It's the Most Wonderful Time...

Nope, not the first day of school.  (Although it may have a difficult time concealing my smile as the bus pulls away in a little more than two weeks.  It's been a trying summer.)

Nope, not Christmas.  (Geez, I dislike that holiday!)

It's the first tomato harvest of the summer!  Well, actually this is the time when to tomatoes are coming so rapidly that I can make a tomato salad for all of us.

To celebrate our momentous achievement, Kate and Luke decided to help:

They have a bit of an assembly line going of spiking a yellow and red tomato and some fresh mozzarella.  The results look pretty good:

  

This is going along with some beef satay so we will have a bit of a "stick" theme for dinner.  We'll see if the kids like it.  I'll be happy if each kid eats one of the tomato kebobs!

Here is a sample of the salad I made for Steve and me tonight.  A little of the same ingredients as the kebobs along with some fresh basil, cracked pepper and olive oil:

Again, like the kids, I'll be happy if Steve eats half of this salad.

But me, I'll be eating their leftovers and out in the garden again tomorrow searching for more salad fixings.

Peachy

For some reason, this always happens to me.  I take a good idea and take it to another level.  Not necessary a higher level, just a new level.  Maybe it's my predisposition to bite off more than I can chew.

Hello, how do you think I got 5 children????

So when a person who takes things to a different level/bites off more than she can chew, as I may be, sees this:

What's a girl to do?  A normal person bakes a pie or two, but not me.  Oh no, I'm not normal.  I bake ten!

I won't go into too much detail about how I acquired all these peaches.  Let's just say they were from a neighbor who was trying to share.  If he had showed up at my doorstep about 5 hours into the pie adventure, I think I would have punched him squarely in the jaw.  Now that I'm done with these flippin' pies, I think I can be civil with him again.

Thankfully having a lot of children also means there are always people who want to help in the kitchen AND thankfully to two who wanted to help were actually *helpful*.

Kyle "Peach Dunker" Weller

Lance "Peel 'Em 'Til it Hurts" Weller

I have no pictures of me from this ordeal mainly because I hadn't showered, done my hair or put on makeup.  Plus I would have broken my kids' arm if they had tried!

So we dunked the peaches in boiling water to loosen the skin, peeled and sliced them.  Resulting in two very large bowls of white and yellow peaches.

That's a lot of peaches!  Beautiful!

My first batch of pies had an oatmeal cookie crust and an oatmeal topping.  I did this batch first because it sounded the most delicious.  The recipe is from one of our favorite preschool teachers, Ms. Pam. Thanks Pam!

So scrumptious looking! 

There were five of those beauties.  Four very lucky friends of mine (my words not theirs) were the recipients of the pies.  I hope they enjoyed them.  So far, the results have been favorable!  We saved one for our family and I have to say it is delicious.

The second batch was five regular peach pies.  I'll admit they are store-bought crusts so please don't be too impressed.  I have tried and tried to get my crust right, but I have a huge problem rolling it out right.  I can watch cooking shows until I'm blue in the face, but still can't make a pie crusts.  The good news is that store-bought crusts are pretty good and are very easy to use.  (Plus, my mother in-law uses them too.  But don't tell anyone!)

 Filling the pies.

 

The end result.

Of course I don't have all of those pie plates, but I do have neighbors who love to have their pie plates filled.  I especially love the pie in the plate above.  The green stoneware just looks so great!  (Traci, I'll take the plate off you anytime!)  I gave away three of those pies to my dear neighbors, kept one for my family, and froze the last one.  YUM-O!

So, if you're counting that's 10 pies!  Unfortunately I had about 8 cups of peaches to do something with. So away to the Internet I went looking for some inspiration.  I decided on a yummy peach cobbler recipe.  I dove into the recipe to make two.

Unfortunately the heat in the kitchen must have gotten to me, or else the fumes from those yummy pies.  I put in twice as much sugar as the recipe calls.  OOOPS!

Now, Steve used to say you can't put too much sugar into anything.  I think I changed his mind because the cobblers turned into a caramelized mess of peachy gloop.  It wasn't pretty to my oven either.  UGH!

Fortunately, clean up for all the baking wasn't as bad.

The aftermath.

So if you were fortunate enough to see me yesterday you probably got a peach pie.  Even that rotten neighbor of mine who shared all those peaches got a pie.  If you stop by in the next day or so, you might get to try the pies we kept for ourselves.  There is still that one pie sitting in the freezer waiting for a special visitor.

Maybe that visitor could be you!

What I Did on Summer Vacation - Part 3

Vacations are a lot of work, especially when you have five kids and are staying in different hotels every night.  Our last leg of our journey was the one I was looking forward to the most, camping on the lake!

My aunt and uncle have been camping at the Great Sacandaga Lake in the Adirondack Mountains for almost 40 years.  Many friends from their small town in upstate NY come up as well and it just seems like one big party.  My cousins grew up spending part of their summer at the lake, enjoying it with their friends and family, and now my cousin and her husband bring their daughters to continue the tradition.

When my grandmother was alive, she and I would make the trip up for the day, bringing along my children who would have an absolute ball there.  After my grandmother passed away, my aunt and uncle graciously offered space for us to set up camp.  The last time we had been there I was pregnant with the twins, the views of the lake and visiting with my family far outweighed the tossing and turning of sleeping in a tent while pregnant with two!  It is a lot of fun!

This year Steve and I felt like we were finally ready to attempt camping again.  It helped that we were constantly persuaded by the kids to go, after a winter visit from my aunt and uncle promised them of jet skiing, swimming, boat rides, and water skiing.  Everyone was excited to get there again!

And we were not disappointed.

Jet skiing:

Lance with my cousin's daughter Marissa.

Luke with my cousin Wendy.

Kate with Wendy.

My cousin's other daughter Danyelle and Kyle.

and with Trent.

Swimming:

Lance, Kyle and Trent enjoying the lake.

Luke and Kyle humoring Chevy with a splash.  She loves it!

Luke.

Boating:

Kyle trying to catch something.  He only thing he did manage to snag was the tree the boat was tied to!

The kids thought the boating Aunt Audrey and Uncle Bob had promised was only limited to Uncle Bob's awesome boat.  Little did they know that some of their friends had kayaks and were nice enough to let the boys take them out.

 Trent on the lake.

 Steve with Luke.

 and with Kate.

Kyle had the best time on the kayak.  The kayaks seemed to call his name whenever they were close by.  This may be a new-found passion for him!  He REALLY wants one now and has decided to switch his saving of an X-Box to a kayak.  

 Kyle with Luke

Water skiing was part exciting and part frustrating for the boys.  Thankfully they had some great instructors with lots and lots (and lots) of patience.  Lance was the one with the most determination and was able to get up for a bit.  I tried to get a picture of him on the skis, but the effort proved to be futile.

Luke on the man-powered water skis.

 Danyelle, Steve and our friend Diane (also the owner of the kayak) trying to help Trent.

Off he goes!

 Trying to help Lance get up!

 Go buddy!

SPLASH!

Our vacation wasn't all work, we did a lot of relaxing too...

A HUGE thank you to my Aunt Audrey and Uncle and Cousin Wendy and her family for your awesome hospitality.  We loved every minute of it!

What I Did on Summer Vacation - Part 2

I've never been to Niagara Falls, much less to Canada, and I was very excited/apprehensive about our adventure.  The apprehension had much more to do with trying to get everyone across the border because I had heard conflicting reports about what children need to get in Canada.  Thankfully it turns out they only need birth certificates, but I wasn't 100% confident about that until we made it into Canada.

If you have never been to Niagara before, let me tell you...it is like nothing else I have ever seen.  As we were nearing the border, but still not sure of how close we were, I saw what looked like smoke from a factory or something.  That smoke turned out to be the mist from the Canadian Falls.  Imagine the force it takes to create a mist that flies into the air like that...  Amazing!

I was also expecting much more of a cheesy, amusement park-type of atmosphere than we found.  granted, once you get into Canada you are barraged with casinos and restaurants and lights and billboards... But once we got down to the Falls and Niagara river, I was impressed by the classiness of the place.

It also helped our hotel room was 27 stories high with an unbelievable view of both Falls.  Although the room was expensive (as everything is in that part of the world), it saved us quite a bit of money from all the tourist traps of getting you elevated to see the Falls.  I can't tell you how many times we said to the kids, "That's the same view we have from our hotel room."  In addition to the room, we had a two bedroom suite with two bathrooms.  No stepping over stuff in that room!!!

View of the Canadian Falls from our hotel room

The American Falls are impressive as you can see in the pictures below.  They hit a lot more rock as they fall so they don't seem as tall and majestic as the Canadian Falls, but they certainly would be more deadly if you went over them.  Story about that later...

The Canadian Falls are wider, taller and create the aforementioned mist that sprays you if you get too close.  Beautiful!

We did do some of the touristy things while we were there, including the Maid of the Mist and Journey Behind the Falls.  While waiting for the Maid of the Mist, a boat ride on the river where you go through the mists of both Falls, there was a medical emergency on the boat before ours and we had to wait a bit.  Once the boats were back on track, our boat was unloading the previous group and a lady came off soaked.  She took off her shirt and bra and continued on through Niagara.  Kyle giggled for 20 minutes after and still giggles when we bring it up.  Those Canadians!

The Journey Behind the Falls was a little less exciting, tunnels dug behind the Canadian Falls and a platform beside them to really feel the force and deafen the people around you.  We still ended up getting soaked.  It is here we read about a 7 year-old survivor of the a boating accident and his sub-sequential falling over the Canadian Falls.  It's hard not to think about how lucky that little boy was to first, fall over the Canadian Falls rather than the American Falls, but then to actually survive the magnitude of the force of water.  Amazing!  You can read more about his story here if you're interested.  It's quite a story!

That night we went to dinner at a TGIFridays.  While I have to tell you Molson tastes better in Canada, the price of the dinner was sobering.  We walked back to the hotel, threw the kids in the whirlpool bathtub for a quick scrub, and watched fireworks over the Falls before bed.  Falling asleep to the view of the Falls lit up, it was quite a night to remember!

The next day started out being a quick escape from Niagara after a visit to the Butterfly Conservatory, but turned into a bigger adventure.  On our way to the Butterfly Conservatory, we stopped at a view over the rapids of the Niagara River.  At this point, the river makes a bend toward Lake Ontario and the force of water from the Falls makes the currents spectacular.  Once there, Steve and the boys noticed a jet boat ride taking you through those rapids and they decided to do it.  I voluntarily took the little ones for our own little adventure, attempting to hike down to the river to watch the boat go by.  The hike starts our with a hundred-step flight of stairs over the cliff.  That just got you over the cliff.  As we continued on the trail and we got about half-way down to the river, I realized 1) we were going to have to come all the way back up here and 2) I was taking two 3 year-olds down to the class 5 rapids were people are known to drown, so I got my wits about me.  Kate and Luke were troopers about the whole thing and I didn't have to carry either one of them.

Kate and Luke in front of the map of the trail we took.

Waiting for the jet boat to come by.

The boys' jet boat.

Steve and the boys will tell you the jet boat was the best part of Niagara.  They went in Class 5 rapids and got absolutely drenched.  Steve said they hit a wave once that took his breath away it hit him so hard.  They talked about the Class 6 rapids which are so dangerous you will be fined $10,000 if you go in them and the number of people jet boat captains have saved.  I think they are just happy to have made it out alive!

Our last adventure in Canada was the Butterfly Conservatory.  I was a little hesitant to go there because the person who recommended it for me has mostly younger kids, I thought the twins would love it and the bigger boys would be bored.  That's one of the problem with having such a large age range in my family, it's hard to please everyone.  But since the twins had waited around three hours for the jet boat ride, I figured the boys could be a little bored for them.

Boy!  I was wrong!  Kudos to my friend Larissa because she was spot on!  Thank you, my dear!

The butterflies were everywhere, landing on everyone.  Steve happened to be their favorite landing pad, much to Kate's dismay, but everyone got a chance to have a buddy.  It was really spectacular!

Like I said, some spectacular butterflies!  I know lots of towns have these, so if you have one around you ...check it out!!!

Lastly, my favorite picture from the bunch.  Steve looks relaxed as Kate looks adoringly at her Daddy.  Love it!

Next - Part 3

What I Did on Summer Vacation

Whew!  Vacations can be exhausting!  From my neurotic cleaning frenzy I go into before I leave to packing for six people (Steve's on his own), I am more than happy to get in the car to escape the madness.  Our trip this year was a little different than our normal trips to the beach because we were doing a couple of different things.  This created a preparedness I'd never had experienced before.  Three hotels which I wasn't sure of the accommodations and camping for four nights!  Surprisingly, it all fit in our tiny little Honda Odyssey and we were able to scoot away right on time.

That is, after we caught our ever-running puppy.  Rotten dog!

Anyway, our first trek was to Penn State.  My husband has a hobby of collection pint glasses from colleges.  It seemed absolutely imperative to get one from the place he went to Grad School, so off we went.  Coincidentally, it was at the half-way mark to our second stop and only about a 3 1/2 hour drive.  The boys were excited about going to see the stadium and having some legendary ice cream at the Creamery.

The kids on top of the Nittany Lion.  It was fun to show them around some of our old stomping grounds when Steve was at Penn State.

Some pics of the kids eating the delicious ice cream.  You can see the sizes of the ice cream made for some serious tummy aches later.

At Penn State we went on a tour of Beaver Stadium, went to a great athletic museum at the stadium, ate at the Corner Room and walked around Beaver Ave. for a while.  Coveted pint glass - check!

Later in the day, we went to Penns Caves.  We were looking forward to hanging out in the cooler caves after fighting the heat all day.  The kids really loved the boat ride through the caverns and learning about stalactites and stalagmites.  It was a great activity for all the kids.

After a yummy pizza dinner at Faccia Luna, we finally made it to the hotel.

Let me just tell you about the trouble of finding a hotel when you have five children...  Forget about trying to function in the small space with so many people, crawling all over them to avoid stepping on their heads or their accoutrements.  Ugh!  The highlight was Luke trying to procrastinate falling asleep and looking for any excuse to stay awake.  He's pestering his sister, singing songs, going through drawers and finds the Bible.  He says, "Look it's my favorite book!"  The boy's delirious...or a priest in the making.

I'll just say the hotel at Penn State left us all a little cranky the next day for our drive to...

CANADA!

Thankfully adrenaline pushed us through our grumpy snits and we made it across the border.

Part 2 - Stay Tuned!