Weekend Recap

With our second weekend in a row (gasp) at home, we wanted to fill it in with lots of activities. (I seriously don't remembe the last time we spent two weekends a row at home. Over summer break, our only weekend home was on June 23.) My mom was visiting for the weekend so on Saturday, we dropped off the boys at TKD and headed to the Farmer's Market. Knowing we likely wouldn't be back in time to pick them up, they went in to class with $10 and strict instructions to walk to Jiffy Treet for a snack when class was over. I was a little nervous about giving them such independence but knowing I could communicate with Nicklas by phone and that the walk didn't include crossing any busy streets, I figured it would be a good test for them. They passed with flying colors and I found them like this:

I went to the Market with $20 and came away with all of this:

The box of peaches were originally full but half were removed prior to taking the photo. What were they used for? They were used for #25 on the list of 50 before 50 - learn how to can something. My mom decided peach jam would be a great project for the weekend. I learned how to boil and ice each peach so they're easiest to peel.

 

 And I mashed them up.

Then we stirred in the ingrediants - lemon juice, lots of sugar and the pectin.

 

And voila, in the end, I had 6+ jars of peach jam.

Unfortunately they didn't set well so I don't think I used the correct amount of pectin. I'll have to try again sometime.

After the peach jam adventure, I dropped the boys off at the skating rink so they could hang out with their friends. This was another test - I was really nervous about leaving them there and not staying - but they did great.

 

I did make it back in time to do the Cha Cha Slide with everyone toward the end of the skating session.

Later that evening, we took my mom out to dinner for her birthday. I've been wanting to take the family to the Scenic View restaurant which overlooks Lake Monroe. It was the perfect choice since my mom is a lake girl at heart. We sat outside on a beautiful evening and enjoyed some wonderful food. 

 

 You can barely see the Lake behand my mom's shoulder.

 

I didn't get any photos on Sunday but we spent the day with our friends, Dave and Susan. They initially planned to make the trip to Bloomington so that Dave could help the Polack finish putting up our backetball hoop. We met for lunch at Macri's. Then Mom took Nicklas home (and headed back to Fort Wayne) while Seeger was at a birthday party and the adults went wine tasting. We hit up Butler and the new Chateau Thomas tasting room on the square. While at Chateau Thomas, I learned about the hotel suites they built on the second floor. I'm always looking for hotel rooms for our VIPS who visit to campus so we took a tour of the amazing space. One of the suites over looks downtown and they're both beautiful!

 

I'll end this post with one last photo. I've been wanting to try paw paws since I learned about them during a Boomington Parks and Rec sponsored hike at Leonard Springs Nature Park. I'm convinced we have paw paw in our woods but haven't found any fruit. Luckily, I came across a vendor at the Farmer's Market who had one pint to sell. They are all spotted and ugly looking and I don't know if they'll be any good but I bought the last pint because I HAD to have them. They're almost ripe so I'll be biting in to one this week.