Max's First Birthday!

Unbelievably this young man is one year old already! Where, oh where does the time go?! We had lots of fun at his party on Saturday, and it was so good to see so many family members there celebrating Max.  

Here's a few pictures of our day:

Sauerkraut Failure

Well, the fermented cabbage that I was trying to make sauerkraut out of turned out slimy, dark brown and nasty (and stinky!) I had to throw the whole thing out.  I'm not deterred though, I will try again.  I think I need to buy an actual crock to ferment in, because I had a hard time keeping the cabbage down below the brine in the jar because of the curves.  

 I'll be looking for a crock and try again!

Spring Garden Log -- June 9, 2017

Not a lot to report, harvesting continues and I'm spending lot of time dealing with everything we bring in from the garden every day.  Today John and I snapped all of the beans that were piling up, and I froze 6 bags.  I peeled, chopped and froze a bunch of tomatoes that I'll use for more salsa when I get enough saved up. 

More of the pole beans are starting to produce - this is an Asian Red Noodle bean that will get even longer.  Neat looking! I'm also still picking the Purple Pod pole beans and the Fortex pole beans. The others are all in flower, so its just a matter of time.

The Queen Ann cow peas are blooming the most beautiful creamy butter colored flowers. So pretty. Can you spot the little pea pod there?

The Cubanelle peppers were getting so big, I just didn't really know when to pick them. It's always a guessing game when we grow new things. If you look them up, some are red and some are green.

Today John picked them and brought them in, so decision made I guess! ha!  

The celery that survived is getting big! I'm kind of excited to have grown these.  I'm going to try again in the fall garden, maybe they will do even better.

The Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries were also piling up in the fridge, so I cooked them and made a pie filling out of them. It's in the fridge, and I'll use it for something. Not sure what yet.

Today we brought in a sweet Violet Sparkle pepper.  This plant was the only one that came up of the 12 seeds that I planted back in January, so it's in a pot in my potted garden. I got these seeds from Baker Creek. Pretty!

 Finally we are seeing some elderberries.  I was seriously worried about getting any this year. I have one York plant and two Adams, and you need two varieties for pollination. We pruned the York plant back too much during the fall, so it did not bloom until very late. Oh well, we'll get what we get. Lesson learned.

Mimi's Summer Day Camp, Day Two --- Wizard School

Thursday was field trip day at summer camp, so we were off to visit the San Antonio Doseum. The girls have memberships and have been there several times, so they were going to show Mimi and Grumpy around today!

Of course, first stop for breakfast at the Kolache Factory.  Joss didn't want one, she opted for the cinnamon roll. Messy, messy, mess! 

We arrived and after getting tickets for the two of us and checking the girls in at the member desk, we were off and running..... first stop was a wind tunnel. They have wings for every kind of butterfly and these dragon wings that the girls put on.

The next room had lots of information stations about our world, and KT worked on this big puzzle of the United States.  I think she's done this before! 

Here's some indoctrination about global warming.... 😠

There were some neat foam wood blocks that Joss played with for ages. She loved these! 

The next room had a vertical wind tunnel that the kids could put their aeronautic creations in to see how high they would fly. KT loved this! 

Joss played with a magnet pin ball machine. I couldn't really figure this one out, but thankfully Joss didn't really care if we were doing it right (ha!) 

KT built a ball roll experiment - she really figured this out so fast, Grumpy didn't have to do much coaching at all. Smart girl! 

 There was some kind of dark room with pens that wrote in lights. KT is writing the name of some singer that she likes.

Wonder Woman!! I thought we were going to have to wrestle her out of this outfit - she did NOT want to take it off.

This was my favorite! The girls were on TV. There were various backgrounds - here KT is sitting on the dinosaurs tail! 

There were some green capes that you could put on to make your body disappear - can you see Joss's head floating there?! 

Then we went into Little Town - HEB had a whole grocery store that the girls "shopped" in. They've done this before, you could tell. You can tell the difference between these two and their food habits - KT selected a good selection from all the food groups, and Joss bee-lined for the breads. We had a good laugh! 

 Next was the veterinarian clinic - Joss is in full doc mode here.  She kept running out to me to get help, "Mimi, put these in my ears (stethoscope.)" and showing me her stuffed animal and what was wrong with it.  She's a real character and really really really loves dress up!

At about 1:30 we decided everyone was starving, so we left and stopped at McDonald's for lunch.... 

...and finally got home about 4 pm in time for a good swim.  Grumpy is still fighting a terrible cold, so he sat out today and I was on pool duty.  We had a blast! 

No camp next week as the girls and family are on vacation.  Next camp is all about dinosaurs!

Mimi's Summer Day Camp, Day One --- Wizard School

Summer camp 2017 has begun! This week our theme is "Wizard School" and we're doing lots of scientific experiments.
The first one we did was a Skittles Science Experiment. I got the idea here.  The girls lined Skittles candies around a foam plate in whatever pattern they wanted (of course, they sampled a few as they worked!)

 Pour warm water carefully in the center until it touches all of the candies and then sit back and watch the magic!

 Because it was an experiment, I asked the girls what they "thought would happen" before we poured the water.  They both got it right!

Next up, we made Oobleck! This one was really popular with the girls -- they both just love mixing things up. This activity took quite a while because they kept mixing and adding and mixing and adding. The question was "is this a liquid, or is this a solid?" It can be both! 

Joss colored her Oobleck yellow, because she's in a super serious "Beauty and the Beast" period right now - yellow is her favorite color.  KT made her's blue. 

Grumpy helped open the packages of corn starch (he was trying to keep things neat, but that didn't last long! ha!) When you touch it in the bowl, the Oobleck is hard, but when you pick it up, it runs through your hands like a liquid. This was a really messy activity that they just loved. Good thing we were able to do this outside on the pavilion! 

The final experiment we did in the morning was blowing up a balloon without breathing into it! This one was mind-bending! 

 You only need is baking soda and vinegar, and empty water bottle and a balloon (and adult supervision, of course.) Great fun!

After cleaning the girls up, we were off to the library, one of the favorite things we will do every Tuesday.  The girls had fun - of course KT made a bee line to the shark books. Joss loves to play with the library stuffed animals and puzzles. We all picked out books to take home for free time.

Grumpy had made lunch for the girls while we were gone - peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches! We had lunch and a short rest time, and then back outside for an afternoon experiment - hovercrafts. We finally got this to work after a few "fails" because our super glue didn't work fast enough, but we finally made it. You glue a bottle cap with a push "open/close" top to the center of a CD, then blow up a balloon and quickly pull it over the top in the closed position. Then pull the cap open through the balloon and watch it dance around the table (and off the table, and across the floor!) ha!   

Time for swim! We all made it to the pool and the girls had a blast.  We always finish off our swim time with Popsicles, it's a must.

We had a great first day of camp. Thursday we're going to the San Antonio Doseum!