Summer Tomatoes and Pool

Just a few more pics of our tomato plants. They grew so tall that these ones ended up falling over in a storm. They would have been over 7 feet if they hadn't fallen over. I think I need to do some serious pruning next year.

We also had a thieving problem with our tomatoes....this little guy caused some serious damage. We're not sure who he recruited to grab such a large tomato for him, but he certainly was enjoying the spoils.

 I don't feel like we went to the pool quite as much as we did the past two summers. Part of that was due to morning sickness, also the fact that Grace often took 3-4 hour naps right in the middle of the afternoon. But, we still managed to go quite a bit, just not everyday. (Also, for the first half of the summer, Grace cried and was awful every time we went...unless she was eating. Silly girl).

 My favorite times were when we had it to ourselves... 

 And when Grace was occupied outside of the pool so I could relax. :)

Family Trip to the Zoo

Jeremy had a random Monday holiday off in August, so we took a family trip to the zoo! It was an unseasonably cool and rainy day, but it made for fewer crowds which was great.

 Jeremy with his fave - the leopard.

 We started out in the Insect World, which was a true labor of love for me. Giant bugs? Yeah, not really my thing.

 African hissing cockroaches: the stuff of nightmares. So gross.

 Anna had been begging to go on the train every time we've been to the zoo, so I finally obliged and I took the girls while the boys went to see something else. As you can see, Grace was not quite as excited as Anna and I.

 She cheered up with the lions.

 We got to see sleeping Fiona! Fiona is quite the famous baby Hippo around these parts. She was born premature, but is doing very well. Here she is right behind/below her mama.

 Goooo Cougars!

 The only disappoint was that we didn't get to see the cheetahs run. Eli and I got to see them on his field trip and it was awesome, but because of the wetness that day, they didn't do it. We did get to see them pretty up close and personal though, which was fun.

It was a fun family outing!

Back to School!

School started WAY too early this year and we were not too thrilled about it, but such is life. The boys are both in school all day now which is weird! They both seem to be doing really well though, and already have some good friends in their classes. Connor is enjoying the addition of lunch, recess, gym, music, art, and library to his school days along with riding the bus home with the big kids. 

 We ate in the dining room for our "back to school feast".

 Third Grade!!

 And First Grade!!

 Meanwhile the girlies seem to be enjoying the extra time with Mom. I'm glad I have them!

Long Branch Farm & Trails

Well it's been eons, but instead of starting where I left off, I'm starting with today and eventually I'll try to get caught up...

We start school in 2 days (waaaah) and it was a bit cool this morning so we decided to do some hiking. Our second day of summer break was spent hiking at the Nature Center, so it seems fitting that our 2nd to last day was spent doing the same - although this time at their other location.

We picked two short trails to do which means we have now finished 10 of the 15 trails! Next time we go to the Nature Center we will get the stamps on our passport and get our 2nd prize. We only have one easy hike left and then the remaining four are quite long, so it will be a little tougher to get there, but I'm hoping we can (on the weekends with Jeremy - I don't do super long hikes by myself with the kids).

We did the "Firefly" trail today and the "Barn Owl" trail. The first was mostly prairie like, with lots of wildflowers and bird houses and the second was a little more wooded and interesting and went by a pond. Neither were spectacular, but it felt good to get out and be in nature. It was about 1.5 miles altogether, so not bad at all, and we finished in just over an hour. I'm excited to hike more in the fall since the weather will be more cooperative. I don't like hiking in high heat and humidity!

Tomatoes Galore

We planted 11 tomato plants in the ground this year, 7 varieties, and we are really reaping the benefits now. We've been getting our little ones for quite some time, but now we are getting the big ones and it is so fun and delicious!

We planted yellow currant, red currant (very small), yellow pear, big rainbow, supersteak, brandywine pink, and what was supposed to be black krim. I could tell it wasn't black krim because I've planted them before and they are really dark, kind of purplish. I was excited to have lots of colors in our tomatoes. Well....these ones are smaller and just normal red. Then last week we got a letter from Burpee saying they apologize, but it appears that the seeds in the Black Krim packet were not actually black krim. Ooops! They said they'll replace them and give us a $10 coupon, but they didn't say what variety they actually are! So I'll have to call and find out so we can solve the mystery. My guess is something like Early Girl because they ripened earlier and aren't very big. They are tasty though! All seven are heirloom and they are really spectacular. Definitely our best year for tomatoes. Hooray!

 This was one supersteak tomato cut up. It fed our whole family for our delicious BLTs. Awesome, but it makes it hard to go through them fast enough!

 I took this picture several weeks ago. We had some big storm that blew the plants over, otherwise they'd be at least 8 ft tall.

 We've had to fight the chipmunks for them. Grrr. Our net seems to be working now, thankfully.

 And the world's tiniest tomato, hehe.