416 oz

Does anyone know why berries have been so affordable this summer? It's been great, even organic ones have been a steal often enough that we've had some variety of fresh berry in our fridge pretty much since May.

Yesterday in our kitchen we had 416 oz of berries. Our local market had all varieties of berries on sale AGAIN and this time they were SO affordable it was worth it to stock up and make some more jam. We needed to make some more jam because the boys in this house seem to think that it's OK to put heaps of jam on everything and the stash we made this spring is seriously depleted. Not only that, but since the last batch we've all kind of gone off store bought jam, it just doesn't taste as good. Poor Travis was reduced to Welch's one day in his PB&J and you'd think I made him eat bugs for lunch.
So, I bought 16 pounds of strawberries and 8x6oz boxes of blackberries to supplement the 8x6oz boxes already in my deep freeze. Let the jamming begin!

No strawberry jammer should be without this nifty tool. It gets the hulls out in record time and doesn't take much flesh with it. It's cute as a button, too.
Several hours later (things moved along faster after Travis came home and I had a second set of hands to help) we had JAM! Lots and lots of strawberry, and some blackberry. The blackberry is seedless, so we have more waste along the way, but I really dislike blackberry seeds in my teeth.

Think this will last those boys through the winter? Yup. And I might even be able to give some away without Travis giving me dirty looks!

Go Broncos! The maiden voyage...

Travis here again....

Saturday the 21st of August was a momentus day in sports history - FFM's First Broncos Game! In true urban fashion, we rode the train to get to the stadium. The folks sitting across from us managed to guess that FFM and I were headed to watch the Broncos; must have been our aura or something....



At the Mile High train stop there are giant stone footballs - perfect for photos on a beautiful day. "I love football!"The requisite photo outside the south stands, with Bucky standing guard up top. (Trivia buffs: Bucky stood atop the original Mile High and John Elway tried to buy him when the old stadium was being torn down a number of years ago, but good sense and sentiment prevailed and Bucky has a perch for years to come.)
FFM: "Wow! We're wwaaaayyy up here!"

"May I have some more popcorn, please?"

"OOh! Fireworks!"

"Hey Daddy, look at those ladies dancing"

"What's that horse doing down there?"

Daddy: "Isn't this fun, FFM? Just about 20 minutes more until the game starts..."

FFM was looking rather serious in this shot. I think he was checking out the haircut of the guy taking the picture. Or maybe waiting for more popcorn. Anyway, he was having a ball at Broncos vs. Lions.

We stayed through the beginning halftime, even catching a Broncos touchdown with three seconds left in the half (and the resultant fireworks, music, lots of cheering and excitement).

Overall, I think the highlights for FFM were (in approximately this order):

Train ride.

Fireworks and music.

Popcorn/pretzel/nachos.

Ladies dancing (cheerleaders).

Horses on the field (mascots).

Men falling down/somesaulting (actual football).

His next live Broncos game will be next year, and I'm sure he'll be just as enthusiastic.

Bike

I forgot how fast things happen when you're three. It seems like all of a sudden our litle guy's a great big KID. I remember from the days of working with kiddos this age (3-4's were one of my favorite ages to work with) that overnight they'd make these amazing changes.


I guess the balance bike did the trick, we didn't do training wheels at all. Our neighbor across the street got a new bike at the beginning of summer and handed this one down to us with the idea 'someday'. The balance bike has been 2nd chair for a while now, behind the giant green trike WITH PEDALS. After about fifteen minutes of barely hanging on, Travis just let go. I think FFM enjoyed mugging for the camera as much as he enjoyed the freedom of the ride.

A Little Bit About How Cool We Think Our Kid Is

Yes, we're excited. It's a new beginning. Something pretty cool happened yesterday.

It's messy, not anywhere close to right, but it's here. From nothing to something.

FFM wrote his name. All on his own. While we were waiting for pizza dinner! There are actually two N's there and we're still working on scale. Bath crayons on the shower door have been quite successful.

Here's how it happened.

He started dropping the middle out of the alphabet song, which irritated me. Plus I've been reading books about how to prepare your preschooler for reading, which means learning your letters. ALL of them! No leaving out the ones in the middle.

So we've been on an alphabet mission. We play alphabet games in the car, put new batteries in the annoying fridge toy (you parents know, the one that you stick the letters in), and pulled out all the alphabet books. By the way, his number one absolute favorite alphabet book is the one we got at the Australian Post which goes A-Ant B-Bilby C-Crab D-Dingo E-Echidna, etc. I crack up (quietly) every time he works through 'eh-kid-na' but he's getting it!

The next part of the perfect storm was that we're about to go on a massive road trip. Like 850 miles/1400 km. Must. Have. Lots. Of. Entertainment. So I let him pick out a new 'educational' toy. This is what he picked:

The Leapfrog Scribble and Write. I'm not a fan of toys that take batteries, but he is so I try to compromise every once in a while (and Melinda helps sometimes ;). The timing must have been dead on because he played with this non-stop since it came home and his letter recognition went through the roof. Now, all of a sudden, letters are interesting and exciting! Hooray!

He still leaves out the middle of the alphabet song though. Hurumph.

Kid Rock

So I posted some video of our little rocker on facebook, but remembered not everyone is ON facebook. The guitar was a third birthday gift from us (an attempt to be creative and get him to break out of his car rut). It's been a bit hit.
Wheels on the Bus:


Old MacDonald