a few more.

fall.

Lydia's been telling everyone who will listen: "my mommy loves fall. but I love SNOW!" I really think she thinks it's a season. Yesterday was a traditional fall "day in the leaves" spent sliding down the big slide into a pile of leaves. Can you tell who takes after the Baer side and gets hot in cool, breezy 60 degree weather, stripping down to a tank top? ;)

our circus.

Lydia's big request on Friday was to have a circus - she wanted to be a princess, and we decided that Millie would be a frog or whatever the towel-like outfit we had for Millie was. They had a blast - we marched around the house playing musical instruments; it was priceless. Lydia kept helping with Millie's hood, but Millie was less than thrilled with it!

the grand experiment.

I really wanted to put up tomato sauce this year. We grew up canning and eating homemade sauce, and I loved it. We also grew our own tomatoes - lots of them.

My garden was pretty much a flop this year; I didn't realize before we moved up to our house that the spot I had plotted didn't get morning sun. And most plants need a healthy amount of sun. So we got all of 3 tomatoes - definitely not enough for much of anything. So last weekend I went to the farmers markets and got some tomatoes to sauce. I started with half a bushel and cooked them down, then pureed with a foley food mill. The results were less than exciting - more watery mess than anything, and when I put the "tomato juice" back on the stove to reduce it to sauce, I only ended up with about 2 and a half quarts by the end of the process. Not to be defeated, I turned to google, like I do with most perplexing questions. I found that quite a few people were having success by roasting tomatoes that had been cored, along with garlic. So I tried it. Another half bushel of tomatoes at the roadside "van" near our house -  and I popped them in the oven for an hour and a half at 400, stem side down. I seasoned them well, added garlic, sweet banana peppers, and whatever kind of onion I had chopped up in the fridge. After roasting, i slipped the skins off and threw them in the blender with some of the liquid. I added that back in, cooked it a little more in the oven, then mashed by hand, cooled, and bagged for the freezer. I ended up with 6 quarts of fabulous tasting chunky sauce. So so much easier and much less mess than traditional sauce. We had the first of it on pizza tonight - I added a can of tomato paste to give it a little more form, and it was great.

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Amelia Bedelia

Our little Millie is growing up and changing so quickly! She definitely deserves her own cameo.

Here's a few photos from the past few weeks. 

This little girl of ours has a stubborn streak beyond belief. She's very expressive and will tell you generously if she likes, or dislikes her present circumstance.

She taunts her older sister but later gives her hugs. She throws her food on the floor during mealtime (sometimes dish and all), but after we get her down, she tries to retrieve and eat it. (no, we don't let her). I can't get enough of her curls, and she has the same crystal blue eyes as her sister. And this little girl is a huge snuggler; she is always ready for a shoulder to snuggle on.  She's been teething molars the past few weeks, so the pacifier has been a ready friend, as she chews on it for the most part instead of sucks.

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