Crushed Tomato Sauce!

I ended up accidently deleting this really nice long post. I'm too pissed off to try to rewrite the whole thing. Thanks, Leroy, Sr. for helping me with my lastest canning obession. I ended up with a several cans of crushed tomato sauce and two jars of canned peaches. Thanks, for the help!

Free Case of Second Tomatoes!

The peaches I picked up at the fruit stand ended up being way to hard. I'm going to have towait a couple of days and try again to can these peachy peaches!

All Aboard!

The last time the boys rode on this train was back when the boys were 3 and 1 years old. I have wanted to take the kids back to the frisco festival in Rogers but we always seemed to miss it. This year, I finally got the date down and made it a family event.
We were a little bit confused at first where to purchase the tickets. We couldn't remember where we got tickets last night but it soon came back to us once we saw the train. They had a little table under a tent to purchase tickets. A gentleman came up to us waiting in the line and said he was going to give away three free tickets. The lady in front of me, grab the tickets right out of my hands. I wasn't happy. We almost had three free tickets. Oh, well. That's my luck.
The kids were so excited to get on board the train. Landon claimed to remember the train ride from last time but I have my doubts about it. The Arkansas and Missouri train is a short-line train. The thing about the train ride that is fun is the trains have been fully restored. The passenger car is from the 1940's. The kids really enjoyed the first half of the train ride. The ride back was little bit on the boring side. We finally managed to make it back to Rogers. The evening was coming fast upon us we hit a couple of the kiddie rides which were all free. Gotta love free rides for the kids.

 

Grape Juice

1 1/2 bushels of Concord Grapes

26 Quarts of Grape Juice

4 pints of Grape Juice

My hubby is really annoyed with me. He claimed I have a one track mind and I neglected the kids and house to make juice. Maybe their is some truth but what's a girl to do. I had to make my grape juice. Meg is picking up the rest of my grapes and the juicer in the morning. I tried to take a picture but my memory stick isn't working!

Picking Grapes

Early this morning, we headed out the door to ToniTown to pick concord grapes. I never done this before and was excited about being able to get grapes for dirt cheap. Only $10 per half a bushel. They normally sell for $15! The weather here has been unusually cool for this time of the year. Sweet, nice and cool out this morning. Prefect!
The owner of this vineyard is a third generational farmer. The vineyard is no longer as big as it used to be in the old times. We found out that their are only 5 farmers in the area still growing grapes. What a shame! The owner told us he doesn't make any money from the grapes. The owner is acutally losing money each year. He is keeping up the vineyard out of tradition and it's his hobby.

Do you see the big juicy grapes!

Gracie and Leah decided to keep themselves busy by playing in the dirt. Two true Arkansas born kids! Barefoot and dirty!

Well, the picking paid off! Look at all of these grapes! Nancy and I are off to make homemade grape juice. The grapes are in the steamer and the jars are in the dishwasher. I'm going to be busy!

Happy Homemaker Monday

The weather in my neck of the woods: The weather here is unusally cool outside. It already feels like Fall.

One of my simple pleasures: going for a nice long run!

On my bedside table: My Life In France by Julia Child

On my TV: Nothing

0n the menu for tonight: Good question? Something with ground beef? Any ideas?

On my To Do List: I'm about to leave to go pick concord grapes at a vineyard. Never done that before. Once, we get back, I'm going to be making homemade grape juice to can.

New Recipe I tried last week: I made homemade salsa last week! It's awesome, it's kinda sweet but spicey is the only way to describe it, click here for recipe.

In the craft basket: I'm working on learning how to knit. I'm currently, working on a scraft and wash rag.

Looking forward to: I'm looking forward to the Frisco Festival in Rogers this weekend maybe we will take the kids on the train ride again.

Homemaking Tip for this week: I'm make my own landurary detergent. It's so easy! I love the fact, I don't have to run to the store everytime I run out of detergent. I can wipe up a new batch in less than ten minutes.

Favorite photo from last week:

Lesson learned the past few days: Life is always changing, you have to be willing to change to move forward. You can comfortable with things but then you stop growing as a person. It's good to set new goals and push yourself outside our comfort zone. I'm working on achieving all kinds of new goals at the moment. My confidence level is very high at the moment. I'm loving it!

On my Prayer List:

My Family and Sister

Scripture Reading, Key Verses:

"Jesus Christ is the Way. He is Light and Life, Bread and Water, the Beginning and the End, the Resurrection and the Life, the Savior of the world, the Truth, and the Way."
Lawrence E. Corbridge

Salsa

I finally did it!

For the past, three years I have talked about making homemade salsa. Well, today I finally did it. My camera is dead so no pictures. I have 6 quarts of salsa and 17 pints of salsa. I ended up trying out two different recipes. One of the recipes was mild and other one was hot. If you want the recipes check out my cooking blog for the recipes. I'm so exhausted! I have enough salsa to last us for the rest of the year. Leroy was joking about being happy my sister doesn't live her anymore or else she would eat all the salsa. Well, after he said that I informed him that she's coming in two weeks to visit. Leroy said we need to make sure we hide it or it will all be gone.

Newest Obsession

My little girl never fails to amaze me. I picked up this Seaseme Street puzzle at a garage sale last weekend for .25 cents. Leah feel right into love with it. This is her newest obsession. She loves to put this puzzle together over and over again. When she can get a piece to fit she says " I did it"! If she can't get it to fit. She say's "dang it"! Opps, I guess, I better watch what I'm saying around her. Every single time she got a piece to fit she wanted me to take a picture of it. So, if you find any good used puzzles let me know. She's going to be a puzzle lover.
 

Picnic Table Talk

For this week's Picnic Table Talk

we'll be talking snacks.
~What easy snacks do you pack for your family?
~What nutritious snacks do your children most enjoy?
~Do you have any creative tricks for encouraging healthy snacking in your home?
~What do you use to pack your snacks in?
~Does your child's school have specific requirements for healthy snacks?

I noticed this new product at Walmart called Fruit Chillers by Del Monte. It's a freeze and eat tube of fruit. It contains no hfcs or sugar! It's about one pound of fruit in a box which contains 8 tubes. You can find them at walmart on sale for $2.00. My kids love these fruit chillers. They actually taste very good and make for a great quick snack. It's really hard to find pre-made snacks that don't have hfcs. So, if you haven't tried them yet, you seriously need to. Very refreshing and prefect for this time of the year.

Guess What I'm making?

Any ideas...Yes, they are yellow Roma tomatoes. It's amazing all the different types of tomatoes that are available now days. My friend Nancy gave me a really good deal to take these tomatoes off her hands. I paid 8 dollars for this whole box of tomatoes. I'm going to make her famous salsa recipe. I will post the recipe in my cooking blog.

Back To School

I still can't seem to understand how fast summer has come to an end. Where did all the time go. It's seems to have disappeared in a flash of an eye blink. I tried to put the kids down early for bed last night but it didn't happen. Landon and Logan didn't make it to bed until 9:00pm and Leah was up until 10:00am. Of course, all the kids ended up sleeping in. It was a mad dash to get Landon to school of his first day. This was the sign outside of his teachers door.

Landon was actually excited about going to school. He really is hoping for a much better school year. Last year, Landon was bored out of his mind. I have been told by several friends that they love Landon's teacher. I can't wait for him to get off the bus and tell me about his day.
Landon is also sitting next to one of Leroy's co-workers son. It should be fun. His dad is kinda competitive with me. He likes to run in 5k races just like me. We ended up running into each other a lot. It's kinda weird. Anyways, Landon brought a skull of an armadillo that he found at Tanyard Creek. I wasn't sure if the teacher would be okay with it or not. The teacher said they will do a little show and tell and Landon would be able to show the class. It's a shame they don't do "show and tell" in Bentonville schools.

Logan and Leah are doing fine without Landon. They have been playing without all day long with no fighting. I'm really nervous and can't wait to hear about Landon's school day.

Also, Thanks grandma for the back to school clothes. Landon wore his new jeans and t-shirt to school.

 

CSI: Backyard

I just barely stepped out of the shower. When, I heard the kids shouting for me. So, they all came running into my bedroom. I was just standing there in my towel with two of my sons and the neighbor boy. Hello, I'm trying to get dress. Yes, it was close to 1:00pm in the afternoon, I was up late with a 5k race. The kids had discovered all of these bones out in the woods...
So, what is your opinion? What animal? I'm thinking small raccoon but I could be wrong? What ya, think?

Want to keep your kids busy...

Get them a pet! Pets keep kids busy, kids busy makes mom happy!Yesterday, the kids found the box turtle in the back yard. The turtle kept the busy all day long. I'm not going to let them keep it forever but a couple of days.
Logan's a huge animal lover. He decided to name him "Blake"!
The kids ran inside and looked up information about box turtles on the internet.
The discovered that box turtles like to eat minnows. So, off we went to the creek to fish for minnows. We didn't catch any fish but get a couple of crawdads to bring back for the turtle.

The boys were so funny trying to catch fish without any bait.

This morning the kids released the turtle back to nature. I love the idea of only have a pet for a day. Ha, ha! The neighbor kids are going to get a pet turtle from Petco this afternoon which works out great for us. The kids can go next door and see their turtle.

 

Fruits of My Labor

At the beginning of summer, I planted a row of watermelon seeds. Immediately after planting the seeds it ended up raining really hard. I thought for sure all the seeds had washed away. I was surprised to discovered a watermelon growing up on the link fence in the backyard. A seed a survived. One seed had turned into one watermelon. I was busy watering the garden and I decided to check on the watermelon plant. I discovered the melon missing. I thought for sure the deer had eaten it. Oh, no! I looked down the hill and there it was. I thought for sure it would not be ready but was surprised to find it ripe in the inside. Small but still ripe. The kids dived right into it and had a nice treat. Also, I went back and discovered another small watermelon growing in the grass. Can't wait to try that watermelon next.

 

Take me out to the baseball game...

Last night, we took the kids to their first minor league baseball game. Minor league but major fun!!!!! I don't have to much to say but ball games have definitely changed. The ball park had the local animal sarfari bring baby animals for the kids to pet included some pigs, baby loin, and lemur. The baseball park had a very nice playground. I spent most of my time with the two little ones at the petting zoo and park. Landon spent some of his time with his daddy watching the baseball game. After the game we watched a very firework show. We left a few minutes before the firework show ended and we managed to miss all the traffic and made it home in record time. I wish we would of done this earlier in the season. The kids had a blast.

 

Wet N' Wild

End of the summer activity

Roger's Splash Park

This week, I'm taking the kids to do some really fun activities all week long before school starts. I decided it would be fun to take the neighbor kids with us to the splash park. This was our first time going and I can't believe we hadn't done it sooner.

Leah wasn't crazy about it at first. She refused to join in. She just walked around and watched the other kids. Eventually, she did join in and had a blast

Landon loved standing under the dumping buckets of water. The only bad thing he kept losing his swim trunks. Every time the buckets dump the water on his head it would cause his to fall off. It was really funny watching him trying to pull up his swim trunks.

I love free activities for the kids!

 

Frosting A Cake

How to make the frosting for the rainbow cake. I normally make buttercream frosting for the kids birthday cakes but I decided to go with something a little bit healthier. Just mix two boxes of french vanilla pudding mix two tubs of cool whip. Just whip together until their are no lumps.

Landon wanted to help frost the cake. He did a really good job mixing up the frosting. He wanted red frosting but it turned out more pink than red. So, we decided to make orange instead by adding a little bit of yellow dye to the red dye. Get it!

The frosting is extremely thick and hard to spread. It takes a little bit of arm work to get it on nicely. Just drop the frosting on the cake with huge gloops.

Landon did a good job spreading the frosting on the cake. The frosting doesn't look the greatest but it's delicious not overly sweet.
I tried to spell Landon's name on top of the cake but it turned out that great. So, no close ups!

Leah had the best job: licking the whisk and bowl of frosting.
After frosting the cakes, we were busy outside setting up for the party. Tia decided to tie a piece of crepe paper in Leah's hair. It turned out cute with her new short haircut.