Pennsylvania

Last week we drove up to Ray's mother's house in Pennsylvania. It was the last time we will ever do that. They are moving to Colorado tomorrow. I'm sad to see them move so far away. Where they lived in Pennsylvania is really a beautiful part of the country. I'm sure it will be fun to visit them in Colorado, too. It will just take us a lot longer to get there and our visits will be much less frequent.

We had a good time on our last visit to Pennsylvania. We went into Philadelphia one day and soaked up some history. We saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, the first "pentagon" and Penn's Landing.

We also went to a local 4th of July celebration in my in-laws' town. Actually, J, C, and I went to it. T was napping and M didn't want to go, so Ray stayed home with them.

Every night the kids ran around in their pj's catching fireflies. Like most kids, they planned on keeping the glowing little bugs in a jar next to their bed for a night light. And, like most kids, they found out that that doesn't really work as well as it seems like it should. They had a blast anyway.


We had fun. And we are really going to miss visiting Pennsylvania several times each year. It was a very bitter sweet trip for us. As Ray put it, it's the end of an era.

New skirts for the girls

J helped me sew up these quick and easy skirts one afternoon this week. I would have chosen different fabric... but, this is what they wanted.

More sewing projects coming soon!

Summer is here!

Today we went to our pool for the first time this year. I was planning on continuing to homeschool throughout the summer. But I have really been feeling that the kids (and I) need a break. We need some time to just laze around. Go to the pool, read easy books, watch some movies, visit grandparents, just be bored! So today I called off school for the summer and we grabbed the towels and some snacks and headed off to the pool. We had the place to ourselves for the first hour. Then we were joined by a couple of other families...enough kids for a good game of Marco Polo. There were only a few of mishaps: T floated off into the deep end and had to be rescued by the lifeguard (she was wearing a life vest so she was safe, just scared), J got in over her head and got tired and had to be rescued by the lifeguard (again, more scared than anything else), and a minor potty incident with C (I will spare you the details...but it involved a shower and a complete wardrobe change while we were there!) Yes, it was a relaxing day at the pool, kid style.





Happy Summer!

Belly ring

My daughter called me into her bedroom this morning to show me this:
I asked her where on earth she saw something like that. She replied, "I made it up myself!" Great. My daughter independently came up with the idea of a belly ring. I've always said that I'm going to be in trouble when C is a teenager. I think I may already be in trouble.
At least this time she just used magnets.

Simple Pleasures

I love it when my kids find things to amuse themselves that don't require any store-bought toys. Especially when they end up creating something beautiful. My husband recently trimmed our cherry tree out front. We ended up with a bunch of green sticks and twigs of various sizes. Perfect for a nine year old boy with a knife in his pocket.


A miniature wooden flower from M to me. I love that boy!

Mint and Lemons

A woman that works for my husband brought us some chocolate mint sprigs from her garden recently. So a few days ago I decided to try to do something with them. I really wasn't sure what they would be best for. I didn't want to make mint sauce out of them since they were the "chocolate" variety. I found a few recipes online that looked wonderful! Mint chocolate torte, chocolate mint juleps, chocolate mint ice cream. Unfortunately, I didn't have the right ingredients on hand for any of those. I did have a bunch of lemons, though. So the kids and I decided to make some fresh chocolate mint lemonade. It sounded good at the time.

It turned out pretty good.
And we tried to make some mint ice cubes. Some blended, some whole leaves.


Those did not turn out good. Especially the blended ones! Bad idea! :)

The best thing that came out of the kitchen that day, however, was from the lemon peels. After we made the lemonade we had a bunch of leftover peels.

Rather than just throwing them away or composting them I decided to try to make candied lemon peels. They were a hit! First I had to carefully slice all the pith off.

Then I boiled the peels for about 5 minutes in water. Then I boiled them in a sugar solution for about 30 minutes. Finally, I dusted them with more granulated sugar. I saved the sugar solution which had become a lemon syrup. It turned out pretty yummy.
Another fun afternoon in the kitchen!

Memorial Day

It's starting to become our Memorial Day tradition. A local park, a paddle around the lake, and a cook-out. This year it was especially fun because T is old enough to go out on the canoe and the older ones are getting to the point where they can actually help paddle instead of just play at it.

A quiet, shallow little inlet of the lake gave us a perfect opportunity to observe water lilies up close.

Daddy and the girls.
We pulled over to an old abandoned dock and the kids got out to stretch their legs. We swaped passengers for the return trip.

Cook-out!


Happy Memorial Day!