Dough Day

This afternoon we made two types of cornstarch based dough ~ one with hand soap and one with baking soda and water.  The kids played with both and realized you can't really form the hand soap dough.  You can have a lot of fun breaking it AND letting it drip into a puddle, but if you try and make it into something it'll eventually turn into a blog.  The baking soda dough, on the other hand, is great for making into things.  They had to make a pot with part of the dough and made critters with the rest.  Later in the week we will sand and paint the pot ~ and I'm sure the critters will need some color too!

1 c. cornstarch with about 1/2 c. of hand soap makes a fun dough

You can't make anything but it feels really neat!

Making a pinch pot

"I'm going to make a cat"

Bailey's creations 

Gregory's

What's happening...

Summer is rolling along.  We've been busy with swim lessons for the last few weeks.  We have just a tad over four weeks left of summer vacation.  

Yesterday we learned a few stencil/charcoal techniques 

We worked in the garage to keep the mess to a minimum, but it was a little TOO HOT

Bailey's finished piece

Our first sunflower bloomed!  The flower is SO HEAVY it broke the stem!

Tonight Daddy went to help build booths for the Obon and the kids and I practiced dancing.  We met the Yamadas at the church.  Bailey is dancing with Anne

Gregory hung out with Gavin and Mrs. Yamada.  Daddy didn't get much building done.  He had a few choice words for me to add to our blog, but I'll just leave it at ~ They aren't very organized.  Hope sushi making goes a little smoother. :)

Reunion!

A year has passed and today it was time to get together with my girlfriends from high school!  We chatted from 11:30am - 7:00pm!  We ate lunch, had lots of desserts and had such a great time catching up!  While I visited with my friends, Daddy took the kids to lunch at Taco Bell and to see the movie Turbo (in 3D).  Fun day for us all!

My Corn is Finally Here! (Post from Farmer Gregory)

Today we went swimming, then we ate lunch, then we went to go outside to look at the veggies.  Then we found some eggplant and one was curled like a doughnut.  Then Mommy said that the corn might be ready to pick.  So we picked some corn.  Then we went inside to peel it!  And we are going to eat it tonight.  

Corn Peeling

Need to get every scrap off the corn

It looks yummy!

Our First Potato Harvest

 Today we had our first potato harvest.  Well, not sure if "harvest" is a good choice of words, but we pulled two of our plants thinking we'd have enough for dinner tonight.

We pulled the two yellower plants

See the potato?

Digging around for more

Well, this is what we "harvested" today.  Maybe we should wait another month because we saw a bunch of teeny tiny potatoes on the roots still.

I guess the kids will have potatoes with our roasted chicken!  And we also picked a couple Paul Robeson tomatoes (but I don't think they are Paul Robeson's)  They are delicious!  

Adventure to SF ~ Exploratorium

Today after swimming lessons we headed out for San Francisco.  I decided we had to visit the Exploratorium in it's new location off the Embarcadero.  In fact, it is right around the corner from my old office!  We parked in the lot we used to park in every day!  Anyways, we spent 2 hours there and didn't even finish looking at 1/3 of the place.  It is HUGE now and so many exhibits to have fun with.  

First week of swimming is over ~ 2 more weeks to go

Exploratorium

This was their favorite exhibit ~ playing with iron ore and a magnet

Bailey balancing blocks

Kids dancing around

Making shapes

In front of the old Bay Bridge ~ the new one is gonna be BEAUTIFUL!

Came home and checked on our veggie garden ~ Look at all those little corns

AND POTATOES!!  Well, only one in the picture, but we have more!

Jammin' 2013

Today Mom and I made four batches of apricot jam!  We are once again set for the year!  Whoo hoo!

Emma Turns 10!

We celebrated Emma's 10th birthday yesterday at Grandpa and Grandma's house!  Double digits are the big thing these days and we partied like there was no tomorrow!  We filled our day with swimming, eating, playing, chatting and just having a great time.  

Happy 10th Emma!

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Lawn Update

New lawn looks beautiful!  Daddy is moving along ~ said these rolls are much heavier (and larger) than the Home Depot sod so he's getting a workout.  Neighbors are giving him LOTS of breaks.  I think he ends up chatting 10 minutes for every 20 minutes of work.  He likes to get the scoop so he doesn't mind.

So far 1 1/2 pallets are done

Daddy pounding the grass in

Doesn't it look lovely?!

Now he is thinking he'll have to redo all this

Stuff going on...

Daddy ordered 1100 square feet of sod and it got delivered today around 1pm.  Looks beautiful, but Daddy has a project ahead of him!

First row is laid ~ Piece of cake!

Check out all those rolls

We have more~

Lots of ground to cover!  Good thing it is COOL today!  Low 80s if you can believe it! 

Here's the rest of it!  Sure is a lot of lawn.  This HUGE semi truck (? Had a flatbed) came to deliver it

My little man is sick ~

Okay, see this sign?  Well, Zillow had our house listed for sale for a week and we are having an "Open House" on Sunday!  Our realtor said we should post a sign just in case people come because they will just walk into your house and start looking around.  Let me tell you, it is a lot harder to remove a listing from Zillow than you think.  We had to find the realtor who listed it and have her remove it and then I had to get Zillow to remove the Open House since she didn't do that.  HUGE HEADACHE!  (And someone did ask Clark if our house is for sale last weekend so someone did see the listing ~ let's hope no one barges into our house or backyard on Sunday!)

Oh Daddy is moving along!

Cuz he has a little helper!!  (Bailey has been quite busy today!  She also helped me make red, white and blue candy, finger jello and rice krispie squares this morning!)