Hiatus

I've had a week-long hiatus because we were on vacation. We go every year (at least once) to my BIL Jeremy's cottage. It is called the Westcottage, and was built in 1950 by his parents for about $3000. It has so many good memories and so much interesting history and sits right on one of the cleanest lakes in MI -- it's just a fantastic vacation spot, no matter how you spin it. The weather wasn't much good for swimming, but we did take a couple dips in the lake. Tim has been going to this cottage since he was 12 years old, and I have been going since I was 18. I am so glad this is a part of our children's lives.
Highlights included:
-Visiting Michigan's Adventure on our way up. This is a great little amusement park with a really large waterpark attached. For the fairly low price of $26 per person, you get admission to both parks. The rides were just intense enough for my kids to think they were exciting without being so big that they were terrifying.
-Fishing. We fished and fished and fished some more this trip. We caught at least 100 fish, some bluegill, lots of rock bass, a couple of really nice lake trout, and surprisingly, some catfish. We'd never seen catfish in the lake -- EVER. It was a little strange.
-Beach walks. The kids and I found a big patch of wild mint, some cool stones, and all sorts of nature treasures. I also found some not-yet-eaten wild raspberries. Yummo.
-Reading. We are thinking about keeping bees next year, so I had a bunch of books from the library about bees that I took with us. It was great reading. I also found a biography of Kennedy that I read up there, and inside was what looked like a funeral announcement as a bookmark. It was interesting.
-Tubing. Kids tubed about 4-5 days -- they got braver and braver each day.
-Movies. Mattie got to see Harry Potter 6 (Jonah and I didn't go, thought it might be too scary), and both of the kids got to go with Uncle Jeremy and their cousin to see Ice Age 3.

I didn't get to sail this year because Jeremy was working on the sailboats, but the final day, there were about 6-7 sailboats out on the lake, and they were really beautiful to see.

Overall, a very nice relaxing vacation. We're hoping to go back for a long weekend this Fall.

Mothra

So last fall, grandma gave us these two cool looking cocoons that were stuck to branches. Knowing what a sucker I am for raising wildlife, she figured the kids could watch whatever came out of them. We put them in an old cage, and promptly forgot about them. They overwintered in the garage, and I found the sticks with cocoons still attached this spring while putting away some stuff in the garage. Still didn't dispose of them... Then today, while deep cleaning in the garage, I came across the cage again. And prompty got freaked out by the huge moving things inside. MOTHS! Yikes...these suckers are big and beautiful! Check out the pictures up close for the details.
You can see the hairy red legs, and the cool designs on their bodies...I wonder what kind of moths they are?

Discovery

There's nothing better than watching your kids discover new and interesting things...the way their eyes light up, the wonder in their voice, the excitement of sharing their find with other people:

On Saturday we went into Ann Arbor and checked out the Urban Fairies. This was more for Mattie's benefit than Jonah's, but he enjoyed the search too, and had the best "hawk-eyes" of us all, sighting the most doors.
Here's some pictures:








I think, all told, we found 6 doors. I have plans for one to pop up out in our yard soon. Etsy.com has some really cute ones made out of tree-trunks and I found a little miniature set of gardening tools and a wheelbarrow. I think this fairy is going to be a gardener. :D I'll post pictures when it takes up residence.

Wheeling and Dealing

I got a fantastic deal today at Kohl's. Normally I don't ever go into Kohl's, it just doesn't appeal to me. But every once in a while, I get these $10 off anything in the store coupons, with no minimum purchase. So, armed with one of these babies, I hit the store today. My deals were:

This sweater, normally $40 dollars, on clearance for $4.00.




And these flip flops, retailed at $19.99, on sale for $14.99, and then rang up $6.99 at the register. Tim will be happy because I won't keep stealing his flip flops:



Total cost was $11-ish, minus the $10 coupon, so I paid about $1 for both items. :)

Pizza

I found an easy and tasty pizza dough recipe! I've tried a few of these in the past couple years and the pizza dough just never seemed to like me much -- either it wouldn't rise, or it would taste like cardborad, or is just plain burned in the oven.
So here it is:
3.5 cups flour (I used bread flour and white wheat)
1 cup warm water (85-110 degrees)
2 tblsp. yeast
2 tblsp. honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Using a mixing bowl, pour warm water into the bowl, salt, and honey. Mix well. Add yeast and stir, then let sit for about 5 min. Add one cup flour and olive oil, and mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the flour, until dough forms into a ball. take ball and place on lightly floured surface and knead for about 2 min. Put in a bowl, cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place (I use my microwave or oven -- neither one of them is on at this point). Let rise for 45 min. Punch down dough and place back in bowl, and let rise for about 25-30 min. Dough is now ready to be used to make pizzas. I made two personal sized pizzas and one medium sized pizza from this dough. It's best to roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin, and use a little corn meal on the cookie sheet so that your pizza doesn't stick.
Heat oven to 550, and then top pizzas with your choice of toppings. When you put the pizza in the oven, turn the temperature down to 400. I cooked my pizzas about 8-10 min each.

Happy pizza eating!