A Bunch of Food... No Babies (Sorry, Mom!)

I baked a lot this week. After the orchard, we had a LOT of fruit. I had plans to make a raspberry tart and a cinnamon apple cheesecake. Greg requested a cobbler.

Here's my raspberry "cobbler" (it looks like a crisp, if you ask me) before baking.
Here are the tarts before fruit adornment.

Tart Design #1.

Tart Design #2.

Drizzled with raspberry preserves.

Drenched in raspberry preserves.

I had to use up the rest of the raspberries because they were starting to spoil. I thought I'd make some yummy raspberry applesauce. I boiled it down with sugar.

The next night I added chopped apples. Greg said, "Well, just don't let it burn." I didn't listen. Here's the best part -- On Tuesday morning I got the tarts out of the refrigerator (one to take to my work and one to send to Greg's work). Jacob's face went completely blank and he ran to the refrigerator and opened the door. "WHERE ARE THE RASPBERRIES?" "Um, I had to use them. They were getting yucky." "But I wanted to eat them!" "Jake, they had to be used last night. We can get more at the store." "But I wanted those raspberries." He's right. They were much tastier than store raspberries. Unfortunately, they only last about a day.

Making cheesecake on Tuesday night.

Sauteeing apples for the cheesecake. Apples, sugar... yum.

Apple cobbler. This really did look like apple cobbler.

Apple cinnamon cheesecake. Not very pretty, but sooooo delicious.

A close up of the moist deliciousness.

Inside. That's a gingersnap crust, sauteed apples, and cinnamon-apple cheesecake.

The makings of delicious cookies... (the cream cheese was for something else, actually). Use Ghiradelli chocolate in your cookies, and you'll probably never go back to Nestle (until you see how much cheaper Nestle is when it goes on sale...).

Oh, and Girl Scout Stew for dinner. Simple and tasty!

Blackbottom cake before baking.

And baking.

And done.

Do you want some?

G'ma's green beans, slightly modified (I only had bacon crumbles, not actual bacon cooked just for this). Still good! The kids wolfed them down.A homemade biscuit. They were kind of like Red Lobster biscuits -- butter, garlic, cheddar.

The beginnings of homemade pudding.

Homemade pie crust.

Pudding cooking on the stove.

Adding chocolate to the pudding.

Wax paper to prevent a skin from forming... and sorry, this is where the chocolate pudding pie photos end. I brought freshly whipped cream to work in a separate container and added it right before serving. This was for a baby shower for my former team manager, Jackie.

Oh, Wednesday night I made cookie dough for the Snack Sale at work (to benefit the American Heart Association). The dough has to sit in the refrigerator for 24-36 hours. I baked them on Thursday night... The cookies are about five inches in diameters and super rich. They sold for a dollar each at the sale!

And now I'm done for a while. We had Burger King tonight and we're doing easy stuff for dinner tomorrow night (I'm marinating chicken right now and Greg's going to grill it...).

The Orchard and the Master Raspberrier

This photo doesn't have anything to do with the orchard, but here's Benjamin last night sitting in a "big kid" chair... He was pretty excited.
On the way to the orchard.

Benjamin LOVED the raspberries. We had to keep him supplied with ripe ones. If there was any lag time, he'd start trying to grab raspberries from the ground (yuck!) or pull them from the bushes, and he isn't quite big enough to know ripe ones.

Jacob had a great time picking berries.

We got about 4 1/2 pounds of raspberries! We LOVE the yellow and orange ones. They're so tasty! Some high school kids were walking by and noticed our full bucket while Greg was picking some. One boy said, 'Wow, dude. You're, like, the master raspberrier." It made us laugh.

The classic picking an apple on dad's shoulders. We didn't get one of Jacob this year, but we're thinking we might have to start making it an annual tradition, even once he's a teenager... IT would be hilarious.

After getting our loads of raspberries, we moved on to the apples.

Benjamin loved them.

It's pretty exciting to have an entire apple to yourself.

Tasty!

This ferocious bite reminds of when Jacob was smaller.

Benjamin kept dropping his apples in the dirt. Sometimes he'd just tap it on the ground and get dirt and grass in it. He became VERY upset when I wouldn't let him eat the dirt-covered apple. We went through a lot of apples.

We couldn't pry the apple away from him once we got in the car. He kept talking about his "bapple." Note the death grip.

Tomorrow will be spent baking all sorts of goodies with our plentiful supply of fruit!

The Circus!

We went to the Circus last night. Greg won tickets on the radio, which is fantastic, but the show was at 7:30 PM -- late! That's their normal bedtime. Here they are on the way to the show.
Jacob's preferred pose.

Captivated by all of the excitement.

A scene from the show.

Benjamin watched for a while and seemed to enjoy it. He did a lot of pointing and saying, "'s-dis?" (What's this?) as he looked all around. He smiled and enjoyed clapping with the crowd. Partway through, he gave in to the sleepiness, though.

It was so much fun to watch the kids and see their reactions to the show. Jacob was disappointed that we didn't get cotton candy, but really... $12 for cotton candy? True, it came with a cheap less-than-a-dollar bin hat, but $12?!?!? All of the food was cleverly pitched with a cheap toy so they could say you were getting a bargain. Sno Cone in a clown cup? S'mores and a crown (yes, they really said this)? No thank you.

Jacob Tackles the Big Ones

A conversation with my not-quite five-year-old.

Jacob: Hey, Mom?

Me: Yes, Jake?

Jacob: Did God make the Earth?

Me: Yes.

Jacob: Did God and Jesus make the Earth?

Me: Well, sort of. Most people would say God made the Earth. Sometimes people say God and Jesus are sort of the same and that they do things together. Um.... but most people would just say God made the Earth.

Jacob: Well, my question book says lots of pieces of rock schmoosed together to make the Earth.

Me: Um... some people think that. And some people think God made the pieces of rock schmoosh together to make the Earth.

Jacob: Oh, okay.

Then, at bedtime...

Jacob: Hey, Mom?

Me: Yes, Jake?

Jacob: Would it be funny if two boys kissed?

Me (flabbergasted): Um... it depends. (Here I'm wondering what prompted this and if he saw something on a kids' show that actually was funny...)

Jacob: So, if two boys got married, would one of them have to get pregnant?

WHAT? Seriously? He's not even five!

Me: No, boys don't get pregnant. They don't have the body parts to become pregnant.

Jacob: So if two boys get married, then they can't have kids?

It was late. It was past bedtime. I really didn't want to introduce the topic of adoption.

Me: Um, yes.

Jacob: But girls get pregnant, right?

Me: Yes.

Jacob: How do they get pregnant?

Me: The can get pregnant because they have the body parts to get pregnant. (And then rushing out the door...) Good night, Jake!

Mr. Funny

Bath Time!

Chloe and Travis were over tonight. Benjamin was leaning on the couch doing his "cool guy" pose and watching them. Moments before, they were all making "eagle" noises together.

Travis, Chloe, and Benjamin sharing a laugh in the kitchen.

End of Summer Bash

It's hard to plan food for a party when your guest list total ranges from 20 to 45 people... We had a gathering on Saturday, and it was a good time, but there is a LOT of extra food left over. (I have a big fear of running out of food to serve guests...)

There were kids running all over place. The adults sat around outside and in the house. Jacob and Brianna spent some time playing Nintendo. We had to remind Jacob to give Brianna turns because he'd sometimes skip her turn. He was getting frustrated because she didn't know how to play (he's not very big on patience).
I love this one. They're hamming it up for the camera. I love that Jacob looks completely happy -- no thoughts going on here, just laughing with his cousin.

Keaton and William spent a lot of the time hitting soccer balls with various instruments outside.

Chloe did a very convincing broken bone pose.

Steve and Daniel playing corn hole.

Beautiful Lily who lives next door.

The indoor scene.

Darryl (a friend from Greg's work), Greg, and Maggie (my college roommate).

We have a lot of leftover food. I think I'm sending it in to Greg's work and my work tomorrow.

***************************

We had originally planned to go to a Blueberry Festival yesterday, but it was rainy and didn't seem like the best idea. It's been a pretty lazy Sunday and Monday, which has been very nice. Benjamin is talking up a storm (mostly unintelligible). He woke up this morning yelling for Jacob. Benjamin is still impatient when it comes to food. He'll walk into the kitchen when I'm cooking dinner and point to the food, grunt, and then hit his chest with both hands. He also has insanely accurate aim when throwing things like his pacifiers. He's kind of a stinker that way.

We also had a surprise visit from Auntie Anne. She called Friday night and drove in on Saturday. Jacob and Benjamin had a GREAT time playing with her. She was also super helpful cleaning up after the party. I should have tried to get some photos of her with the kids. She'll be back in a couple of weeks, though, so we'll try again then.