Nathan is 14!

In August, Nathan turned 14. He created his Lego cake with the help of Aaron.

"Luke, I am your father." "No! That's impossible!"

It was very authentic. Luke is even missing his hand.

Food, Glorious Food

It is a very good time to be at our house. We've had some great meals from our garden crops. Just last week, I made gazpacho with seared watermelon and goat cheese on toast.

These are Stephen's white carrots. They looked more cool than they tasted. They were pretty bland. But they looked cool.

One weekend, I picked 23 melons on Friday, 33 on Saturday, and 21 on Sunday. Good thing everyone loves these melons.

This is an old picture that kept hanging on my list of pics to blog about. Nathan and I made these rainbow muffins for St. Pat's dinner. They dirtied up a lot of bowls, but were actually pretty easy to make.

When the new potatoes and the green beans were just coming on, I made a wonderful Salad Nicoise.

15,000th Egg

Yes, we have hit Egg number 15,000. Actually it was in June, but better late than never is my blog philosophy.

We Own the County Fair

This year was a great year at the fair for us. The children did great in their crops (more later) and the weather was just perfect. After weeks of hot, muggy weather, it cooled down a little and was so pleasant the whole week of the fair. We took our annual trip to the fair with our friend from church (see Stephen below trying to shove cotton candy at her).

We saw the free show (a circus of sorts this year) and the animal barns and the merchant barns. In between the merchant barns, we looked to the west and saw this amazing sunset. We wondered how many fair goers took the time to look up and see it.

Then onto the rides. Stephen talked Nathan into going with him on the roller coaster. Nathan was a good sport and liked it a little.

Aaron and Deborah went on the bumper cars. Too bad Aaron wasn't enjoying the ride!

Of course, we took our annual ferris wheel ride also.

So how did we own the fair? We brought eggs, eggplant, cantaloupe, multi colored carrots, peppers, tomatoes, and relish. The children got blue ribbons on all their entries and I got a 2nd place in the relish category. In addition, Stephen's eggs got the Champion Ribbon (best chicken eggs in the fair). Deborah's Red Zebra tomatoes were pulled aside to compete in the Outstanding Vegetables category. We were totally surprised when we found that not only had her tomatoes achieved Outstanding, but they had won Best of Show for Youth Vegetable and Garden Crops.

I'm Back!

Sorry to have been absent so long. We've been busy with the garden. I've canned 79 quarts of green beans and we've picked 78 dozen ears of corn. Now I'm canning tomatoes (84 quarts of sauce and counting).

Plus my other excuse is that my old computer died and it has taken me a little bit of time to figure out how to update my blog with my new computer. But now I'm back! Enjoy the peppers!