Other Fun and Such

Summertime is here and we are soaking up all the fun we can!

I wanted to play with the 'magic eraser' on my new phone.  Since there were other people a the Oldsmobile rally, like a lot of other people, it seemed like a good time to try it!

poof!

Emily found a Jello mold for $.25 at a yard sale, and made us a 'fancy' Jello cake!

We added the unfancy ones from the day before and some sliced bananas to fill in the empty space.  The overall effect was very pleasing!

Grace came with me on errand day, and we found ourselves at the mall (trying to recycle her old tablet, at which we were unsuccessful.)  She got some only child treatment when we passed by the motion park.

I looked at the sign after she was mid ride, what a rebel!

Billy made up some tasty bbq chicken, which pairs so well with light summer fare!

On my walk back from dropping the big girls off at the bus (which has happened many days, but not every day) I  saw a 'drop zone' of flowers from one of our neighbors trees.

We do some 'light' learning in the summer, just to keep our minds sharp.  If Billy has the day off, we take the day off too, and they get the first and last week of summer schedule free.  Each of the other days we follow the schedule and no electronics until noon (unless of course you're on the app of the day!)

Juliet really liked the Morse Code section she found in one of the puzzle books, so I found a website to translate English into Dits and dahs! She's gotten pretty fast, and recognizes most of the letters!  She doesn't care much for the listening though, so I don't know how beneficial it will be for her. 

I have a list of things I hope to accomplish each summer, and by waking up to take the big girls to the bus stop, I usually have some time before the little ones awaken to knock out something before managing the summer schedule.  A few weeks ago it was wiping down the front porch siding.

Juliet woke up first, and she helped me do the really low panels. = )

Sometimes, the big girls bring home creations from their summer camp.  These are the fairy gardens that they made.  Alice's is the pink one and Emily's has the 7 ducks.  (William is the one in the "hole.")

On another day, they brough home paper mache hot air balloons with a basket that they wove!

We went to an estate sale one day, and when the twins finished, Avia walked them over to a playground, while Emily and I finished our shopping. 

We went to Oliveburger Fest with the Cornishes, and saw some interesting art...

....took some selfies...

...played some giant games...

...and of course ate some tasty oliveburgers!

We found an Anna wig at a rummage sale, so we had two princesses in the house!  (Once the wig came out of quarantine, of course.)

Aunt Rocky bought everyone McDonalds on what would have been my Grandmother's 100th birthday!!

I scored 5 packs of 50% tenders at Aldi!  I saw a video where someone used scissors to trim the meat, and it changed my life!!!!

Trimmed and ready for the freezer!

We bought a tiny Bingo game at an estate sale.  We are all ready for Jellystone!

The piles of boxes in the mudroom finally drove me crazy, so our first free weekend, Emily got to have her sale and the twins got to set up their lemonade stand!  

The stand came out really cute, considering they were all boxes from the takeaway pile at BJs!  Grace and Juliet made up the sign weeks ago, and I helped print out a totally legible one for them to add to the front.  I think they probably drank more lemonade than they sold!

We sorted and set up on a Friday afternoon, so she was open from 3-6, then the next morning from 9-12, but she wanted to go a little longer, and since the rain did not appear to be coming, she stayed open until 2.

At the end of the sale, we put everything on the curb for people to take for free!!!  We got rid of quite a bit that way, but got a spirt of rain that had Emily and me scrambling to box everything and load it in my car.  Thankfully it wasn't a hard rain, and we finished before the water really started coming down.

I bought a new container to set out cut fruit for the kids, and so far I'm really liking it!  It always looks so pretty!  (Sadly, that is not one of our cucumbers, yet...)

I love fresh bread, and made a loaf last week.  It sits overnight, so I have to have two days during which I am willing to make it, which makes it a little trickier.

For fourth of July Alice made us some Firework pancakes!

And my mom brought over a platter of deviled eggs. These were the only ones left, and now they're gone too. = )  Billy grilled out a feast for us, with enough leftovers for the kids and Avia to eat on while we were gone, and they still didn't finish it all!

I took the rest of the bbq chicken and made it into Tikka Masala tonight, made PB&J hot dog buns for lunch, and we'll have hot dogs and beans to finish of the rest of the hot dogs tomorrow!  

We still have some summer to look forward to, but August seems to be rushing at us full speed.

later days

Witcher Watching Party

Billy really enjoyed playing the Witcher 3 video game.  He'd tell me about it, and spent ample time researching stats when he'd play it.  So, when Netflix announced that they were creating a video version, he was excited.  He tried hard not to be, in case it failed to meet his expectations, but the closer it got, the more he talked about it.

So, I decided to throw him a Witcher watching party.  I invited Amber and Will (and their crew) and set to work on making it as close to that world as I could.

I think I went to a record number of thrift shops collecting steins and dishes.  One of my favorite finds were some aged wooden trays and some ceramic goblets.  I also snagged an ice bucket that was meant to mimic wood, and I put our "water from the well" in it.

My favorite project was the potions.  I stopped at a liquor store (at like 9 in the morning because they don't have blue laws in Michigan) and asked for the prettiest little bottles they had.  This is what the cashier and I came up with. = )

I took a before picture, in case someone actually wanted to drink one.

It took me about an hour to get off the labels, and once they were off I made my own.  Thankfully there are databases dedicated to the video games, so finding the names of potions was not too tough.  Fisstech will 'knock the user out immediately' so that label went on the tequila. = )

I also made some plum jam from plums!

Sadly, the pancakes that were supposed to have the jam needed to be cooked in my oven, which went out the day before I needed it.  = (  I was so sad.  So, I didn't make the pancakes, and I think I was the only one who tried the jam.  It was very flavorful, but not very sweet.  According to one recipe that I read (when I was trying to decide whether or not to skin them) I needed to pick ones that were a little riper than what I chose.

On the day of I dropped by Panera for some full loaves of bread, and then headed to our favorite BBQ place for a growler of ale.  Billy usually likes the Brown Ales, so that's what I picked.

One of the recipes was "Elf and Onion" soup.  They recommended beef in the absence of elf meat, so that's what I threw in.  But to help with aesthetics bought some decorative ears to toss in.

At our MOPS meeting last week, we made some signs out of stained wood and paint.  Mine reads "Bill of Fare" in Lithuanian.

Billy was very surprised, and I loved having Amber and Will over while we watched a brand new show the night it came out!

later days