Showing posts with label pumpkins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pumpkins. Show all posts

Thanksgiving 2024

This year, Bill and Brenda got to come up for almost an entire week!  They have a trailer that they improved into an RV.  It is comfortable enough for the dogs to spend their days in, and them to spend the nights, well, until we stayed below freezing for days in a row.

Before they arrived, I subbed and found the most apt Thanksgiving poem in a book at the twins' school.


The twins usurped all of Enisi's time the second they arrived!  They couldn't wait to show her all of the things we collected for her during the year.

All 5 had two days of school the week of Thanksgiving, so Monday night saw us all going up to the school for the twins' art show!

Grace showing off her art.

Juliet showing off her art.


Not the twins' art, but a very cool effect on the clay pumpkins! It maded them look really soft, but they were porous and rough to the touch.

For "friendsgiving" Grace wanted to bring sprite (so easy!) and Juliet wanted mashed potatoes (not so easy.)  But I made up 32 servings of mashed potatoes to deliver to school on Tuesday afternoon.  My girls are really good at gratitude though, so it was totally worth it!

All three Williams (II, IV, III) and Grace!

All my girls!


Billy's parents, very kindly, gave him one of their vehicles, a Cadillac XT5.  It's so fancy that I had to get instructions just to use the gear shift!  This meant a trip to the SOS, but with an appointment, our wait was minimal! 


Thanksgiving this year was paid for by my sister, since Billy hadn't yet started at his new job, so Bob Evans did the heavy lifting, and my mom helped me reheat the food, while Brenda entertained the children and Bill and Billy argued something political, or monetary, or something very important. ; )

In picture one we got Avia and Alice,


Picture two had Grace, Emily, and Enisi!  


No pictures with everyone, but Juliet did a good job, and made sure everyone had a handprint on the tablecloth!


By my calculations, I have 10 years left on this tablecloth, and by then we'll probably need a new table anyhow!


We sent some leftovers home with Avia for Sarah and Acea, so they could also enjoy some tasty Thanksgiving food!

Grace decked out our garden pumpkin for Thanksgiving!

Speaking of Grace, she was totally, 100% safe getting down the fire starter.


I finally got out my favorite Christmas decoration from my childhood, after 10 or so years of it being stored away, and found that it was wrapped in a wiggles sheet?!  Is this considered vintage yet?


And there he his!  The Santa with his cookies and toys!  I had to replace two of the bulbs in the cottage this year, but bought a 5 pack, so as the others burn out, I'll have replacements!


Once the Christmas decorations were out, and the pumpkin pie was gone, the whipped cream disappeared; has anyone seen it?






So strange; I guess some mysteries will never be solved.

On Friday, all of my crew, plus Bill and Brenda, loaded up and went to see Moana 2!  I enjoyed the solitude and got many projects done around the house!

They left early Saturday morning, but not too early, since we got some overnight snow, and the plows needed time to clear the roads.

Hopefully they'll be able to come more often with the new trailer!

later days

12-22-24 backdated for continuity. 

All the Fall colors!

Fall this year came on slowly and lovely.  Some of the early turning plants made the most amazing shades of red really early in the season!  The twins found these almost unnaturally pink/red plant castoffs on their way to school.


The river was so still it was like a mirror, and as I watched the crane take off, I was able to see two as the reflection also took to the downward sky.


Billy finished raised bed number two!  We already have so many saved seeds and new plans for the planters, it will never be enough!

I'm still collecting used/broken cell phone cases to pave the path between! If you have any let me know!


Alice's new birds looked particularly hidden in the new leaves.


Usually, we rake all of the leaves to the road for the vacuum, but this year I raked a pile back towards the garden beds to fill it up!




Emily decided that she wanted to carve a pumpkin for the downtown event, and Grace wanted to join too.  Aldi was sold out by the time Grace made that decision, so she grabbed one of the ones from our garden to carve.

This was the first year they'd held the competition, so we didn't know if Grace needed to be present to win, which meant that she had to decide between a birthday party and the competition.  She picked the party, but hindsight showed that she could have done both!






Emily didn't win* = (  and she had the most competition of any age group!  In fact, had grace joined, she would have been one of only three pumpkins!  Alice, had hers survived, would have been one of two!


Grace, Juliet, and I did go vote, and the pumpkins were really cool!

Next year, we'll know more!  And hopefully, it will be a little bit warmer.

later days

*Billy and Emily were a little late on returning, so they didn't find out who took the award!

Garden Update

We are in the absolute best part of the summer: drowning in tomatoes!!!

This was the only round that yielded a squash, cucumber and tomato heartvest.


Then, tomatoes and cucumbers were plentiful.


Then, it was tomatoes.  Just tomatoes.  All the tomatoes.  I've given them to our neighbors on either side, sent them up to the school with the twins, and given them to my mom to bring to church.  So many tomatoes.  It's delicious and wonderful!!!



This tomato had the most interesting 'hat.'

The last of the cucumbers, and the first of the tomatoes from my bonus tomato plants!



Made some salsa, it turned out pretty tasty!  I'll use a few more jalapenos next round, it wasn't nearly spicy enough for Billy.


The first of the pumpkins are cut and displayed!!!  (and more tomatoes)


5 for now and it looks like we will get two more, once they turn.  The perfect number for our family!  I'm keeping some seeds this year (and hope they don't mildew) to try and grow even more next year.  I'm still dreaming of covering the stairs and porch with our pumpkin heartvest one day!


Oh, and more tomatoes. = )

later days

Garden Heartvests

Our little garden has been supplying with us with a steady stream of sugar snap peas and squash!


The morning we left for our camping trip, the rain had collected on the peas, and it just looked so pretty!


A heartvest of just peas!


When we got back from our camping trip, I found that 3 of our pumpkins had turned almost completely orange! (I hope this isn't a sign of an early fall!!! brrrr)

The cucumber plants (little yellow flowers) have interwoven themselves in the pumpkin leaves!


And the garden had quite a harvest for us!  Look at the first of the red tomatoes!!!! = )



A happy heartvest!


And more and more each day!  How lovely having a garden has been!



So far we've used the tomatoes in a caprese salad, for tacos and on Gyros! = )

later days