Oscar Stew

Hi there! Hope you are having a good holiday season. Me? I’m just chillin’ here next to the tree with Mary, ready to boogie.

Tonight is the night! For one night only, Elfis and the Sleigh-riders will be performing at the school. Drew was a wee bit nervous, and really excited to show us what he had been working on for weeks.

We paid a premium for stage-level seating and then had to wait 15 grueling minutes for the show to start.

C’mon Drew, belt it out!!

This colorful critic rates the performance at 5 stars!

Brinley made sure to get festive for her class party, and went equipped with (annoying) bells in her hair.

Sugar, sugar, sugar! I was surprised to see that she actually ate the cheese & apples first – way to go Brinley!

Eleanor has a frequent visitor punch card at the kids’ school. She is pretty well known there.

 

 

Gingerbread cookies are not known for healthy nutritional value. Sorry Rowan, sucking in your cheeks will not make you any less of a chub! 

We tried to keep the kids busy during the first week of Christmas break. Dipped marshmallows were almost as cheap as Brinley’s fake smile.

Step 1: Dip and twirl and twirl and twirl and twirl and twiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrlllll!!!

 

 

Step 2: Sprinkles!

Step 3: Devour. Hey Ellie, you’re not supposed to be eating those! Ahh, the benefits of being a 4th child.

Who me? Do I look guilty in any way? Any way at all?

Judge Rowan cleared Eleanor of all charges because the chocolate was warm and the marshmallows were plentiful.

Just so you get it right, let’s rinse & repeat: Dip…

…Twirl…

…Sprinkle…open wide!

Now that’s a mouthful!

Despite our continuous grazing during the event we ended up with a whole sheet of these fine delicacies.

What is the deal? Why do you keep making funny faces? Are you hiding something?

Somethin’ fishy is going on around here. Alright E, spill it! What’s up?

Ah ha. I see we are not letting anything go to waste. sigh…

Alright missy, we’ve got a mess to clean up. You stay here and try to look innocent. And stop sniffing out stray candy canes!

Rowan, think about what you’ve done. Are you sorry? Didn’t think so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another stray candy cane episode. This one at the hands of her distracted father. It’s near impossible to keep candy canes from falling within her reach.

To prove we learned the lesson about sticky sweets and small children, we decided to do it all over again. But we’re no longer just culinary artists; we’re into real estate now!

Step one: Get this chick a desk job!

Drew became the General Contractor and started dolling out advice while working on a warehouse roof.

This craftsman was determined to create a scale replica of our home-sweet-home.

Sister Rowan was hard at work ornamenting the chapel with the finest of all the materials available.

Brinley aimed high, building a three-story for maximum exposure and visibility.

This work is grueling! Time to throw back a “rein-beer.” Watch out for those antlers!

Looks like Drew got his second wind and moved on to landscaping…

 

Brinley is almost done, putting the finishing touches on her Palace of Poultry…

 

I know this is supposed to be a church, so what’s with the pile of pink gravel on the roof?

And now…the reveal! Behold, the Mecca of Merchandise!

 

 

 

 

 

The Barn of Buh-kawk!

The Parish of Peppermint!

 

Oh yeah, and our humble abode. Complete with cars in the garage and our feeble attempt at Christmas lights.

Nice detail Ryan. You even nailed the archway & the porch!

Oh yes, and what would a village be without a fabric store? Not a village I live in, that’s for sure!

Looks like the secretary made it through all that monkey business we pushed her way. Although that mole is looking pretty weird…

 

Drew realized that what Eleanor really needed was a new sugar deflector 3000. Just in time for Christmas.

Butt it wasn’t in time to prevent graham cracker gravel from finding its way into the deepest, darkest of cracks…

Good thing the jacuzzi is close by to soak away all the stresses of the day.

Our spa salon package also includes a fashion consultant!

How do you feel? Fresh? Revived? Colorful? Let’s ride!

 

The last time we spewed was October 1st, and it was about what we were doing in July. So now we’re going to catch up on all we’ve done for the last 4½ months in excruciating detail, just in time for Christmas! Yeah…not so much.

By the way, this is Ryan posting. I had to put my foot down in order to crank out this post. I could see the twinkle in Amy’s eye: she was thinking about making another quilt! the horrors! I told her no more quilting until she got some pics uploaded for the blog. Two days later, she delivered. Victory! And she gets to buy more fabric. Win-win!

Every year we go to “Color Mountain” in search of beautiful fall landscapes. This year we were a bit too late for the best colors, but we had fun sightseeing and letterboxing in the Rockies. We started off by visiting San Malos Catholic church, which is a must see in Colorado…

Visiting that old chapel was really cool. Afterward we took a stroll around Lily Lake. Rowan was feeling very uplifted…

Drew ran into old friend at the lake! Unfortunately this great master was on the move and didn’t have time to give Drew another Kung-Fu lesson. Bummer!

Do as I’m doing…Rowan has kicked into full annoying little sister mode. She MUST be doing what the older kids are doing.

This was Eleanor’s first visit to our super secret favorite picnic spot. She didn’t seem too excited to be out of the car…

After a nice lunch we meandered around the area and relaxed by the creek. Drew used the force while Brinley won first place in the shot-put competition.

Hi Ellie! Welcome to Daddy Island. She looks a little on edge. It’s because we are, Ellie!

Keep it cool, hot head. It was a scorching hot autumn day and the kids used ice packs to keep cool!

Hey Scoob whatcha doin? Mining for gold?

Brinley can see some color. And I can see a cat & dog about to get into a fight!

Brinley found a Cinderella-certified ride in that bush!

These are our own accidentally-home-grown pumpkins. The plant just appeared in the grass one day and we watched and waited as it blossomed.

Of course the kids wanted some pumpkins they could carve. We were unable to locate any larger accident pumpkins in the backyard, so we elected to go the pumpkin patch and look for some winners.

Aww Rowan, very cute! But remember, when it comes to picking pumpkins it’s blah blah blah, science-science, BIGGER! And bigger is better!

 

 

 

Now you’re gettin’ it! But you gotta haul it out yourself. Say whaaaaat?

Not big enough Drew! Keep trying!

What’s this? Brinley declares the pumpkin upon which Rowan sits is the greatest pumpkin of them all? Now she’s trying to sweet talk her so she can hi-jack it.

Nice pose Binnie! This patch is our favorite; you can’t beat the majestic backdrop!

Ok, now that we have our winners picked out let’s have some fun. There was no leaf pile this year, but Drew still had some wicked levitation skills.

Hey Drew how ’bout you let an old man show you how it’s done? Don’t I look…focused?

The wind picked up and it sent shivers down our spines. Except for Ellie, who was nice ‘n’ toasty in her mama coat!

Here’s our best family portrait of 2010.

Here is what all the other attempts looked like. Nice!

Real pumpkin carvers do it topless!

 

 

Drew wasn’t the only one with his shirt off. But isn’t painting your hair orange going a bit too far?

Some of you may remember Drew’s first Halloween costume. He may have been a cute little dude, but nothing compares to this Elea-phant! Awww…

Behold: Elephant, Zebra, Candy Witch, & Toothless the Night Fury; no tricks accepted!

Those wings aren’t just for show. We made them out of sprinkler pipe and coat hangers, so he better fly!

 

Here is the Night Fury’s furious tail after it had been to a few parties and back. The back view of Drew’s costume is way cooler than the front, but alas such a photo does not exist.

I’ll get you my little pretty…and your little dog too yadda yadda…did anyone notice she has real power?! Her broom is killing the grass!

Trunk or Treat…It should really be Treat or Treat. Unless you feel like tossing your kids in the trunk…

Chikerchee! Chiker-cheee! That is the sound a Zebra makes when on the verge of becoming diabetic…

Hello dawling, was it a bit chilly outside? Good idea then to stop inside for a spot of chocolate and ice cream.

Hey Night Fury! If those candy bags can hang on your wings without breaking them off you don’t have nearly enough candy! Now get out there and get your dad some of the good stuff!

Eleanor saw a scary ghost and stampeded away. Careful Ellie! He’s still got his arm around you!

It was a hard night’s work for this little zebra. One Reese’s cup and she was out. Will she be up for round 2?

Ding ding ding! Good night!

It’s been a busy and productive summer. In two days we officially welcome autumn. Sad, is an understatement. But we are looking forward to a change of pace; hoping things will slow down a little so we can enjoy being home a little more. The last few weeks have been spent in the kitchen. Painting, cooking, jamming, pureeing, preserving, pickling…sweating. And more…

We’ve been trying to cut down on our electricity bill…84 isn’t even the record. It was 87 in the house one day…that’s enough to make anyone go postal!

On hot days like that we leave the house and do something productive….hoping that somehow the house might be cooler when we return.

We knew our home garden wasn’t big enough to produce enough for our growing family, so we joined a community garden to satisfy our overwhelming desire for fresh food… 

No matter the location Brinley is all smiles while raking in the bounty from a hot summer’s work.

And when the food looks this good, who can resist smiling?

We also hit up farmer’s markets and prowled around for anything that could be mashed or pureed into a masterpiece for Eleanor.

Are carrots and green beans not what makes your heart pound?

Maybe we should get a scantily-clad supermodel to spice things up…still not working for ya?

Ole Moose Tooth found his own unique way to enjoy the fresh corn from the farmer’s market… Darn those missing teeth!

Mmmmm…those green beans are mighty tasty!! If her mouth was open any bigger daddy might fall in!

This whole solid foods thing is pretty sweet eh Ella-toot? That is in no way a reference to the happenings in her digestive tract…

We dropped the bigs off at school one morning and took the littles to the patch for some worry-free picking.

Ro-dog caught on quickly and only picked the juiciest berries.

By the time we hit the raspberry bushes it was an old hat for this little picker.

You can’t. You just can’t walk through the Berry Patch without giving in to the temptation to taste at least one. Or 12. Or…

Nothing beats Berry Patch berries. We made plenty of ice cream, jam, and even enjoyed them in our salad…

 

Grandma & Grandpa J visited a few weeks ago. We paused our painting projects and enjoyed having them with us for a few days.

I begged my mom to come out and teach me the (lost) art of bottling fresh produce.  Thanks Ellie for sanitizing those jar lids for us! Who needs a dishwasher! Num num!

 

Welcome to the Canning Show. The younger audience members made sure to fill their popcorn bowls before taking their seats.

The ingredients are coming together now. These pickles are going to be gooooood!…in 6-8 weeks.

I can still smell the fresh dill on my hands. I’m dying to crack open a bottle…

Canning was a bit of a challenge with 7 kids underfoot. And that’s not counting pesky husbands. Hey Rowan you got a little dill stuck in your teeth…uh, hold up!!  Are you really using the cleaning toothbrush?!

Well, I guess we wouldn’t want to discourage her from learning how to brush her own teeth, but her friend Kyrie doesn’t seem too impressed… At least we only use that toothbrush for cleaning grout.

Behold: Yummy! But don’t touch that remote! We haven’t even gotten to the fruit yet!

 

Ok, short commercial break. This 3 hour period of undisturbed canning has been brought to you by Moen faucets and Great Value ice cream sandwiches…

Seems everybody is working up an appetite. We had to delegate some tasks to other capable members of the cast. Notice also that the crazy blue wall is gone. Now it’s the crazy green wall which is Nuclear Granny Smith in the late afternoon/evening. At any other time of the day it’s a tame-ish creamy apple green.

Remember when you got this excited about applesauce?

Or oatmeal?

Canning 2010 has been a colorful and tasty success! Thanks to Grandma J and Staci for all of your help & support.

Time to get cleaned up and get moving on the next project. Hey Rowan, you still look like a table surfer!

Because of the busy-ness in the kitchen, meal time has gotten a little…uh…interesting. We’ve been picnicking on the floor or in the yard a few times a week. At least the kids think it’s great.

Eleanor and I have been working on this quilt for months. We make a pretty good team. I sew, she makes sure the fabric tastes just right.

Imagine that any hobby you choose to pursue, that your children would pursue it also. Drew’s working on his “quilt sandwich” so he can quilt and bind.

 

Brinley got tired of taking alien and rocket ship napkins in her school lunch and decided to take matters into her own hands. And if there were to be a dispute over the ownership of these napkins (yeah right!), Binnie made sure that she would win.

Now it’s quiet, the kids are in bed, and I can whip out the sharp tools and get down to business.

The most important project is still in the works. Eleanor is ready to size up to mediums, so that means game on! Developing my own pattern is the mission…

 

The learning curve is steep here. Way to master the pincer grasp Ella-munch!

Ok, now you’re just showing off. We already know how well you can blow that horn.

Speaking of showing off, Brinley The Scholar’s first homework assignment was creating a scrapbook page that explained all about her. Nice writing Binnie!

What better way to cap off Household Engineering Month than taking a ride in Dinosaur Grandpa & Grandma’s RV? (dinosaur because they found dinosaur tracks, not because they are prehistoric in age) Brinley certainly didn’t think it was very exciting…

Maybe it was the RV that was exciting. Maybe it was that they were taking us out to Chick-Fil-A. Maybe it was being close to family we hadn’t seen in a while. Maybe it was all of the above…

Maybe it was the candy! Well, Eleanor is the only one not smiling! Thanks Dino-Grandpa & Grandma! You guys are tops!