Big Brothers and Polly Pockets

We are predominantly boy/tomboy family. Fayth is our only "princessy" pink lover. The majority of our toys are boys/sports toys.

So Fayth was absolutely delighted that we will be babysitting a little girl who has no brothers! We dug out all the dolls, the dollhouse toys, the pink legos, the dress up clothes... But they are all rather scattered and bits missing, because Fayth doesn't treasure her toys. 

I had seen this Polly Pocket Wall Set for sale on Amazon last year. I had hoped to buy it for a Fayth, but she was going through a challenging time and had lost the privilege of this specific new toy.

But, alas the child has learned to enjoy school work and the value of a job well done. So I felt it was a good time to reward her, in addition to providing a new GIRL toy!

The much anticipated packagae arrived and putting it together was a family affair. Now big brothers asked that I make it CLEAR, they were ONLY assisting in putting it together. They did not want anything to think they totally enjoyed playing with this very awesome set.
(I was thankful for big brothers who can assemble toys)

The set includes a whole wall party. It has a camping area, a pet party area, an amusement park area, a hot air balloon and several other areas each is connected to the other by a zipline. 

There are 6 Polly dolls. 

They all have suction cups. 

This would be the Polly Pocket Gymastics Show that was done on my kitchen table.
 Photos compliments of Fayth, who took atleast 50 photos... 

The final bow, after the show! 

These kiddoes played for hours and hours and hours and hours with this set. The first day was almost 4 hours straight of playtime with these 4 kiddoes. Worth every penny of that $11 I spend on this set! Yes, I had sales an coupons stacked up and bought the set off amazon for $11!!!!

For My Kids Today...

Prepping for Fall

The last month of "summer" has been a busy one for us. I like to get all my major organizing/cleaning projects done. (I can relax and enjoy homeschooling so much more when I don't have messy corners).The majority of my food canning and freezing is done. All the kiddoes medical appointments are uptodate. It took a lot of careful scheduling and hard work to get all of this done before the first day of "public" school!

We peeled and peeled and peeled some more...

Several hundred jars were washed...

Sweet peppers in a pickling juice, free from local produce stand.

Pears canned for pie filling, free from a friend!

The rest of those free pears in a sugar syrup and the last 2 quarts of peaches.

My outdoor tomato set up. Tomatoes are a messy, dirty not fun job!

We canned 20 quarts of tomato soup, 45 quarts of pizza sauce,  50 quarts of tomato juice and approx 25 pints of salsa. That was a big, messy, extremely tiring job!

We also canned and froze peaches, 7 quarts of frozen peaches. I am still working on canning peaches. I am doing one bushel every couple days. So far we have approx 30 quarts. I may have to quit... Depends on my energy level.

We are doing 100 quarts of applesauce on Friday, with the assistance of several church ladies. That will be a huge project.

But I feel blessed to have shelves of food prepped, food that is healthy and has very little "crap" in it. The kids LOVE opening jars of food they helped prepare. There is an incredible sense of satisfaction that comes with the hard work of canning.