Summer isn't over!!!

This week we headed to the Washtenaw 4H fair with our stowaway Lila, my friend Emily's daughter. 

 We enjoyed touring the barns looking at the animals and also the craft/art/produce barn. Then we settled in to see the main event.

Maggie and Clara showing their cows.

They both did well, considering neither of their cows decided to lay down, and weren't as vocal as some of the other cows being presented, and they didn't have running water because of an electrical issue they were having at the fair. Clara didn't place in this event but she did get....

First place in Market Class and Reserve Grand Champion overall in Feeders! Well done, Clara and Huey!!!

Every year I find it fun how sticky purple green beans are. They are literally like Velcro to clothing, as Alex is displaying here. 

Alex got a bee in his bonnet about seeing if he could hook up the Nintendo Switch to the cars video system. With a little digging and a bit of trouble shooting we figured it out. The kids are over the moon that they can play Mario Cart while I'm driving listening to all the sound effects. *eye roll*

On another hot day, because that's all we've gotten this summer, we headed to a local beach with some friends and enjoyed a morning in the water.

Evan enjoyed himself looking for rocks and shells. Alex was there too but he was sun bathing on the floaty we brought and I didn't get a picture of him. 

Alex finally got to use his & charcuterie board. He was very excited to make these boards, and we all enjoyed a delightful lunch.

I had a hummingbird moth visiting my garden this week.

We had the Christman family over for a pancake dinner. We made cinnamon swirl pancakes and banana bread pancakes, with some fruit and sausages.

Yum!!!

Then the kids lit off a few fireworks and sparklers before they departed. 

Eliza and I made some Gluten Free sugar cookies for our family gathering with the Degen family the following day. We all enjoyed a riveting game of Telestrations. 

Eliza got her wish and we all enjoyed KFC after church. 

Eliza loves fried chicken and we have been trying to find her a fried chicken place, and this was on our bucket list for the summer to visit. After this fried lunch we headed to see Elio at the MJR, another summer bucket list item checked off.

6th Week of Summer

While the AC was getting fixed the kids and I enjoyed a riveting game I got from the library. You have to select plants and make sure they have the correct light requirements and feed them and water them. I know what you're thinking, doesn't sound like a game I would enjoy at all. :) We also got the garage door fixed, a cable broke so thankfully it wasn't too bad of a fix.

Eliza and Evan finally did a baking show it's called "The Baker's Bakery" where they made chocolate cloud bread on video.

It was kind of like a chocolate meringue 

I've been seeing Black Swallowtail butterflies in the garden. I think the ones that were eating my dill have transformed into butterflies. 

Summer nights are a great time for ice cream on the deck.

My volunteer cucumelon has started to climb and I see a few baby cucumelons on it. 

Eliza showing off the height of the garden. After the big rain storm we got both the tomatoes and cucumbers have fallen over and are expanding to the left or right.

This dragonfly in the cucumbers was huge! It was as big as a leaf and you can see in the picture above the leaves are not small. 

Harvested oregano and thyme to dry for the winter soups. Put the leaves in my dehydrator and in a day they were dry and crispy.

This week for science we looked at Ph's with one of the kids science kits. We made mixture of an acid, a base and an indicator of cabbage water.

We had fun mixing and seeing how the colors changed depending if it was more basic or acidic.

Mike and I made foil boats and the Sheiko event we attended. Evan tested to see if they were sea worthy in a large puddle. My speedboat design did well, and Mikes pontoon did well but was a bit slower. :)

Summer isn't summer without a visit to Greenfield Village. It was a cool day with a lovely breeze and it was perfect to walk around. We went to the farm this time, which we haven't really been to. I quizzed the kids on what was growing in the gardens and we toured the pottery area and glass blowing buildings. 

And a visit is not complete without a ride on the train.

I visited with my friend Emily for the weekend while the kids

 and Mike.....

tried White Castle and ate ~30 sliders, which they really liked....

Had a late night swim with friends where they were kind enough to supply swim suits to my people...

Visited Aunt Jamie and met Davey's pet scorpion.....

And got to ride dirt bikes and got ~15 bug bites each.

and.....Evan picked the first carrot of the season Sunday before we left for church.

5th Week of Summer

 

We finally made it to the new Scotch Elementary playground. Eliza will be attending school here in the fall so it was nice to get a lay of the land. This is just a small portion of what there is, but it was the only time they were all together in one area.

Evan enjoyed his week at soccer camp. We were so thankful for the cool down, and one day he had camp at the middle school because of the rain, also the one day I remembered to take a picture. He had a great time and I think we'll do this camp again next year.

Eliza decided she was bored to I pointed her to the craft bin and she decided to paint.

She painted this multi layer painting and glued it all together.

Alex also got creative and drew different animated characters.

 

Alex attended a potato chip tasting at the library. The person putting it on was kind enough to let the other two join in on the tasting. There were chips from all over the world. Strangely enough Eliza liked the seaweed chips the best. 

They got to taste the chip and then guess what kind it was. There were a few spicy ones that caught them off guard. 

I tried to make steak on the grill this week.... and failed pretty badly. Turns out they were way too fatty and they just caught on fire and burned to a crisp.

To make myself feel better I put on my old wedding dress.... Eliza is holding it together in the back. :)

I harvested my garlic this week. The bulbs weren't very big, and I only got about 15 but that's ok. They are all mine and now they are in the basement curing.

I harvested some basil and made pesto and then picked some tomatoes to make this delicious sandwich for lunch. 

We finally made it to the park this summer with Eliza's kindergarten crew for a meal together. We had a lovely evening with lots of food, friends.....

....and water balloons and a hose.

One of Evan's (and our) friends passed away this week and we were asked to make a dessert for the memorial. Evan decided he wanted to make chocolate chip raisin oatmeal cookies.

The funeral service was nice and pastor did a great job remembering her. 

Julie and Evan had a lovely friendship. She thought of Evan as her boyfriend because he would bring her flowers from the garden and hug her when he saw her at church. She was 103 when she passed away, a year shy of her mothers age, and we will all miss seeing her at church and hugging her and hearing her stories of days past.

The garden is closing in on itself. The cucumbers are reaching across the isles and grabbing on to things to drag them closer to it or pull them towards themselves. The tomatoes have grown to the top of their trellis's and are starting to topple back down. The peppers are 2' tall, and the dill trees have started falling over so I tied them to the fence. 

We have been battling moles for three years, so I finally found something that works. We got three moles in two days. We won't be twisting our ankles this fall. 

Eliza was asked to be in her friends sister's Quinceanera, when she celebrates becoming a woman. Eliza helped by handing out fans and gifts at the church and reception. 

Everyone looked beautiful and her dress was beyond words.

We got to visit another church in Detroit and heard the service in Spanish, where we followed the cues from the Spanish speakers to stand and sit. It was a bit warm that day and the church didn't have AC, but we made it through and enjoyed the serviced.

We all cleaned up pretty well for the party.

There was even a dancing light up robot at the reception. The girl that were celebrating had two outfit changes and each outfit had a choreographed dance. It was a wonderful evening that we all enjoyed and the kids kept saying it was like a wedding.

The next morning we got up and found our garage door was busted. So not only is our AC on the fritz, our garage had to act up again and who knows how much this is going to cost us.