Little Boy

This is the littlest and the worm he carried around for a long time while we worked outside today.

Morning Discovery

I peaked out my kitchen window and saw this huge critter looking back at me.

We looked it up and found that it is a Polyphemus Moth, named after the Greek mythological figure cyclops.  This bugger will mate and die.  That is, if she (I'm pretty sure it's a she) makes it through the observation time with my kids.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antheraea_polyphemus
I also found info on http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740 but I couldn't get it to open again so that I could link it here; you'll have to search yourself if you're interested.


Update: We let her go.  We took some more pictures when we did.

Here is another good site about it: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/polyphemus_moth.htm

I got a deal today...

...and I wanted to share.


Click this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Twinings-Earl-Grey-Tea-Loose/dp/B0005ZXX1S.  


The day I am writing this it is $8.38.  This morning, I went to the local food pantry, where several of my friends get great steals but I have not--until today that is.  

Today I found two of these cans for $1.00 each.  

I excitedly put them in my cart and scoured the shelf for more.  There were no more but I'm gonna enjoy some great tea for a while--this is currently my favorite kind!

Kids say silly things...

So, we had company on Friday night.  Friends that we have never spent time with at our house, college students that my husband used to work with.  A tense moment occurred when the baby starts yelling "Truck! Truck!" in the best way he can.  Except, he can't say the /tr/ blend and it comes out as /f/.  They didn't know if they should laugh, I didn't know if they knew he wasn't saying what he was saying...good times.


Yesterday, BKH, 3, was asked by her oldest brother, "Since you have experience, what DO boogers taste like?"  (You can't make this stuff up.) 

Her answer?      

"Rotten salad."

Speaking of nasty stuff, my 5 year old says that her nose is blobbed up when she is congested.  We think this is cute and I don't think we will teach her any other terminology for that any time soon.  

These are just the kinds of things that you do and talk about when you have 5 children under the age of 10.

Congregated around the computer for a cartoon.

More Birthday Fun

We finally had REH's friend party last weekend (14 days late I was reminded).  Here are some  pictures (just a couple) from the event:

Silly Face

 So the baby makes this super cute face when he is mad or when he has said something he knows is funny, and we have tried very hard to capture it.  We have not yet succeeded but the attempts are pretty cute.

 These were taken by TJH, who said he was making the face for him constantly until he got the camera out.

This is almost "the face", but not close enough so I guess we'll keep trying. 

Mayfield Dairy

Yesterday, I surprised the kids with a field trip to the Mayfield Dairy and the Athens Playground, which is the coolest park near our house.  We went with our Classical Conversations group.  I didn't get any pictures at the dairy, I was too busy chasing babies.  But I did get a couple at the park though they are not very good.  We're all about memories here not showcasing photography skills (that don't exist...).  If I get some other pictures from friends that went with us I will add them later, but don't count on it.

It is hard to see, but this picture includes all 4 of the younger kids. TJH never stayed still for a picture.

Poke Sallet

I got a taste of local Appalachian (please say that with all short vowels thankyouverymuch) culture yesterday that I have never had before and I wanted to share it here.  My mother in law (Granny to everyone around these parts) had come over and excitedly pointed out all the pokeweed growing in our horse field.  She took us to the field and she picked 3 trash bags full and talked about how good poke sallet is.  I begged her to let me know when she cooked some so that I could come and taste this strange weed that she was harvesting from my field.


She boiled the leaves for "a long time" (she never specified how long) and then she put some of them in a pot and fried them with eggs.  I refused to look at how much oil she used to fry.  It was actually very good.  All 5 of my kids had two servings.  The taste kind of reminded me of a very mild spinach.  


After eating it (I meant to do it before I ate it, but I guess trusted Granny enough to eat first and ask questions later), I Googled what in the world I had eaten.  There is actually a lot to be read about the pokeweed.  It is a delicacy to a lot of people apparently.  Also, I learned that the pokeberries that will grow on it later in the season were used years ago to make ink for pens and are often called inkberries.  I hope to figure out how and have some fun with that with the kids this summer.  


Here are some of the links that I found:


Poke-Sallet, Mother Earth News (this one has lots of information that I have not quite read completely yet)


Poke Sallet By Any Other Name, Suite 101


Finally, I am curious to know from my family if this is something that my family ever ate too.  

Best Waiter Ever

The three big kids had PE at Bryan College today and we watched. :) 

Let's Go Fly a Kite, or A Boat Load of Pictures

Uncle Chuck and Aunt Lara came to celebrate REH's 7th birthday (and maybe they came to celebrate my birthday too?).  We spent all day outside playing.  They brought a whiffle ball set and a kite and the kids had a BLAST!  TJH especially enjoyed the kite; REH and SEH especially enjoyed the ball and bat.  Proof is in the enormous amount of pictures. (Remember you can click on them to enlarge and accept my apologies for the amount: I couldn't decide what to keep and what to reject).

Taking a picture of him taking a picture.

Fixing the kite string was a group effort.

And then Auntie and Uncle were absolutely wiped out from playing all day.  So were the kids, though.  I put them down for a "nap" at 6PM and they woke up at 8 for dinner and most of them went right back to bed.  

The Monday after (uh, yesterday...), TJH wanted to do nothing but go fly the kite again:

And he did a great job all by himself.

Keeping it low so Mom could get a picture with both the kid and the kite.

Talking about how much fun the kite is...

And then it all ended when it landed in the tree. :) No worries, though, I went out and got two more.  At $2 each, they are well worth it.