October Round-up

Lots of peppers for October.

Tons of tomatoes for October!

Anne got glasses.

Anthony worked on digging out pumpkin innards.

Kids watched Daddy carve pumpkins from our garden.

The kids drew faces on all the little gourds.

They were from our garden as well.

Catherine snacked on roasted pumpkin seeds.

The kids designed their own pumpkins, from left: Catherine, Dominic, Anne, Joseph, and Anthony.

Lit and ready for action.

Black cat, outlaw, witch, skeleton, and Batman.

It was a cold night!

Ready to go get some goodies.

Trick or treat!

Batman got tired, so he and I hung out in the car until the rest of the kids were done.

Look at all that loot!

A Sum Up of September

Our mama cat had another litter of kittens in August, but this time just two kittens, both of whom have so far survived.  I finally got around to taking pictures in early September. 

Catherine with Smoky, Anne with Velvet.

They are awfully cute!

The twins with Smoky.

Anthony carrying Velvet in his hat.

We picked a ton of tomatoes in September:

Here are a few of them.

Dan solved our desk dilemma by custom building two desks, one for Dominic and one for Joseph.  He built them in one weekend, I might add!  Each one is mounted to the wall and has a shelf.  They love having their own space!

Dominic is proud of his new desk.

 Notice the boys are separated by a bookshelf.  That has worked wonders to minimize distractions, as has facing the wall!

Catherine still has the same desk, but is in a new location.  I don't have a picture, but Anne and Anthony now share a long table.

 Towards the end of September, my brother, a priest and chaplain in the Air Force, came to our house one evening for dinner and visiting.  He is currently stationed at an Air Force base in Germany, but came back to the United States for a Convocation with his fellow Kansas City diocesan priests.  The Convocation was held in Wichita, lucky for us! 

The kids were excited to see Uncle Father Brian.

I was glad they got to spend some time with him.

I think they wore him out!

Later that week, Catherine did a science project which involved dissection. 

Dissection of flowers!

Our mini-van hit 100,000 miles in September!

The kids got to use their free ice cream cone coupons from the summer reading program at the library.

Yummy!

My aunt and godmother died in September and I was able to make it to Kansas City for her funeral.  I will always remember the picture I saw of my Aunt Barbara standing triumphantly at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, at the age of 68!!  After the funeral I spent some time visiting with lots of relatives.

My dad, third from the left, with two of his brothers and his remaining sister.

More June Pictures

In late June, we picked all the cherries off our cherry tree.  Last year we got one cup of cherries.  This year we got enough to make a cherry pie!

Cherries were pitted and ready to go!

The pie with a cherry on top.

I barely managed to get a picture of a piece of pie before we ate it all.  It was yummy!

Catherine used her little patty pan to make a tiny apple pie with the leftover pie dough.

We went to Lego Club at our library at the end of June.  I can't remember what the theme was, but the kids sure had fun.  

Joseph and a new friend, with their creation.

Dominic with his Lego build.

Do you see a kid near the top of the tree?

It's Joseph!

We had a wild storm roll through one evening and this is what it left behind:

Our tomato plants had a lot of green tomatoes on them, so one day I made some green tomato salsa: 

It was tasty.

Then, on June 28, the girls came excitedly rushing into the house:

They were so proud!

Our very first eggs!

Tons Of Tomatoes

We have been getting so many tomatoes, we can't really even keep up with them anymore.  One Saturday a few weeks ago, we washed...

...and cored...

...50 pounds of tomatoes!

Some onions from our garden got chopped up and put into...

...the big lobster pot, as well as the tomatoes, and some seasoning.  Actually we had to do this step twice, as all of the tomatoes couldn't fit in the pot at one time.

The tomato mixture was simmered for 20-30 minutes.

Then we pureed it all in the food processor and strained it.

All of the strained mixture fit into the lobster pot.  Barely.

Then we cooked it down for hours.  When the tomato sauce was thick enough, we ladled it into jars and canned it.  We ended up with 12 quarts of seasoned tomato sauce. 

That will taste delicious in the winter!

I've also got 32 quarts of tomatoes in the freezer and we've canned 16 pints of salsa.  And my kitchen is still overflowing with tomatoes!