The Weekend and More

I've been neglecting my blog. The garden has been taking over the majority of my time.  You see, its peach season, and we have alot.  Ive been canning jam in all my spare time.  This week I attempt canned peaches.  Also, Ive been trying to pickle all the cucumbers that keep growing on our plants.  And then there are the kids and all the fun things we have been busy doing.  Here is just a sampling:

G and I took the older two boys to a local minor league baseball game last weekend.  It was TONS of fun.  A huge thanks to my parents for watching Nathan for the night so we could enjoy the game without distractions.  

Evan and I at the game.

What's a baseball game without some treats?!

Between innings things were thrown into the stadium.  The kids got a couple soft balls!

This past week Evan had baseball camp about a half hour away from our home.  Instead of doing 2 hours of driving each day, Nathan, Justin and I found activities to do near the camp.  On this day, we went blueberry picking in the rain.  The kids were real troopers though and we managed to pick 18 pounds of blueberries!!  It was quite wet but lots of fun.  

Nathan loves blueberries. So does Justin!!!

I love this photo of Nathan with the blueberries in his hands.  So cute.

While we were at the farm we visited the animals and fed them.  Nathan got too close with this bag he was keeping his goat food in and the goat snatched it right out of his hand and ate the entire bag, food and all before you could blink an eye!  So funny.  Nathan was laughing hysterically over the whole episode.

Guess who was back the other night on our window screen?  Our friend the tree frog.  That frog really likes our family apparently.

Nathan is quite the smart kid.  The other night while I was prepping dinner and he was having his first course of dinner, he created this pattern with his tomatoes and grapes.  He called out to me, "mommy I need more red ones".  Sure enough, he was right!  He is amazing at math and sorting at 2 years old!!!

Canned peach jam.  YUM!!!

 I took the kids on an adventure this morning, just me and the boys exploring a park I havent been to in a couple years.  So much fun.  This is the old lady in the shoe house, and the boys are peering in the window to look for all the kids :)

I think I forgot to post the pictures we had taken of the boys a few weeks back now.  They did a really great job.  We had a great photographer too.  He managed to get a decent shot of all three boys together, something I cannot pull off by myself!!!  

Happiness Is...

Happiness is watching this wonderful little boy run the bases at a local baseball team's stadium after the game.  Seeing him pump his arms as he runs, something a year ago he couldn't do.  Enjoying his huge, confident smile as he runs his hardest and fastest.  Smiling along with him instead of holding my breath hoping he doesn't fall.  How could life get any better than this?

You rock Evan.

Misc. Fun in Photos

I just love this photo of my mom with Nathan, holding a water balloon.  Its so nice to spend time with my parents and enjoy the summer outdoors in our yard.

If you tell three boys that they can do anything they want on a free Saturday.  Be prepared for what their answer will be.  Chuck E Cheese.  Next time I ask, Ill make sure to indicate it has to be an outdoor activity :)

All three boys had a blast on Saturday morning.  We practically had the place to ourselves (go figure, it was a beautiful Sat morning).

 Nathan enjoying one of many Popsicles this summer.

 A playdate with our dear friends and old neighbors always means lots of fun for all the kids.  7 kids and two adults, and yet, no tears or major problems!!!

 Nathan trying out the slip and slide.

 Nathan and Max get along really well.

 Nathan loves all things cars and trucks.  Today he found Justin's game Rush Hour Jr. and insisted on playing.  I told him that the object of the game was to get all the cars and trucks on the board.  Ten minutes later he was calling me, "mommy, come see".  The kid had fit all those cars and trucks on the board perfectly!  This is no small feat mind you, because they are all different sizes.  I was impressed!!!

 Nathan loves to play in the sink and "help" me in the kitchen while I cook and bake.  And because Im constantly in the kitchen, this has become a nearly daily activity.  My mom brought him over a cute little baking set of his own, which included a plastic apron that Nathan just adores.  Today he insisted on wearing it "to cover my pajamas so they no get wet" while he helped me in the kitchen.

 Then he insisted on trying the raw zucchini we were cooking with.  He liked it raw!  The kid will eat/try anything, especially if he knows it came from our garden.  He loves eating snap peas right off the vines and blackberries off the bushes.

 Nathan mixed up his own batch of zucchini cakes today in his little bowl while I made mine.  His included LOTS of salt.

 Working side by side.

 I set the whole morning aside to deal with the large quantity of zucchini and cucumbers that I had on hand from the garden.  Our zucchini count is already at 17 for the season, and its only just begun.  We have had just as many cucumbers too.  So, today I made a double, double batch of my mom's delicious zucchini bread recipe.  I froze as much of it as I could, before the boys devoured it!  My boys love zucchini bread.  I also tried out a new recipe for zucchini cakes, they are like a fried patty.  And I made some zucchini pickles, as well as cucumber pickles.  I have to say, the zucchini pickles came out better than the cucumber ones!  Delicious!!!

 I have been playing around with a new macro lens for my camera and got some nice pictures of things from the garden and yard tonight.

 Our peaches are getting nearly ready for eating!!!!!!  YUM.

 There is something about the smell of marigolds that I cant get enough of.  I love this tall variety that I grew from seed along the edge of my garden.

 Heirloom tomatoes getting ready...

 My squash in my garden has totally taken over, its impossibly huge.  I cant believe how much room it has taken over in my garden already.  Its weaving its way through all the tomato plants and soon will be out of the garden fence altogether!  Hopefully we get some pumpkins and decent squash this year from it.

Summer Camp

This year because we got the swimming pool and we are saving for a deck for the pool, I decided to cut way back on the kid's summer camps. The only camp that I signed the boys up for together this summer [Evan is attending a baseball camp independent of Justin in a few weeks] was an inventing camp that a friend of mine raved about and I knew I wanted the boys to try.  The camp turned out to be a wonderful week for the boys.  They came home every day so excited about all the things they were doing and learning.  It was by far the most enthusiastic they have ever been about summer camp.  

The camp was just perfect for Justin, who is a kid who loves to tinker with parts and pieces and take things apart.  He won the award for the most stuff he hauled home from camp this week.  My house needs a good purge before the summer is over :)  I wasn't sure about how Evan would do in the camp, because it involved alot of fine motor work.  But, Evan came home every day happy and proud of what he worked on.  I think for him it was a great experience gaining confidence in such activities.  

Justin's future 3rd grade teacher was in charge of one of the modules of the camp.  So, Justin got to spend a bit of time every day during the week with her, getting to know her.  He came away saying how nice she was and more excited about his class in the Fall.

The last day of camp, the parents were invited to come and view a presentation that featured the work that the kids did.  The whole thing was just so well organized and run.  Im really impressed.  Both boys already said they want to go back next year!!!  

There were 98 campers in total in the program.  It was a sea of kids, I caught a picture of Justin waving at me:

 The slide show featured so many pictures of the kids during the week.  This is a picture of Justin on wacky Wednesday when he died his hair the brightest yellow I have ever seen.

 A picture of Evan and his cousin who also participated in the camp, working on an invention.

 Evan demonstrating his water balloon popping device he made himself.

 Justin showing off one of his creations, a robot.

 Evan in his camp shirt.

 Justin and Evan in their camp shirts together.