Saturday Sweets: Blueberries!
This morning we went blueberry picking, and it's easy picking right now! 36.5 pounds in only 50 minutes! I can't wait to make all things blueberry! I'd love for you to share your favorite blueberry recipe below!
Garden Update: Late July
This is when the garden is happiest. Visible growth happens daily, especially on the summer squash, tomato, pepper, and tomatillo plants. It's also time to dig up the potatoes. We dug up a few pounds the other day, and a few pounds earlier in the week as well. I suspect we'll be digging up the rest over the next two weeks.
See that red spot in there? That's a strawberry! This is when we get a small second crop of everbearing strawberries. The tomatoes are just starting to ripen; we have picked only a handful. The snow peas are ending. In just a few weeks we will have more tomatoes than we'll know what to do with! I'm not fond of the heat. I'm even less fond of humidity (it makes me feel ill and like vomiting, gross), but I do love the fresh food from our garden so I try to tolerate it.
~Just for fun~
Ways to spot a gardener in the wild:
Dirty fingernails/knees
They start pulling weeds wherever they happen to be
They are wearing a really large hat, or rubber boots (and it isn't raining)
They ask to take your food scraps home for their compost bin if they see you throwing them in the trash
They sneak out at night to drop bags of squash on their neighbors' doorsteps
=)
See that red spot in there? That's a strawberry! This is when we get a small second crop of everbearing strawberries. The tomatoes are just starting to ripen; we have picked only a handful. The snow peas are ending. In just a few weeks we will have more tomatoes than we'll know what to do with! I'm not fond of the heat. I'm even less fond of humidity (it makes me feel ill and like vomiting, gross), but I do love the fresh food from our garden so I try to tolerate it.
~Just for fun~
Ways to spot a gardener in the wild:
Dirty fingernails/knees
They start pulling weeds wherever they happen to be
They are wearing a really large hat, or rubber boots (and it isn't raining)
They ask to take your food scraps home for their compost bin if they see you throwing them in the trash
They sneak out at night to drop bags of squash on their neighbors' doorsteps
=)
Free Summer Fun!
This week we finally got a chance to use our Kids Bowl Free passes! Massachusetts is one crazy, wacky state (commonwealth)? Whatever. They don't have regular bowling, only candlepin, eh (apparently candlepin is popular in some parts of Canada too)? On the plus side, the balls are small and easy for kids to hold and throw. The pins don't fall over like regular bowling pins, though. It's more likely they fall to the back than knock each other down. Also? YOU GET THREE BALLS PER FRAME! What? You'd think you'd bowl 10 every frame, but it happens far less often than you'd think. In any case, it's still fun.
If you haven't signed up, check out the website and see if there's an alley near you! We always get the adult pass, too. I've found it well worth the $25 for 4 named adults!
Another free thing we'll try tomorrow is the Bookworm Wednesdays at our local cinemas.
If the kids (ages 6+) fill out a one page book report, they get to see a movie for free! Tomorrow is Despicable Me 2, and of course my boys find the minions in the movie hilarious, so we are going to go. Here they are working on their reports:
I had my 6yo write the title, author, one sentence, and his name. I wrote a few more sentences he dictated to me, since he is still working on his writing confidence. He got a little frustrated, so I guess that means we need to spend a bit more time on it. We've slacked off on our more formal homeschooling the past few weeks in lieu of summer activities. We tend to be pretty relaxed homeschoolers, but we do try to work on reading and writing skills as they are important as a learning foundation.
We participated in another free program where you log reading hours and get free passes to Six Flags with the Read to Succeed Program, but I'm not sure we will actually use them as it's not close and would be a very long day trip. We also have plans to visit a different, more kid-friendly theme park so I'm not sure we need to do both anyway!
What free or almost free activities do you have in your area? Do you school through the summer?
If you haven't signed up, check out the website and see if there's an alley near you! We always get the adult pass, too. I've found it well worth the $25 for 4 named adults!
We participated in another free program where you log reading hours and get free passes to Six Flags with the Read to Succeed Program, but I'm not sure we will actually use them as it's not close and would be a very long day trip. We also have plans to visit a different, more kid-friendly theme park so I'm not sure we need to do both anyway!
What free or almost free activities do you have in your area? Do you school through the summer?
Summer in Full Swing!
We have been so busy this summer! It is really flying by. Here is the mini update!
Big Kid (H) went to tech camp that I won in a raffle (woohoo!) and created a video game called Frosty's Adventure, where Frosty must pick up bombs (snowballs?) and hit the people with them in order to pass, and then reach the green door to get to the next level. He created 12 levels in all and I was really impressed he was able to do this in a one week, half-day camp!
My favorite part about the beach? Going in the early morning when no one is there and running on the sand! Unfortunately it was very humid one day, which made for an unpleasant run, pouring rain another, and an obscenely early morning on another day, so I only ran twice there, but I did log 8.5 miles in those two runs so I won't complain any more about it.
This was a really neat surprise! When the kids and I were jumping waves, a young artist named Sofie drew this adorable sketch of us. I absolutely love it! She initially didn't sign it but I asked her to tell me her name and then to sign it.
I hope everyone is having a good summer so far!
Big Kid (H) went to tech camp that I won in a raffle (woohoo!) and created a video game called Frosty's Adventure, where Frosty must pick up bombs (snowballs?) and hit the people with them in order to pass, and then reach the green door to get to the next level. He created 12 levels in all and I was really impressed he was able to do this in a one week, half-day camp!
We harvested the first of our garden beets last week! It's one of the few vegetables both kids like, so I need to remember to start seeds every few weeks next year. This year I forgot until the first batch was almost ready. It looks like we'll have a few dozen in the current crop. We also picked the first of our peppers! That means it's been hot! Usually we don't get peppers until August.
This past week we went to Rhode Island. My parents rent a house there in summer and I took the kids for the week, where they got to play with their cousins and spend lots of time at the beach. We also went miniature golfing, go-kart racing, bowling, and out for special treats. How lucky are these kids?
My favorite part about the beach? Going in the early morning when no one is there and running on the sand! Unfortunately it was very humid one day, which made for an unpleasant run, pouring rain another, and an obscenely early morning on another day, so I only ran twice there, but I did log 8.5 miles in those two runs so I won't complain any more about it.
This was a really neat surprise! When the kids and I were jumping waves, a young artist named Sofie drew this adorable sketch of us. I absolutely love it! She initially didn't sign it but I asked her to tell me her name and then to sign it.
Hatched!
One of our praying mantis pods has hatched! I got them primarily to help control garden pests, but we'll just say they are for homeschooling science. =)
