Happy 30th Birthday!

This year was a special year for Todd, he turned 30! I took the opportunity to throw him a birthday party with friends and family to celebrate.

Most of the time Todd is too smart for his own good, so my goal was to keep it a surprise for as long as possible and it was almost a success (he didn't get suspicious until about the day of).

It was an interesting time trying to keep this all a secret but a lot of fun all in the same. Andrew was such a trooper through the many trips to different stores to get all of the supplies. He quickly picked up on saying Happy Birthday Daddy too which made it extra fun. He kept repeating it over and over during this whole time.

A big thanks to our brother-in-law who took him to play disc golf to get him out of the house, to my sister who made yummy cupcakes, and to my other sister and brother-in-law for lending out their house as storage and cooking center, I couldn't have done it without them!

It was a great time celebrating with friends and family, and I think he enjoyed it!

Harvest Time - Another Farmer in the Family

This year we had proof that farming truly does run in your blood. I never would have guessed that our little toddler would sit in such a confined space for a long time and be so content.

We were able to go back to Todd's parent's home and help with the corn harvest for three days. Each day Andrew and I went and joined Todd in the combine for at least a hour and a half. Andrew loved watching the corn go into the combine and then come back out. After those three days he can tell any one the process...

Combine...Tank...Auger...Wagon...Auger...Bin

His favorite part was to watch the guys unload while running. He would stand in awe as he could watch corn continually going into the combine and out into the wagons all at the same time. My favorite part was when he could see the corn going down in the back window he would excitedly wave and say "Bye Bye Corn!".

 My Farmers

(Can't get over how much they look alike in this picture)

I think that how quickly he picked up on the process and his love of helping with the work made both daddy and grandpa proud. Especially when he announced that he wanted to be a farmer too. (And he has not stopped playing with his farm toys since we got home, going through the whole process of course)

Farming is hard work though...so he quickly discovered that the combine was a good place to take a nap.

We always enjoy going and helping out with harvest but the most rewarding part is the beauty. How the sun hits the golden corn plants is just beautiful and I can never get enough of it.

Before we left I really wanted a picture of us in the corn field, I was worried that it wouldn't happen because of some rain that came through but the weather ended up being perfect the morning before we left.

 

New Adventure: Canning

Earlier I wrote about some apple picking that we did at Todd's parent's acreage, well this one is about the results of all those apples.

From the two full boxes of apples here is what we got...

- 15 Pint Jars of Applesauce
- 6 Quart Jars of Apple Pie Filling (one per pie)
- 6 Pint Jars of Apple Pie Filling (we use this in a pork chop recipe)
- 11 Half Pint Jars of Apple Butter (plus whatever was eaten right away)
- 6 Half Pint Jars of Apple Jelly
- 7 Half Pint Jars of Carmel Apple Jelly

Our take from the process, these cupboards in the basement may

have officially become our canning cupboards.

This doesn't count the two apple crisps that were made or the batch of apple bread that was made as well. 

Wow it was a lot of apples and a lot of work but oh so worth it. I figured it out that the six pint jars of apple pie filling for our pork chop recipe will alone save us over $17.00. 

So I guess I had a lot of fun with all the apples because shortly after we were done with apples, pears went on a really good sale at the grocery store and I walked out with about 15 pounds of them. My boys love pears so I though this would be a great way that they can eat pears for a while even though I know it won't last until they are back in season again. From those 15 pounds I was able to get 10 jars of quartered pears in a very, very light syrup.

 
Yes it was a lot of work but very rewarding, I have already saved off the recipies that we used so that we can do it again next year. Come on another good year for apples!