My day early birthday

Favorite picture of the night, sadly taken without a flash, silly camera.

I got a surprise from my mom, who informed me we were celebrating my birthday tonight. I was a little surprised seeing as how I thought we were celebrating it on Sunday, but that fell through. It was a very awesome night with kids and family. Sorry Peels, but you've been indoctrinated into the family category. This is a good thing really, don't be scared. It only hurts for the first 28 years then is gets better.

We started off with a baby in the fire pit.

Added some smoke

Then started cooking

Next came the best part, where the kids all get sticky with S'mores.
Very Sticky

Or just chocolate if marshmallows offend you

Ending in a sugar induced coma.

It was a fun night, thank you mom.

Breakfast

Annie recently got to go to the Zoo with her dad. She brought home popcorn, a bag of large plastic bugs and this, an umbrella covered in animals. Obviously the umbrella is her favorite. Yesterday we had to eat breakfast under the umbrella. Please note, mermaid barbie is leaning over to get under the umbrella, not to get a better view of the zucchini muffins.

Rain and Seeds

Annie looking serious while collecting seeds.

I've been trying to get all our flower seeds harvested before they sprout on their own from all this silly rain. I was a little sad when I opened the flowers to find some of the seeds sprouting, but I got most of them. I'm excited to save the seeds for next year. Annie is very curious and wants to plant them now. She helped me collect, dry and package them. At each stage she asked about a billion questions. I hope she grows up to love gardening or at the very least remember some of what I teach her about it. The flower heads were a little wet, thankfully the seeds inside didn't get soaked yet.

These are the seeds we collected drying on a plate.

ouch

Dear God,

I don't mind working, having no money, or getting bills in the mail that add up to twice my monthly income, but please I can not handle having a lump on my forehead the size of pingpong ball.

Please remove,

Maddie

Our Wednesday Night

It's only Wednesday and already it's a been a long week. I'm not complaining, I want the work, I need the work, but I'm so tired when I get home. Today when I got off work and picked up Annie from school I decided I wasn't going to push it. So Annie got to watch "Bugs Away" (known to most as Mrs. Spiders Sunny Patch Kids) while I formulated a plan. Then we piled in the car to go to Gigi's house. True Gigi's not even there, but AT&T U-verse is. I pick up a box of Stouffer's Macaroni and Cheese and a bottle of sparkling Grape Juice (it's true you shouldn't shop when hungry), and we hunker down for the evening. Annie watches Little Bear while I watch Glee. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. Thank you creators of Glee. It was a great night, strange but great.

Halloween!

We started decorating for Halloween today. Actually tonight. We had friends over for dinner first, and Annie got to play with our neighbors from our old apartment. She was super excited to say the least when I told her they were coming over. Little Miss Crabby No Nap stopped her movie and ran downstairs to play with her friends? Not what I had expected. I thought we would have meltdown after meltdown and figured the night would be a disaster. It was a wonderful surprise. She was in such a good mood after they left that I figured now was as good a time as any to get started on Halloween.
Since the day I moved in here I have wanted to decorate this two little windows flanking our front door. It was so exciting to actually get to today. Don't worry mom, I'm saving the rest of the house for when you get back (Annie wants to have a Halloween party, no pressure). I was a little short on my paper measurements so I have to go back to the store tomorrow and get more. other than that I think they turned out pretty cute. Drivers kept slowing down when they drove past. Not sure if they liked it or if we're going to get a complaint filed against us. So far no one on our street has decorated for anything. I'm just hoping I'm not in violation of some code or anything.

harvesting tomatoe seeds

Annie and I have been working on collecting seeds from our tomato plants for next year. The first batch is done, and ready to be dried. They're from a large heritage plant that to my surprise doesn't make mushy grainy tomatoes, but firm sweet tomatoes the size of Annie's head. We definitely don't want to loose this one.

1. first empty seeds and juice into a container and set outside in a sunny spot for seeds to ferment. After a few days they look like this:Peel off mold from top. (If container completely dries up, ad water before removing mold layer). Scrap seeds off back of mold layer into container. Seeds should look like this:Strain off water and rinse with sprayer, to get tomato pulp off.
sprinkle seeds onto plate and separate so that seeds don't stick together while drying. Place in cool, dry, dark place till dry. About 3-5 days. Then store in a airtight container until next spring.