Happy birthday to my not so little bug!

We headed out to the Zoo today.  One of our favorite places to enjoy.  BB (big Brother) got to experience the fun of the zoo for the first time.  Of course we started with the Rhino statues at the front.

And we saw a tortoise as soon as we came into the zoo.  The tortoise is a pancake tortoise and it's name is "flapjack".

We saw the elephants, but they were boring today, so we posed at the elephant statue.

We got to see the giraffes, including the one eating right in front of us and the new baby giraffe, Nisha.

We headed to the African Savannah to see the lions (still sleeping), the flamingos, the painted dogs (not interested in us) and the bat eared foxes.

This is George, the Bat-eared fox.  So cute!

Bat-eared Bug.

Bat eared BB

Bat-eared  Mam

Bat-eared Momma

Penguins from Australia and New Zealand

RED PANDA ( I want one!!)

growing up, such a big boy.

BB's hand compared to a gorilla's hand.  The gorillas were not out, it was a little too cool

Bug's foot with the gorilla foot print

My gorilla boys

The cardinal at lunch

BB's favorite animal- the white tiger

Bug is not happy

being eaten by an alligator.  Such a fun day with the boys

looking at the white lions resting in the sun

after the zoo, we came home for a few hours before heading out to the park for a movie at the park with the cub scouts.

the boys had a great time playing with friends.  They played soccer, basketball and Frisbee.

and some friends climbed the tree.

Look mom, no hands!!

finally time for the movie.  First some karaoke.  We got to hear "let it go" 4 times, "do you wanna build a snowman" 2 times and the ABC song  1 time.  I can not image how many times we will hear the songs from Frozen before the movie next week (the movie is Frozen).

 The grownups.  it got cold and Bug, BB and I were freezing because I forgot to pack blankets and sweatshirts.  I will not make that mistake again.

Bug says he liked his birthday.  Tomorrow is his kid birthday party and it should be a great time.

Love and hugs,
Deb

the next adventure begins

Before we get to the fun stuff, here is a picture of my cutie sleeping on the couch.  He is such a handsome little man.

Bug standing in the room, almost ready for Y to arrive.  We are going to host an exchange student again.  We are hosting Y who is 16 and is from Japan.  He will have a nickname eventually, but for now, he is just Y.

One cleaned out closet- it has not been this clean in 5 years

 The desk area.  this used to be where I worked all day. 

Waiting at the airport.  Bug looks so excited (not!), but he really is excited.

Here is Y, he was so excited to see us that he ran the last few feet. 

Our family for the next 10 months.  So excited to be on this adventure.

Y, sitting at the district enrollment center going thru the class book.  He is quite overwhelmed at the choices of classes he can be taking.  We got him registered, but could not get him registered  for classes because they had not entered his information into the system.  Hopefully they will get him entered so we can get him registered for classes by Tuesday.

Bug has soccer practice this evening, so stay tuned for lots more pictures over the next few days.

Love and hugs,
Deb

Lumenocity

Lumenocity is a new event for our city.  It started last year and was so well received, that this year it is a 3 day event.  Actually, it is 4 days because people could go see the dress rehearsal on Thursday.  I won tickets for Saturday night and we headed down at 4:30 for the concert that started at 8:30.  I thought we would have plenty of choices for where to sit, but it was already packed because they let people set up seats at 11 am, then made them leave until 4.  I have commented on the survey that this is not a good thing for people who can not come down to the park 2 times in one day.

 

Anyway, on to the pictures, they are out of order. 

 

At the end of  concert, balls were released into the audience.

 

 

Bug, waiting for the concert to begin, eating some gelato.  We sat under a tree on the edge of the park next to the VIP section.  We will make this mistake again.  too much foot  traffic and too much noise during the concert from the VIP section.

Music Hall with the stage in front of the building.

12,000 of our closest friends packed into the park to watch the show. All those seats were set up when we arrived.

a sea of people

our view of the right side of building and the VIP section

Our seats, in the shade

I pulled some pictures from a friend's facebook page.  She had a better view of the light show.  pictures were projected onto the front of music hall to go long with the music being played by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

The dancers warming up

Bug and Momma selfie

Officer Gary Lee (I used to sing in choir with him) and Cincinnati Mayor David Cranley.  One of the nice things about being close to the VIP section was getting to see different local politicians and business leaders.

The Cincinnati POPS Orchestra

Another selfie

Still waiting.  Bug did great waiting for the concert to start.  We had 3.5 hour wait after we found our seats.  We played card games, chess and talked.  He did a great job waiting patiently.

The concert is starting.  the police officers in front of the barrier kept walking into the sidewalk area and blocking our view.

Another picture from a friend.  there were 2 dancers on the balcony of music hall dancing in time with the projection on the screen (filmed earlier with them).

I think this was a best view - on their balcony in the buildings across the street.  They could watch for free all 4 nights and the music is being broadcast on one of the radio stations during the concert.  Tonight, bug and I are going to watch the show on the web to see what we missed as they simulcast the concert tonight.

 

This was a great event.  I hope we win tickets to next year's event.  The tickets are free, but they sold out in 15 minutes, so people were put in a lottery to win additional tickets.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb

peaches are in the house

yesterday, the peach truck came to our local garden center.  The 25 pound boxes work out to a cost of 66 cents per pound, which is a 30 cent savings over buying at the grocery store and the peaches are HUGE. 

I bought 3 boxes.  I worked on one box yesterday.  The plan was to peel, pit and slices the peaches so they can frozen to be used for pies, smoothies and milkshakes over the winter.  The other 2 boxes will be canned, some canned peach slices, some canned peach jam, and some canned as peach mango salsa.  I will be able to give peaches away to friends and family too. I am so excited.

Here is the process I used.  First on the bottom end of the peaches, cut an "X" into the peach.

boil the peaches for about 5-10 minutes, this loosens the skins.  I could fit 6 peaches into the pot at a time.

Put the cooked peaches into cold water in the sink.  This should continue to loosen the skin so it peels off.  In my case, it did not, so I had to use the potato peeler to peel the skins.  The skin came off easily.  I boiled about half the peaches before starting to peel them.

Bug came in to help too.  He started by peeling the peaches but decided he liked playing with the peaches in the water instead.

once we had a good bunch of peaches peeled, I started slicing them up.  Bug really waned to do this, but I would not let him since the peaches were so slippery and I worried that he would cut himself with the sharp knife.  I need to let him try these things though.

While I sliced the peaches, Bug was bagging them for freezing.  We found that about 2 peaches sliced fit into the sandwiches bags we were using. Through all of this, we were also finishing boiling the remaining peaches.

It took about 1.75 hours (1 hour, 45 minutes) to get all of it done.

in the end, we had 6 freezer bags, filled with 4 sandwich bags of peaches, which works out to about 48 peaches total.

Lots of yumminess for the winter months.

All the peaches were put in the deep chest freezer we have in the basement.  There is still plenty of room for the rest of peaches.  Although, all the ones I will be canning will go in the room under the stairs since they need to be in dark, cool places until they are used. 

We have to go now, lots to do today- cleaning, organizing and enjoying some entertainment.  Pictures coming tomorrow of all our fun from today.

Love and hugs,
Deb