American Girl Dolls

The long awaited day finally arrived.  Friday night the girls found and counted the money that they've been saving FOREVER, and Saturday we left bright and early to drive to Tysons Corner mall to the American Girl store.

We arrived right on time as they were opening the doors at 9am.  Sophie was taking notes of all she saw in her trusty notepad.

The girls had both picked out a doll online already: Saige for Sophie and Caroline for Hannah.  Of course we had to peruse both floors of the store, and there was so much to see!

The historic dolls were upstairs, which was the floor we entered on.  Caroline is a historic doll from 1812.

Saige was also upstairs; she is the doll of the year for 2013.

Also upstairs are the bookstore and the restaurant where they will serve you AND your doll.  They attach little high chairs to the table for the dolls to sit in.  Incidentally, there are also doll hangers in the stalls in the restroom; they consist of two hooks that go under the doll's arms so that she can hang out (literally) while you do your business.

Downstairs were Bitty Babies and the dolls that you can personalize to look just like you.  There's also a doll hair salon, which had a wait out the door when we arrived.  Apparently it's a popular draw!

After perusing all the options, both girls decided to stick with their original doll selections.  Sophie had a hard time deciding though.

After using their money to purchase their dolls, we walked the rest of the mall (stopping at the Lego and Disney stores, as well as Old Navy) and then grabbed lunch at California Pizza Kitchen before heading home.  The girls had fun playing with their new dolls in the backseat during the drive.

They also played and played once we got home.  Can you find the American Girl dolls amongst all the rest?

And, of course, Sophie dressed Saige and herself in the matching nightgown set she got for her birthday in July.  Here they are posing along with her Saige book.

Now that they've spent all their money, they're ready to begin saving again so that they can purchase clothing, pets, and accessories for their new dolls.  Does this seem like a scam to anyone else??

September Photo Dump

Silly Sophie during story time one evening

Awesome Sophie drawing: Princess of Peace and Prince of Peace

A picture for Carter, by Sophie

Awesome Hannah drawing: using polynomials to create a picture as a homework assignment for math

A typical afternoon activity: doing their real homework while playing school, a 2-for-1 deal!

Late blooming sunflowers in the garden

2013 Preserves

And a little bit later than last year (about 3 weeks in fact), I'm now calling the preserving season over and done.  The "leftover" list was as of June 2013, and the items preserved this year are current through September.

It didn't feel like we got quite as much from the garden this year, maybe because the tomatoes were late to ripen due to a mild summer.  We also had blight again this year.  I focused my tomato energies on diced tomatoes (so versatile in so many recipes through the winter) and did not do any sauces or salsas.  I may regret that later when I'm purchasing those from the store, but it was a necessary survival mechanism given that the tomatoes didn't even begin to ripen until school was ready to start.

We had a good selection of winter squash, despite the fact that the vines up and died before many of them finished ripening.  I'm a big fan of delicata squash; we ended up with 8-10 of those.  We also had around 15 spaghetti squash, 8 or so butternut, around 6 acorn (would have liked more of these), and 10-12 sugar pumpkins.  I may keep some pumpkin puree for pie, but I'm planning to make most of it into pumpkin butter given the copious amounts of that delicious nectar that I consumed last year.  I'll update the totals below as I finish processing the pumpkins.

Leftover from 2012:
Strawberry jam - 2 half pints
Frozen corn - 7 quarts, 1 pint
Peaches - 35 quarts
Applesauce - 10 pints
Fresh salsa - 5 pints
STS salsa - 3 pints
Salsa #2 - 5 pints
Peach salsa - 4 pints
Catsup - 10 pints (this needs to be tossed)
Diced tomatoes - 1 pint
Tomato juice - 4 pints
Marinara sauce - 3 pints
Apple pie filling - 5 quarts

2013 preserves:
Strawberry jam - 11 half pints
Low sugar strawberry jam - 10 half pints
Mint jelly - 12 half pints
Chicken stock - 11 quarts
Dill pickles - 7 pints
Bread and butter pickles - 8 pints
Pureed zucchini - 5 bags frozen
Shredded zucchini - 6 bags frozen
Dill spears - 8 pints
Zucchini relish - 7 pints
Strawberries - half gallon frozen
Wineberries - 1 quart frozen
Blackberries - 2 gallons frozen
Diced tomatoes - 63 pints
Corn - 11 ears frozen in husks
Mint concentrate - 3 quarts, 8 pints frozen
Pumpkin butter - 8 pints frozen

Hannah's Birthday, the Prequel

Hannah's birthday began with a huge breakfast and weekend chores.  For Hannah, a pancake with peanut butter and bacon.  And for Sophie, a pancake with syrup and sprinkles, toast with peanut butter, sausage, bacon, and eggs.  She might have been a hungry girl.

We needed to get our chores done before leaving that afternoon for Hannah's birthday sleepover.  We also had the important event of the Fall Craft Show in downtown Broadway.  For this event the town closes Main Street for various craft and food vendors to set up for a day of fun.

The girls always enjoy the bouncy area, and my favorite is the food (obviously).  This year I was pleased to find some new and different vendors to choose from.  Charles got a chicken gyro from a little Greek food truck that was set up, and I had a delicious veggie quesadilla from a fun little stand that made them there on the spot.  We each chose something for lunch before returning home for the opening of birthday gifts.

For her birthday, Hannah received a beach towel monogrammed with her name (along with a matching beach ball), a Hearts 4 Hearts doll (Dell from the United States/Appalachia), and some more super hero action figures (including Wonder Woman!) that dad found while on the Yard Crawl last month.  I think she was pleased with her gifts.  She had been wanting Dell for awhile, and she'd also been complaining that Sophie had many things with her name on them and she had none.

Sophie also got a couple of gifts: a few super heroes for her and a Smurf coloring/activity book.  Sophie chose to go see the Smurf movie for her special day one-on-one with Grandma back in July for her birthday, so when Hannah and I saw this book in the grocery store line one day we grabbed it for her.

How do you like Sophie's recliner she fashioned for herself in the corner?

After this rapid-fire gift opening session, we quickly loaded everything up for the sleepover at the cabin.  Check out the post linked above for details on that exciting excursion!

Birthday Sleepover at the Cabin

Since July, Hannah has been asking to have a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's cabin for her birthday.  The rule we established at Sophie's birthday was two overnight guests.  We're finding this to be a good number, as it gives us four girls total and is quite manageable.

Everyone enjoyed riding on the back of the truck once we got inside the gate and on the dirt/gravel road to the cabin.

We arrived around 4pm, and the girls took their bags up to the loft, an area that by later in the evening looked like a bomb had exploded in it.  Hannah and Sophie had planned a nature scavenger hunt that they did in teams.  I believe Hannah and Elisabeth found all their items first.

Before too long Charles was revving the engine on the 4-wheeler, just hoping he might have a rider or two. He ended up with four.

They rode down to the lake for some exploration and then stopped at the creek to toss rocks into the water on the way back.  Charles constructed a rock tower, and at least one little girl might have gotten a little wet!

We looked for the bald eagles that nest by the lake but didn't see them Saturday.  Sunday, however, we were amazed to watch one of the pair fly over the truck and across the lake to its nest, only to then be joined by the second.  Two bald eagles in flight... a beautiful thing!

After the 4-wheeler ride, we ate the dinner that the birthday girl had requested: macaroni and cheese (the Kraft variety, of course), little smokies, watermelon, and green beans.  OK, so I might have added in the green beans!  Hannah's friend Audrey proved to be the little smokie queen, consuming no less than 11.  The girl likes her smokies!

For birthday dessert there were chocolate peanut butter cupcakes, though once it got dark we also made a fire outside to roast marshmallows for s'mores.

After dinner (do you see that most are wearing their jammies already?) they played upstairs for a bit before Charles enticed them with yet another scavenger/treasure hunt.

Along the way, they collected birthday hats, pens, mini composition books, and glow sticks.

While waiting for it to get dark, we did our main craft of the night: tie-dying t-shirts.  This was a fun activity, but the girls were disappointed that they couldn't see the results right away.

Once it got dark we went out for s'mores, and they were still ready to eat even after that.  They devoured this bag of popcorn, with Charles nearly losing a hand when he tried to snag a little bite.

After popcorn, it was soon time to brush teeth and begin to get settled for bed.  Once in bed there were prayers and stories, as well as shushing from Charles and me down below.  By 10pm all were sleeping, only to be "up and at'em" at 6am the next morning.

We made a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon and managed to get everyone dressed and ready for church with bags packed and beds made by 8:30am.

All in all, it was a great birthday celebration.  Hannah said the only thing she would have changed would be for it to have lasted longer.  I can live with that!

My Brave Girls

Sophie's new toothless smile

So Monday was the big day for Sophie going to the dentist to have three teeth extracted.  This was a big deal for us, given that she had a fairly traumatic experience getting a cavity filled back in April.

Here she is before the procedure

Her tiny little mouth doesn't have room for all her permanent teeth.  I noticed this in May when her lower teeth started growing in behind the baby teeth up front.  After taking her for an orthodontic consult, they said she should have 6-7 baby teeth pulled to make room for the permanent teeth to move forward.  They say her tongue will do the work of pushing the teeth into their proper place, but that she'll likely still need to have braces at some point in the future.

So she had the top three teeth extracted on Monday, and the bottom three will come out next month.  (One was already loose and fell out on its own.  Since the tooth fairy pays $1/tooth and the dentist charges $150/tooth, Charles offered to double the tooth fairy's money for any teeth Sophie pulled before the dentist could get to them.)

Afterwards with a mouth full of gauze and a happy face

Sophie did great this time around, once she managed to get herself out of the car in the parking lot, that is!  Charles took her to the appointment and then stayed home with her all day, though from the energy she had and lack of pain she experienced, she probably could have gone to school.  We've scheduled the next appointment on a day when we're all off from school so that she doesn't need to miss another day.  Sophie is disappointed about this since she quite enjoyed her day off!

Some of the biggest teeth I've ever seen

The title of this post is "My Brave Girls" (plural), so I have to throw in Hannah's feat of bravery.  It was in pulling off this very peace-full outfit that she wore to school on Tuesday:

Doesn't she just exude peace?

Fine Dining on a Saturday Night

Saturday we all worked hard all day long.  I started the day with a 6.2 mile run, did my usual Saturday chores, and then spent the afternoon canning tomatoes and making pumpkin butter and banana bread.  Charles helped the girls straighten their rooms (especially their bookshelves) in the morning and then spent his afternoon working in the yard and garden.

Sophie cleaned up her room in the morning and then worked in the afternoon on schoolwork for Monday.  She's missing Monday to get the first set of her teeth pulled at the dentist, which is necessary to make room for the permanent teeth that are erupting behind her baby teeth right now.  Hannah ran errands with me in the morning and then worked by herself all afternoon to thoroughly clean and straighten then playroom.  She also organized drawers in her room and cleaned out under her bed.

By 5pm we were all tired from our day of working and decided to go out for dinner.  I suggested the local Italian place, but Sophie wanted fried chicken so we decided to venture to Southern Kitchen in New Market.

This diner has been around since the 1950s and is known for its fried chicken, peanut soup, and homemade pies.  Between the four of us, we sampled two of those three.  Sophie and Charles got fried chicken dinners, Hannah got chicken tenders and fries (of course), and I had a bowl of peanut soup and a BLT sandwich.  All the food was delicious, which is not what I remembered from the last time we ate here about four years ago.

I'm now thinking this is a place that will be in our regular rotation, especially since Sophie now wants fried chicken any time she can get it.  We were there around 6pm on a Saturday night, and the place was hopping.  We had to wait (though not long) for a table, and the waitresses were bustling about filling orders.  I enjoyed the vibe of the place.  They also have creme pies, and Hannah was tempted by the chocolate peanut butter variety but ultimately decided that she'd rather have ice cream from JJ's on the way home.  Guess we'll have to try the pie next time!

Sophie and Scarves

This past Monday morning we all went down to the park for an early morning walk/run.  Since it was Labor Day and we had the day off, we could do such a thing.  Sophie and I found the spider web above on our lamp post along the way.  Sophie even brought along her weights so that she could REALLY work out while we were there.

Early Saturday morning before my run, Sophie helped to remove pumpkin seeds from the first of our garden pumpkins.  There were two pumpkins that were a little soft when I pulled them from the raised bed, so we needed to go ahead and use them.  Sophie was excited to eat the roasted seeds, waiting all day for me to finally get around to doing it.

Later in the day Saturday, she helped me stir the pumpkin butter that I made from the flesh of the pumpkins after they cooked in the crock pot all morning.  I told her that if she didn't keep stirring, bubbles would form and pop, sending pumpkin butter splattering everywhere.  Since she knew it was hot and would burn, she put on all the proper protection.

More winter wear made its way out of the closet over the course of the weekend, and I was greeted with this scene Sunday afternoon:

And just to round out this post all about Sophie and scarves, here is a lovely little note that was delivered to me by Sophie while she was cleaning out her room Saturday morning:

I'm desperately hoping she meant "like." :)

Marshmallow Creations

Sunday school classes resumed at church this Sunday.  I am teaching Hannah's class again (this year it is grades 3 and 4), alternating with a college-age girl on a month by month basis.  Our topic for this morning was the story of Ezekiel and the valley of the dry bones.  A suggested activity was to allow kids to make a skeleton snack out of marshmallows and pretzel sticks.  The girls were so entranced with this idea that they wanted to make other creations for their after-dinner treat that evening.  Here are some photos of the edible fun:

The creative juices are flowing

Sophie's "deer lifting a 100-lb barbell"

Fun with fangs!

Dad's horse

Sophie's "girl sleeping on a marshmallow bed"

Hannah's nativity scene -- she was also using edible peanut butter playdough in her creations