Jack of the Latern

As I was looking for the best way(s) to cook pumpkin seeds (in prep for our pumpkin carving), I stumble across this little bit of info.

The History Behind the Jack O' Lantern

"The story of the Jack o'Lantern comes from Irish folklore. Jack was a crafty farmer who tricked the Devil into climbing a tall tree. When the Devil reached the highest branch, Jack carved a large cross in the trunk, making it impossible for the Devil to climb down.

In exchange for help getting out of the tree, the Devil promised never to tempt Jack with evil again. When Jack died, he was turned away from Heaven for his sins and turned away from Hell because of his trickery. Condemned to wander the earth without rest, Jack carved out one of his turnips, took an ember from the devil, and used it for a lantern to light his way. He became known as 'Jack of the Lantern.'" (taken from allrecipes.com).

Despite this disturbing tale, we chose to carve away at our pumpkins anyway.

Give Away entry

So generally as a rule I don't blog about giveaways that I enter. Mostly because I don't want to reveal to you (or myself) just how many giveaways I enter. This one however, looks like it would be amazingly useful as we start homeschooling up again this year.

It is a We Choose Virtue Giveaway worth $99

You can find the giveaway here and it is hosted by the crafty classroom

Summer Inside

We have spent way more of this summer indoors than we ever could have thought. Yesterday it was warm and the younger girls were napping so I allowed the older two to watch one of their favorite cartoons:

Word Girl

It was intense

so a snack was requested

and I was low on "snacks", so they got cold pasta

but didn't seem to mind

Raspberry Lemonade

We love lemonade, so Lizzie, Ellie and I decided to make up a batch a month or two ago. It was a lot of fun.

Sera Roll-up

I left the room with a little baby girl lying on a blanket on the floor. I came back to find:

Our Summer Time Activites

Ok, so we actually have done some fun things, like hiking at Latourell Falls with the 4 girls and moving into our "new" home, and of course berry picking. But alas, I did not take too many shots of these events. Instead I ended up with TONS of random pictures, and a few of our summer events.

Let the randomness begin:

Allen...being silly

the girls...being silly

Sera eating a water bottle, which I think qualifies as...being silly

snow cone eating at the Battle Ground Saturday Market

smiles from our sweet Lizzie

Uncle Dan being accosted by the camera man

Auntie Nono cuddling with Gracie after a long day

Ellie, "planking" in her sleep :-) (this one is for Josh Reynolds :-)

"Auntie" Bethany looking pretty together considering she just spent all day "selling" books outside in the hot sun at the Battle Ground Saturday Market

Lizzie is 6!

I can't believe that this tiny little person is now 6! (As of June 22...did I mention I am a bit behind...again).

This year Lizzie chose a Mexican-Luau-wedding party theme. AKA dollar store meets Auntie Nono and Uncle Dan's wedding leftovers (inlcuding wedding cupcakes, yum) and of course a pinata.

Great fun for all and the birthday girl in all her birthday excitement:

WAY behind!

I got a new camera recently, ok, so it was Mother's Day. And well, I have been too intimidated by technology to try to figure out how to upload or download or just plain load them onto the computer. I know... I know... I am married to a tech genius and yet can't put pictures on my own computer. Well a couple weeks ago the computer genius showed me how to do it, but refused to do it for me (something about learning to do it myself since it was my camera). And even after I batted my eye lashes and smiled just so, I was still left with the task of doing this tech job by my lonesome. So today I finally sat down and did it. And guess what, it only took a few minutes! So without further adieu, the last few months :-)

Boys

Yesterday as we were driving to visit some friends we overheard this conversation (Note: the names have been "changed" to protect the unsuspecting "boys"):

Ellie: Lizzie do you like boys?
Lizzie: I don't know...what do you mean?
Ellie: I mean do you like any boys?
Lizzie: I know some boys.
Ellie: I don't like boys...except "boy A" and "boy B" and I know "boy C" so him too I guess.
Lizzie: yeah, they are ok since we know them, so they can be our friends, but no other boys.
Ellie: Yeah.

Happy Father's Day!

Thank you Allen for being such an amazing daddy to our girls.

We love you and are so glad you put up with all the drama and pinkness that goes on in a house FULL of girls :-)