Tomatoes Out Of My Ears

Well fall frost is literally hitting us in a few days so we decided we had better get the garden prepped for the first frost. Today we had weather up in the 90's and in a few days we will be down in the 50's. I decided tonight called for a family project to tackle the garden while we had the good weather. Blake and Allie were working on taking out all of the old summer stuff, while I was in charge of planting the new. I saw Allie continually piling tomatoes into our bowl and I continued to see Blake running in and out of the house. What a surprise when I walked into the house. I didn't realize that we had ended up with so many tomatoes.

Here is one counter full

And the other, plus my sink of tomatoes. Anyone know what to do with green tomatoes? We are going to try and put the tomatoes in brown paper bags this year and see how that goes turning the tomatoes red. Last year we tried hanging the tomatoes (still on the vines) from a ladder, but what a huge mess that made in the garage. We'll keep you all posted on how the brown bag method goes and if anyone wants some green tomatoes, let me know. We have plenty to go around.

Swimming Progression

I put Allie in swimming lessons a month ago and we have really enjoyed them. Allie is frequently around the water in the summer so I thought, why not get her learning how to swim in it. I have really been pleased with the YMCA and we just love our instructor. Mrs. Justine or "Mrs. Jean" as Allie calls her, is so good with the kids. I also just love how there are only 2 other kids in her class; they have some great one on one time with the teacher

Allie on her first day of class working on swimming and blowing bubbles. We inhaled water the first day and weren't quite sure how to get the bubble blowing and swimming thing all sinked together

Working on floating on her back for the first day while hanging onto the "dumbbell" as Allie calls it

3rd Week In....

Allie has gotten the hang of blowing her bubbles and swimming all coordinated together

I am so proud of Allie for her accomplishment to almost float on her back by herself. Mrs. Jean just holds just a finger under Allie's back to keep her afloat. She even tried to let go of Allie for a moment to see what would happen. Allie of course sunk; but she is as stiff as a board on the water and has so much trust in her teacher that she does so well

Her she goes kicking away backwards back to the pool. Nice straight legs girl!

We have loved Mrs. Jean and swimming so much we have decided to venture into another session. We'll keep you posted on the progress of Allie girl in her next session of swimming.

1st day of Preschool

Allie started Preschool today and was she ever excited. She woke up and asked, "Do I go to school today?" When replied yes, Allie started clapping her hands and saying, " I go to school today, " and she started jumping and dancing around. She was very excited to say the least. When I went to pick her up she just was jabbering away about what she did, what she ate, painted, read, what kids did what, and about how no kids cried; sounds like they had a great time.

Here is our first official, "First day of School" picture

Allie got her backpack hung up the night before. When she woke up I had made her a Schultute (a German gift cone) with a couple of school goodies in it. I am into starting all these traditions for our family, due to the fact that I grew up with very few traditions. I think I am over- compensating in a way, there are getting to be so many, I hope we remember what all the traditions are I've started.

Sending Out The Mail

Allie has really been into making "cards" for people. These cards consist of some coloring on paper, taping on more paper, tape, tape, and more tape. I've heard of some little girls getting into this tape phase, and I thought we'd passed it. Well it's a good thing I've found some tape on sale for 0.25 a roll, so our little one can tape away.

Once Allie got down the card making idea, she had this brilliant idea to send the cards in the mail. I helped her get the address and stamp ready on the envelope and started out to put the envelope in the mailbox when Allie told me, "I can do it mom." So, I sat back and watched the events unfold

She went to get her stool and went to unlock the front door (she has always been a resourceful one...grabbing whatever she needs to get to what she wants)

Setting the envelope down while she positions the stool

Opening the mail box with letter in hand

Placing her envelope inside the mailbox

Finally, the flag went up. I guess she has seen this done one to many times. Allie hopes everyone enjoys their mail

Laboring Away

What were we up to on Labor Day? Blake and I went crazy and "labored away" canning salsa. It actually was fairly easy and I had some great help.

A sleeping child always makes it easy. Allie got neglected for an hour and fell asleep in the midst of canning

Here is my great husband chopping away. We actually tried two different ways to can our salsa; the first being to cook the salsa down for an hour, which was yummy but too soupy for our liking and the second was to just can it and steam it without cooking it down (thanks Jenny), which we loved. It came out being chunkier and fresher. Happy Canning!

We took a break mid-afternoon and went out to play with the Hansen Family at WAHOOZ. Allie was finally tall enough to ride the go karts as a passenger, thanks to her poofy hair-do. We played a quick round of mini-golf, and also enjoyed the kiddie land inside.

Cute little Miss Allie riding with daddy. She chose daddy over me for her first ride. Do I need to take a hint that he's a better driver than me?

Natalia decided to be my co-driver for the first go round

Hanging out to ride the go karts again; it was a hit!

Once again, dad was picked for the driver....man I must of not looked too impressive

The whole family is waiting to take off; Blake, Rod, and Katie all with passengers in tow

Next we hit the mini golf course. I think I'll start to call it speed golf because Allie would tend to hit the ball, then run and pick it up and drop it in the hole. We made it quickly through 18 holes

Trying ever so carefully to hit it into the house...she actually made it on her own. We may have a future golf pro in the house

Cam trying out his skills...it must be a boy thing because he had much better coordination with swinging the club. He may be the next Tiger Woods and blow Allie away

The girls were a little side tracked at the end of hole 18 and wanted to play in the house...must just be a girl thing

We ventured inside and tried out a few rides

and the jungle gym

Finally the kids decided to ride with their mothers

Allie took one spin with me and we called it a night.

Happy Labor Day!

Are You Ready For Some Football???

We can't believe it's this timen again. We love football at our house and are very excited for the season to begin. Go Broncos!!!

Our little bronco fan

Pre-Occupied Mommy=Disasters

I was working out in the garden getting some of my fall crop planted tonight, so needless to say I was not being an attentive mom, and we ran into a few funny episodes that involved Allie.

Allie was helping me for some time in the garden and then became disinterested after about an hour. I had a permanent marker I was using to make labels on my Popsicle sticks for the items I was planting. Allie grabbed the marker and tried to color in my gardening book. I luckily caught that one before it turned disastrous. I decided to give Allie a box to color on which I thought was keeping her content. After about 10 minutes Allie walked up behind me and said , "mom." I turned around to this....

and I bust up laughing. I asked Allie what she had done. (Side note: for those who don't know we have done lots of infertility shots over the last year) Allie responded by telling me she had made her marks for her shots. Well, my very observant child did just what I do to myself. I literally grab my permanent marker every time I get out of the shower to re-outline my bullseye's on the rear. I hope Allie doesn't want to go through with her shots because they hurt.

Another funny occurrence that happened tonight while I was gardening involved Allie, Max, and the Apricots. Allie approached me and stated that she had just given Max apricots. Well knowing fare well we don't have an apricot in our house, I asked Allie what apricot? She responded back, "mom, the apricots." As I got closer to Max I noticed he was covered in fish food. I guess fish food is starting to resemble apricots. I think we all need some more sleep. Hopefully Max doesn't turn part-fish on us, but at least I'll know who to blame.