Rain!

I know people are ready for sunshine all the time at this time of year, but the plants growing in the yard really appreciate the rain (and have you smelled the air- amazing!). The cranberry bean seeds are sprouting already! Samuel planted some turnips as a surprise for me (in the middle of a patch of dirt in the lawn) and they are really thriving! I added some calendula just yesterday before the rain and the kids and I picked out some plants for butterflies and hummingbirds at the farmer's market on Saturday!

Yesterday we made flubber. Great fun! Then Eva got out the cookie cutters and made different shapes with her volcano colored flubber.

Samuel had an idea to make a "Samuel Special" in the kitchen. Here is his recipe he concocted, in the order he added them to the bowl-
2 cups flour
1 egg
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup water (roughly)
Then he mixed them all together with a mixer and poured/scraped it into a cake pan. We baked it at 350 for about 30 minutes. It is cake-like so we added some frosting made of powdered sugar and water. Everyone enjoyed trying his creation but Eva enjoyed it the most. She ate three pieces! Samuel is hoping to make another creation soon and this time wants to add more ingredients to make it fluffier!

While the kids were making Samuel's Special, I made some brownies. Much going on in the kitchen today!

As I am sitting here typing this blog I can see out into the sky and look at some of the trees that fill our yard and the surrounding yards. Two great blue herons just flew past my window. They are amazing in flight, large wings, unmistakably great blue herons. I think they must be the ones nesting over in the park near our house. There is a marsh area and we have seen them in that area several times. Jack will go out and bark at them if he sees them fly by our house. He doesn't trust the ravens either!