Pear Harvest

Pear harvest is in full swing.  A steady flow of trucks are heading to the orchards and leave with full boxes of beautiful green pears.  As I drove through some orchards this morning I saw men adjusting ladders, picking fruit, taking breaks, and emptying baskets.

Supportive sticks hold up the heavy branches and boxes wait to be filled.

You really want to have connections this time of year!  We were given a free box of pears from friends.  They get ripe so quickly that you have to use them fast.  We decided to dry them so we can enjoy them in the coming months.  They are so tasty!

Picnic

The weather was so beautiful yesterday that we had a nice picnic outside.  Peaches and peanut butter crackers were on the menu.

Oliver had his "lunch" and fell asleep on the blanket.

Soon I will be updating the blog for his five month milestone... but until then, we have a happy moving around baby!  He is rolling everywhere!  He really wants to get into everything.

Including very shiny objects.

He also loves faces!  The hair pulling and fingers in (my) mouth stage has begun.  We are all wondering if he may be teething.  He's been a little fussy the last few days.  Brooke got her first tooth around six months, so we'll see!

Blue!

Blue is the color of my little ones' eyes. Blue is the crayon color Brooke always asks for. Blue is beautiful!

Thanks to Uncle Rob and Auntie Terry for these adorable Hanna Andersson outfits!

My two little ones laying in the tall grass.

sweet smiles

sweet snuggles

and sweet sneaky bites of Mommy's tomatoes!

Wenatchee River Salmon Festival

Car rides are FUN! Well, they are getting better. Maybe we can go on a trip longer than 20 minutes soon!

On Sunday we ventured down to Leavenworth for the annual Wenatchee River Salmon Festival. This has to be my favorite festival. So unique! It has grown so much from our last time there two years ago. The first thing we did was to go in the costume parade. All the kids got dressed up! Brooke was having fun (although you wouldn't know from the photos).


Here we go! The parade of animals, plants and who knows what else!

Brooke painted this fish at the fair. We would have taken more photos if my camera had not run out of batteries. I can't believe all the things kids can do there. To name a few: kayaking (in one of the fish trap areas), shooting (bb guns), bow and arrow, fly tying and casting, Native village with fire smoking salmon, a maze, a huge fish tank, owls and eagles, go carts, the list goes on and on. When Brooke is about four years old I think we could spend the whole day there!

We were so proud of Brooke. She was so BRAVE! She not only hugged the people in the fish and beaver costumes (over and over again!!!) but she got her first face paint! What a grown up girl! I also cut her hair again in the back. It looks so cute and grown up. I really like this shorter hair cut on her.

Weekend

Brooke and Oliver got to spend time with their Kettle Falls grandparents this weekend. They had a lot of fun!

Oliver had a great time in his sink bath!

Wow, lots of Grandma pictures this time! Oliver and Grandma at the Taste of the Harvest Festival in Wenatchee. As we got these photos up Brooke repeated, "See Grandpa Bing, see Grandpa Bing." I guess all the photos of Grandpa Bing are on their camera!

Mommy and her kids getting ready to watch Kent perform for the finals of the Battle of the Bands!

There was a whole block of children's activities. Brooke went straight for the chalk!

Kent performed with Steev Turner's band. They sounded great. They were chosen as one of the top five bands in the valley which is quite a compliment!

A Favorite Photo

I didn't even put them in this pose... they did it themselves!

September Playgroup

The Cashmere playgroup that I organize had a great showing last Friday at Smallwood's Harvest. Four moms and one dad with kids came to play. Milo pulled Brooke and Lily in the wagon. He's one strong boy!

Brooke and Lily are the sweetest friends. They held hands for about fifteen minutes while Lily's dad pushed them. I came over to see them and they were chatting to each other. Lily made up a "joke" and they would laugh so hard. When I got home I asked Brooke what Lily was talking about. Brooke told me, "Lilly say buc-cuh, laugh, funny". Who knows what "buc-cuh" is, but they thought it was hilarious!


I was so proud of Kyle. He drove all the way from Wenatchee to bring Lily to playgroup. His wife just had their second girl named Viviana. What a great dad! :)

Talking about another great dad! Oliver was being high-maintenance while I was trying to cook dinner, so Kent took him outside to mow the lawn!

Brooke's loving to play with balls. She can throw it pretty well. We wear her out playing "fetch"... she loves it! Go get it Brooke!

Auntie Caitlin's House

It's been so nice to have my mom and Caitlin here to visit during the summer and now during the first few days of school for Kent. Brooke loves having a second place to play and explore and I like having a few extra hands of help with the two kids. It's super nice that Caitlin lives in walking distance of our house!

Oliver wants to get in the middle of everything! Watch out Brooke, he's going to be wrestler!

Sweet blue eyes and kissable cheeks!

Summer Garden

Being nine months pregnant didn't help me get excited about gardening this year but we still grew a few plants. Some peas, tomatoes (mainly volunteers), cilantro, lettuce (very late but it's still going), cabbage, and a few very sad peppers.

We used our strawberry planters this year and they have been wonderful!


We enjoyed every bite of the peaches we grew on our new tree and also planted three blueberry bushes. A decent sized crop of raspberries has been a very tasty treat.

And two not garden related photos of Oliver enjoying the swing...

When he's not sucking on his thumb his hands are ALWAYS in his mouth.

Friends

Brooke and her friends.

This photo reminds me of Caitlin and me when we were kids. Line up the "babies" and feed them or in our case, we were the teachers and they were in school.

Pack rat? Not my child! UNTIL Grandma Carol gave Dora, Diego, Boots and Swiper to Brooke for her second birthday. Now they get to go everywhere. We try and pick one or two friends to go to the playground, store, or library with us and it almost always ends in tears. How could we possibly leave one of these friends behind? Oh, well, Brooke never lets the villain Swiper the fox come with us or ride in her little stroller.


Yesterday her friends got to do a lot. They had the best time in the backyard. First they got a ride in the swing.

Then they went down the slide.

Diego sampled some blueberries and then Brooke ate them. I asked Brooke what color of blueberry she was picking/eating and she answered, "pink." I still can't get her to pick the ripe ones!

And they got to sample our fresh strawberries too... but Brooke got the final bite!