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27 August 2009

Miscellaneous Fun With Daddy






26 August 2009

Miscellaneous Solution to Fruit Flies



a squirt or two of pear-flavored dish soap


The trick to getting rid of your fruit flies completely, of course, is to get rid of the things that brought them on to begin with. So to start, clean out the fruit basket, throw away the items attracting the flies, and empty the garbage can.



a glug or two of red wine vinegar


Next, set your sights to kill them. Mix together equal amounts of fruity-flavored dish soap and sweet vinegar in a shallow dish or saucer.



mix together and think happy thoughts

Apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar works best. You can cover it with plastic and poke holes in the top, which is optional. That's mainly to prevent accidental spills and slow down the evaporation process. I thought the plastic trapped the flies so they couldn't get back out, but I was wrong. Once I tried it without the plastic, and they just couldn't resist my deadly fruity concoction, and they drown in it. Leaving it uncovered also, in my opinion, attracted them more easily, since the smells weren't blocked by the plastic.

no photos of dead fruit flies--you'll just have to trust me!







25 August 2009

Miscellaneous Beach Alternative



Thanks to a certain someone having a recent birthday, the kids got to enjoy one of his presents, a "Whack and Splash." It's pretty simple: you attach the hose, the water squirts all over the place, and the silly heads fill with water. When you whack them, more water squirts out.



We all enjoy getting wet on a hot and humid August day. Especially when it's not raining. (We have had an unusually rainy summer in these parts!)



It was one of those days when I decided not to even bother with swim suits.





It was a lot of silly fun.





(the end.)

24 August 2009

Miscellaneous Beach Day



Some friends of ours invited us to join them for a day at the beach. Since Enoch's not a big fan of the sand and the waves and burning in the hot sun, he was happy to have to be at work.



Between the two of us, my friend and I have ten kids. Thankfully there were two grandmas to help watch babies play in nearby holes or hold them as they napped, so we could actually get in the water.



Lots of gear for lots of kids!

We had a great time. Julien quickly decided he enjoys wave jumping and swimming with the oldest two girls, although he has all of the confidence and none of the skill. (We're way overdue for swimming lessons.) Tristan, being less adventurous, stayed where the water reached just slightly past his ankles, and enjoyed himself immensely with the "waves" that reached him.



Rosalind was excited to go to the water, but once she got there, she was all screams and panics. She stayed a safe distance from the shore, and opted to play in a hole with water. Brendan was a little nervous around the waves, stayed close to the hole in the sand, but ventured onto other people's blankets by the end of the day.



Thankfully the weather was so nice, that we spent nearly the whole time on the beach, and didn't venture far on the boardwalk, except to the 99-cent store and to DQ for a dilly bar. But we left a little early when we discovered that I had a very VERY red back, even though I wanted to keep playing in the water. We had a great time, and are very thankful for our friends.

23 August 2009

Miscellaneous Birthday "Party"

In my last post, I was able to condense down a week's worth of activity into one entry. But in the midst of it all, Brendan had a birthday. A week ago.



I told Enoch, "In the future, let's remember not to go peach picking on the weekend of Brendan's birthday." While he was pretty much clueless, his siblings were expecting something big. But they were let down a little.



Because, our kitchen looked something like this.




And baking a birthday cake and having people over was just not gonna happen. (Although Julien was all ready with a pirate theme idea and wanting to help plan everything.)




And we did manage to buy Brendan some cup cakes and balloons and party favors, which he seemed to enjoy.






We had to party in the basement because our kitchen and dining room were invaded by peaches and canning supplies. But we were able to take a brief video of the all-important song, and we'll share it here:


22 August 2009

Miscellaneous Deja Vu



Peach picking--take two!

(Some of these photos might look like things you've seen before. But they are new.)

Since our first trip to the Garden State to pick fruit was an immeasurable success, we decided to do it again.



This time, we came with boxes and berry containers, ready to fill them up!



Same place.




Same fruit.





But lots more to can and preserve!





The weather was perfect.




The kids were all well-behaved. And in the course of two short hours, we were able to bring home 60 pounds of peaches, and 16 pounds of blackberries!






With it, we made blackberry jam,



a peach-blackberry breakfast pie,



we canned eight quarts of sliced peaches,



made peach butter and peach jelly, and froze 15 pounds of peaches and 4-5 pounds of blackberries.



The kids ate peaches any time they asked for a snack, to the point where their poop started turning green. Okay, now I've used an abundance of words! (No photos of that, thankfully!)