Our plum tree

Seems like we had too much rain and hot weather,
many of the plums were starting to grow a white mold,
so we picked all the rest of the good plums.

This time quite a few of them tasted ripe and were delicious to eat right off the tree.   I made more plum preserves:

• 4 cups plums (leave the skin on, it makes it a lovely color)
• 1 cup sugar

Boil pitted and halved plums with sugar, stirring occasionally. Boil until mixture is bubbling uniformly. Turn heat down.  Simmer for 10 minutes than turn off the heat. Cool to room temperature.  Repeat this step for total of 4 times. Last time bringing it to a boil at the lower temperature, stir frequently to prevent scorching.  It will make it nice and thick, letting the excess water boil off.  I've been enjoying it on vanilla ice cream and also with crepes.

Ready

Yep. We're ready.  Neutral colors, because we don't know if the baby will be a boy or girl! I ♥ those tiny socks.

This is the same crib we used for Hannah and Olivia.  It was given to us, a family who lives down the street from my parents had used it for their kids, too.

Baby shower

Saturday some of my friends threw me (and another lady who is also expecting a baby in August) a baby shower!  They decorated so nicely, with baby boy and girl stuff....as we don't know the sex of our baby.  It will be so exciting to find out when baby is born.

I could list everything we got as gifts, but I'll highlight a few of my favorite things:

• an 11 inch amber necklace for baby (to help with teething)
• a newborn car seat with owls on it
• a white baby bassinet
• bath lobster that tells you if the water is too hot or gets too cold
• lots of onesies in varying sizes, newborn, 0-3, 3-6 and up
• cotton flannel nursing pads (I can wash and reuse them)
• stickers for each month to put on baby and take photo! 
• a baby mobile, to hang over crib
• Little Humans, a book by this photographer http://www.humansofnewyork.com/

baby and another birthday

A friend came over and took photos in our backyard.  She is starting up a photography business and so I was grateful to be able to help her build her portfolio. Here is her website:  http://www.katieschneiderphotography.com/p/home-page.html

Rob has been working on repainting and putting up moulding and decorative corners and mineral spirits (it smells) on the floor to prepare it for tung oil.  I think this pale green is good for a baby boy or girl.

Our plum tree had a lot of hard plums fall off it in the thunderstorms earlier this week, so much wind and rain.  I found a recipe and made plum jam.

Turned out to be such a pretty color.  One of the batches I did, I added chopped basil leaves, which added a nice savory flavor to it.  I used a bit less sugar than she suggests here:  http://natashaskitchen.com/2012/10/07/plum-jam-recipe-no-peel-no-pectin/

Yesterday, was my niece's 8th birthday.  They made mango mousse (simply 3 mangos, pureed, and whipping cream) and since she loves lions, the chocolate chips made the face of a lion!  It was scrumptious.

Birthdays

Rob's birthday is in April, Olivia's in May, Hannah's in June and mine in late July, this baby will be born in August!  I'm actually hoping a little later than August 16th, maybe just a few days, because one of my favorite church holidays is August 19th when we bless the harvest (we usually bring grapes, plums, peaches, cucumbers and tomatoes in a basket to church)!

 

 Little Timothy before:

 And after...guess he really liked the frosting and chocolate chips!

We celebrated Hannah's birthday at the Red Balloon Cafe!  We ate lunch there and brought cupcakes from home.

For Olivia's birthday, she had just 3 friends who came over for cake.  We baked a cake in a circle pan and cut it so that the 2 pieces looked like a mustache.

The girls played badminton and played on the playground in our backyard.  So much has changed in our backyard since then...lots of stuff growing!