Grandma's 95th and bowling...

 The girls sang "She's a Mom" for Great-Grandma at her 95th birthday party! Click on the song title to listen to it online.  Catchy tune!

Here she is!  Great-Grandma Rose! 

 As I wrote the title for this post, "Grandma's 95th and bowling" I thought it fitting because Grandma used to be a bowler!   We were invited to a bowling birthday party on Sunday.  I think Kevin, Emily and I were the only ones in our family who had bowled before so it was a new experience for most of us.  They liked it very well.

 Gideon John!

 Caleb Daniel!

 Rebekah didn't get the luxury of having the rails up like the boys did so she got a few gutters as I did too but by the second game she was doing a lot better.

Ryon, the birthday boy! 

Turkey anyone?...

 We bought a barnyard pack from Murray McMurray Hatchery this spring.  We got 10 ducks and 6 turkeys. We lost 1 duck and 5 turkeys.  We have one turkey left!  Wondering when is a good time to butcher him/her?!? 

 He is really big!  Caleb picked him up and thinks he's about 40 pounds.  I know that's not all meat but it'll be kind of neat to eat our own turkey. 

Sierra is coming around and barking at things!

Unofficial first day of school...

 I like to do something special the first official day of school but we were so busy back then and I couldn't think of anything to do for it so today is our "unofficial" first day of school.  We went to a play called, "Humpty Dumpty is Missing".  It was put on by the Fargo Moorhead Community Theater by area children.  It was really quite cute! 

 Caleb Daniel waiting for the play to begin!

 The stage and lots of other children from some area schools were there today!

 Rebekah requested we go to Scheels and ride the Ferris Wheel.

 Lena's first ride on a Ferris Wheel!  She liked it but was a bit scared of it too.  I was scared too and didn't really like the feeling that if I leaned back to far we would fall out.  I didn't feel too secure.  I probably shouldn't have been riding with Lena because she seemed to sense my fear and asked a lot of questions about if we would fall or not.

 Jordan and Isaac!

 We went upstairs in Scheels and played the shooting game.

After Scheels we checked out some thrift stores and then went to the new Costco store!  I really like the store.  I was surprised at the variety they had.  I like to buy certain brands of gluten-free foods and certain foods from organic sources and they had those in plentiful supply.  It should be worth the $55 membership fee, which they gave a $10 gift card for signing up before Nov. 4th so that brought the cost down a bit.   We got organic cane sugar, organic frozen green beans, bunches of bananas for $1.39 per bunch, several gluten-free crackers and tortilla chips and some big bags of chocolate chips!!! I'm hoping with some self-control the chocolate chips will last the winter for us.  To reward the kids for their staying power we got frozen waffles, too.  They can't wait!!!  I bet chocolate chips will taste good on those waffles :)  Back to regular life tomorrow. 

Pregnant D's...

Emily teaches Lena preschool stuff most days and has been doing her letters with her.  Lena was practicing writing some letters.  She wrote a big D and then put the little d inside the big D.  Emily says, "No, Lena, write it next to the big D."  Lena says, "No, but the D is going to have a baby."  Way too cute!  How do little ones think of such things? 

Butternut Squash and Roasted Garlic Puree...

 I had some leeks still in the garage and sauteed them up for this delicious soup.  I let the leeks get a little too done but the flavor was still wonderful in the soup. 

 I roasted butternut squash with lots of garlic, something like 30 small cloves from our own garden and some olive oil and water. 

It blended up thick and creamy.  I added white pepper and salt and I really like it.  I imagine it may have been served once upon a time at a large meal with 14 courses for one of the first courses. It was nice that it was all natural, home-grown ingredients.   I liked it but in a small amount.  Kevin liked it too.

High tunnel bounty...

 I picked all of this from the tunnel on Saturday.  We made Ratatouille again for a pot luck we went to Sunday so we had fresh eggplant, zucchini squash and tomatoes for it.  I have 8 boxes of tomatoes that came from the tunnel.  It was fun!  I'm tiring out of the bounty but love fresh veggies!

 Today, I went to see if there was some celery to use for a soup I was making and I found some peppers, celery, strawberries and cherry tomatoes.

The kids loved the small amount of strawberries.   There are new blossoms out there so maybe we'll be getting a few here and there for a little longer!  I love it!