Mimi's Summer Day Camp, Day SEVEN --- Rocks & Minerals!

We had such a busy day!! Started out the morning with boulders for breakfast....(KT always says when I tell her what we're having, "not real, right?") Ha! I told her HEB makes breakfast boulders!

After breakfast, it was time to make our first activity -- ROCK candy! We boiled 4 cups of sugar with 1-1/3 cup of water, then let it cool for a while. Meanwhile, we put some drops of food coloring in some plastic cups, and then put the semi-warm sugar syrup in and mixed it up. Then we took some wooden sticks, wet the tip and rolled it in some regular sugar, and suspended them in the syrup using a clothespin. 

Colorful rock candy syrup!

They are on the windowsill now and we will check up on them on Thursday and hopefully they will be ready by next week one day.

Next we make rock candy cupcakes and the girls iced them and decorated them. These were some candy rock jellybeans.  KT loved the white ones - they tasted like lemon.

I think they were just interested in the chocolate icing!

Time to go outside and decorate our rock collection boxes.  KT loves loves loves to paint, and Joss tries real hard.  We had a messy time, but it was fun.  

 Yes, Mom, we put on the t-shirt smocks to keep our clothes clean!

Hope we can find rocks in all these colors!

Then out on our rock hunting expedition! We walked all over the vineyard, the field, and the front of our place looking for different types of rocks. We took them back to the pavilion and washed and scrubbed them with old toothbrushes.  They are drying and will wait until Thursday for us to sort into the collection boxes after we look for rocks up at Enchanted Rock.  Maybe we'll find some pink rocks up that way!

 Collecting and washing rocks

 Joss's collection

KT's collection

We were off to the library next.  We only found a couple of rock books, so the girls picked some other books they wanted to read, too.  They had a new stuffed giraffe, and Joss l - o - v - d it! She sat on it almost the whole hour we were there!

KT is concentrating on that puzzle

Grumpy had made lunch for us by the time we got home - hot dogs! Yum!  Then it was rest time for Joss.  After rest time, we got ready to swim, because KT has dance class today and we have to be ready on time.

After swim, the girls got to practice moving sand and rocks with some miniature dump trucks and other machinery! We're gonna keep these until Thursday afternoon and do some more rock moving then. This was fun.

Thursday we'll be taking our field trip to Enchanted Rock and having a picnic lunch there.  Should be lots of fun!

Mimi's Summer Day Camp, Day SIX -- Bugs!

What fun we had on Thursday -- we started the morning with some snails and caterpillars for breakfast! 

These were pretty easy, and the girls actually ate them -- KT loves bread, and Joss loves sausage, so between the two of them, they ate eight of these!

Our first activity after breakfast was to make the syrup for our butterfly feeder.  We mixed one cup of sugar and two cups of water to make a thin syrup for our tray.  It was more then we needed, but we're saving some to add later.  

Totally supervised, Mom, I promise!

Then we cut up some fruit to layer in the tray, and I had cut up two small flowers out of a pink sponge to soak up the syrup.

We put the tray out on a tree stump near the morning glories -- hopefully the butterflies will find it soon!  We'll keep checking!

Next up, we went on a bug hunt!  The girls both had their own bug net, and we went down to our lower field in the "donkey" to look for bugs.  Grumpy was the fastest bug catcher of all of us!  Each girl also had their own box to keep any bugs they found for the day -- we agreed to let our bugs go at the end of camp day.

 Hunting bugs in the creek bed

When we got back, the girls both got some plastic bugs to sort through, and Joss had a little color matching game to play with hers match each color of bugs with the correct place on the paper - KT helped her out! She's a good junior camp counselor!

Hhmm...what color is this one?

Then it was library time!

When we got home it was lunch time -- they had a very hungry caterpillar for lunch, with bug juice to drink! 

The caterpillar were little round peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches with some raisins for feet and an apple clice head. The bug juice was lemonaide with gummy worms in it...eeewwwww!!!
But they ate EVERY SINGLE sandwich---I was amazed!

After our lunch it was rest time - Joss took her nap, and KT went with Grumpy down to our local True Value store for something he needed.  They had a good time together, and even washed the car for me.

Swim time! The water was JUST RIGHT -- cool, but warm once you got used to it.

 Joss's favorite time - Popsicle time after swimming! She always asks for a purple Popsicle.

We let the bugs go at the end of the day.  Whew, we are all tired after a full day of camp.
Next week -- it's all about rocks!

A few more pictures of Max....

We visited with Max for about an hour on Wednesday morning, and what a little cutie he is! He was hungry, so we sat out in the suite sitting room for a bit while Ashley fed him.  I got to hold him several times, and he was a perfect little guy! He loves to be held.

 Grumpy held him, too.  This is about the time he figured out that he was hungry.

 JR and Ashley are doing fine, although she's been fighting some effects from the anesthesia, but hopefully that will wear off soon.  It gave her a terrible migrane headache, for one thing, which is horrible.  I asked if I could bring them anything, and all JR wanted was some "real" coffee! ha! Hopefully they will get to go home on Friday.

 Max was having his hearing test when we got there --- all was fine!  

This picture is diaper change time!

 I'm in love already, and the luckiest Mimi in the world - three beautiful grandchildren.  I'm in heaven, truly.

Ashley holding her son.

Bad week in the coop....

We've lost two hens this past week - one morning John went out to let them out to run in the vineyard and found one of the big red hens had died inside the chicken house during the night.  No trauma or noticeable problem, so it was just her time, I guess.

Then later in the week we went out in the morning and found another of the big red hens had apparently not gotten in the house before the automatic door shut, and she had been killed during the night.  Darn!  John spent some time making sure the auto-door was working properly, and it was, so she must have just waited too long to go in.

We're down to 7 hens and Romeo now, which is fine.  We usually have way too many eggs anyway, but we'll miss our big red girls.  Only one red hen left.

Jack Reacher Number Two

I really used to love the Jack Reacher book series by Lee Child.  He's British, which may excuse (not) the reason why he writes in such stereotypes. The last book I read was set in Texas, and he wrote us all as such hillbillies, I had to put the book down.  Every cliche in the world you've ever heard about the south was in that book.  I truly was disgusted by it, and can't even remember the name of that one now.  Anyway, that doesn't mean I don't love a good revenge movie, and I really do like Tom Cruise movies, so I'll be seeing this one.
(PS: don't waste your time on the novels)
Take that, Lee Child, from a true Texan!

Mimi's Summer Day Camp, Day FIVE.....

UPDATE:  Max arrived 1:41 pm today, 20.5 inches long, and 8.8 pounds! He's just as cute as can be.  Pictures to come soon!

.... has been interrupted by a special delivery.  We are awaiting a visit from a stork!

More news about this later in the day -- Max is expected around 11:30 a.m.!

Father's Day, 2016

We had a wonderful lunch at JR and Ashley's house for Father's Day - fried chicken and all the fixings, and some great company.  We celebrated all the dads in the room....

 JR, John and Colleen - Jeff and the two girls - and Gene and Ashley!

 Love this one!

 Max's room is ready to go! This is a shot in his bathroom....

 Joss was in love with Max's light up floor cushion!

 Changing table and crib

 I love that they hung up that wonderful quilt!

 His bookshelf

 His name is on the bedroom door!

 This is the constellation Orion, and that's Max's middle name!

Duh?

Max is due to arrive on Tuesday around 11:30 am.  I can't wait!!!!