Canning Corn

As you can see....we have been busy canning sweet corn! We took a trip to Illinois last weekend for Drew's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary party. We had a great time with all of the Heiser family (pictures to be posted later). We were able to get some sweet corn while we were up there. By some, I mean a ton. 11 dozen to be exact. We are fortunate to have some VERY generous extended family that gave us all of the corn! We were so excited because we have never been able to get to Illinois during corn season and to bring this much home to can was a dream!

So on Monday morning, after I dropped Ella off at school, I embarked on a 16 hour canning adventure. Amelia helped to shuck the corn and I cut it from the cobs and started canning. I used Grandma Heiser's recipe, and for those of you who know her, she doesn't mess around with corn. It is the best corn you WILL ever taste.

I ended up canning 12 quarts and 15 pints of Illini sweet corn! I am quite proud that I finished this project without any mishaps in the kitchen! We are going to be enjoying this for the next year!

Now I am off to can some rhubarb jam and strawberry rhubarb jam. We also picked some rhubarb from a family member's garden while we were there. We have been blessed by generosity from the garden for sure!

Big first day

So Ella is finally a big girl now. It is official. She started Kindergarden this week and is loving it so far...even though she has only been for 3 hours on Monday and today (Wednesday)is her first full day. On the way home from school on Monday we were talking about school and she said, "it was the best ever!" It is going to be a great year for her.


The family the morning of her first half-day of school

Ready for her first half-day of school!

This is Ella and Amelia in front of her new school...Discovery School.

Ella posing at her table. I can't wait to hear about all of the learning that is going to happen everyday.

I am so excited for her to be at such a great school with so many of her friends. I will miss her at home and can't believe that she is finally in school for real. I know that God has placed her at this school, with this teacher and with these kids for a reason and it is going to be a great experience for her. Amelia and I will try to keep busy this next month before she goes to pre-school...for now, we will make some snickerdoodles to have when Ella gets home. This should take my mind off of Ella being gone for the next hour at least...

Amelia turns 3

We celebrated Amelia's 3rd birthday again at home this weekend. She loves mermaids, so I made a mermaid cake. I was quite pleased with the way that it truned out and so was she. She is so different from Ella in her interests in toys. She loves to play with and dress up Barbies. She recieved two new barbies, a horse for Barbie to ride and lots of new Barbie clothes! This will keep her entertained for hours! She also loves playing anything princess and dressing up. I love my girly girl!

Amelia's mermaid cake

Amelia loves her new pony baby! Thanks Lili!

Take a deep breath and blow out those candles!

Smores

What kind of trip to Meme and Papa's would it be if there wasn't a fire with smores? We had fun roasting the marshmallows and making hobo cherry pies. It was the perfect evening for it too. Mmmmmm...wish I could have just one more!

Amelia is the chocolate fanatic. After she had her smores, she grabed a bar of chocolate and shoved two pieces in her mouth and was about to down a third when I intervened. I think that she swallowed them whole they were gone so fast!

Higgins Lake:part 3

We always love to go tubing and only one day was calm enough to go. Ella had been tubing last year, so she was eager to go. Amelia was not...even though she is the more rough and daring child in some ways, she wasn't ready this year.

The girls had fun on these two boats this year.

The Dragonfly

I had to post this funny sequence of pictures. I was taking pics of the girls playing in the sand, when I noticed a dragon fly on Amelia's shoulder. Being the great mom that I am, I moved in a little closer and was amazed that it was still there. I took a couple pictures and then told Amelia that she had a dragonly on her shoulder. I think her face says it all!

Higgins Lake:part 2

On Tuesday, we took a boat trip to the State Park and had grilled hot dogs! They were the best! The girls had a great time playing in the sand and on the slides and swings.

Amelia loves her meme!

Drew was right at home driving the boat!

Fun in the water!