It's been so busy

I feel like I haven't had time to do the regular house stuff.  I feel like I'm constantly running around playing catch up.  So, here's the low down:

Monday I bottled tomatoes.  I bought a pressure canner from my neighbor's garage sale but had never used one before.  There was a bit of a learning curve but I think I've got it down.  We ate some of the tomatoes tonight in the dinner I made and so far we are all still botulism free.  That's a good sign.  I got 22 pints done.  My tomatoes are still producing and it is a hot week so hopefully I'll be able to do some more early next week.

Monday was also D's birthday so we had a little family party.  He got to pick dinner.  We had bbq chicken legs.  He likes the novelty of eathing the meat off the bone.  Then we opened presents.  Finally!

As you can see, K was with him every step of the way!  She was pretty excited for him to open the gifts but was a little sad that none of them were for her.  Poor little a was sent off to bed without joining the festivities.  She was too tired.

One of D's gifts was an ice cream ball from Grandpa and Grandma Bishop.  Roy was really excited for this gift.  Of course we had to try it out that night.  I had bought the stuff we would need (rock salt and cream).  We filled it with ice in the bottom and cream in the top.  We sat in the living room and rolled it around for 15 minutes before checking it.  I was really happy to see it was working.  The kids and I ran next door to collect more ice since we'd used ours all up on the first 15 minutes.  After another 15 minutes of rolling around we had ice cream!

D requested a train cake.  After planning on an eel cake all.year.long he changed at the last minute.  I've done train cakes twice.  This year I cheated and used a cupcake mold thingy I bought a few years ago.  Viola!  Train cupcake cake!

Monday was also the last night for the kids to sleep out.  D and K have been camping out in the backyard since we got home from vacation.  With school starting this week, Monday was the final campout. 

Tuesday was another busy day fraught with last minute school shopping, grocery shopping, a late meeting for Roy and a play date for the kids.  I dropped D off at his friend's house and picked up another little girl to go play at this awesome fountain in the park downtown.  They had a great time.

I love A's face in this picture.  She is sitting right in the middle of the waterfall.  All the water is now going up her back and around her little bum!

Yea!  School starts tomorrow.  I CAN'T WAIT!!