Summer Fun: Water storage

 The tornado that passed by jolted me into putting the food storage in our new house in order. We ordered some more 5 gallon water jugs. I took inventory of what we have left in our long term storage. Now I will start buying a little each month to fill in the gaps

We had a quieter week and tried to stay on top of our school stuff, guitar practice, and riding lessons. It was still busy enough that we had exhausted kiddos falling asleep mid-afternoon.  

 I tried 2 new canning recipes - Honey bread and butter pickles & Dilly beans.  One of the jars broke in the pot.  It has been a struggle trying to figure out how to can things on our glass top stove.

 Homemade jam and homemade bread are the staple foods of this summer. We have a huge wild blackberry bramble around one side of our property. I made a pie with those berries this week, but forgot to take a picture.

Their is something therapeutic about holding animals. I am surprised with some of the rough love that the kittens get from the younger kiddos that they still hang out on the deck.  But every morning the kids run out to snuggle them. They like to sleep on these deck chairs. I hope they are hunting something at night to earn their keep!

Recommended Reading: May and June

1. Lockwood and Co. Series by Jonathan Stroud: I started reading these because I liked the Bartemaeus series by this author so much.  These stories are great for older kids, 11 and up probably, but be warned they are spooky!
2. Animal Vegetable Miracle - This is by the same author, Barbara Kingsolver, who wrote the Poisonwood Bible, which I reviewed previously.  A completely different story here about eating locally grown food and building a sense of community.  It is non-fiction and full of wonderful information about farm life.  This is my second time reading it and I love it. 
3. Josephina - An American Girl series.  Well written, educational, fun to read/listen to in the car with the kids. 
4. Shiloh - Classic children's story. The kids did not get as absorbed in it as I thought they would. 
5. Jessica Day George - This girl's written some great books. We read the newest one in the Tuesday in the Tower series, called Friday with the Wizards. Cool characters, great for kids. I read silver in the blood, which was a fun Jane Austen in Transylvania type story. 
6. The Trumpet of the Swan. THIS book should be #1 on our list here.  The kids LOVED it.  They are still talking about it. It is by the same man that wrote Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, which we also read this month. They find all kinds of similarities between Louis the Swan and our Rooster named Louis. 
7. Holes - Big Sister A read about half of this herself, but we have been reading it as a family too. Perfect for 7-11 year old readers. 
8. Cornelia Funke - Ghost Knight We have read a number of her books. Always well written and kid friendly. This one is ghostly, but not too scary.

Summer Fun: Friends Visiting, Wild Things, and Turkeys

Using A's physics lab book we made a recipe for "blue goo", with cornstarch.

On Tuesday our buddies came to town. We went blackberry picking.

We made blackberry apple pie with my favorite Rustic Fruit Desserts book and then canned the rest into blackberry jam.

  

Then I was shocked to get a call that my turkeys had arrived and would I please come pick them up by 5pm! uh oh. I thought they had lost my order or something... It was really more of an informal conversation with the cashier  back in March. She asked how many I would like, wrote it on a post-it, and had said they usually come the end of May/early June.  I was kind of ready for a break from chicks? But I did order them. So away we go again. Four turkeys! Luckily, they are adorable.

Our library has amazing free shows! - like the reptile one last week.  This week they had a theater dance troop doing an interactive performance of "Where the Wild Things Are".  It was great!

  

Then we took our friends to the aquarium and saw more new things.  The kids got to pet some moon jelly fish:

 And some rays:

 
We looked closely at some new exhibits:

Including a sunken "pirate" ship:

And some swimming birds that looked like penguins at first, but were actually puffins. Awesome.

Pool Parties

Kids water party at the church

 Daddy is so funny. Everyone wants to hit him with a balloon.

 And he has fun with his friends too

 They coated the kids with shaving cream and dish soap so that they'd be fast and slippery, but brother M still had a hard time getting enough speed.

Then on the Uncle P's house for E's 2nd birthday party. Yummy rainbow cupcakes...

  ...followed by an impromptu continuation of the water party to rinse off the frosting.

Summer Work: Building Pyramids and Bringing Down Bushes

I think these hedges are a variety of English Laurel bush. They wrap around between the front yard and the road. They were making it hard to see as we pulled out of the driveway and also seemed comically tall -- well over our heads.  I went out with the hedge trimmers and a step ladder to try to bring them back into line.  I could see that they had been pruned to a much lower level for many years, but allowed to grow vertically in recent years. After several hours with the hedge trimmer, I made no noticeable progress.  I got hubby on the job and he found the proper tool (a pole saw) and brought them down to size. 

  It's great to have a driveway where the kids can enjoy riding their bikes.  We don't let them go on the bottom half (near the road), but they have plenty of pavement to play on between the house and the barn.

Hydrangeas next to the back of the  house are blooming. I love seeing them when I walk by.

This week A made a project to go with all the books about Ancient Egypt that we, but mostly she, has been reading.

  Mummy and sarcophagus

  Pyramid drying

Dry. Being painted.

 Started making things to go inside

We also went to a show at the library.  They have a free show every Wednesday during the summer.  This one was about reptiles, but they also taught the kids about tarantulas, beetles, and toads.

I think we will be going to the aquarium every week this summer.  I mentioned to some friends at church that we can bring 5 guests for free and everyone wants to go with us (like I said last time, it is pretty expensive without the pass).

 This is our second visit, but there are still so many things to see that we saw several new exhibits and found out about a whole bunch of others that we haven't visited yet.

 
This is a fish that spits to get bugs to fall into the water so they can eat them.  The guide demonstrated this with crickets. Amazing.