Day 359

Jilly's cupcakes for her party!!!

Day 358

33 weeks, five days

Day 357

Hung up some artwork for the bedroom!

It's hard to tell, but this is the original plan for building a plane wing of my Grandpa's. Goes with the antique plane theme.

Day 356

On cold, drizzly days I love my crockpot!!! Tonight's dinner:

Mango Chili.

Delish!!

Day 355

I making hot chocwate!!!

(with upside-down purple glasses....because that's how it's done!)

Day 354

Grams gave Jilly these tokens to play with. She has been carrying them around the house all day!

Day 353

Got to take pictures of darling kiddos today!!

Aren't they cute?!

Day 352

Another thing...Jilly has always been obsessed with the vacuum. When she was younger, she used to try to stand in front of the vacuum so that the air would blow on her. I could never vacuum very long because I would almost run her over every time I moved the vaccum. She still chases me around the house and screamed gleefully every time I turn it on. Crazy girl.

Day 351

A while ago we bought a Groupon for the Coast Aquarium. They were about to expire, so Craig took the day off from work and we all went to the aquarium. Jilly was so excited! She loved the Touch Pool and seeing all the fish and sea otters. She also insisted on picking out the fanciest dress she owned that morning to wear. She walked all over Newport in her "polka dot dress" and couldn't have been happier!

Day 350

Jilly has always loved going to the library and getting books. This picture is from one year ago today. Jilly can still sit around and read books for long periods of time.

Day 349

Jilly making Daddy "yook yike a pwincess!"

Day 348

Jilly: I yike sweet oranges. They're so cute and yiyyle!!!

Day 347

Rainy day wedding. Congrats to my cousin on his marriage!

Day 346

As of today, the rain has begun! It made me want to pull out all my autumn decorations. Jilly helped me haul out the Rubbermaid container and put them up. And now, I shall light my Yankee candle, snuggle under my blanket with a good book, and eat some fresh homemade applesauce bread. I love the fall.

Day 345

And the preserving continues. I have declared the end of my personal canning season. However, there is still so much to do. I received a couple of bags of pears (AWESOME!). Instead of canning them though, I made a delcious pear sauce. The tomatoes in our garden have really taken off and we are getting several every few days. There are too many to eat, so I have been making a roasted veggie marinara with our fresh tomatoes and basil and freezing that for later months as well. Also in the freezer (on the left) are several kinds of lemonades and limeades. I love freezing those as a special treat throughout the year.

Day 344

Four years ago today, this is what we were doing:

Day 343

From four years ago today! Can't hardly believe it.

Day 342

Dahlia Farm today! Jilly loved the flowers and this is the look she gave me when I told her to "give Mommy a big smile." Goofy girl.

Day 341

Enjoy this one from two years ago today! What a sweetheart.

Day 340

Jilly threw a tantrum because she wanted to watch football with Daddy. Cute or obnoxious?

(She was trying to get out of nap)

Day 339

And the countdown commences! Jilly helped me make this paper chain which goes in her room.

Sixty three days left!

Day 338

And yet, one more thing she insisted on taking to bed with her. Can you see it?

My green canning basket!

Day 337

Well, it was another hot day and Jilly requested the pool. However, before I could get her swimsuit on, she jumped on in. I guess it's a good thing the humidity fogged up my lens a little. =)

Day 336

This is just some of the canning that has taken place. Blackberry applesauce and plain applesauce.

It has been a very, very busy week around our house. One of the things I love about this time of year is the abundance of produce at its peak. Growing up, we always did so much canning and preserving to use up the large amounts of free produce. Also, since we were such a big family, we had to can in massive amounts. I still love the idea of preserving the fruits and veggies for the coming winter months. However, one thing I have had to learn is to do it in smaller quantities. =) Looking in the pantry, Craig has told me numerous times that we "need to eat more pickles." Well, here we are adding to the stockpile with free produce again. This year we received a stockpile of blackberries, apples, and zucchini. So, to add to the pickles we have two kinds of applesauce, LOTS of blackberry jelly, and sweet zucchini relish. Yum.

Day 335

With the weather turning hot again, Grammy and Papa brought over a little pool for Jilly to play in. She LOVES this pool since it is the perfect size for her to run around in. Since I was busy in the kitchen making applesauce, it was great for Jilly to have something to do! As you can tell, she was very pleased!

Day 334

Last year for Labor Day weekend, we made a trip up to Anderson Island with the family. So, here is a photo from one year ago today.

Day 333

Tomatoes fresh from the garden...FINALLY.

Day 332

I really adore my "Mini Me." She is the only person I know who gets more excited than I do to receive the new Yankee Candle scratch and sniff catalogues in the mail. Every time one comes, she does the happy dance, squeals, and insists on reading the whole thing.

Day 331

The other day, I asked Jilly to put her shoes on. Soon I heard her complaining that "it wasn't working!" When I went to investigate, the reason she was having so much trouble was because her shoes were too small. Today was deemed shoe shopping day and we made a trip to Walmart. When we got to the shoe department, I told her to "pick out some shoes." Apparently, my daughter didn't get the memo on chosing the "simple things in life" and these are the ones she ran to and said she wanted:

Unfortunately for her (and quite possibly "fortunately" for me!) they did not have these shoes in her size. We settled for some play shoes and a pair of polka dotted dress shoes...the only other two pairs in the entire department that met her approval.

Day 330

In our house, this is how we roll:

If you're going to juice the berries....do it right and pull out the big equipment.