Garden & Canning

I've finally developed a green thumb this year and have the best garden I've ever grown. 

 My tomato plants are taller than I am. 

Although Amelia keeps picking green tomatoes for me I don't think that I'm going to run short any time soon.

 Here is the cucumber patch.  I've made so many pickles and pickle relish that I've started giving away bags of cucumbers.  I'm ready for them to quit producing. 

 Here is the whole new section that we planted this year.  The front of the picture is a zucchini plant while the right side are squash and grapes. 

Here is a nice looking spaghetti squash.  My packet of seeds was a variety pack.  What are the chances of three out of four plants being spaghetti squash?  We've never tried spaghetti squash before so hopefully we like it.  Next year I'm not taking my chances with the variety seed packet.

Here are the pepper plants.  Most of them are banana peppers.  I have one bell pepper, one Anaheim,  and I think two cayennes.  I've been able to pick handfuls of peppers but not too many yet. 

 My zucchini plant leaves were so huge and crazy that I missed this zucchini until it too was massive.  Now I check the plant more frequently. 

 This is a typical harvest for a week, although this week I picked this much twice. 

 And here is my canning bounty so far.  Sweet and sour pickles and a double batch of sweet pickle relish.

 Tomato jam, bread and butter pickles, sweet pickles.

 Dill pickles.

 Tomato sauce.

 I got two cases of peaches from the St. Peter Food Co-op.  So I turned some of that into peaches in a honey water syrup and vanilla bean peach sauce.  I also had to do another round of pickle relish because I was sick of looking at all of the cucumbers on the counter. 

 I then took the skins and pits of the peaches to make peach pit jelly.
 

Another round of tomato sauce and applesauce made from apples we got from my cousin. 

Peach nectarine jam and different recipe of dill pickles. 

Pool Party

In July we had Amelia's girlfriends over for a pool party. 


Allie brought a silly sprinkler.  Amelia wasn't so sure she liked it but she kept going over to stand in the water spray anyways. 

Lila brought a snack to share and Amelia decided to be the boss of the canister.

The girls all loved sitting at the table and eating pizza.  

They loved the pool as well!

Ice Cream

One of Amelia's favorite activities at Grandma's house is sharing a big bowl of ice cream with Papa!

Boating

Uncle Josh got a pontoon this year and was very anxious for Amelia to come out for an afternoon.  She loved it!  He really wanted her to help him drive but she wouldn't sit by him so I had to drive.  I had to take the wheel away from her she was driving it back and forth so much. 

She loves wearing her sunglasses but hates the hat.  Fortunately that day she allowed me to keep the hat on her so she didn't get too much sun. 

Party

We had the Schaefer side over for a sort of 4th of July party.  The weather was perfect for sitting out on the patio. 

Matt and Mary Beth brought down this kid table for us to keep which worked out perfect.  Amelia loves to sit at the table when we are outside and she isn't terrorizing my tomato plants. 

Songs on the Lawn

We were able to make it to the last Songs on the Lawn this year.  Of course it was the hottest day of the summer so far.  Despite the heat Amelia had a blast and loved sharing kettle corn and a brownie with Kallie and Taylor. 

2nd Camping Trip

Late June we went on a second camping trip with the Medrano family.  This time we went to Minneopa park so we'd be close just in case the kids weren't enjoying themselves.

Everything went pretty well!  The men took the toddlers for a very long bike ride, while the women and baby Doni stayed behind to take naps.

Then everyone went to go visit the falls.  Here Amelia and I are using the sling I made.  

She loved playing in the water and throwing rocks in the water.

Amelia ended up soaked from head to toe and was finally done playing only because she was cold.  

When we got back the kids changed into dry clothes and took a snack break in the car watching Curious George while the adults got dinner ready.  

The only problem we had was on the final night Amelia woke up when Lucas and I came into the tent.  That night I had tried putting her on a little bed of blankets on the side of the air mattress since she ended up sleeping on top of us the night before.  She fell asleep just fine but at some point woke up and crawled up onto the air mattress, which we thought was hilarious.  It was as if she was saying there's no way your kicking me out of the bed!  Well she essentially had a nap at that point and wasn't ready to go back to bed until sometime after 3.  At least we didn't have anything going on later that day so we were able to come home and take naps.