Mr. & Mrs. Gubbins & Sons

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

More Gardening Adventures

mmm...tomatoes & cucumbers...and zucchini...

Andy, playing the "how many squash can I hold at one time?" game

watering his garden...again (for about the fifth time in 10 minutes)

jack-o-lantern-to-be!

string beans!

mmmm...beets. Andy decided to plant beets because he likes canned beets...

...turns out canning is quite the process! The end result: 3 jars of beets, and three containers of beet soup...worth the hard work? Hmmm...ask us when we eat them :)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Mama Fresh

Andy working in the garden isn't the only way we've been producing over here--Jess has been producing breastmilk all summer!
Since Theodore was a preemie, they started me on a pumping regimen in the hospital (many preemies don't suck strongly enough to keep up the mother's milk supply, so they have you pump after every feeding to keep up your supply)--over the weeks and months since then, I've been weaning back the pumping, with a few hiccups along the way (plugged ducts, mastitis = no fun!). All that pumping early on filled our freezer fast, so I decided to donate it. I had looked into donation with Simon, but never had pumped enough (most milk banks require a minimum of 100 or 150 ounces to donate). I always thought if I had another baby, I'd pump more, sooner, so that I could donate--and now I had pumped WAY more, WAY sooner than I ever expected, so it seemed like the natural thing to do with our surplus.
It was a bit of a process getting approved, but once I did, the cooler arrived and I filled it up and sent it on. It felt good to be doing something useful with all the milk--we had run out of freezer space and if we didn't clear some out I would have had to start dumping what I pumped, which would have been a real waste! All told, I donated 401 ounces of breastmilk to the Mother's Milk Bank.

Thanks for sharing your supply, little Theodore! Some babies out there in California will be better off because of it :-).

Monday, August 16, 2010

Garden Fresh

We have been enjoying fresh produce from the garden this summer! As someone who didn't really grow up in a gardening family, this is still new to me, but I like it! :)


Simon's garden features a variety of stuff, some identifiable and some not so much...he loves to water it...and water it...and water it...its less for harvesting, and more for the pure joy of dirt, water, and growing things!



Here is half of Andy's garden, about a month or so ago...


...and the other half. He says its too overcrowded and he needs to plan the space a little better for next year. You should see it now--the squash and pumpkin end is HUGE, and string beans have grown up along the fence in the back.


Theodore, posing with a zucchini about his size!


Simon helped Daddy turn some of those zucchini into yummy zucchini bread!


the first crop of patty pan squash--which I'd never even heard of, actually!


Andy found a recipe online for "Squash Volcanoes" that used patty pan squash--don't be fooled by Simon's grin here...though he loves the idea of eating food from the garden, and requests it, he rarely actually eats it, except for tomatoes! He has yet to try even a bit of zucchini, squash, cucumber, onion, or carrot from the garden...but he does love those tomatoes...and he did eat a wee bit of string bean one evening :).

Monday, August 09, 2010

Cousins!

After a week in Madison, we also got to show Jen, Nathan, Ben & Ellie around our neck of the woods here in Rochester. Though they had their share of sibling-like fights, all in all the cousins seemed to really enjoy each others' company.

Ellie (6), Ben (5), and Simon (2) crossing a footbridge at Quarry Hill Nature Center

We went for a little hike at Quarry Hill...


...to go letterboxing! Here they all are, having just found the letterbox :-)


Mmmmm...yummy lunch after a nice hike


Simon particularly enjoyed getting to swim with them just before saying goodbye. The "hotel swimming pool" has featured prominently in his pretend play ever since!

Friday, August 06, 2010

Madison Week: Photos Galore

In mid-July, the kids & I spent a week in Madison while Andy was away at confirmation camp. My sister Jen and her family were in from Chile, so my sister Liz and her husband flew in from DC, too. We all met at my folks house...

Ellie & Ben were both excited to meet their new cousin.

Theodore also got to meet Aunts Jen and Liz, and Uncles Nathan & David.

We spent a day in Appleton to visit my grandparents, and the kids got to play at the children's museum there.

Playing on a giant pizza...

three sisters :)

meeting Great-Grandma Carole

...and Great-Grandpa Howard

Four generations...minus Andy :(

meeting Uncle David

We all went to a Madison Mallards game. Simon wasn't so interested in the game, but he loved the big sandbox!

Liz & David with their niece and nephews

picnic lunch at the zoo in Madison

Ben & Ellie race down the slip-n-slide.

Grandma Phyllis & Grandpa John, with their four grandkids.

We stayed a bit longer, since Andy was away at confirmation camp anyway, and got to go to concerts on the square...

...make playdoh with Grandma...

...and play Grandpa's bean game (well, Simon's version of it anyway).

Thanks for a fun week, Grandma & Grandpa!