Josie in Fall!

Periodically she lets me put her hair in a ponytail (like Mommy!)

Driving a cool bus!

Feeding Mama "some things"

Hard at work in Amy's sandbox!

Lilly and Josie working together on some mayem.

Josie loves to ride along with her foot in the air as she scooters down the driveway!

We recycled an old crib with a plexi end into an easel in our kitchen and it has been a huge hit!

Josie and Lilly have been playing a game of "(s)p(r)ay you?!"

Lots and lots of writing around our house.

Some Preserving

 Some very large cucumbers heading to the pickling jar!

 Yes, all I wear are three pairs of yoga pants, now that it is finally not sweltering out.

 Cooling cukes!

 Cooking in the brine.

 One round in the jars!

 Here are my directions to myself!

 Which were quickly erased and replaced with these!

 First round of picking carrots with my overworked helper!

 Here she is washing the carrots,

 ...quite happily!

 Carrots ( I realized after this round that it is much easier to peel them if I leave a little of the greens for a handle!)

 Here is round one all chopped.

 Round two getting washed in the front yard.

 Round two ready for the freezer

 WE have also been picking a lot of tomatoes!

 Josie telling me, "Don't pick the geen ones Mama!"

 Round three in the middle of peeling (and tasting!)

Round one peeled and ready to slice.

"All da by da self, Mama!

Josie can do a lot of things for herself now! And she lets us know when not to interfere pretty clearly!

Here she is actually saying, "are you going to make me stop climbing on this? I didn't think so!"

Get into chairs on hew own.

Shuck her own corn that she has picked in the garden.

Eat her smoothie with a spoon.

Do whatever Lilly is doing!

Dig with Josie's shovel and help Mommy.

Apparently she is planning to go fishing with Grandpa (that is what she said when she picked up this broken fishing pole the other day!)

Push with her foot on the scooter and keep her balance all the way down the driveway!

 

Help to water the grass.

Put out the trash cans! Hooray!

Climb into the car, also Hooray for Mama's back!

August 5th in the Garden, Josie loves corn!

Josie checking for a ripe ear of corn (and wearing a Grandpa shirt)

Testing it out...

Thinkin' about it...

Yep, its pretty good!

Tomato jungle from the corn end of the garden.

Walking over to Amy's yard...

and back to our yard--the watered area around the garden sure looks like an oasis!