Little People again

"Here's another one baby.  There's no more babies in here."

I like this bread!

Ian enjoying some fresh bread for breakfast.

Fresh Bread

Ian was tickled pink when I said I was going to make "honey bread."  This turned out not to be because he wanted to help me measure and mix the honey-whole wheat dough but because he wanted some honey on a spoon.  Of course I said yes. 

Ian spent this entire (apparently quite boring) phase of the baking in his sandbox.

Punching down the dough, Ian style.

Playing "peek-a-boo" with the resting loaves before they went into pans...

He covered these up all by himself.  "These bread gonna make MORE teeny bubbles."

Maybe not so pretty, but oh so good. These didn't finally come out of the oven until Ian went to bed, so we're going to have to resist the temptation to eat them all before he wakes up in the morning.

"Daddy, it's book time!"

Just another beautiful morning around here.

Seeds are really taking off!

We've now reached the point where we vent the top and wait for things to grow like gangbusters.  I'm good at this part, which makes the mass slaughter at "hardening off" time all the harder to take...

Also, the grass seed Ian and his pals planted in the yard is just starting to sprout.  It's taking a little longer than what we planted last year, but I keep reminding myself that we planted in August, and it's been a LOT colder than August around here lately!

Hi, Ho, the Derry-O

We had been unable to book a slot for a group tour for today's visit to Oxon Hill Farm,but lucked out to be invited along on a previously scheduled tour with another group that happened to have room for us today.  Ian got to see lambs, feed chickens and cows, and go on a hayride behind a genuine, bona-fide farm tractor.  Throw in a dose of absolutely perfect weather, and you really couldn't ask for more!

"Now seeds, start growing!"

The whole idea of seeds has got Ian super excited this year.  He and his friends planted an entire bag of grass seed in the back yard as part of a lesson we did on seeds, and we are also starting some seeds indoors.  Mostly tomatoes, but also some cilantro and yellow daisies.

Every day we check their progress and he tells me all about them.  Today he observed, "thems got leaves!"  Well, sort of, sweetie.  But yes, they are growing.

The tomatoes are Burpee's Steak Sandwich Hybrid.  I'm hoping the seedlings survive the hardening off process and we'll be enjoying abundant tomatoes this summer.  I've never successfully hardened off any seedlings... oh, I've tried, but apparently it's not a process that goes well with my usual policy of "benign neglect."

That's enough pictures, Mommy.

Stop gettin pictures of me. That's enough pictures, Mommy. You get a picture of my eggs.

March for Babies Photo Essay

Ready to go

Quotable Moment: "No, Daddy, it's not that kind of excavator."

Ready to Party

The Wages of Flirting

Lunch!

Saddle up, cowboy! Goin' home.

We did it!

Ian and I, as you can see, have completed our 100 mile pledge!  He hasn't been along for all of them, but he's logged a lot!  He's quite a trooper.

Wish us good weather in the morning, although the actual three miles of the march itself are going to seem like an anticlimax to us!

I also want to take a moment to say THANK YOU, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! to my generous sponsors.  You'll find them in the sidebar.  There is still time to be one of them!  Just click on the badge below.  Thanks to all of you, not only did I reach my personal fundraising goal, but my team is nearing their goal as well.   The babies thank you too!

Love to all!

Gettysburg, PA

93.6 miles from my home is Gettysburg National Military Park.

From http://www.npca.org/parks/gettysburg-national-military-park.html:



In the summer of 1863, the farming community of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, became the site of the bloodiest battle in the Civil War. The fierce fighting left 51,000 casualties in its wake, turning farm fields into graveyards and churches into hospitals. The battlefield's first visitors were thousands of relatives searching for dead and wounded soldiers.
The preservation of the battlefield and the establishment of Gettysburg National Cemetery are a testament to the resolve of Gettysburg residents to not only rebuild their town but also to honor the fallen. Today, visitors who come to learn more about the battle can tour the battlefield and see more than 1,400 monuments and markers, or choose to walk with a ranger through Gettysburg National Cemetery.
Over the years, Gettysburg has continued to be a treasured and popular destination. As a result, the park has faced continuous threats from commercial development. At the end of the 19th century, developers built railroads and tourist facilities at the edge of sacred battlefield lands, but many of these inholdings were eventually sold to the government and removed.
NPS is currently engaged in an ambitious program to restore the battlefield grounds to the way they looked in 1863. This will allow visitors to understand how small features of the landscape, such as fences and orchards, played a large role in both the battle's outcome and the life and death of individual soldiers.

Photo courtesy of pablo.sanchez via Flickr creative commons.

Look Mommy, I made a fish!

Ian's school art project, of which he is very proud.

Out ahead of the rain

Little Dude's Travel Gear Selection:

Yes, we think it's not a very attractive outfit, but he picked it himself, and at least today he consented to wear the onesie inside the pants.

Current Weather conditions:

Quotable Moment:
Mommy, there's letters on that shed.  There's a zero.  The zero is on the shed.

Distance traveled: 2.52 miles


Current Total Distance Traveled: 100.3 miles

I owe the babies: $25.08

The icing on the cake...

I made two "I'd Marry you for this" cakes.  One for our auction winner, and one for my friend who recently gave birth to a healthy baby boy after 8 weeks of grueling bed rest.  Yes, if you get married or go on bed rest around here, you get a cake.  Them's the rules.

I made the chocolate truffle frosting in my new Calphalon pots.  Lest you be thinking, "Calphalon?  Meghan shelled out for CALPHALON?" No, I did not.  I was fortunate enough to win the 10 piece set in a giveaway sponsored by Calphalon and BigTent.  I say fortunate enough because I LOVE them.  And I love, love, love, LOVE free stuff.  But more on that another time, since this post is about cake.

If you're thinking you can't live without one of these cakes, but you aren't willing to go on bed rest, get married, or make a honkin' big donation to the March for Babies, you can find most of the recipes in the Joy Troupe Cook Book.

Here are the finished cake photos, in all their chocolate chunk brownie layer, cocoa icing cream filling, chocolate truffle frosted glory:

All through the town

We decided the conditions were ripe for a "Jammie Ride" when Ian climbed into the stroller and started doing his own buckles once he was "all jammied up."

Little Dude's Travel Gear Selection:

Current Weather conditions: 68 and partly cloudy


Quotable Moment:
"The wheels on the bus go up and down, up and down, up and down, the wheels on the bus..."


Distance traveled: 2.12 miles


Current Total Distance Traveled: 97.78 miles


I owe the babies: $24.45