The Harvest-Continued

...and everyone thought I was crazy for planting a vegetable garden in July.  Here are two of the first cucumbers out of our garden.  We had one with dinner, and it was delicious.  We expect more to be ready this week.  There are about a dozen more out in our small garden.  Yea!  I'm not sure if we are going to have anything else, but the kids have LOVED the garden, so that itself has been well worth it.

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

Edward, I promise you are going to get cookies from this batch.  I just iced them, so when they are done setting up, I'm going to finish packing up your box to send in the morning.  Oh, and the cookies are good; I had to try them to make sure they were edible  :)

Pie

 I think the kids have me confused with another Martha (Stewart that is).  They've already been eating me out of house and home.  I'm so glad I'm a big couponer because my grocery bill is already climbing, and Edward isn't even here!  Seriously, the kids are like a tornado in the kitchen; they wipe me out.  They have been begging me to make them an apple pie for a few days.  We picked up local apples at the pumpkin patch on Saturday, so today, I made them a pie.  It's for dessert after our crock pot beef roast, so verdict is out on the taste.

So far today to keep up with their eating habits, I have made an apple pie, Jello (they love it), sugar cookie batter (to replace the sugar cookies that were meant for Edward that the kids ate), and I still have to make a cheeseball and pasta salad.  The last two are for Alex.  He brought me the box of Wheat Thins today, handed them to me, and very clearly said, "Cheeseball" so Jean Ann, be ready with your cheeseball when we visit  (it is my mother-in-law's cheeseball recipe). He also loves pasta salad and takes it everyday he has preschool in his lunch.  Who can say "No" to that?

My new absolutely awesome gadget...an apple peeler, slicer, and corer!  This thing rocks and had all of my apples peeled, cored, and sliced within a few minutes.  Luke enjoyed helping with this.

Prep for the pie, crust is done, but onto the top

Luke wanted to eat it like this.

Here's the finished pie.  I'm very excited to have it for dinner, I mean dessert.

In the Garden...

My trusty assistant wanted to show off the vegetable garden.

 We have several large cucumbers that are growing and almost ready.

Alex likes to find them in the vines.  He calls them his "garden treasures."

The Pumpkin Patch

The kids and I spent Saturday afternoon at a pumpkin patch.  I did some research to find a laid-back, farm-style pumpkin patch instead of one just out to make a buck.  We found a great one, and the kids really, really enjoyed their afternoon.  We were there over two hours, enjoying the beautiful day, taking a hayride, and seeing the animals.  For these Arizona kids who hadn't been to a pumpkin patch (or didn't remember it from being too little), this was perfect.

 This was a working farm, so they had a lot of animals to enjoy.

 Love this picture with the pumpkins

 We had some friends join us and were so glad they could come and spend the afternoon with us.

 This pony was super sweet and loved kids.

 Luke LOVED the turkey.

Madison with friend, Lexi.

 Alex wasn't sure about the hayride at first, but he didn't protest much because he saw how excited Madison and Luke seemed.  Very quickly, he realized it was a fun time.

Luke has been looking foward to this for days.  He came into my bedroom at 6:45 Saturday morning, completely dressed in his soccer uniform, telling me he was ready for his game and the pumpkin patch. He knew he had a game first and then this.  I think his excitement was evident at his game where he scored two goals.

 Tasting the hay

Definitely enjoying himself now

 The kids loved that there were bees on the property too.  We had to buy some honey to sample it  :)

Our crew-Our friends' dad and Edward are in the same battalion, so they are going through the same thing we are.

 Silly girls

 The four of us

 The three of them

There was a fantastic play area the kids all enjoyed.

Vegetable stand

Back to check on Tom Turkey before heading out

 Luke had to say good-bye to his pony pal.

 The kids asked if I would take a picture of the donkeys because they wanted Daddy to know we saw donkeys here, much like he might see in Afghanistan.

Our pumpkins!  The kids had to follow the same rule I did growing up, "You can buy a pumpkin as big as you can carry."  Little did I know how strong and determined my kids were.

Cookies

The other day, Luke helped me make some of our favorite sugar cookies (pumpkin ones for Fall).  The plan was to send a bunch to Edward, as he loves these cookies.  That was the plan until the kids ate all the cookies!  Seriously, they are already eating me out of house and home.  I had put a bunch of them aside to send to Edward, and they found them and ate them.  I guess we'll be making more. 

Luke loved helping me while Alex was napping and Madison was at school.  I don't know if he enjoyed helping because he got to spend time with me or because he got to eat cookies  :)

Sorry, Edward.  I'm trying to send cookies to you.  Hopefully, some will be coming your way this week.