Water Slide

Swimming lessons are at a different pool this year and the children had originally been told that the water slide would not be available to them at this pool, because the time was reserved for lessons only, not for play time.





Today was the last day of swimming for this week and the children did work hard, they even learned some very basic life saving skills, so the coach talked the pool managers into turning on the slide at the end of class.



It was fun just to watch how excited they all were over this unexpected treat!

The First Day of Swimming

This morning was the first of this summer's "Aquabilities" swimming lessons. Four days a week, for the next 6 weeks, Blaze will be working on his swimming skills.

Tea Sets for Little Boys

There is nothing "unmanly" about wanting to have a spot of afternoon tea, after a hard day of battling monsters or building lego cities, but most play tea sets are designed with girls in mind. The brightly colored, flower printed, tin tea set at school, didn't scare off Blaze and his friends, who quickly took over the tea party the minute the girls wandered off, but it did make me wonder if there were slightly more masculine looking (or at least gender neutral looking) toy tea sets out there.



It turns out that there are several kinds of tea sets that are not pastel colors or covered with flowers.

For a china set, there is this option (click on picture to see where it is available):



I prefer a more rugged, less breakable option, though.

A tin set that would be good for a younger boy, is the Curious George set.



This sailboat design is adorable, too.



In the end, we created our own stainless steel set, which can remain a set of useful pieces even after Blaze has grown out of playing with them.

The tea pot was from an Asian grocery store and the cups were from Ikea.





Blaze has kept this table setting up for several days, now, keeping the pot full of ice water, so he can take breaks from playing outside. He comes in very hot and sweaty, pours himself a cup of cold water and relaxes a few minutes, before running back out to play.



I do think it's both cute and funny on those few occasions when he has come in all stressed out about something and announced, "I really need a tea party!"

Like father, like son:

Thrift Store Shopping and Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese for Grown-Ups

I did a little resale store shopping this week and came home with a couple things that make me happy.

A two tiered tiffin for $1.79, that still has the tag on it.



A hardcover copy of Black Ships before Troy for Blaze for $1:




I had been wanting a popover pan for awhile, so I was very excited when I found this one for $3.



Bringing home this popover pan, inspired last night's dinner.

Tomato-Basil Bisque recipe found here:
http://cookingsteampunk.blogspot.com/2011/06/tomato-basil-bisque.html

This makes a lot of soup. I was able to freeze some for a future meal.


Swiss Cheese Popovers

1 1/4 Cups milk

1 1/4 Cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1/2 Cup shredded Swiss cheese

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.

Pour milk into a mixing bowl. Add flour and salt while mixing with a hand-mixer or whisk. Add eggs, one at a time, while continuing to beat.

Spray popover cups with baking spray or heavily grease. Fill each cup 3/4 full of batter. Divide the Swiss cheese between the 6 popovers, sprinkling it on the top (don't worry if it sinks into the batter).

Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake another 20 minutes or until golden.

First Day of Summer: Exploring Inner-City Nature

I may have mentioned this before, but, Gainesville has an impressive amount of "green space" inside the city. This may be because much of it is swamp and therefore can't be developed, but never-the-less, it is nice to have all these little pockets of nature all around us.

Blaze had an appointment at prosthetics this morning to adjust the leg brace and stop it from squeaking, then both speech and physical therapy this afternoon, but we still found time to enjoy the first day of summer in nature, without ever leaving the city.









The inexplicable structure made of white doors, out in the woods.







It was 100 degrees today, so after the last therapy, Blaze and I went in search of a cool creek to play in. The water level was pretty low, because we are in desperate need of rain, but it was still fun to wade around, looking at tiny fish.







The troll under the bridge:



Happy Summer everyone!

Eggs Benedict

Eggs Benedict

toasted English muffins

fried Canadian bacon

poached eggs ( I recently purchased a flower shaped, silicone egg poaching cup at World Market, that I think is very cute)

Hollandaise sauce


Hollandaise Sauce

2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

3 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 Cup butter


Beat egg yolks and lemon juice with a fork, in a 1-quart sauce pan. Add 1/4 cup butter and turn heat on low. Stir constantly while butter melts. Add the other 1/4 cup of butter and continue stirring until the sauce thickens. Serve right away.

Ancient Greece

Regular school is over for the summer, but that just means we get to continue homeschooling at a more relaxed pace. We have continued studying world history, by learning about ancient Greece.

One of the books we read was Hour of the Olympics, by Mary Pope Osborne.



Like many of the Magic Tree House series, Hour of the Olympics, has several on-line resources that can go with it.

http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading10/hour_of_the_olympics.htm

http://www.abcteach.com/free/c/crwd_magictreehouse_houroftheolympics.pdf

http://www.magictreehouse.com/#BookDetail-Hour_of_the_Olympics

This week's bedtime stories have been chapters from Jason and the Argonauts. During yesterday's reading, Blaze put together (with a little help) a model of a greek ship.




The Horrible Histories Series' view of ancient Greek history:









Sparta:

Dance

Tonight was the first Noah's Endeavor dance in several months and the kids had a blast!

Parents provided the snacks and Shelley provided the tunes.







We decided this was the frog dance:

Leg Brace

We went to pick up Blaze's new leg brace this morning and then had to buy new shoes that the brace would fit into. It's not the style of brace that we thought Blaze was getting, but he's pretty excited, so far, because it's more sleek and high tech looking than the clear plastic brace, covered in skateboard prints that we thought he was getting. Right now, he thinks this looks like a fancy mechanical leg. I just hope his imagination holds up to any comments he gets from the neighbor children. He has headed outside to take his first walk in the brace.





He only has to wear it for two hours today, but the time is supposed to lengthen as he gets used to it.

The Cabins and Creatures of the Night

This past week, a friend asked me to post pictures of the slave cabins at Kingsley plantation, but since this was something I've done before, I decided that nighttime pictures would be more interesting. I talked DH into walking up to the cabins Friday night. Blaze didn't want to go, but there were two other children staying there who acted interested until the very last moment and then backed out because they were scared.

We hadn't made it to the cabins yet, when we heard a scream that sounded like one of the children and briefly saw the light of a flashlight, so we thought the kids were trying to sneak up on us and scare us.

We could see people moving away from us, so we figured they had returned to the dorms, and we continued on our way.

















Just as we reached the restored overseers house near the gate, a car pulled up with a bunch of very loud people, but they didn't stay long.

We had just started back towards the dorms, when we saw a flashlight again and I saw two people, crouched down, running across the lit area near the barn ( I don't think I've mentioned that the park gates lock at 5:00 p.m. every day). It didn't take long to realize that it wasn't the kids. There were more than two people. We stayed in the shadows, so they couldn't see us clearly, and I took a flash picture in their direction to try to scare them away. One of them didn't scare so easily, though. He decided to try to scare us away by acting like he was in a position of authority. "Who are you?!" He shouted. We didn't answer."I said, who are you?!" He yelled again.

"Who are you?' DH asked back.

"Do you know the park is closed?!" He yelled.

"Yes," said DH, "Do you?"

I flashed the camera in his direction.

" What are you doing here?" He walked a little closer, with his flashlight pointing in our direction.

"I live here. What are you doing here." DH asked as I took his picture again.

DH took out his Ipod and began pressing buttons like he was making a phone call and the guy, along with his friends, left pretty quickly.

Within 5 minutes of us getting back to the dorms and telling what had happened, there was a good size posse of archaeologists ready to chase down the trespassers. They didn't catch up with them, but it wasn't for lack of trying.


The dorms being guarded by the ghost tortoise: