early summer days

Just a few early summer days, in snapshots....

S and H have discovered the joy of using the staple gun and stuffing things to make them 3-dimensional. I have a new appreciation for the seemingly superfluous cotton ball (the stuffing).

We are watering the gardens and watching them grow, ever so slowly this year. We rescued a new (to us) terracotta strawberry pot from the recycling center and then a couple of (2 for 1) boxes of strawberry plants they were clearing out at the garden center. Hopefully this super cheap and easy little project will yield a good little crop of berries for us, maybe even for a few years before the clay eventually crumbles.

Spent the evening, just the kids and I, adventuring along the river of a local park. The longest days of the year are certainly my favorite. The kids agree. The hours of play (and tree hugging) time of each day has been seriously extended!

The art of blanket fort building. It started out small, but this only inspired the kids to go big! It wasn't long before K thought it would be a great idea to set up the tent we use for camping instead!
Since we're heading out for our first camping trip of the season in less than 2 weeks, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to practice setting it up again (it was easier than I remember it being last year - yay!). Hours of soft toy - pet shop - horse stable play ensued....


We continue to observe for changes in the tadpoles.... We've had reports back from the other families who took some tadpoles from us that theirs are much larger and growing much faster. This has me perplexed (since none are dying and all seem happy and active). I can only deduce that we have too many in too small of space, which is making the water toxic too quickly (too much poop!) to be healthy and there is too much competition for food. This week we'll release a good number and see what happens. We also started sprinkling in fish flakes as I was told they like them. Stay tuned.

Ah, and the Donvier. Grandma scored this hand crank Donvier Chillfast ice cream maker second-hand (I think it was $5) and sent it to us in a parcel. It absolutely rocks! First we made vanilla and it is agreed that it's the best we ever had. The recipe used a perfect combination of milk and cream, rather than all cream (in the ice cream we made with a friend's electric mixer previously we used 100% cream and it was far too rich for me).

This week tried coconut milk ice cream. We are definitely all preferring the dairy as the coconut lends itself to a slimy texture on the tongue but it was an interesting and FUN experiment to say the least....



What can I add to this?
Oh, trips to the water park on the few occasions that it's been warm enough.
Pulling horsetail from the gardens non-stop (K is on a mission and S has also recently joined in the battle!).

Reading Hardy Boys mysteries (currently finishing "What Happened at Midnight?), which keep us all on the edge of our seats in a fun and exciting way without giving anyone nightmares. They're also incredibly rich in vocabulary which I myself find as a welcome change and challenge! We're both getting good at deducing word meanings by paying close attention to the context in which they're being used (because neither of us can stand to interrupt the flow of a suspenseful story with trips through the dictionary!).
Researching and thinking up our own good camping meals and snack ideas.... there are so many great sites for this online so I'll leave you with a few good links:

Camping Food Ideas (Complete Family Guide - recipes and ideas)
Simply Frugal (camping food recipes ideas)
Canadian Canoe Routes (camping food recipes and ideas)

That's enough goodness for now!