The tragedy of the bald butterflys

 

Lavella was racing all around Being A Butterfly yesterday, when suddenly she stopped short.

Lavella (sad look, sad voice):  "But Mommy, if a butterfly didn't have any antennas, it would be bald!"

Me:  "Okay...."

Lavella (nearly crying voice):  "BUT I DON'T WANT IT TO BE BALD!!"

Oh dear.  There are times when I literally have nothing to respond with.

Dinnertime

Elijah: "MOMMY!  Can we eat ALL of these things?!  It's just like CENTERS in KINDERGARTEN!!"


 


 

Watercolor children

Jonah's first watercolor experience.  I love watching the four of my children together when they are all peacefully engaged.  Truly, it's a thing of beauty.


 


 


 


 


 


 

Pickles and more!

It's sweater weather, and that's a beautiful thing.  Well, at least it's sweater mornings and sweater evenings.  Happiness in a big wooly hug.

I've been inspired to do some refridgerator and freezer canning lately.  In the past few days, I've pickled red onions (from The New Moosewood Cookbook by Molly Katzan -- recipe here on Google Books), pickled some sweet and spicy Zucchini and white onions (by Heidi Swanson of 101cookbooks), made a jar of Tsukudani (pickled Nori), and a recipe of fabulously velvety Lemon Curd.

It pleases me to see all of the jars lined up in a row.

 
With the red onions and the zucchini, I actually halved the recipes, and it still made WAY more than we could possibly eat in a week (expected shelf-life), so I put the extra jars in the freezer (with a bit of headroom for expansion in each jar), and I can pull them out as needed.  Also, I halved the recipe for the pickled Nori, and ended up with one full jar -- plenty for us.

 


Pickled red onions and pickled zucchini over a chicken/aioli salad:

 


Lemon curd spread thickly on pecan scones:

 

Oh man, now I'm getting hungry all over again.

Egg Drop Day!

Firemen came to Andrew and Elijah's school to help out with Egg Drop Day.  They brought their ladder truck, and dropped the protected eggs down from a great height.


 

Each child designed protective containers for their eggs.


 


 



 


Andrew's egg made it!

 


Of course he had to crack it.

 


Andrew's whole 1st grade class.

 


We sat in on Elijah's class before his grade went out for their egg drop.

 

The teacher was trying to explain how to ask a question.  Statements like "MY HOUSE IS RED TOO!" is not a question.  This was surprising to some.

 


 


 


 

Elijah was so sweet, taking Lavella by the hand and showing her how to walk properly in line to walk out to the egg-drop zone.

 


 


 


All done!

 


Elijah's egg was also unharmed, but of course he ALSO had to break his open...and then started to eat it raw.  Moments like these make me proud to be a mom.

 


 


After the egg dropping was over, we all ate lunch together.  I love this little crew a heck of a lot.