Berry's

So yesterday I took the kiddo's berry picking at one of the many local U-Pick places....
This was our take home..........
I have been wanting for years to make homemade jam's and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try my hand at it...
1 child to pick out stems.
1 child to measure out the rest of the ingredients
1 child to mash the fruit....
1 mom to make them all leave the super duper small itty bitty kitchen so she could finish least she kill one or more children before it's done......







Turns out I can make some super yummy Blueberry jam, 7 small jars of it :) We will be returning to pick many more Raspberries(tomorrow) because apparently you need LOTS of them to make jam.......
My one question so far is can I just mash up the raspberry's and then force thru a "sifter" to get out a bunch of the seeds?? I don't have one of those presses to do it for me......

The things they do......

I have 2 observations that I'd like to share with all 5 of you...... Both of these were made either yesterday or today and they are NEAT!

1)After foolishly trying to dry a load of wash 2 separate times on 2 different temperatures I realized the bigger picture and pulled out the dryer to find a "swim hole" behind it with the water slide emptying onto the floor... YEA ME!!
Apparently while my 2 youngest were outside yesterday re-creating the "water park" with the hose and anything within reach they also thought that strange hole in the house might want to become a water slide....

2) While using the downstairs bathroom yesterday afternoon I happened to look at the sink and on the counter next to it the top to my Night Time face creme looked dirty... Hmmmmm I opened it and to my utter shock and horror it appeared almost completely empty!!!
I immediately felt sick and nauseous, you see I just recently started using night time face creme and it's the one expense I allow myself(along with the daytime creme).. This particular jar is 30.00 for 1.7oz..... needless to say it was one I used as little as possible while achieving the desired results AND it was an almost full jar....... I'm almost in tears just reliving it...
Oh and guess where SHE used it..........yes all OVER her legs, it seems they are very full and youthful looking legs, I'm jealous.......................

10,6,3 part 1 :)

THE pictures are in my possession! I can't for the life of me decide which picture(s) I like best, don't you love when that happens...
It's crazy to me how RED Norah's hair is getting, in the pictures anyway(or should I say auburn)...
It's also crazy that I am soon to have a 10 YEAR OLD child..... how did that happen people, I still feel 24!

10,6,3 part 2 :)

14 year olds

Last week I invited a teenager into my home for a few days.

Picked her up on Wednesday morning and brought her home Saturday afternoon.(some of you know how awesome a lone teenager is when you have many little people:))


Would you believe I forgot to take pictures THE entire time! I KNOW!! The last day we did what all family's that have a fish geek in them do, we went to the fish geek family summer picnic:)
Chrs remembered the camera thankfully and this is the one and only picture I have of the lovely Kelly!
My kids love her, I love her and Chrs calls her "feisty"
She reminds me a little of me when I was 14 :-) Now to figure out when I can get her back.........
I didn't want to see her go.........sniffle sniffle sniffle..........

I have within my sight the picture's of my amazing kiddo's! Problem is that I can't see them all!!! Waiting for the photographer to wake up and see my email.... Then I'll post a few here...... THEY ARE AMAZING!! If you have facebook you can see a few there in the mean time...............................

OOOHHHHH and we wont be seeing Cars2 people(At least not Ari), not after the reviews I read thanks to my friend Carey and this terrific website that reviews movies....

The basement, it's almost finished

This is my nasty, dirty, gross basement before(well almost before) and then after :) All I have left is to paint the wall above the HUGE aquarium and then finish the steps....