Oscar Stew

Having your own garden is great. Harvesting food that you have grown yourself is rewarding, and tasty! But unless you’re a farmer with lots of acres, you can’t grow it all. Fortunately we’ve found some local farmers who are willing to share. Orchard is a big word that doesn’t mean a lot to a kid. But the moment we said apple patch, there was no end to the excitement!

All Brinley needed was a little help…

Drew needed a bit more help. Good thing Daddy’s been working out those neck muscles.

Ah, sweet success!

We discovered a new favorite: Liberty apples. Brilliant white on the inside, and tons of flavor and crunch!

Drew & Brinley preferred the sour ones. Big surprise…

All this apple tasting was making Rowan jealous. C’mon Mr. Mom, have a heart!

We all know he’d give the world for his little sis…

What she really wanted was to be free range just like her big bro & sis. Rowan is walking full time now…look at those chubby legs go!

McIntosh, Ginger Gold, Liberty, Crispin, Jonathan, Macoun…the hard part is deciding what to do with all of them. Pie, crisp, cake, fritters, sauce, cider… What a wonderful problem to have!

Low reps, high sets Binnie! You’ll have bulging, veiny biceps in no time. Ewww!

Hey Brinley, here’s a carrot. Let’s go feed the horses! You OK Brinley?

It makes sense she was afraid. These were huge Percheron draft horses. Drew enjoyed feeding them while he chatted about his and their apparent dental challenges.

Have you ever had a cider donut? Delicious! Perfect way to end the evening!

Brinley’s big day arrived. Binnie got to be as big as her brother and went to school. Preschool, that is. Joyschool if you want to be exact. Any way you look at it, it’s still school!

She wasn’t excited at all, nope! Like the thoughtful bro Drew is, he made sure Brinley was prepared for her first day. Can you tell what letter is missing? 

These kids don’t wait around for wind and nylon string to be in abundance. Construction paper, yarn, and an unquenchable desire to run like crazy are the only ingredients required for a successful kite-flying day.

Drew scored an 8.5 for style and a 9.1 for height.

The other kids had to run to get their kites airborne, but Kung-Fu-Rowan mastered the light breezes with a simple flick of the wrist. Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiyah!

If the call to serve comes and the assigned help is not available, never fear! HT Companion V2.3 is a fantastic substitute.

Matchy x 4. Headband, shirt, skirt, and skivvies, all yellow. This is what happens when kids dress themselves. But there’s no denying Brinley does match!

Poor Ro. Smashed up her thumb while spelunking in the kitchen cabinets. There’s a first time for everything, and on that day it was Band-Aids’ turn.

Cantelope has a profound effect on making the owies go away.

No-Bake cookies work well too. So much so that we squeezed in a first haircut and piggie. And you know what they say, “If you give a dog a cookie…”

The great tooth exchange continues, with Drew on the losing end. He pulled this one out all by himself!

He was so shocked that he dropped it. Tip: It’s not easy finding a tooth on bone colored carpet. We did find it…eventually.

Go my favorite sports team go! Free-chicken-sandwich-with-sports-jersey-day at Chick-Fil-A can’t be passed up, even by sports fuddy-duds like us. We dug out Drew’s old soccer jerseys and shook the moths out of a couple Brazilian shirts that Ryan had buried in the basement. Eat mor chikin!

Would whoever these kids’ parents are please get them under control?! I’m trying to enjoy my free meal!

We are criminals. There, I said it. We are “those people” who refuse to by over-priced movie theater snacks, and sneak in our own contraband instead! What kind of street cred do you think you can get with a name like “Binnie Binnie Boo Boo Boo Boo Boo”? She didn’t think so either.

Drew’s got his 3D glasses on so that he could enjoy UP to the fullest. Maybe we should tell him we’re seeing it at the Elvis (read cheap) theater? Nah…

Do you know the Zucchini dance? It’s kinda like the macarena.

Look high, look low. You don’t have to look too far Those bushes are loaded with squash.

It’s a good thing we’ve got friends to take some of it off our hands, otherwise Binnie would be buried!

We are still having issues with the neighborhood squirrel. He’s taken all but one of our big watermelons. Sometimes nature stinks!

Oh well. We’ve had plenty of the store-bought variety on hand. Here Rowan demonstrates proper watermelon-feasting technique. One must be competely naked before trying this. In your backyard in front of several neighbors is preferred.

The Sweet 100 tomato bush is living up to it’s name. We get about 100 of these babies a week!

All in a days work. The peppers, cucumbers and strawberries seem to be getting a second wind. Hopefully they will hurry up and get with the program.

Something else that has cropped up in high numbers is Rowan’s teeth. They are all coming in at once, which makes for many quiet nights of peaceful rest.

The ice cream treats disappear as fast as lightning, thanks to little vampire trolls like this one.

Brownies. Spaghetti. Bread. Lasagna. Couscous. You can add zucchini to just about anything, and it makes the meal much more filling. 

But there’s only so much squash you can take all at once. Best to freeze some and save it for February.

Fresh herbs & veggies make the best summer dinners!  

We love summer rain showers. Perfect weather for a stroll around the ‘hood.

RoMama is almost ready to walk! We gave away the walker a long time ago, but Brinley’s stroller has worked as a fine replacement. She’s already taking steps without it, so it won’t be long!

Upon closer examination, it appears Rowan is the proud mother of twins. The stroller had to be as heavy as she is to keep her from tipping it. What’s Rowan’s weight up to Doctor? About two cantaloupes!