tiff and Kelly's.  WOW! Does time fly or what?!  Stats on the group: 3 families have 3 children, 4 families have 2 children and 2 have 1 child.  That is whopping 19 kids in under 5 years!

I'm so thankful for this very special group of moms and kids.  We spent so much time together the first couple years but unfortunately we don't see much of each other these days.  Gatherings like these are priceless :)

Greenlake

With the kids both in school I figure it is time to recap some of our summer adventures.  We were so busy and having fun that it was hard to find time to update the blog. 

One sunny July day we decided to venture to Greenlake with our 2 person kayak.  The plan was to take the kids out one at a time with Marty while I stayed back with a frisbee and snacks with the other.  Unfortunately the person who packs everything (food, clothes, swimsuits, diapers, kayak, life jackets etc, etc) forgot to pack the kayak paddles!!  So, we decided to make the best of it and walked over to the wading pool.  We rarely go to Greenlake so for the kids it was a big adventure.  

It was a fun in the sun kind of day. The kids had a great time at the wading pool although as you can see by Josie's expression she was in the all too common "NO PHOTOS of Josie" mood.

This is the Way Our Garden Grows

We had a few additions to our simple garden this year.  In preschool class, Josie planted 4 different types of seeds and made observations to see what changes they made.  After they sprouted in class she brought them home and was very diligent to keep the plants outside during the day and brought them in every night for about 10 days.  These were the instructions from her preschool teacher and unlike home she LOVES to follow instructions from school :)
I was doubtful that the sunflower would grow in our garden but we planted it anyway.
Needless to say, I was very wrong.  We watched with amazement as the sunflower grew taller and taller and then started to open up into this beautiful, tall, sunflower! In the end it was over 6 feet tall!
Her pumpkins sprouted several really good looking blooms but never produced a pumpkin.

Her sweet pea didn't really do much but her green bean produced probably 2-3 dozen beans.  Unfortunately, not all at the same time so every few days she would run in with 3 beans and we all had to eat one.

Our normal tomato garden is doing quite well.  Our first ripe tomato for the year.

 Picking and eating the tomatoes are one of the highlights of the day.  Home grown tomatoes are so much more flavorful than store bought.  I wish we could have them year-round.

Berries and Apples and Pies, Oh My!!

This year we picked berries!  And then we picked more berries and more berries, some apples and some plums too.
Our berry picking started with raspberries  at a farm out in Carnation on the hottest day of the year.  We went in the morning but it was HOT!


Josie was quite the picker and actually picked and collected more than she ate.  Marty on the other hand probably ate as much as he picked

Kids trying to stay in the shade while picking

They both thought the buckets around the neck thing was a great invention.

Stop taking pictures mom and get to picking!!

In the end we picked (and collected) 16 lbs.  Can you see how hot it is by looking at Josie!  Maybe the hottest day of the year was not the smartest choice to be working in the fields.We should have weighed Marty before we started picking. Something tells me that he ate several pounds of berries.  They were DELICIOUS right off the bush!!

We ate so many just fresh but I also made several raspberry/apple crisps and a bunch of raspberry jam.

The next berry up was blackberry.  I found a little spot just down the road from us that no one else had found.  I probably picked 8 pounds there.  One time the whole family came and while exploring the kids and Marty found a tree LOADED with apples.  It is in a no man's land area and not on anyone's property so we took advantage and picked a 5 gallon bucket full of wild, sweet apples. 

One of the several buckets that I filled with blackberries this summer. 

I made homemade applesauce and blackberry jam.

I also made blackberry/apple pie which was voted the best in the pie category.

The final berry we picked this summer was blueberry.  Apparently these were Benjamin's favorites.  They aren't normally but these were SO amazingly flavorful right off the bush.  It was also a warm day and Benjamin would pick a few and then just plop down and start eating and then he just stayed there and kept eating.  He must have eaten 2 lbs. while we were picking.

And to round off our summer fruit picking and baking, Oma and Opa gave us some of their freshly-grown rhubarb.  I just had to buy some strawberries to go with it to make a final strawberry/rhubarb pie. 

I will have a dessert menu for those coming to visit us over the year.  We literally have pies, crisps and applesauce loaded up in the freezer.