Thank You Peary Much!

Have you ever wandered around your neighborhood and admired all the lovely trees in your neighbor's garden? No? Ok, I am that strange then.

Every weekday, my kids and I walk home from school and pass by a house that has a lovely pear tree in their front yard. When I pointed out the tree to my 3 stooges a few weeks ago, they immediately wanted to pick the pears, despite the fact that it was pouring rain outside. I had to quickly remind them that it's not our tree and we couldn't just pick the fruit without permission- that burst their bubble a bit, until Lia processed just what I had said. She perked up 2 seconds later and asked "Can I go ask permission???". As soon as I gave her the OK, she darn near bamboozled a poor guy trying to get out of his car and go in to his house! He thankfully had a good sense of humor and not only chuckled at the odd question "Can I pick your pears?" from an overexcited little girl, but granted us permission to take as much as we wanted. Apparently our neighbors just have the tree because it's pretty, and don't eat the pears! My kids LOVE canned pears, so guess what I did with the 10+ pounds of pears we picked?

I even had a little help canning this time from my niece and sister (thanks guys!). The kids had so much fun picking fruit from our neighbor's tree! I however, have caught myself now eyeing all our neighbor's trees hoping to score some more goodies. The house next to us has a crabapple tree...