My Sparky Girl has arrived~!

This is my Sparky girl~! I have called Kelly this since she was a little girl.. I met Rich in Stockton, Illinois.. Gave him back Emily that was here last week, I hated her to go because we had such a great time and now I have Kelly. Kelly is age 11 and is such a wonderful girl. She is sooooo good with Ben. Kelly has the energy to watch and keep up with him.. When Ben goes home, Kelly always says "Whew he is so busy"..
This morning we woke up early before Ben got up (He stayed all night at GranAnnie's) and made strawberry jam.. She has never done this before and oh my, she loved it~! She didn't know this is how jam is made and she said it tastes so much better than store bought.. I used Spenda for the sugar. Hope it does O.K. We made 6 jelly jars of Strawberry Jam. She said she can hardly wait to open up one jar and put it on her toast...when she gets home.. I told her it would taste good in the morning when school starts and she can have it on her toast before she goes to school. Yum~! Yum~! She is going into 6th grade.


Here she is stirring the jam.. She asks 'What is all this foam all about?".. I told her that is normal and we will have to use a metal spoon to get it all out... I just love having the grandchildren here. I always do something with them that they have never done before.



She took this picture. She was so proud~! This is our homemade salsa.. We put one jalapeno pepper in because Kelly and her dad, Rich love spicy things. IT's now cooking down and we have the jars all cleaned and ready to fill..

These pictures are not in order.. But here is Kelly getting the tomatoes skinned, and cut-up to put in the chopper.. I gave her a clove of garlic and told her to cut it up and sure enough she used her noodle and put it in the chopper.. She said "That was easy"... We got everything measured , diced, sliced and into the big pot to cook.. She said she loves Salsa.. We made 4 pints and 1 quart.. I told her she could take it all home and share with her family.

She put this dress on because she said it would be something good to wear when cooking. Lol. She said "Can we make apple pie tomorrow?" I said of course.. She wants to learn how to cook. Yesterday we went to Hy-vee grocery store to get groceries and they were holding cooking lessons for children.. I asked them if Kelly could join in with the group and they said "Of course".. So she got to learn a few things on how to make healthy snacks.. She loved it~!