1st Grade

Today is Rosty's first day of 1st grade.

My 1st Grader

Funny Face

Tweetsie Railroad 2010

Well, we made our annual trip to Tweetsie Railroad this year. We began this tradition in 2005. This year was a different year for a few reasons. This has always been a trip my parents do for the kids and we have always gone when Thomas the Tank Engine has been there. This year we went on a non-Thomas week. It was great!!! There wasn't a lot of people and Thomas items to buy weren't everywhere that you looked. The train ride actually had a "showdown" between the cowboys and the Indians where the Thomas train ride is very family friendly. Another difference was that Lee went with us this year(yeah!). In the past he has had to stay at the farm but we went on a Monday this year instead of a Friday. The last thing that really stands out about our trip is that Rosty was not able to ride a lot of the "kiddy" rides because he was too tall. So we have probably come to the end of an era of going to Tweetsie Railroad. Who knows what fun and exciting place Grandma will find for us to go next year!

The Menius family in jail

Lee & Charlie




Grandma & Rosty

Captain Charlie

Rosty

Charlie & Lee on the chair lift

(For those of you that know me well yes, I was on the chair lift behind them holding on for dear life. I rode with my daddy because I knew he wouldn't let me fall off!!)

Playground at Tweetise that has a small zip line

Charlie

Rosty

A Birthday Tradition

We always take the boys to "Mexico" for their birthdays. They love to wear the Mexican sombrero and have the waiters sing to them!

Here is Juan attempting to put the whipped cream on Charlie's nose.

The birthday boy.

When I told the boys I wanted a picture of both of them in the hats....this is what i got.

Peaches

This year I wanted to try something a little different than just canning peaches. I bought some delicious local peaches. I'm surprised we had any left to can because they were so good we kept eating them.

I don't remember now who I heard talking about brandied peaches but it sounded pretty good so I went looking for a recipe.

I actually learned something. You can put a peach in hot boiling water and then in cold water (like tomatoes) and the skins come right off.

Lee helped with the "skinning" and all the slicing.

Then I measured out 4 pounds of sugar covered with water & brought to a boil. Yes, you read that right 4 pounds of sugar. I read it, then read it again and then read it one last time to make sure 4 pounds was the right amount

I then added the peaches.

The almost finished product.

Doesn't this look yummy? I sneaked a taste and it was good!!!

The finished product.

Happy Birthday Charlie

Yesterday my baby turned 4 years old.

About 2 weeks ago I picked Charlie up from preschool and as we driving along I looked at him in the rear view mirror and at that point said to myself, "He has lost his baby looks and he looks like a little boy." I came home and told Lee that my baby was all grown up. I knew this day was coming but it came really quick. Me & Charlie made a deal. He told me that when it was just us I could still call him a baby but not around other people.

Charlie was so excited to open presents that we did not make him wait for his party to open the ones from us and some others who could not not make it to the party.

Here are a few favorites (or maybe just the ones that he half-way looked at the cameres).

Spiderman Silly Bandz

Batman over-the-door basketball hoop

Batman toy

I buy the boys a book every year for their birthdays. At the school book fair I found Charlie's Superhero Underpants....now who can resist that title??

Batman Cake (thank you Erica!!)

Lesson Learned

I have really enjoyed canning the last several years. There is something very satisfying about preserving fresh, locally grown food for your family to enjoy.

I decided to try banana peppers this year. I love to add banana peppers to my sandwiches & I was able to get fresh banana peppers at the Farmer's Market on Saturday from our good friends at Correll Farms. As you can tell from the picture below they have all kinds of peppers (& a lot of other vegetables) which they grow at their farm.

I looked in my trusty canning book for a recipe but could not find one for banana peppers so I went straight to the Internet. I found several recipes and they were all pretty much the same.

I mixed vinegar, sugar, pickling salt & water together and brought to a boil. In the meantime, I began cutting the banana peppers into rings. It clearly stated to wear gloves while cutting the banana peppers but do you think that I wore gloves? Of course I didn't! I prepared my jars & went to ladle the vinegar mixture into the first jar and WOW that opened up my eyes. I got all the jars prepared and placed in the canner. While the jars were processing I washed my hands really good and started cleaning up and then I got the "sensation." It was the feeling like my hands at "fallen asleep." I washed my hands again and then again......

Needless to say if my banana peppers turn out tasty and I decide to can them again I will be wearing gloves....lesson learned.

Here is my finished product.

The recipe suggested I wait 2 weeks before eating them so I'll have to report back on how they taste then.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

My Grandma turned 90 years old last week.

She is the oldest of 12 siblings. She had 9 children which produced 18 grandchildren and 25 great grandchildren (I think).

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

It's Summer...Let's Slip 'n Slide!!

Last year for Charlie's birthday he got a slip 'n slide. The boys love it! They have asked me for about 2 weeks to get it out so this week-end I got it out from the garage and cleaned it up. Monday after we got in from work & summer camp I set it up in the backyard. At first I had it going downhill in our yard but the water puddled too much so we moved it to straight. We also added dish soap (which from now on I will probably use baby shampoo just in case it gets in their eyes) so it would be slick.

Here is Rosty sliding in on his knees.

Another action shot of Rosty.

Charlie likes to run on the slip 'n slide. He hasn't quite got the concept yet.....

You can sort of see our new deck in the background. It has a pergola with green & white lights twisted around- it's pretty cool at night to sit on the deck with the lights on.

Working much better since we switched the direction.

Mel was drinking the water as it was spouting out. She had no clue what was going on and she would bark at the slip 'n slide.

Happy Father's Day

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

This was Lee's Father's Day gift...a hammock.

Here a few pictures of how we spent Father's Day.

We went to visit Lee's grandpa.

This is always a favorite of Rosty's when we go visit Grandpa. He even beat his daddy in checkers!

Father's Day would not be complete without a trip to Lowe's. I guess this should read- Sunday would not be complete without a trip to Lowe's.

Rosty is trying to be a robot.

No clue what Charlie is trying to do!

This was earlier in the morning when we were feeding. Charlie is small enough to get inside and scoop up the feed when it gets down to the bottom of the barrel.

End-of-the-Year Festivities

Rosty has finished his first year of school. He has completed kindergarten and is on his way to First Grade. We were so lucky to be at a good school and have a wonderful teacher and teacher's assistant. I wanted to cry yesterday because I'm going to miss his teachers and his classmates.

I had the opportunity to volunteer & help with class parties this year. I was probably there about once a month and I loved EVERY minute of it! It was great seeing the kids grow & mature in many, many ways.

Wednesday was the end-of-the year party. We decided to have an ice-cream party complete with hot fudge, caramel, cherries, sprinkles, oreos, & cookie dough. Here is a picture of Rosty eating his ice-cream.

Thursday was Field Day.

This was a new experience for me I don't remember having Field Day but as you can imagine it was hot.... it always is when activities like this are planned!

There were 15 stations the first was the Bounce House. It was like an obstacle course. Here is Rosty coming through the opening.

I thought this was a really cute game, it is called Chop Stick Chicken. You had to get the chicken to the frying pan using only the chop sticks- no hands!

There was a catchy name for this game but I call it the Fire Brigade. Rosty was the first person & he dipped water from a bucket into a cup to the person beside him and so on down the line until they filled up a milk jug.

As you tell it took them a few tries to get the hang of it. The girl in the pink should have been beside him but she was several feet away. They eventually got in a straight line (somewhat) and almost filled the jug to the top.

This was the HOT part of the games.

Black top + heat + water = steamy, hot black asphalt!!!

There were 4 different games in this area this game was to soak a sponge in water

and then run to the milk jug & wring the water into the jug.

Our last game!

My favorite.....because it was in the air-condition.

I can't even begin to explain this game it was just total chaos but the kids loved it! I'll just say it involved throwing balls & trying to knock down the bowling pins. But with 16 kids on the gym floor at once it got CRAZY!!

A tradition that I was unaware of but Rosty definitely participated in was the local Fire Department spraying the kids with the water hose. As you can tell the kids had a blast!

I know come August we'll start a new school year, meet our new teacher and start making new friends & making more memories!

Thanks to Rosty's teachers & all his classmates....kindergarten was a blast!!!

Watch out First Grade because here we come!!!

Poundcake

Anyone who knows me knows that I love animals. I always had cats growing up...lots of cats. The when I was 12 years old I asked for a goat for Christmas. I did not get the goat but I got a dog and that has started my lifelong love of dogs and always having dogs for pets.

So, on Sunday afternoon when I noticed that the ewe (female sheep) that had given birth to twins the day before was not letting one of her lambs nurse I went to into Farmer's Wife mode. I tried to put the lamb with the mom to make her nurse & the mom would kick her or nose her away. So you guessed it we have a new resident at our house. She is occupying our hallway bathroom for a few weeks.

Some of you may remember that in April 2009 we had a similar situation with a baby lamb who we named Cupcake. Cupcake's story was a little different because she was born when it was cold outside and her mom left her by herself. When Lee found her she was hungry & cold. He didn't think she would make it but I told him to bring her to me at work and I would try to save her. With the help of 2 of my co-workers we warmed her by using Ziploc bags filled with warm water and tried to feed her electrolytes. After a few hours she came around & she was the first resident of Hospital Menius.

Cupcake now lives at the farm with the other sheep. At first she did not want to stay with the sheep because she thought she was human but she has adjusted nicely. Some days she follows us around like a puppy dog and other days she just wants to be a sheep and ignores us.

So now we are introducing our new addition.........

Poundcake