Strawberry Jam

Me and the girls finally got to make strawberry jam! We canned it also and it turned out great. It was alot of mashing and the kids were shocked that 7 cups of sugar actually go in 9 jars of jam. It was a bit nerve racking for me because I have never canned anything and was sure I was going to blow up the kitchen ,but thanks to step by step instruction from Pioneer Woman (she has a great website of everything) it came out perfect. We are going to do pickles next before the kids start back to school. It is actually fun to do and Im looking forward to doing it again.

Leah

Leah is 7 months old now! She is getting so big. She weighs about 30 pounds now and I hope she stops growing soon. She is a trouble maker for sure, chews shoes, socks and every stuffed animal she can find. The kids are having so much fun with her. They just laugh all the time because she is so funny when she plays with them. Ashlyn has a tunnel that connects to a tent and Leah runs throuh the tunnel and whips it around the room. The kids think that it is really funny! Anyway, I think she will be a real dog soon, she has learned sit, shake, lay down and roll over. When she gets real excited she does them all really fast just to get a treat faster. If I could just get her to bark, I would have it made!

Ashlyns Funny Ways

The girls have 4-H day camp all this week. They are doing cooking, sewing, jewelry making, scrapbooking and learning healthy nutrition. They are having a blast. Yesterday they made freezer peach jam. I was in the jam class helping and all the kids had fun but what a challenge when you have 10 kids at a time trying to make jam! In the nutrition class they made yogurt and fruit bowls for a healthy snack. Iasked Ashlyn if she ate her yogurt. She said, "Yes, but I only put blueberries in it because I dont like pineapple". I said, " I thought you liked pineapple?" She said, "No! I tried it back when the dinosaurs were alive and I didnt like it!" I said, "What?!!!!, Ashlyn, you werent alive when the dinosaurs were alive". She said, "Oh!". I dont have a clue where that all came from but it made for a good laugh all day today! Ashlyn works the sewing machine on Thursday and Lord help us all! Hopefully she doesnt sew herself to her apron.

Ashlyns Award Program

Ashlyn graduated to 1st grade! She is doing so well and loves school. Her teacher was great! I was worried because Ashlyn is such a unique child to work with but her teacher said she was great and was one of her best students. It is amazing how well she reads now. She reads words that I can't figure out how she figures out. Hopefully learning comes as easy to her as it does to Brooke. At her program they sang songs and got an award for finishing Kindergarten. She says she is going to become a big girl next year because she doesnt have to have Brooke help her at school now! Next year will be exciting, 3 different schools at all different times. Should keep me crazier than ever!

Brookes Awards

Brooke is moving on to sixth grade!!! She is growing up so fast. She had her 5th grade awards and got 9 awards! She did really awesome this year. She excelled in math so she got an award for that. She had over 300 reading counts points so she got a picture with her favorite book taken and enlarged. Her other awards were for great grades and overall achievement. We are so proud of her. She says it is really sad leaving her school to go to another. She will never be in the same school as Ashlyn again either! That will be a challenge for me! So new school and new friends and alot of growing up!

Plants

The Girls are doing some plant growing this summer. They both got a citrus tree from the Ag Department for a 4-H project this next year of 4-H. They keep a record book on it and then next Feburary they go to Central Florida Fair to be judged. Candy gave them some tomatoe plants that she started. They are hugh! Everyday the kids are getting tomatoes and they love it. We have turned our front porch into our potted garden. We had a garden going in the backyard but Leah took care of that for us! Everything is gone. The strawberry plants are just starting to get strawberries. I don't really know what went wrong with them? Everything is still alive so thats a bonus for me, lets see how long we can keep them alive! Our next project will be canning! That should be a good one, I have never canned before. We are going to do strawberry jam and pickles. Hopefully I can pull this one off for the kids.

Finally Done

I am done with my first semester of college! It has been very hard but I made an A in both classes. I took the summer off because one of the classes I need is not available in a 15 week course so I will take it in the fall. I have to drive to Deland for the math and pshycology is online. I am ready to have the summer break to be able to handle the many things the kids are doing for the summer! I think fall will be more challenging because Brooke starts middle school and we have fair but I guess I will work it out.