Fourth of July……

I got a new phone over the weekend…..a Samsung Epic 4G….and it has a great little camera on it..  Over the weekend, instead of using my regular camera, I decided I would just use my phone camera.  I love how some of the photos turned out.  We had a great Fourth of July weekend..filled with fireworks and parades…

There is nothing like the look on a child’s face while they are watching fireworks..priceless…..

End of Go Dog Go Murals……

Well….we are slowly trying to get ready for these new little babies….only 8 weeks to go!  One of the first steps is to move my daughter, Tuesday, into River’s old room.  River had the smallest room and Tuesday had the biggest room.  River’s new room will now also be the babies’ room.  And the first thing that had to be done was painting.  Tuesday did not want a pink room and she didn’t want the Go Dog Go murals in her room!!  I was very sad.  I knew they would have to go some day…but I didn’t think it would be so soon!!

The primer went on first….over the murals!!  While Tuesday video taped the sad event..I set up the camera and put River in charge of taking the photos….Please ignore my large belly and butt in all these photos…I was in my painting clothes…and they hardly fit!!  It was very sad to see the murals go……

Strawberry Jam…take two….

Did I tell you that all the jam we made with my mother-in-law didn’t turn out….it turned into syrup….I guess too many cooks in the kitchen does spoil the brew..or something like that.  Anyway, after our strawberry picking, I knew we had to give the strawberry jam another chance.

It really is incredibly simple.  We went out and bought 2 cases of jelly jars, Certo premium liquid fruit pectin, lemon juice, and sugar.  That’s all you need….except for the fruit!  The whole process only takes about 1/2 hour..but my mother-in-law warned me to never double or triple the recipe.  She said it never comes out…so, to make things quicker, I made a batch, Quinn made a batch, and Tuesday made a batch…all at the same time!

The recipe is inside the Certo box.  First, you have to wash and rinse the strawberries and de-stem them.  Once that is done you measure out 4 cups and start mushing them up.  We realized that putting them in the food processor is much easier and quicker!

Then you add the sugar, all 4 cups!!  That is a lot of sugar!!  Maybe next time I’ll try to cut down on the sugar..but who knows…I guess you don’t mess with a good thing!  After you add the sugar, you start to stir it and let it stand for 10 minutes, stirring every now and then.

Then, you stir the packet of pectin into 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and pour it into the prepared fruit.  Once you do this…you have to stir the bowl constantly for 3 minutes.

Then you are done..except for putting all the fruit into your jelly jars.  You let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours…and if everything went well, it should gelify (not sure if that is a word).  Then you store it in the freezer for up to a year!

So, we made 24 jars of jelly (I made another batch on my own!) for about $30..not bad!!  Hopefully, that will last us until next Strawberry season!

Strawberry preserves…..

I’ve always wanted to make strawberry preserves..but I just felt too intimidated to do it.  I finally asked my mother-in-law to show us how to do it.  Yesterday, Tuesday, River and I all went over and learned how to make preserves!  It was a lot of fun and not too hard at all.  Now, I am really excited to make them on our own this weekend after we go strawberry picking!


Embrace the camera…..old photos

Looking back through old photos is always fun.  We’ve been slowly trying to scan them into our computer……but there are so many!  I found this old photo from 1998 of Tuesday and I…she was about 4 months old.  I was 31 years old……so young.  Tuesday was the cutest little round baby….she was all rolls and fat!!

Go embrace the camera today……

Mother’s Day….

It was such a wonderful Mother’s Day.  The weather was perfect, along with everything else!

I got breakfast in bed..and then we all got into bed and watched some bad tv.  Then, we did some yard work….some..not a lot!  Then we went off to my favorite Ethiopian restaurant in Philadelphia!  Yum!

After we got back from dinner, I tried to take some family photos….

That didn’t go too well……they sort of got sillier and sillier…..It was a great day!

Eating Rabbits…….

Well…eating chocolate rabbits, that is.  This year, the Easter bunny brought solid chocolate bunnies..not hollow.  Everyone decided the solid bunnies are much harder to eat!!

But they did agree that the solid bunnies are just as delicious as the hollow bunnies……

After taking the photos and going through the pictures..I couldn’t believe how many times River and Tuesday had almost the same expression……it was really funny.  I don’t remember that ever happening before.