Part Duex (That works since their parents were in France, right?)

On Daniel Boone day we went on an "exploration" hike at Chatfield. The boys had fun exploring and recording what they found in their explorer journals.

Mia? Well, she was not so into it and would have been happier staying home that day but 2 out of 3 isn't so bad.

We went up to the Heron Observation deck and even spotted a heron! And disagreed on exactly how many boats were on the lake. And enjoyed snacks while watching for more herons or anything else that was interesting.

One day we painted with corn cobs (between you and me, it was not nearly as impressive as the picture in Family Fun lead me to believe... What? Do they have professional corn cob painters there? I mean, really!)

...which evolved into finger painting then whole hand painting which is soooo fun! And just a little messy.

One of our favorite days was National Root Beer Day! We made homemade root beer (for the first time ever) and it was super fun. Let's be honest, anything with dry ice is super fun!

We had playgroup at our house that day and the Little Hs are rather shy critters. This is how the conversation went the day before playgroup:

Me: We're having playgroup here tomorrow for Root Beer Day.

Little Hs: We're not going.

Me: Um, it's at our house.

Little Hs: Well, we're not coming out then.

Me: That might be a little goofy.

Little Hs: We don't care.

When the big day arrived the making of root beer lured them unsuspectingly outside. They clustered together in the sandbox as the kids started arriving until they realized it wasn't scary at all - it was just a big group of friends and lots of fun. Whew!

I was gonna say "let the fun begin" but since it's taken me so long to get to blogging anything it's almost time to say goodbye to the fun, so... Here's a look at how me and the Little Hs started our three weeks together.

First we made aprons because they all like to help in the kitchen and the adult sized aprons just don't quite do the job for them. We used tempera paint and animal stamps and they all designed their own:

One morning was National Donut Day so we made donuts at home. The kids each got a bag with either powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar in it and they got the shake the hot donuts in the sugar to coat them. That was fun! And messy!! And yum, what a delicious breakfast.

Another day was World Ocean Day so we made shark and fish (girls don't like sharks!) magnets using Shrinky Dinks. Those are so entertaining to watch while they shrink! And the magnets turned out really cool. But, we didn't realize until too late that you are coloring what will be the back of the magnets so now their names are backwards. Oh well! Still so fun.

I'll post more later after I break free from these outlaws!

The Renegade Tire

I got a call this evening from the J. "Mom, I need you to call a tow truck for me. My back left tire flew off my car and I'm stuck on Santa Fe." Uh huh. So here's the whole comedy of errors - because it's too good not to share.

J and his friend N were driving down the street and heard a funny noise. They pulled over and found nothing wrong with the car that they could see so continued on their way. A short time later they stopped at a red light. Well, the car stopped but the back tire just kept going. It was flying away so fast that it flew right over the median, down the bank and into the river. N went chasing after it (not the best plan on a busy street I might add...). He saw it going for the river, took off his shoes as he was running, pulled up his pant legs and jumped in the river only to find that he couldn't reach it. He jumped out, found a nice long stick, jumped back in and rescued the renegade tire.

They couldn't put the spare on or even the rescued tire because, of course, the lug nuts flew off with the tire and one generally doesn't carry around extra lug nuts in case of renegade tires... So they called for a tow.

I was on the phone with the insurance company to arrange a tow, my brother, S, to ask car suggestions, and J who had called back to tell me never mind the tow because the police just showed up and the officer said he'll help them fix the tire and he'll get the tow company they use to come out.

They took one lug nut from each of the other tires and put the renegade tire back on with those lug nuts so that each tire had only 3 lug nuts. (Can I trust two teenage boys to drive safely and *slowly* home with fewer than recommended lug nuts on every single tire?? Eeek!)

S left work to go help the guys and called to say he couldn't find them and where did I say they were? I gave him the location, as far as I knew, hung up and called N to ask if they were on their way home.

"Well, not yet. See, we left the doors open during all this and now the battery is dead. We're in the motel parking lot and someone is giving us a jump."

Just this morning I gave J a kit with jumper cables for his car and as he was leaving I reminded him to put it in his trunk. Inspiration, ja? Ja!

I told the boys to wait there as S would be coming to follow them home and make sure they arrive safely then I'll take N home in a safe and properly working car. I called S and directed him to the Murder Motel (naturally that's not really the motel's name but when I was a teenager there was a murder there and I remember seeing it on the news and it just stuck with me so now I call it the Murder Motel and I can't imagine for the life of me why anyone would stay there!) where he found them safe and sound.

Tomorrow we'll go have a lug nut pressed for the back tire and then the wheels should all be safe and sound. And we'll get a new battery.

Whew! What an adventure. Thank heavens for a kind police officer and for kind Providence!

Absentminded Cook

Sometimes I think it's a wonder that anything turns out in my kitchen. Today I was making Snickerdoodles and I opened the oven to take the first batch out and this is what I saw:

(Well, I guess that's not exactly what I saw since these are stacked on a cooling rack but you see what I mean...)

Gadzooks! What in the world? I mean I haven't made Snickerdoodles in years but I don't remember them being terribly difficult and I know they aren't flat!

The dough was really soft and I read the recipe three times to see if I was supposed to chill it before rolling into little balls but no, no chilling needed... I just couldn't see what else it might be. I walked out of the kitchen because I wasn't sure if I wanted to bother with the rest of the dough or just throw it out or what - so I took a break.

When I came back I realized that I had only put in 1 3/4 cup of flour not 2 3/4 cups! Duh!! I would like to say that this is the first time I've ever done something like this but it's not even close. In fact, this seems to happen in streaks so perhaps I need to do only minimal cooking for awhile. haha. I did add more flour to the remaining dough and it's quite amazing, the dough feels better and the cookies look like - Snickerdoodles.

I'll just say I invented a new cookie - Snickerdoodle Crisps. ha ha! I tell ya, if my head weren't attached...

June's Funny Days

I've been looking for fun things to do while my nephews & niece are here for three weeks this June. I always like to look up the funny, little-known holidays cause you can build some fun around them.

Here's a sampling of June days you may not have heard of:

3 - Donut day

4 - Pencil Drawing Day

6 - Yo-yo Day

7 - Chocolate Ice Cream Day AND Daniel Boone Day

8 - World Ocean Day

9 - Donald Duck Day

10-13 - Superman Week (although that's not very accurate because this is 4 days not a whole week but apparently one day for Superman didn't seem like enough for whoever designated this day... I bet Tiernan would agree.)

11 - Corn-on-the-cob Day

14 - Family History Day

15 - Fly a Kite Day and Nature Photography Day

16 - Fudge Day

17 - Root Beer Day

18 - Go Fishing Day & Picnic Day

20 - Ice Cream Soda Day and Juggling Day

Of course, there are designations for each week of the month too. For example, June 6-11 is National Clay Week. That could be fun.

That leaves one to wonder if there's a designation for the whole month - well, of course there is! It's National Candy Month. Super fun!

I better get busy planning now, we have a lot to do!

Hands

Have you ever stopped to think how wonderful it is to have hands? I was out planting flowers yesterday and I was using my little spade but, as usual, I ended up using my hands to break up the soil in the flower pots because, really, hands are just the most efficient tool I've ever found! They do the work much better and you have such control. I do the same thing with cooking - if I'm making a large batch of something (chicken salad, for example) hands just mix better than a big spoon. No worries, I use gardening gloves for gardening and food gloves for mixing big batches of food.

If you think about how much you use your hands every day - for everything you do - it's quite amazing! Don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful for all the very useful tools we have - and they are very useful - but sometimes you just have to use your hands to really get the job done. What a blessing to have hands!

Easter Craft

March was National Craft month so naturally Becky & I felt obligated to have a craft day and here's the result:

Aren't they adorable? We bought the ready to finish kit from Etsy seller Wellgood then we sanded, painted, and assembled them. I do enjoy craft days when we find something fun to do!