Fun in the Sun

We have been enjoying some nice 'cooler' weather outside this week and so I decided it would be a great time to visit a sunny playground!  After P's nap, we loaded up and headed to a (mostly deserted) playground that has a small water feature and the kids had a blast.  It was definitely still plenty hot enough for the kids to get soaked and I was able to happily sit nearby under a shady pavilion with lots of wind gusting past me.  :)

Fishtail Braid

My sweet sister B sent me a link to some fun hairstyles for girls and while looking through the site, noticed the concept of a fishtail braid.  I've probably seen it before, but didn't know what it was called, nor how to do it.  Today, it was time to learn!  I had 2 gracious guinea pigs (who only let me do one on each of them) so the finished 'do is a bit, um, unique.  :)  But I like the look of the braid and was happy that I could manage it and will surely try some more things with it in the future.

And here's one of big brother, because he wanted his picture taken, too.  :)

Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe #2 with our home grown sweet potatoes!  :)

I brought in a few potatoes and after washing/boiling/peeling/mashing/pureeing them, I had more like 2-3 cups than the 1 cup that the recipe called for.  So we doubled the recipe!  It worked out fine and now I have 2 dozen cookies in the freezer for another time.

Pan #2 and 3

Pan #4

What's left of Pan #1  :)

 Everyone thought they were a hit!  You didn't notice a 'sweet potato' taste at all... just yummy chocolate chip cookie goodness!

Silly girl

Getting this girl to give a 'normal' smile is a real feat.  

the new 'do

I have kids, too

There seems to be an abundance of plant pictures and no fun kid pictures - I definitely must fix that!

Last week, J had a haircut.  After a haircut, the kids get to play in the water, with J being the first to get hosed down (and get all the hair off his neck.)

He tried to work it where only he and E were in one pool while R and P were in the other pool.  (T was taking a nap.)  It never really worked and so R ended up with a pool to herself for most of the play time.  Silly kids.

At the very end, E discovered that she could 'inflate' her sock.  Too funny!

New life!

While I had my camera outside taking pictures of the pumpkins, I decided to take pictures of the other plants as well.  (I wouldn't want to hurt any feelings by playing favorites.)

Check out the new leaves on our grape vines!  They're making it!

The happy swiss chard

 The happy tomato plants

New okra plant #1 (being guarded closely by a robot)

New okra plant #2

 P's marigolds are still thriving as are the rather wild looking basil

And our latest backyard addition - a rain barrel!

We actually bought the rain barrel before our most recent (and long awaited) rain so it is nicely filled, too!  It is in a rather odd spot and somewhat of an eyesore, but that is where a TON of rain comes cascading off our roof when it rains.  (We don't have any gutters, which is why we can't keep grass in that spot, either.)  The bricks are the leftovers from our garden landscaping.

We put out the baby pools and a few buckets down the row (where we should have gutters) and caught that water, too.  Once the rain stopped, I scooped (and scooped and scooped) water into watering cans to pour into the rain barrel.  So it was completely filled.  I've since used it to water the garden - yeah for free water from God!  

Ewww! or My Plants Wear Panty Hose

One (just one) of the frustrating factors of gardening is the potential disease and pest problem that can develop out of nowhere.  (Remember the recent loss of a plum tree?  *sigh*)

The happy looking pumpkin plants

So the night before last, the kids and I were outside in the backyard and I happened to walk by the pumpkin plants and notice HOLES in the stalks.  Ack!  And they were holes similar to what I had seen before... the one time we grew squash.  It was the oh so yucky squash vine borer at work.  I was actually quite sure of this before doing any internet research.  (I guess I have learned a few things from past experience gardening.)  Now when I discovered this on the squash plant, I just threw in the towel.  We had already harvested more squash than I knew what to do with, I was pregnant (shocking, I'm sure), and I was grossed out.  If you want to be grossed out, too, check out this link.

Well, this time it is on our pumpkin plant.  We have yet to see (much less harvest) any pumpkins, and the plants have been looking so pretty!  I'm pregnant again (you really shouldn't be shocked) and once again, grossed out.  BUT, this time I had caught the damage early.  The rest of the plant still looks very healthy, so I thought there might be a chance at saving it.  Saving it, that is, if my dear husband would come take care of the dirty work.  (Did I mention I was grossed out?)

(Imagine super hero theme music here)  It's Big J to the rescue!

Later that same night at about 9:45, we went out and Big J performed surgery on our pumpkin plants.  Not just one time, but 3 times!  What a guy.  And he for sure killed 2 of the little varmints.  (We never found the third one.)  But remember, this is surgery.  Plants don't generally do surgery, so there is no guarantee that they'll survive.  However, they certainly weren't going to survive if we had left the little parasites inside.

So once the dirty work was done, I stepped in to patch up the poor plants.  Don't they look stunning?

What, you don't dress your plants in old panty hose?

Pray with us that at least one of these guys survives so that we can have some pumpkins!

Eating what we Sowed

Yesterday we made sweet potato bread out of some of our home grown sweet potatoes.  We used a lot of the funny shaped ones, and they worked just fine!  The kids all enjoyed making and eating our special snack.  

Here's the recipe we used.  (Yes, it should taste good considering the crazy amount of sugar.)  We made 6 small loaves with this recipe and we still have more sweet potatoes to use in the near future!

http://www.food.com/recipeprint.do?rid=26162

Olympus Mons

You know where that volcano is, right?  Here's a hint... it's the biggest volcano in the solar system!  (Now ask my kids the answer if you don't know.)

Last week we did the classic volcano experiment.  (You know, the one with the baking soda and vinegar.) Our science book talked about making a volcano out of salt dough, but Big J suggested we go for something slightly more realistic... the digging spot!  We did the experiment 2 different days (just for fun).

Day 1

Prepping the interior of the volcano

Yelling "VOLCANO" in anticipation

Watching it 'erupt'

Day 2

Prepping the interior

Green lava!  (I was out of red food coloring)

My cutie

I did R's hair this way a couple weeks ago and thought she looked extra cute.  (Yes, I'm biased.)  Her hair is getting so long!  And the hairbows were made for me by my mother when I was but a wee lass.  :)

Frustrations and Happiness

I have found gardening to be a bit frustrating this summer.  Maybe it's caring for a garden while also caring for 5 kids.  Maybe it's the heat.  Maybe it's being tired and feeling a bit yucky from early pregnancy.  Probably, it's a bit of all 3.  

Frustration #1 - Struggling grape vines.  We clearly did not prepare the ground around the planting location well enough and while they started off doing great, they hit a certain point and have REALLY been struggling.  We've been amending the soil and giving them extra nutrients and things are looking up.  Still, it's been frustrating.

Frustration #2 - We lost a plum tree.  I don't know for sure what disease, but it came and took the tree within a few days of us noticing a problem.  *Sigh*

Frustration #3 - The sweet potatoes started off slow, but then seemed to take off!  We really enjoyed the beautiful greenery in that spot of the garden.  Then we pulled a couple... and...  nothing.  :(  I felt like crying.  (Okay, I did cry.  I am pregnant, you know.)  So the best we could figure, we didn't prepare that spot very thoroughly either and the ground was just too hard for the potatoes to grow.  Therefore, they put all their growing power into those pretty leaves.  

Happiness #1 - We actually did get some sweet potatoes!  While our assessment probably is true, we didn't dig deep enough to find the sweet potatoes the first time.  Once I got over my initial sadness and told Big J he could pull them all, he DID find some sweet potatoes.  

E counts 44 (although I think that is 44 pieces, not actual potatoes).  Big J accidentally cut some of them in half as he dug.  Here they are drying in our dark and humid garage.  They aren't real big, but they are real and grew in our garden!  

Happiness #2 - We still have one plum tree!  

Happiness #3 - We get to 'start again' with a fall garden!

Pumpkin patch

Swiss Chard

Broccoli

New tomato plants