Fun August happenings

Another library offering this summer was "Design a Soda," where the kids learned about Food Science.  They got to make cola from sparkling water and cola concentrate, then added different flavorings like lemon/lime, raspberry, and cherry.  Then they rated each one, and thought of catchy names for them.

Megan was off at a playdate one day, so I took Katie & Jess to the Wright Museum of African American History in downtown Detroit.  Their main exhibit was incredible, so moving.

We spent one warm day at the county waterpark.  We had a very fun time!

And one more crayfishing trip!  This was the big daddy of the summer!

Chicago trip!

Chris took a few days off work so we could have a long, leisurely trip to Chicago before school started.  We spent one day downtown, and had lots of fun being tourists!

Looking at the bean!

Kids at the bean

Look at that skyline!  And that cute family!

Megan must have thought we were at the St. Louis arch, because she wanted to do a handstand.  She did it!  All by herself!  (I thought she was crazy, there was nothing behind her back to help support her!)

After the handstand, a friendly dragonfly landed on her head.

Here we are again

 

We had lunch at Gino's East pizzeria (but we all had pasta or beef sandwiches, go figure)

We stopped by the Nike store for new running shoes for Chris (no pics), and then we went to the American Girl store!  The girls were in heaven!!

Jess showing off her old AG soccer uniform compared to the new version.

Jess fell in love with this dress, and bought it for her A*G doll.  Each girl brought their own money to buy one outfit each.

The Lego Store is right next door to the American Girl store in the Water Tower Place Mall.  Pretty convenient!!  They didn't have much for girls, surprisingly, so we were lucky enough to walk out with just a single big green board.

Girls by Water Tower

It was a beautiful day, so we walked from Millenium Park to the A*G store, and back.  I was in LOVE with the plantings along the way!  Chicago landscaping is the best!

More cool plantings.

It also happened to be the day before the Air & Water Show, and we got the treat of seeing the Blue Angels practice for the show!!!  They zoomed by lots of times, and everyone stopped, looked up, and tried to see which way they were coming.  Because of the skyscrapers, we didn't get to see them for long enough to snap a picture, but it was very exciting!  The sounds and echoes were crazy!

On Saturday, we visited Grandma Postorino and got this wonderful family picture!

Then we had a BBQ in Wheaton for the whole family, plus the Moulds clan.  It was such fun to catch up with everyone!  Mom K. had a small surprise party planned for Jessica, complete with cupcakes from Joe & Nancy, and presents to open.


Grandma secretly got this matching dress for Jess to wear with her American Girl doll!!  She was so surprised!  Also notice her super loose top tooth.  It was just hanging there all day long!!

By Sunday, both top teeth were super loose, just hanging by a thread.  It was sooooo gross!

After many hours of promises, threats, bribery, etc, Jessica FINALLY pulled out her top tooth!  It didn't hurt one bit!

And one minute later, she pulled out her other top tooth!

Grandpa thought her smile looked funny, so he gave her some sunflower seeds to help fill the gap  :)

This is her new smile!

Veggie gardens

Our veggie gardens were quite successful this year.  Here's our community garden plot:

Cukes up front (they died in early Aug), then a zucchini (that is still producing a zuke a week), then 6 tomatoes.

We have had an overabundance of tomatoes this year!  We didn't do heirlooms this year, but had a million Early Girls and other small yummy guys.

Next to the tomatoes are carrots, sweet peppers, eggplants, beets, and lettuce.  They were all very happy this year!

Typical trip to the community garden, every few days.

Our home garden, aka "The Jungle."  Up front are carrots and wax beans on the left, and beets on the right.  On the other side of the path are basil bushes, and tomatoes and cukes on the trellises.

We grew all of our potatoes in tubs this year, and put them and our onions and chives just outside the garden gate.  This saved us tons of room in the garden, and the deer didn't eat them at all.

Another view of the veggie garden, looking to the front yard.

Our garden, looking to the back yard.

The tomatoes started going crazy...

Our windowsill AND our kitchen counters look like this all of the time!  Even with making salsa, eating tomatoes, and giving them away to friends and coworkers, we can't keep up!  We haven't canned yet, but hopefully we'll get to it this weekend.

Flower gardens

Our flower gardens are all doing well this year!   I had great luck with my annuals.  These pics are from last month, and everything is much bigger and healthier right now!  Plus I have dahlias galore - finally!

These sunflowers came up on their own, and they put on an amazing show, with dozens of flowers at a time the past few weeks.

I put in begonias and caladiums under the crabapple and birch trees this year. They are all very happy!

Our front porch pots look awesome!

Deck planters

Can you tell I like dragon-wing begonias, angelonia, and Kong coleus?  There is only one plant of each in these big pots!

The girls' garden

The girls' fairy garden

Flooding rains

Remember hearing about the awful flooding in Detroit last month?  All of the freeways and major roads in and out of Detroit were flooded, up to 14 feet high!  We got several inches of rain at our house, but our storm water system worked just fine, thank goodness!

The next day, the girls and I went to the duck park to check out the flooding in the Paint Creek.  It was pretty amazing. These pictures don't do it justice!

 

This is where the girls waded and caught crayfish a few days earlier.  I had my lawn chair by the log behind Megan.  The water level used to be a few feet on the other side of the log!

Here's the Paint Creek by the library.  The water was so fast!

The sidewalk under Main Street was flooded, but it had receded by the time we got there.

 

For comparison, this is what the creek looked like at the library just a few days earlier.  And this is what it usually looks like!