Science Experiments

I found some fun science experiments on Pinterest and decided to try them out with the kids. They loved them and I think I will have to find many more for the rest of the summer.
For both of the experiments I used baking soda and vinegar. For the first experiment I added a drop of food coloring on each of the spoons and then covered them with baking soda. The kids loved finding out which color would come next and how it would overflow.

Next we put filled a balloon half way with baking soda and a water bottle about 1/3 with vinegar. I attached the balloon to the top of the bottle (without spilling any of the soda) and then let the kids hold up the balloons and let the baking soda fall into the bottle. As it mixes the balloon starts to blow up. It is quite amazing and fun to see.

Memorial Day

We started our memorial day with a yummy breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. 

After breakfast we headed over to the cemetery were we met Mark with the kids.

After we put flowers on Karen's and all the other relatives graves we had the kids find Great Grandpa James's grave.

Just love this picture

Cookie glasses

When one has an idea the rest follow. Enough said. Enjoy!

Garden and Yard

This is my big project for this summer. For the last couple of years we have not done as much work on the backyard as we should have so now we are paying the price. My goal for this summer is to get all the weeds and grass out of the landscaped areas. Well it will take me a couple of months but it will look beautiful after that.
Today I finished putting in the garden. I'm looking forward to late summer and fall so I can harvest all the yummy produce.

I actually decided to make it Elizabeth's project. ;)

Onions

Swiss chard

Oregano

Basil

Tomatoes

I'm out of my canned marinara sauce so hopefully I will have a great harvest to do a lot a canning.

Cucumbers

This will be my first year of trying them and I will be growing them on a trellis. We will see how it will turn out....

Peppers

Peaches

I'm excited because I have a peaches coming in. I learned that in order to get a much better crop I should have pruned the tree in a particular way either last year of this spring (but I was too late) so it will happen this fall. Hopefully we will have a much more abundant crop next year.

Grapes
I planted grapes a year and a half ago but last year they did not do great. I think it was because they had nothing to climb up to. This year I created a trellis and they are out of control. We'll have TONS of grapes.

I also planted some zucchini and butternut squash and I will try some potatoes (in buckets). We'll see how that works but more about that later.

This girl and markers are a bad combo. She loves them and always seems to be able to get her hands on some. Luckily these were dry erase markers. Last week I wasn't as lucky as she got her hands on a permanent marker and ruined one of her beautiful white dresses and drew on the dishwasher. Fortunately we have magic erasers and the dishwasher looks almost like it was.

The Cowboy party

Another year of speech has passed. He loves it and it helps him. What else do we want. We will have another year of speech a head of us but for now we'll take a break until fall. 

For his final speech class everyone dressed up like a cowboy. Daddy had a cowboy hat (from Australia). I sewed him a vest and we borrowed some boots from our neighbor. It worked out great and he loved it.