Random Happenings From Last Week

We are really struggling this week (not sure if its allergies or a virus we are passing back and forth) so I'm very far behind in what I wanted to do and share for this week but we had so much fun stuff happen last week I thought I'd share a few random highlights...

First up...my little boy told me I looked like a princess so I thought "today is a good day to try for a new mug shot"...


Here's me trying to take a new picture of myself at the edge of my work parking lot (aren't the wildflowers pretty!) on my lunch hour looking into the sun with the wind blowing...  Next time I guess I need a helper! LOL

I enjoyed this tasty treat for breakfasts this week - adding my homemade strawberry freezer jam to some Greek yogurt.

I am a BIG list maker.  I have lists of my lists. And I did really good at making lists and charts from the Princess when she was little and they worked really well.  She's a list maker too.  Then along came little brother and organization took a back seat in the struggle for time...yes, it is ironic, isn't it...  But little Bub is now big enough to start catching on to the lists too and with the addition of skating lessons and summer special activities and field trips for both of them...  I looked for some more lists to help them ALL take more responsibility for their own needs and messes and I found this great site with free downloads  http://www.mommytracked.com/downloads

I survived a field trip to the zoo - you can find Potter Park Zoo at the bottom of the page on my list of favorite places.  It was a great trip really and for 3-5 year olds they were very good.  Its not a huge zoo and thankfully, its mostly in the shade so it was perfect for the little kids to cover a lot of ground in a short time.  It was the first "real" bus ride for most of the kids and they were as excited about that as anything else.  My son kept asking me for two days before and about 10 times that morning "So Momma, we take the truck to school and the bus to the zoo and the bus to school and the truck home? Oh, OK."

The otters were a big hit and most happy to show off for an eager audience.

The kids had a lot of fun howling at the wolves - and then proceeded straight across the path to continue howling at the ostriches.  Mommy and daddy ostrich had a big pile of eggs and were not so amused by the howling.  :)  In the farm animal area they had a new batch of baby goats that had only been there for two days.  The goats are in an area where they let the kids go in and pet them.  Lots of giggles ensued as the kids (children) chased the kids (goats) from one side of the pen to the other.  Eventually the goats gave up.

My son's biggest desire was to see the tigers but even they had retreated to the cool underground interior enclosures that are not visible to the public.  These two female lions, however, were antsy and paced the glass - the boys thought it was funny - the adults were creeped out.

We hit the drinking fountain and the sprinkler on our way back to the bus as temps were creeping into the 90's and before we hit the main road out more than half the kids were curled up asleep.  This guy put his head on my lap and snored the entire way back to school and woke up a sweaty, drooling mess to pronounce he was ready for pizza, lol.

It was a lot of fun but then I went home and took a nap too!

The heat has been killer here - us Michiganders are just not cut out for this kind of heat and drought.  We have gotten a few showers finally, but we could use a lot more.  Because of the lack of rain, my usual veggie garden spot is dry and hard as cement.  So I decided to put to use some pallets I had in the barn and try the pallet garden I had seen on Pinterest and put it along the north side of my barn where it can catch some of the rain that comes off the roof and cover an area the dogs dug up as well.  Pictures to come.

My daughter was demonstrating the batting jug and I got this funny picture after the jug got stuck in the upper branches...






And if you are in Michigan, you may have heard of Son-In-Law's.  They show up at a lot of the events like hunting expo's peddling free samples of their dip mixes, barbeque sauces, hot pickles and other spicy man-treats.  You'll never forget them after their horseradish brings you to tears!  I whipped up their Zippity Dip in no time with a random assortment of dippers from the cabinet for hanging by the pool at my sister-in-laws.  Actually, this one can be made not so spicy by adjusting the amount of seasoning added - its more garlicky than hot and makes a great grilling spice for pork chops too.  If you like to almost cry while eating spicy goodies (or your man does and you can stand to be around him after he has eaten that kind of heat...) you must check out Son-In-Law's!  I'm not affiliated or paid by them in any way - although if they would like to send me some of their goodies my dude would be very happy, LOL!