Edible Fruit Arrangement

I was co-hosting a baby shower recently and thought it would be fun to make an edible fruit arrangement.  I did look online at Edible Arrangements for inspiration.

I started with some green florist foam.

And trimmed it to fit in a wide mouth mason jar.

Then I wrapped the jar in brown paper (a cut up grocery sack)

like this.

We were celebrating a boy baby, so I blue ribbon it was.

I used pineapple, strawberries and red grapes.

I cut the outside off the pineapple and sliced it into 1/2 in thick slices, then cut them with a cookie cutter into star shapes.  Then put them carefully onto a bamboo skewer.  

You have to be careful that you don't poke your finger, because the skewers are very pointy and sharp.

 Next, I washed the grapes

and poked them onto the skewers in groups of 3-5.

I did the same for the strawberries, but they were just one to a skewer.  I left the stems on.  Also, be careful not to poke in too far.

I cut the skewers to the desired length with my garden pruning shears and them placed them in the foam prepared jar.

I think it turned out well.

And it was delicious!

Mud!

I needed to move our 55 gallon water storage barrels this morning.  In order to move a 55 gallon water storage barrel, it needs to not have 55 gallons of water in it.

Luckily I have a handy pump to pump the water out.

As you can see the water stays right next to the barrel, 

making a wonderful mud puddle.

Zelda loved it.

Julius came out and found a giant worm trying to escape the water.

Zelda wasn't sad about being muddy, just about me not picking her up.  

(Look at her cute little face!)

  

First Day of School

Wednesday was the first day of school.  It was a crazy morning!  Rez had been given the homework assignment to do over the summer of reading 2 books, summarizing each and compare/contrasting 3 points in them.  We were reminded of this assignment last week and he has read several books over the summer, so he shouldn't have had any problem finishing it early.  Well, he didn't want to use any of those books but one, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and he was in the middle of reading Treasure Island and wanted to use that one as well.  He finished reading it Tuesday night, late.  This put us putting together his assignment Wednesday morning when we were supposed to be getting ready for school.  He wanted me to type it for him.  I was helping him, but it sucked all of our time.  He and Ocean had about 5 minutes to get ready for school.  I also wasn't helping the other kids who had to leave 40 minutes later.

I had given both Ocean and Rez their school supplies the day before, but they hadn't organized them, so Rez was also pulling out his binder from last year and taking all the papers out of it when it was time to leave.  AAAAAAAAAAAA!  

Trip took them to school, since it was Ocean's first day of Middle school.

I stayed home and helped the other kids get ready.  Their school started 20 minutes earlier this year than the last several years, so when I told them it was time to go, they weren't mentally prepared.  Mo was all dramatic because he didn't get to play video games for very long.  By the time I got him calmed down and all of us ready to go, they had 5 minutes before the bell rang.  I drove them the 3 blocks to school and went home envisioning a little quiet time before I had to go to my dentist appointment, but that was not to be. 

Trip called to tell me that Ocean had Library TA and Drama for his electives.  I asked if he didn't get into Band, because they only have 2 elective periods not 3.  Trip looked at his schedule and realized that there was no math class on there.  He left Ocean in the library TAing and took his schedule down to the office.  Then he called and begged me to come and make sure it got sorted out because he had to get to work.  

I waited for a while until my sister came over and I didn't have to take all 3 little kids in tow, then I went down to the middle school.  By then his schedule had been worked out and both boys were in an assembly.  I got to stay and help pass out first day packets as all the students left the auditorium.  Rez came out on my side.  He didn't even look at me.  When he took his packet, I held it and looked into his face.  He looked at me, but no recognition was on his face.  You have got to love 13 year olds.  Later he told me that after he went out of the room he realized that it was me.  In his defense, there was no reason for him to suspect that I would be there.  

Rez also had problems with his schedule, he didn't have a 5th or 6th period class listed, but it was worked out by the end of the day.  I don't under stand why they can't have most of it worked out before school starts, but I hear that it isn't unique to our school or even to our district.  

I got a picture of Ocean, Mo and Rez before they left, but not of Daphne.

If you have a bad first morning that means a great school year right?

Adventures of city kids...the Fair!

Last Friday, we went to the Evergreen State Fair.  

We went on "Friday Food Bank Frenzy" day, so 21 cans of food got us all in.  We took Rez's good friend and my sister with us and met two of our other sisters and their families, including one set of in-laws.  We have a lot of fun together.  

We started out with lunch listening to the Navy band "Deception Pass".  (It was also armed forces day).

Harvey was really getting down to the music.

Carol's family had matching t-shirts.  In fact Neoma's family did too.  I think next year, we might have to get some.  

All the big kids wanted to do was go on the rides.  

They each had saved up to buy an unlimited ride wrist band.

I left Trip with the big kids and took the little ones to the kiddie rides. 

Harvey had a great time on the Wiggly Worm roller coaster, the big slide and the airplane ride.  

Thanks to my sisters who watched Zelda, so I could go on the rides with them.  

We next headed over to frontier village and got to see these amazing Aztec Indian dancers.

Later we went to the poultry show.  That is what I had been looking forward to.  There was this great egg chart

and some cute hens

and roosters.

Ones as colorful as this Phoenix make me wish we could keep a rooster.

One of my favorite looking hens are the frizzle cochins. 

Here is a white.

And a black.

There are so many fun breeds that I look forward to having chickens for many years so I can have them all.

The poultry barn closed for changing the birds, so we went back out to the rides.

 Mo loved the rides.  He would get off and run back again and again.

 Zelda was so excited to get out of the stroller.  She crawled around on the curb, playing in the mulch.

I looked over and she had found someone's cast off green gum.  Yuck.  Trip was proud of me for not taking the time to take a picture of it.

She also found an old cigarette butt, yuck :(  I think she is a yuck magnet.

Julius was trying to sneak into this ride.

Mo and Harvey were twins that day.

Nothing like riding with your brother.

Zelda, did not want to be strapped in again.

Tora was such a big help to me.  Thanks, Tora!

The three little boys wanted to go on the bear ride.

It was the ride that did Trip in.

This car was just Julius's speed.  He went on the airplane with Harvey and I earlier and spent the whole time with his eyes closed, because he wanted to get off.

Malachi, Daphne, Ocean and Rez spent all of their time on the carnival rides, except for when we made them come and check in with us and eat.  I didn't get any pictures of them, but they had a blast.  

We had a great time, but next year, I want to see the pig races.

Here She Goes.

Zelda started taking steps a few weeks ago.  I recorded it here.  She hasn't really walked much since then.  We would try to entice her, but she wasn't really going for it.  She might take one step, but then find an easier way to get what she wanted.  

Today Trip and I were substitute teaching Harvey's primary class and Zelda was standing at my knee, saw something that she wanted in Trip's hand (OK, it was some smarties) and turned, started walking across the floor.  We were both so surprised that we startled her with our exclamations and she dropped to the floor after 4 or 5 steps.  

This time it has stuck though.  At home she repeated it over and over, getting up to 9 steps once.

Happy Birthday Rez!

Rez turned 13 yesterday.  But since he spent the whole day with Ocean at their friends house, we had cake today.  

It doesn't look like much, but we had our choice of strawberries and whipped cream or chocolate fudge frosting to go on top.  Yum!

Happy Birthday, I love you Rez.

What Boys Do

Boys are physical.  They wrestle, they fight, they shove and push.

It is how they show love, it is how they show anger.  It is what they do.  

As a mom of boys, I have to be on the look out for when someone gets pushed too far 

and it turns into a fight, but mostly it is all fun.  Even the fights are learning experienced of how to deal with someone hurting you and not retaliating (that is a hard one to learn).  

But when Harvey and Julius don't have anything to do, they often break out into wrestling.  

It doesn't matter where we are.  At the kids elementary school, when we brought the new chicks in for show and tell, in line at the post office, at a family gathering, they don't care, they have each other to play with.  They don't out grow it either.  

Rez and Ocean still wrestle. 

 

And my brothers, when they get together they still wrestle (at least they did a few years ago).  

They also pass their skills on down to the younger generation.  This was called "Knee Sumo".  

My mom told me that her brothers would wrestle (she had 4) and when they were at their cousins house, a family of girls, the little girls (cousins) would get so upset and run in to tell the adults that the boys were hurting each other.  No, they were just wrestling.  

I don't think you get this in a family of girls.  When we went to Rez's 5th grade graduation, there was a little boy about Harvey's age that only had 2 older sisters, sitting next to us.  He wanted to be friends so he asked Harvey, "Do you want a hug?"  Harvey just looked at him like he was crazy.  And I thought, he is probably thinking, "No, but I will wrestle with you."

When you are a girl amidst all the boys, you learn to wrestle.  I have 6 sisters and 4 brothers, but I was born between the boys.  I have a brother just older than me and 2 just younger than me and I was always the wrestling partner. 

I remember my brother just younger than me and I would play "mercy".  We were all over the floor trying to get the other person to say "mercy", but were very evenly matched, so our "mercy" battles would go on a long time.  It was good training for being a mother of boys.

Here we are last summer (I was pregnant with Zelda).  I don't think I will challenge him to a Mercy match any time soon.

Daphne is very tough.  She can take down her brothers when she needs to and my niece that lives in the same house with her little brother and 3 boy cousins also can hold her own on the battle field.  Here they are at a recent family get together.

I love my boys.