Titus' Last Saturday Before 2nd Grade

 

Titus got to hang out with Brian this morning, on his last Saturday before school starts.  Brian took Titus flying in the Cherokee for about a half hour.  Looks like they both had fun!

What I great smile!

 

Titus flying and looking out the window.

 

 

They flew over Winona, where Isabele and I were helping at my mom's garage sale.

 

Sweet Potato Box

I read that it is possible to grow 100 pounds of potatoes in 4 square feet.  So, I bought the lumber and made the box - 2 feet by 2 feet, with a pile of boards to add as the plants grow, making the whole thing eventually 2-3 feet tall.  You are supposed to be able to harvest from the bottom while the top continues to grow.  We shall see.

Just the other day I added my second layer of boards, and some more dirt.

I'll have to take a better picture later - so the whole box is visible.  But this is a start.

Brian's Pitts Cross Country

Brian has been working on getting a Pitts biplane ready to fly out to Rookie School in Reno Nevada.  The air race is in September, but he first has to attend and complete Rookie school, which is the second week in June.  Here are pictures from today, just before he left.

 Final check of the paperwork.

 

 Just a good picture - talking to his dad about something.

 

 A rare family photo.

 

 Brian and the Pitts.

 

 Brian and Titus.

 

 Being goofy.

 

 Brian and Isabele.

 

 Being goofy.

 

Here he was starting to lean forward - love her expressions.

 

 

I just heard that he made it to Omaha / Fremont, Nebraska today.  Staying the night with some friends of Alan's from AirForce days.

Upcycled t-shirt to Isabele tank top

I have a huge box of t-shirts that Isaac made and sold some of on ebay years ago.  Trying to use them or sell them or something.  I found a free pattern and tutorial on making tank-tops for kids, so used an old shirt to try it before using my better fabric.

 The old shirt.

 Turned to tank top.  Then embellished.

 

Yes, I did the tatting - trying to pick it up again and this was some "practice" stuff that I didn't have a use for other than practice.  I thought it would go great with the beads I told Isabele I'd add to the neck.

 

I think it worked out great, and I'm sure Isabele will like it too.

Jalapeno and tomato plants

Pictures taken 28-May-2014

 

I will try to remember to add pictures throughout the summer.

 

08-Jun-2014 Update:

 

Regrowing Celery??

I saw a picture on Pinterest the other day that looked like someone was growing celery from the bottom part that we throw away when we buy celery at the store.  So, I just used up a bunch of celery and thought I'd look it up.  I found info that says you can, indeed grow a new celery plant from the base of the celery.  Some set the base in a dish of water overnight, some plant right away...but put it in the dirt and cover with about and inch of dirt.  Within a couple days there is new growth. 

This is a longer piece than what I saw online, but am going to try it...next one I'll cut shorter.

Since mine has been in the fridge for quite a few days, I'm opting to put it in water overnight.

08-Jun-2014 update
I put the celery in the dirt, covered by about an inch, 2 or 3 days ago.  Here's a picture of it today.

It's probably 3 inches tall!  Go celery.  Who would have guessed this was possible.

Quitting Facebook

I hear it's kind of going around in some groups...people quitting facebook.  I find that I waste too much time looking at it when I should be doing something else, or could be doing something more productive. 

I'm going to try posting stuff on my blog, rather than Facebook and see what I think of that for a while.

Now to dejunk the house in preparation for summer.  Hopefully it can stay relatively dejunked and make cleaning take much less time.  I'm pretty good at ignoring the mess, but it does bug me, especially when I come home tired after a busy day of fun summer stuff to a cluttered house. 
 

Momma Robin 2014

The shower basket is once again the platform for a robin nest on the trellis on my front porch.  Today, May 14, I found the first egg.  Now the count begins. 

New Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I tried a new chocolate chip cookie recipe last night.  It's a keeper.  Not sure which I like better, this one from DanaMadeIt or Mrs. Fields.  I cut the recipe in half (except for the eggs.  The whole recipe calls for 3 so I used 2.  Still can't figure out how to split an egg in half.)  As half made 4 dozen, and that's more than enough, here's the half recipe.

Dana Made It Chocolate Chip Cookies.
1/2 c Crisco
1/2 c butter
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar

mix these together.  I put my Crisco and butter in the microwave to soften as the Crisco was frozen and the butter was straight out of the fridge.  Once combined, add

2 eggs
1 t vanilla.

Beat for 3 full minutes.  Seriously.  Just do it.

Combine in a separate bowl
 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups plus an 1/8cup (I eyeballed this amount) flour.

add 1/2 at a time to the butter/egg mixture.

Then mix in a bag of chocolate chips.

I have a 1 TBSP scooper, so using that this recipe makes 4 dozen cookies (plus enough to nibble dough while baking)

Place 12-15 scoops on an ungreased, regular (not non-stick) cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes till just barely turning golden brown.  (I baked mine for 10 minutes).
Cool slightly on tray prior to transferring to cooling rack.  Make sure your spatula is clean as if it has chocolate/cookie goo on it the cookies will crumble/tear.

Mammoth Cave Trip

We went on our first official trip of 2014 this past weekend.  We left Saturday morning after breakfast to drive to Louisville, KY to spend the night. 

We are just leaving the house in these pictures, and yes, that's snow outside.

Titus still quite proud of his newly lost teeth (from Thursday)

 

We broke the drive up into approximately 2 hour segments.  Our first stop was at a kart track outside of Indy.

Brian wearing the sweater I knit for him this winter.

 

We stopped at a really cool park in Louisville.  It was rainy, but much warmer than the snow that we left behind hours before.

 

We also stopped at a glass blowing place, which was really cool!  We didn't understand the tour information from online, so didn't see any actual glass blowing, but will probably go back another time to give it a try.

 

One of the kids favorite parts of any trip is the hotel.  Brian gets hotel points when he is gone for work, so we get great deals on fancy rooms.  I love hotel points :-)

After the required jumping on the couch, watching TV and swimming, we headed out for dinner.
We went to Chuy's.  It was awesome!!  The ladies making tortillas were so fun to watch.  Made the wait seem like no time at all.

 A good picture of me.

 Tortilla making.  These ladies are incredibly fast.

Sunday morning.

 Kids watching some cartoons waiting for me to get ready for breakfast.

 After breakfast we headed to the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green.  The kids had fun in the children's area and looking at all the corvettes.

 Titus pretending he's taking work orders at an auto shop and Isabele looking on.

Brian watching the kids play.

 Titus and Brian looking at a display.

After the museum we stopped at Sonic for some lunch and then headed to Mammoth Cave National Park.

 Isabele waiting for Titus and Brian.

Brian, Isabele and Titus posing in the cave.  We went on the Domes and Dripstones tour.  It took about 2 hours and was easy walking with about 300 steps down and 200 or so up.  Isabele was very intimidated at the beginning and Brian ended up carrying her down those 300 steps.  After we got down the steps, she got much braver and walked the rest of the tour.  She was thrilled that she didn't have to bend over in the small spaces and found it quite amusing that Brian had to duck a lot.  Titus was a trooper, followed the rules to a T and did all the steps on his own.

 

After we were done with our cave tour and a stop at the gift shop, we headed back to Indiana.  The kids did a super job all around.  After an hour nap before we stopped to grab gas and dinner, the kids managed to stay awake until we got home that evening at 10:45. 

 

Isabele's Easter Dress and Bolero Jacket

Here's Isabele in the dress I made her for Easter.  Both the dress and jacket are fully lined.  I had fun making the outfit. 

Cutie.

 She's trying out the twirl-factor of this dress.

 

 Spinning!

 

 

Looking like such a big, little girl.

 

Yes, I let her play in the sand a bit, too.