TOMATO ... TOMATO!!

Quick Garden Update:

Ending the summer with only a few items in the garden right now. Just tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers and a broccoli that just won't crown. Not sure if that broccoli will ever do anything. Thankfully, we can't say that about the tomatoes!!!

After such a devastating late-blight kill last year, we have really made up this year. Below are pictures from our harvest today (Sunday). We picked about the same amount last Thursday. And we will be picking again every day from now on.

Julie and Paul: EAT YOUR HEART OUT!


Our little farmers. They are so proud to pick the ripe red ones!


A mixture of heirlooms, romas, and better boys. The smallest heirloom we have picked is still bigger than a softball.


CJ inspecting the loot.


Here's my lunch on Friday. Just a slice of tomato, salt, mayo and whole wheat bread. YUMMY!

Road Trip!! And other fun times.

Last Monday at breakfast I asked the kids if they wanted to go on a Road Trip. Alexander immediately threw his hand in the air and proclaimed, "YES!" CJ chimed in nano-seconds later with "ME TOO!"

Then Alexander said, "What's a Road Trip?"

That's my boy and girl. Always up to do whatever is presented to them, even if they aren't even sure what it is. I hate to "miss out" on fun things to do and clearly this gene/Jean has been passed on to the kids!

Two hours later we were on the road to Charlottesville, VA to visit my college roommate, Holly, and her three kids. It was a great 3 days of talking, chasing cats and children and much more chatting!


Here is CJ with 4 week old, Stella. If the cat didn't have to go to the bathroom, CJ would have held her the entire time. LOVED IT!


Sophia (with kitten Tyson), Alexander (with no cat because he tells you he is "Allergic". If he touched the cat, then he would run to the bathroom to wash his hands.), and CJ with Stella.

Besides losing a cat for about 3 hours on day (he was asleep on a kitchen table chair... urg!), the cats were by far the main attraction of the visit.


Downtown Mall in Charlottesville. They have a public chalk board. Pretty cool.


Playing at the house. Alexander... the caped crusader!

Here is a quick peak into the days with the kids. This dance party is classic.





The reason for the trip. Holly and Me. 20 years this week we met for the first time on the third floor or Simmons Hall, Penn State. What a great day that was!


FRIDAY
Once we returned, we got to go to a pig roast at the home of our friend's parents. It was a big party with 100+ people and a big ole pig on the smoker. Sorry, no pictures. Since seeing exactly where my meat comes from completely grosses me out, I waited until they served it at the table in a chafing dish. That's a bit more my speed. Zack, the kids and I had fun hanging in the woods with friends and fine food.

SATURDAY
Then on Saturday afternoon we headed for Poe Paddy State Park with the King family. Zack was determined to fill up our last few days of summer with fun outings. We spent the day at the lake swimming and digging in the sand and then a picnic in the woods. Their kids and ours get along so well that it is such a treat to be able to enjoy the company of the adults while the kids run off all that summer energy!


Taryn, Lucas (behind Alexander), and Alexander striking his "AWESOME" pose.


Taryn and CJ showing a little love!


Amy and Adam. They never seem to make the pictures, so I thought I would finally include them this time. Plus it's a great picture!


All the outdoors to roam and our kids opt to play an electronic reader. Figures.

Hershey Park... More Summer Fun.

Continuing with our theme this summer of never resting, we decided to schlep down to Heryshey Park for the day on Friday. We determined that we would get there around lunch in order to stay late enough to enjoy the nighttime lights and festive atmosphere. This worked in our favor since it was raining until noon and then the cooler temps and cloudy skies kept the crowds to a minimum.

The first ride you come to is Chocolate World. It's a free advertisement for all Hershey chocolate products in the theme of Disney's "It's a Small World", plus you get a free mini chocolate bar at the end. In retrospect, the kids loved that so much we could have just done that a few times and left. Oh well, we pushed on. :-)

We stayed from lunch until about 10PM and had a fabulous time. The kids were in good moods and full of sugar, uh... I mean, energy; Zack was loving his stroll down memory lane with the kids, and I was happy to get some QT with the family.


At the entrance, we had the kids line up to see what rides they could go on. They were both "Reese's Peanut Butter Cups". This realization was very important for our rule follower Alexander. Each ride he was on the lookout for the orange strip of "Reese's Peanut Butter Cups".


The kids could move the heads of the dinosaurs, Alexander made it a bomb thrower.


CJ, the CowGirl, and her obligatory ride on the Merry Go Round. Fun Fact: This ride was made of wooden carving in 1912. All of the photos behind me were wood carvings. Gosh, I am so old that I thought that was interesting.


The ladybug ride. Woooo --- scary!


By FAR, CJ's favorite ride. Initially, she tried to get on top of the horse. We had to keep yelling to her to go in the cart. Then she proceeded to ride it 3 times. Then when we were leaving at 10PM, she pleaded to do it "just one more time".




Our Star Wars fanatic, Alexander turned this happy bug antenna into a shooting gun. You can see him doing the sound effects too!



Alexander said at the end of this ride, "It was actually Awesome. I didn't think I was going to like it."


Mommy and son on the Ferris Wheel. We just won those bears at the skeet ball game. I totally aced that game!


Waiting in line, again.


Cheesy Choo-Choo ride.

Although, Alexander and CJ both thought it was cool when they pulled out the station.


Our little airline pilot having a ball!


Alexander insisted that I ride with them.

Luckily, I got to take rest.

The last ride of the night was this bouncing frog ride. They loved it!!

Spikes Game

Last week we headed over to the minor league baseball stadium to watch our local boys in action, The State College Spikes. Not sure what made Alexander and CJ so excited about going, but here are my top 5 guesses:

1. Going to the cool baseball stadium
2. Getting to stay up past their bedtime
3. Eating ballpark food and soda
4. Watching the post-game fireworks
5. Sitting with their best buddies, Luke and Clare

If I was a betting woman.... which I am.... I would vote for #5.

WINNER!!!!


Who wouldn't like a night filled with burnt ballpark franks, popcorn, soda, dipping dots ice cream (gross), and peanuts in the shell (which CJ will work on forever and Alexander will too. However, Alexander will give the peanut to CJ [he says he doesn't like the taste, even though he eats peanut butter daily] and carefully pick the peanut skin [you know, the paper like covering on the peanut] and just eat that. Strange.

As for the grown-ups, we just liked having the kids entertained with each other so we could drink a cold beer and enjoy the game.


CJ and Ike the Spike. Alexander, per usual, kept his distance.

Afterward, they had a pleasant little fireworks display and then let the kids run the bases. What else do you do with your 6 and 4 year olds at 10PM? Run the bases, of course!

This video is a bit bumpy (I was running too), but the second base turn was hilarious. CJ did great and if you watch really carefully, you can see Alexander up ahead of us in the red shorts.

When we were in the car driving around Yellowstone on vacation, Alexander discovered that one of his teeth was loose. He started wiggling it and really working it loose in the car. Unfortunately, this made it really out of whack, but not yet ready to come out.

Then we ate dinner.



This video just cracks me up!!! A week later, it's still in his mouth.

Summer... rewind.

Now that I am back from that SPECTACULAR trip to Wyoming, I have downloaded all my recent pictures. This prompted me to share a couple of fun moments this summer that I never took the time to blog about or upload photos.

1. CJ climbing Mount Nittany
2. CJ getting a two-wheeler... with pedals!
3. Woodworking with Pop-Pop.
4. Aviation appreciation day.
5. CJ gets ready for soccer season.
6. Alexander plays frisbee.

1.CJ climbing Mount Nittany.
Alex has LONG boasted about his summit of Mt. Nittany with his cousins last year. After hearing so much about it, CJ has inquired repeatedly when she was going to be able to give it a whirl. A few weeks ago, we gave it a try. She did GREAT. She was a bit poky, but as most of you know, this is how she rolls. Funny thing about it was that Alex deemed this as the benchmark for her to get a two-wheeler with pedals. He claimed that if she could hike the mountain up and down without complaining or being carried, then she could get a bike.

She is so tickled with herself here on the overlook.

The last 100 yards, she was really getting sluggish and almost asked to be carried. Quickly, we played it up, "Come on, CJ, let Daddy carry you to the car -- please let us carry you." She was so determined and yelled at us, "NO!". The other hikers started playing along too. It was a cute moment.

This is actually a different day, and a different hike -- but I liked the picture.

2. CJ getting a two-wheeler... with pedals!
In the parking lot of Mt. Nittany, CJ buckled up and asked if we could go to the store to get her bike now. HA!
Luckily, we already had a bike stashed at the house and were able to present it to her immediately. She LOVED it.
As an added plus, her balance bike that drove Alex to quickly learn his two-wheeler, allowed her to hop on and start pedaling without any help! She was a natural. Although she isn't fully confident yet, she is loving the new bike.




3. Woodworking with Pop-Pop.
The week before Wyoming, Zack went to DC for work and I decided to go visit my parents. My dad is an avid woodworker. I needed a new table for my office. Seems like a win-win visit!! While my dad and I slaved away on the table, the kids got into the action by hammering some nails into scrap wood. Of course, this truly meant that I was working on my stuff and then running back and forth starting new nails and re-positioning bent ones. They loved it.



As an added bonus, they both got to play with Grandma's extensive collection of Fisher-Price toys. Ahhh.... grandparent bliss.


4. Aviation appreciation day.
At the University Park airport a few Saturdays ago, they had an open house. Since Zack's co-worker's boyfriend is a pilot for the life-flight (ambulance) helicopter, she encouraged us to go and check it out.
This worked out wonderfully. Alexander has long held that "when he grows up" he will be a pilot and I have ALWAYS wanted to fly a helicopter. We were there for only about an hour, but we certainly got to touch a bunch of airplane controls and actually sit in the helicopter. Since the aforementioned boyfriend was there, he let us up the the pilot seat. No one else got to do this. But as I told him, I am used to getting VIP treatment! ;-)





5. CJ gets ready for soccer season.
After sitting on the sidelines of Alexander's soccer practices and games for the last 4 seasons, CJ finally is old enough to start on her own team. Not sure that she is terribly excited, but she claims that she wants to play. I hope that she likes it, because she does pretty well playing with us in the backyard.
As some added encouragement, we went and got her some pink soccer socks. She immediately wanted to try them on with her new cleats (smallest little things I have ever seen!) and then we played out back. No matter if she turns out to be Mia Hamm or not, she is flipping adorable.


Just look at that FORM!


Alexander... ever the ham for the camera.


6. Alexander plays frisbee.
This summer, frisbee has been Alexander's thing. He plays by himself, he throws it at CJ, and anyone else that will play. Zack even took Alex and CJ to a park to play some frolf (frisbee-golf). This was just a pretty sunset evening playing frisbee with the kids.