Bees, Birds and Blooms (+ a Lot of Slipping)

Michael and Adellelyn spent the week with us while their parents were chaperoning a youth camp last month. They are now 11 and 8 years old (HARD to believe), and are busy, busy, busy. Ron was on call the week they were here, but fortunately didn't get called out much at all and was able to spend the evenings and Saturday with us.  I picked them up on Sunday afternoon and they were excited for the adventure!

On the way home, we played car games, made a grocery list and discussed what they wanted to do while at our house. The top things on their list were:
        *Slip & Sliding in the backyard
        *Picking Blueberries
        *Going to Sewing Camp
        *Going to the Duck Pond
        * Going to a bee Farm (added after hearing about buying honey at the Farmer's Market)

Since Callie's boys don't go to school on Mondays, we used that day to play outdoors with Toddler D.

They climbed the fig tree and picked figs. . .

Looked for lizards & bugs, played in the sandbox and on the swingset . . .

And had tons of fun on the Slip & Slide!!! Toddler D even got brave enough to try it out!

And that was just the morning!!! In the afternoon, they began the Kids Sew Camp at Fabric Boutique. Before signing them up, I made sure that both wanted to attend (they did) and that there would be boy-friendly projects to make (there were).

Tuesday morning, I made a call to a local honey business and when I didn't get a response, we decided to drive over to check it out. Hummer & Sons is small establishment and though they don't normally offer tours, the owner came out and offered to show us around.  It was great! We learned the process of getting the honey, getting the water out of it, packaging it and even got to taste honey from the comb.

We drove out to the Sunflower Trail near Gilliam one day and the kids had a great time running down the dirt road and selecting flowers to bring home with us.

We even found a nest tucked in the stems.

With two eggs inside!!  Soon there will be 2 tiny red-winged blackbirds babies begging for food!

We kept busy around the house on Thursday morning, creating Father's Day gifts for Papaw and their Daddy.

We also tie-dyed some shirts in patriotic colors to wear on the Fourth of July.

It was the last day of Sewing Camp, so they had a small ceremony to receive their certificates and show off what they had made.

That evening, Michael and Adellelyn joined us for one of the Summer Fun Runs.  Michael ran the 3.1 miles with Papaw and I joined Adellelyn for the kids' 1.5 mile run. It was quite hot and humid!

On Friday, we went berry picking with Callie and the little boys.  It was hot, but fun!

Miles enjoyed the berries as much as anyone, picking them right off the vine or out of the bucket and popping them into his mouth.

Adellelyn helped me make some cobbler that afternoon and we enjoyed dinner on the deck that evening.

There was more Slip & Sliding in the afternoon, and Luke and Adellelyn spent some time talking to the fairies. (She is so sweet and patient with the little cousins)

Ron was off on Saturday, so we were able to work at the food pantry in the morning and explore Norton Gallery and the Refuge in the afternoon.

I've said it before, but anytime these kids are outdoors, they are happy!!!

We had such a good week together. I was pretty exhausted when it was finished, but Michael and Adellelyn seemed to have lots of fun and I enjoyed being with them.

DIY Toddler Tower

Baby D loves to bake with me---especially muffins, but really anything I mix together.  As soon as I ask, "Do you want to help Lovey cook?".   He rushes to pull the step stool out from beside the refrigerator.  When we made macaroons for the delivery nurses, he became very distressed that I needed to stand on "my 'tool" to reach the food coloring.

I like having him help and love it when Michael and Adellelyn have wanted to help me as well, but have felt very uneasy about him standing on the step-stool at times.  Because it is slanted, he can't get as close to the cabinet as needed and if he should lose his balance or step backwards, he would hit a very hard tile floor.

At one of the schools I worked with, they have Toddler Towers in their toddler classrooms so that the children can reach the cabinets in a safe way.  They are adjustable and awesome, but also big, bulky and expensive.  To the tune of $150-200 expensive.

Enter one of my grand ideas.  I found directions for a DIY Toddler Tower over on Ana White's website.  After showing it to Ron, we decided that we could build one ourselves and even make it so that it would fold up for storage.

I measured and Ron cut.

As I eluded on my Instagram photo of this step, building projects are sometimes a bit stressful for our relationship.  We have very different ways of approaching things like this and we both can become a bit "snippy" about it.  Such was the case this time, as well, but fortunately, those moments don't last long and we are soon working together again.

Then we assembled.
The directions were easy to follow, with the exception of the part about adding hinges.   The directions only said to purchase 8 sets of sturdy hinges, and we soon realized that half of the ones we bought were too large for the boards.  So, back to Lowe's I went to exchange the hinges.  The other part that was tricky was where to put the hinges.  The included drawing shows half of them on the inside and half of them on the outside.  We couldn't figure out any possible way for that to work, so we placed all of our hinges on the inside.

That meant that our front and back boards had to be placed on the outside of legs, which left a space between the front and the platform that I was worried about feet slipping into.

Adding a scrap of wood to both the front and back fixed that problem and the rest went together just fine.

I sanded and painted the tower and had the chance to try it out this afternoon.  (Please ignore the very messy counter top--it's real life).

It worked great!!

Baby D was a little bit hesitant to climb up the rungs by himself, but it is just as easy to lift him up onto the platform while he is this small.

The front fits flat against the cabinets and hits just below the counter top, which is perfect.

I like that it has the curved sides to hold onto--particularly when I need to step away to get an ingredient.

Of course, being at counter level means that he can reach my iPad and swipe away recipes.  And steal blueberries from the pie.  But, it also means we can cook together much more easily and safely.

The cost of all our supplies was about $35.00 (hinges were the most expensive part of the supplies).
Now, excuse me while I add a scoop of ice cream to our bowls of Berry Crisp. (For our very simple, yummy recipe, click here.)