Scavenger Hunt

Every couple of months Kyle's Aunt Pam has a party. She always does a scavenger hunt and has awesome prizes. We always come in last. We include the girls and doing so gives us the slowest time, not to mention all the easiest hidden objects are gone. The last few times have meant tears. We have always taught our girls that they can't win every time. Ashley has learned this very well and gives Kaitlyn her "turn" to win. Well, with the tears has come the question of "when is it our turn to win". We have been kind of stumped at this. I guess I should mention that I think they would be fine with coming in last if they could get some of the prizes they like. Anyway, we have actually avoided the festivities and prizes the last couple of times. We just feel terrible when they get so discouraged. I won't even go into the Easter egg fiasco they were so excited for. This time is different. We have been gathering our firewood over the last few weeks and making landscaping plans. Well, when Pam put out her prefestivities points list we got excited. We think we might actually have a shot this time. There are quite a few extra points on the list that we can do. One of which is tree planting. We can acquire 1500 points for planting 30 trees. We did it. We planted 30 quaken aspen trees. We were planning on doing this sometime this fall, we just did it early. Ashley was such a big help. We went up and got firewood and our new trees last Monday. The girls have been planting bulbs- on their own. We have been sending in extra recipes for Pam's recipe blog. And a few other things. As of now our total come to 2075 extra points, and we still have the scavenger hunt to go. The girls are very excited and we are hoping that is enough to put us at first. I am waiting until tonight to post this, it should post during the party. That way we can keep our extra points a secret. I am also posting pictures of our new trees for proof. Our camera battery died before we got them all planted, but you can see the process. Cross your fingers for us.

Ashley's pictures

Kaitlyn's pictures

***Update. We went to the party and had a ton of fun. Thanks to the weather we all got to play in the mud. Kami was actually rolling in it at one point! The girls were a big help on the scavenger hunt and almost made it completely through. We didn't quite have enough points to win though. We came in third. The girls ended up with some cute prizes- no tears. Kami latched onto a stuffed NOISY cat that I think anybody would have had to wrestle away if they wanted it. We had a good time and gave our best honest effort.

Oops...

This is what I found this morning. Her first wall artwork.

And this is the natural consequence. I still don't know where she got the crayon.

I am not sure if this was really a consequence, she seemed to enjoy it.

I got one!

Yep, I got one. We picked it up Tuesday while we were out. I am so excited to start reading this. We have been so busy harvesting goodies that I haven't even opened it. That will all change today. I plan on reading all day! I am still in the middle of reading four other books too. I loved Dan Brown's other books so I am hoping this one is just as good.
On a side note, we have been filling up our freezer. Monday Janell and Donna showed up with tons of goodies for us, so much for a relaxing week! Monday we blanched and froze broccoli, corn and beans. I also cleaned four big bags of carrots. Tuesday we worked on those said carrots, with orange hands as a result! We also did four batches of plum and peach/plum jam, then proceeded to freeze some peaches. Yesterday my mom came up and we canned fourteen jars with the remaining peaches. Wow! That was a ton of peaches! I told Kyle we need to get a second freezer and maybe a third. We spent about half an hour in the garage reorganizing just to get everything to fit. I have found that I prefer frozen veggies to canned by far. We will see about the peaches though. We still have to can pickles. Will life ever slow down?

**Update, I didn't even open my book yesterday, too busy. Also, I freeze all my veggies, I prefer it that way. I have only canned peaches so far and I froze some of them too. I have been using this great website for all their blanching times. So far none of my veggies have turned out mushy and I have been very pleased with their suggestions.

Happy Birthday Ashley!

Yesterday was Ashley's 7th birthday. I still can't believe my baby is 7! She woke up really early and opened presents. Then we had a birthday breakfast before we headed to the gym. The girls had their summer olympics in the morning. They both did so good. Kaitlyn is just getting back into gym since the appendix. Ash loves her new level 2 class. Unfortunately, when I was running the camera I took mostly video and had the camera turned. I can't figure out how to turn the videos, so most of Ash's pictures are still shots from the video. After gym we took Ash out for lunch at Craigos, yum. We then hurried home for the "friends" party. Ashley invited 6 friends and 4 were able to come. The girls had so much fun and made so much noise! We played a few games and then we decorated mini cakes. I made Ash a barbie cake this year, so we made mini cakes for all her friends to decorate and take home. This was a big hit. We had cake and ice cream and opened presents. Mostly the girls just hung out and had fun. I was a lot more laid back this year and it was nice. I spent Thursday cooking cakes and Friday decorating them. Barbie's skirt is strawberry with cream cheese icing and the base is banana with buttercream.
Today was the primary program and so we decided to do the family party afterward. The girls did such a good job. Kaitlyn was so excited to be up there. She has known her part for weeks, but gets nervous in front of others. Ash had hers memorized all on her own one day, much to my surprise. I was so proud of both of them. Kami enjoyed being passed around on the bench. Ashley wore her birthday dress to church today and got so many compliments on it, I made the jacket to go with it. She looked so pretty! After church we had a potluck/dutch oven dinner, kudos to Ky for the great chicken. Everything was so good. We also had more cake and presents! Ash will need two rooms downstairs for all her stuff! We enjoyed a nice visit with everyone who came. Ashley said she had a great birthday. Thanks to everyone who contributed and supported the girls this weekend!

Fair Time

It's fair time again. I love going to the fair. I love all the things to see, the atmosphere, but the food is the best. The girls had so much fun. This was Kami's first fair. We went Wednesday afternoon and I think got there and left at the right time. We found great free parking and didn't have to wait in line, except for the funnel cakes for about 3 minutes. We actually went the backwards route from what we normally do, which worked out great. We saw a few people we knew. I saw a few people from High School, but mostly people from up here. We had to get some of the best food while there, funnel cake, tiger ear, fudge, and fresh squeezed lemonade. The girls didn't quite know what to think. I think they were surprised by the quantity of junk food, and we didn't hit the giant turkey legs or fried cany bars (yuk). The girls got to ride two rides each. Ashley picked the swings and the roller coaster, I was a little surprised. She said she had fun, but a times her face told a different story! Kaitlyn picked the swings and the planes, of course. She was so cute riding in those planes, I was a little nervous. She loved it though. They both loved the swings. Kyle wanted to take them on the big swings, I said no way! They both got their faces painted, Kaitlyn a blue dolphin, Ash a purple unicorn. They looked so cute, too bad we couldn't leave them on for school. We had one minor glitch, our camera died after Kaitlyn rode the planes. We used our cells after that. The girls loved agventureland and even got to milk a fake cow, they both said "yuk". Everyone loved the animals. I didn't love the "can we get a bunny? we will take care of it, we promise". Kami's favorite part was the food. Kaitlyn the planes. Ash the roller coaster. Me the funnel cake, yum! Ky the whole thing. We can't wait until next year!

After the fair we went to Rupe's to eat. We used to eat there after Ky's baseball games when he worked for Hadden's. They have awesome food! We had a nice ride home, until Kami decided to take her diaper off under her clothes while bucked in the carseat! Why is this a fun game! And she takes it off when it is clean. I am thinking of trying the duct tape over the backwards diaper under the onsie. Think that will work?!

Labor Day

We had a busy Labor Day. Kyle decided to take on the task of building our new stairs for the basement. They look so nice. Me and the girls helped and also harvested some goodies. We grated 34 cups of zucchini! We went out to pick the other day and lined up 19 zucchini, plus squash and cucumbers, on our counter! After pawning off quite a few we decided to freeze some, now we can have zucchini bread all year! We also did two more batches of strawberry jam. The girls are loving it and I am hoping we will have enough to last all year, plus we would still like to do some of Cindy's peach-plum jam. We also attempted to take some pictures of the girls yesterday, attempted! I wanted to get a few before they cut all the wheat down, what a nightmare! Kami has also discovered a few new things. She loves baby dolls and carries them around all day now. She also knows how to take her diaper off. I have started putting them on backwards and that seems to help. However, bed time is when she likes to play with it. Last night we found quite the funny sight when we went to check on them, but the other day takes the cake. She took her diaper off before nap time and then proceeded to do her "business", it was everywhere. All I could do was clean it up and swear that it was time to get serious about potty training! Oh, and we are down one tooth! Ashley is loosing them so fast.

Here are a few pictures!

All our goodies!
Before
After! They look so nice. I can't wait for carpet! I guess we should finish some walls and stuff first!
Smile!

WARNING- NOT CENSORED!





Ahh, my girl!

Jam

Last night we made our first freezer jam ever! I guess I can be domesticated! We actually had a ton of fun and want to make some more. We did the no bake version and it didn't take very long. We made strawberry and strawberry peach. Waiting for the water to boil so we could blanch the peaches took the longest. We got 20 pints and 2 containers worth. I have to give credit to my sis-in-laws who have inspired me. I think I could get use to some of this domesticated stuff. We are now making home-made bread for our new jam. I am glad we are adding to our food storage little by little.