Photo Catch-up

Here's Sophie and one of her knights at MT.  For those counting that would be her 4th visit.  I don't think I blogged about it.  This time she opted to wear the Kyrgyz dress that we bought from Sappora at Tsum.  The orange was very eye-catching and between it and her dazzling crown (which Princess Esperanza admitted to liking better than her own!) and her natural charisma there weren't many people that didn't know that Sophie was in the castle!!  As the picture indicates, Sophie once again was given the ribbon, but interestingly enough she actually wanted to get the flower.  Since we were visiting for her birthday, we had her name announced and she was beyond giddy!!  She even got a little wax-sealed scroll proclaiming her a princess of the realm.  It's one of her most prized possessions.  She says she's a Knight-Princess.  So at least she's not just waiting around for some guy to rescue her ;)

Apparantly the festivities were overwhelming as this was Sophie shortly after getting into the car.

For her actual birthday, she asked to have a cook out at Rainbow Castle.  So Jim made a campfire (with lots of help from the kids) and we had hamburgers and sausages.  It was delicious!

We've been spending a great deal of time outside.  The boys have enjoyed playing in the water and helping Jim wash the cars.  This picture was only slightly staged (I thought it would be cute for a post-placement pic) as they really were helping to wash Martha's car as Jim was finishing up on Landy.

And since he was in a car washing mood, Xander was sure to detail his own wheels too.  FYI- Xander hasn't suddenly bulked up, he's wearing a swimsuit with floaties in it.  He had been playing in the pool prior to carwashing.

Just the other day we had the hint/promise of rain, but it only rained for about 5 mins.  Afterwards we had a spectacular full rainbow that seemed to be just over our farm.  It was so large that we couldn't get a single shot of the whole thing.

Do you know what's at the end of the rainbow?  Why Fantine of course!

And finally, here's something from the garden.

One of M's co-workers offered us a few dozen (10) ears of corn, so we spent an afternoon shucking and silking corn, boiling it and cooling it, and then cutting it off the cob.  We opted to just make whole kernel corn for the freezer instead of making creamed corn.  It's quite tasty!

I also made apricot jam... a first for me, which turned out divine!!  I made dewberry syrup as well.  I had planned to make dewberry jelly, but the boys keep eating all the berries!

Anyway, look for the pool post coming soon... maybe even today!!