There's a...

...... tire in the yard.....

....a Daddy in the tree......

....and some screaming children. 

That can only mean one thing.....

TiRe SwINg!!!!

Squeaks and I preferred the old-fashioned method of swinging though.

Harvest Time

Yummers from the past 2 months.












Everyone gets a hand in the cooking.  Smoosh making jam, Otter helping make Zuke Soup, and Squeakers just likes to peel the onions.   Note to self, get more pics of Beanie helping out in the kitchen.....

For He's A Jolly Good Fellow

someone is ready for a party...note the lellow.

While on vacation (embarassingly, just about 2 months behind us now....egad), our big man Smoosh turned 4.  The man loves yellow...well, actually, he loves lellow.  I am not going to tell him how it is pronounced because you are only little once and eventually you will learn how to say the word the correct way and right now I am just loving 4-year-old Smoosh and him saying lellow.  But, again, I digress, here are the pics from his big bash. 

We start with some dinner, the b-day man's place set at the table...set by his big brother, as if one

 could not tell from the little treat left behind by the moose on the plate....boys.... bleh. 

 

 

 

 

next, some noisemaking with the big sis....

cAkE!!

mmmmmmm....CakE!!!

Best part....presents....big trucks that make lots of noise....Smoosh's favorite, other than lellow of course:)

Uuhhh...yyeeaahh....

So...I guess I've been MIA for a little while now.  We have been...ummm...well...busy.  We have been squeezing out those last little drips of summer like you squeeze out those little drips of wet in a washcloth.  There have been zoo trips a plenty, arboretum and garden trips, playing in the pool, and just plain ol' hanging out with friends and living the good life.  Our good life this summer has included enjoying our home grown goodness.  The kids and I are able to make our breakfast each morning from our own animals and plants - eggs from the chickens, tomatoes, peppers, and chives from the veggie gardens, and fresh flowers from our flower beds.  I think we need a goat or cow just to get some fresh milk from:) We have our own raspberry jam that was made at the beginning of summer from our raspberry patch, which we slather onto our homemade bread.  At night, we typically make some kind of soup or at least a veggie side from the fresh zucchinies, onions, garlics, or potatoes that Smoosh and I pick in the morning.  There is, of course, all the snacking on the cherry tomatoes during the day.  Nothing is quite as delicious as home grown and home made....even if it doesn't have the same flavor or consistency as the store bought stuff.  The deliciousness comes from knowing that we are eating tomatoes from plants that we first tucked into the dirt as tiny seeds back in February and eating eggs from chickens we have raised from chicks and that we water and feed every day, saying hello to them and giving them our own scraps of dinner to help make yummy eggs.  The deliciousness comes from the little hands (well washed before even beginning a cooking adventure) that help in the smashing of raspberries and the pouring of flour and yeast into the breadmaker.  The delicousness is the fantastic smell of bread that lingers in the kitchen a day after the bread has been made and the beautiful sunflowers that are in constant supply to adorn our table.  The deliciousness comes from all the moments spent each day with my kids making our meals and, even better, making our house a home together. 

Lovely Rainy Day

While I promised my fav MIL that I would be catching up on blogs from the vacation (phew, over a month and some moons ago...), I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share our deliciously lovely rainy day:)  Started with some dancing (sorry, can't flip the video!):

Filling up pots with the rain water:

Going to the doctor with crayons and books in tow:

And ended with some cupcake making for the Spaghetti Dinner:

Great fun had by all.

When Life Hands You Smooshed Bread....

Grocery shopping adventures again.  In between holding Squeakers in my arm, trying to prevent Beans from hunting down every little girl she saw to become BFFs with, and keeping Smoosh from throwing cans out of the shopping cart, I noticed a loaf of bread precariously close to Smoosh.  Trying my best not to alert the beast of this unwary prey, I gently removed the bread from the shopping cart and placed it in the seat where Squeakers was supposed to be sitting.  In her new independence, she has become quite mobile in those seats, able to duck out of those silly little lap belts quicker than I can turn around; however, I digress.  I walked merrily along my way (well, we'll all just pretend I was humming happily up and down those aisles with a toddler in my arms, crazy beast in the cart, and scary-friendly 7-year old running at least one aisle ahead of me at all times scaring all the other children) when I turned to put the eggs in the seat of the cart so no damage would be done to those either (ok, side note, sometimes we need to buy eggs for baking.  I don't like to use my hens eggs for baking because I feel they are much too yummy to waste on baking - 3 at a time for brownies the Big Daddy devours in one sitting?!?!?  My lady chickens' eggs are much too precious for that gluttony!).  I noticed the bread was missing and Smoosh was happily smiling away.  The little stinker had sensed the bread and all of its vulnerability, grabbed it, and made a seat out of it.  What else to do with a loaf of bread?  One of my friends was actually in the grocery store that day and came by to say hi a few minutes later.  She hadn't seen me; she had heard me yell my dear child's name as I discovered the bread beneath his bum.  Sometimes you have to just have to accept defeat, which I did quickly this time and walked straight to the checkout line, finishing our grocery trip with half of the items on our list.  At least we had smooshed bread we would be eating for lunch, and jimney crickets, Smoosh was going to be eating that bread until it was ALL GONE.

Deciding it was not that big of a deal (hey, as a kid, I used to love taking off the crusts of bread, rolling the inside part into a ball and then shoving it into my piehole...yumlicious), we made PB&J rolls out of our smooshed bread.  It turned into quite the party as I began my search for the rolling pin; an adventure unto itself.  The rolling pin likes to hide itself deep in cabinet with the pots and pans, so everyone decided to make musical instruments out of the pots and pans that were now unearthed in the hunt for the rolling pin.  That night at dinner, it was decided (more like decreed) that there would be no more grocery shopping with the Smoosh, at least not if there was bread on the shopping list.

Boys will be Boys

Before getting their new hairdos, the 2 boys were living it up a little bit in the backyard a la Lord of the Flies.

And now the hair goes:

 Smoosh's "Spikey" Hair

Otter's Mohawkalicious.

Best part of it all for Otter?  Rockin' his mohawk for the last day of school.  I just love the adorable, precious little Bean next to him, looking so sweet and innocent....