Eat Your Greens

Who knew that making a green cake could be so much fun?!

Prairie Fire

Note how the firepit was located close enough to our house to cause alarm!

After writing that post about the ants, I remembered another story I had forgotten about for a long time. The Taylors had come over one Friday night, and we had a barbeque outside. After we had finished eating, the adults went back inside and Nora, Cole, mei sisters, and I went up to play in the prairie house as usual. But this time, mei daed allowed us to help him build a fire in the firepit in front of the house! We folded our pinafores into baskets and gathered as many pinecones as we could. Cole and Hannah brought handfuls of dried pine needles from the woods. We watched in wonder as mei daed lit the heap on fire and the flames began licking up all our offerings. After a while, he went back down to visit with the adults, and Nora, Bekah, and I went into the prairie house to clean up after our supper. Hannah and Cole stayed outside to keep the fire well-fed with kindling and pinecones. We were busily scrubbing the table and sweeping the floor when all of a sudden Cole let out a scream. "SARAH!" We three girls ran to the windows and looked out to where Cole and Hannah were backing away from the firepit. The fire had begun to creep out from between the stones and was burning its way slowly down the hill! I yelled for Hannah to go through the "secret passageway" and tell Daddy. We escaped through the woods and watched from below as he and Mr. Jerry hosed down the area until all the flames were extinguished and all that was left was a smoky black path of charred grass. Of course at the time we were absolutely terrified, but after it was all over, it surely was fun to tell the story of our "prairie fire"!

The Secret Passageway.... a little trail we beat down through these trees.

I also remember that we loved going up there at night. It was so much fun to bring all the lanterns up and sit around reading and discussing all the hardships of our "lives" as pioneers. We had a little radiator up there that was perfect for heating water from the creek or melting snow in the wintertime for out tea. We all had our set beds - the table, we decided, would be turned into a bunk bed at night, with Hannah on the bottom and Cole on the top. Being the "ma", I got to sleep on the long wooden bench. Nora and Bekah either slept on the floor or in the rocking chair. Another special time was going up there in the rain. It was so much fun to pretend we had our own little house, all cozy with the rain streaming down the windows outside and us all warm and dry on the inside, with all the lamps lit. Hannah and Cole liked it because we would send them on errands and they got to get wet! Something we worked ever so hard at during the good weather was cleaning. Shining windows. Beating rugs. Every single part of that house was scrubbed down whenever company came to help. And we made flour. We would take a brick out by the firepit, and Nora and Bekah would gather pebbles from the little creek in the woods. Then one of us would take the "pounding rock" or our well-treasured rusty railroad tie that we had found buried by the creek and we would grind the pebbles into dust, collecting it in a little container for flour. We're lucky none of us ever lost a finger, but I think the only casualty from our flour-making was a blood blister or two.

Earth Day 2012

This video has two ten-minute parts: the first is a picture slideshow, then the second is a bunch of random videos that made me laugh! They were taken at Roger Williams Park on Earth Day, where a group of young people joined Lauren in volunteer work, then shared a picnic and spent a wonderful afternoon playing games, singing songs, climbing trees, and stalking weddings! Enjoy!

Happy Birthday!!!!

And now, the long-awaited video of mei Uncle Jay Polk's 50th birthday party! All 42 minutes and 26 seconds are here for you to enjoy. Special thanks to the Parenteau family for helping me through the technical difficulties when mei camera was acting up, as well as to everyone else who participated in filling the night with wonderful memories! Enjoy the video!

Added exactly 54 minutes later...
Saving is 81% complete! Whew! I knew it was big, so it would take a long time to save, but I didn't realize it would be this long!!! Oh, look, 82%, how thrilling life can be.

Nine minutes later... 
94%?!?! Is this even possible?!?! We put a man on the moon, and this video is chugging away dutifully!

And after two more minutes... 
This is the home stretch, folks! The end is in sight! 98%!

COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ants!

 

I was sitting at mei desk studying mei SAT prep book, when all of a sudden mei daed started yelling for us all to come to the kitchen. We ran in, and he was standing over a counter swarming with carpenter ants!!!! I grabbed the vacuum hose and started sucking them up into it (brandishing it wildly about ... like a ssssnake king!) while Hannah and Anaja kept lookout. Mei daed called Terminex, but the earliest opening they had available was on Thursday. Mei mamm was having none of that, so she took the phone and what do you know - after a minute or two of threatening to cancel her subscription, they managed to get to our house within seven minutes!

We did have some pots and utensils left out from yesterday's party, but the Terminex guy said that it was not so much that as it was the weather affecting them so they were wanting to get inside for shelter and moisture. He said that if we see a "burst" of ants every now and again, not to be scared, but just to suck them up with the hose again. (The picture above is how I envision it happening.)

All this craziness reminded me of a long time ago, when we were playing up in the prairie house with Nora, Anaja, Jasmin, and Cole. We had been up there for a good long time, when Cole and Hannah opened one of the drawers we kept up there.... and the entire drawer was black and squirming!!! It was completely, totally, ALL THE WAY covered in huge black carpenter ants! They slammed the drawer shut, and Jasmin came toddling over to see what the matter was. They opened it to show her all the ants, and she screeched at the top of her mighty three-year-old lungs. I closed the drawer and sent Hannah and Cole to "go get Daddy!" He came running up the hill, opened the drawer, then jumped back as all the millions of ants came crawling out! Jasmin started screaming bloody murder; Daddy grabbed our broom and began sweeping them all out the door... and since it was the only way out of the prairie house (the other side was locked on the outside), we had no choice but to step in the middle of the black river of ant bodies! Nora, Anaja, and Bekah all ran out first, then I scooped up the still-screaming Jasmin in mei arms and ran after them. Uncle Jay and Mr. Jerry came up to see, and they helped mei daed stomp on all the ants. A minute or two later, the entire drawer came flying out of the door, ants and all.

After that scare, we took everything out of the prairie house, including the rug, and scrubbed, swept, and shined every piece of furniture, book, plate, and apron! We were taking no chances!

Yes, These Are Cupcakes

The Chefs: Melanie and Jasmin

Shhh... these are surprise cupcakes for Mrs. Danielle's birthday party tomorrow! Since she raises chickens and blesses so many people with farm-fresh eggs, these were the perfect cupcakes for her! Pretty funny, jah?

Spring... has... kinda sprung?

For those of us who are getting tired squinting at the swirly curly font, I redid mei blog. Now our punctuation doesn't look like preschoolers and we can actually read what's written! Since it's supposed to be springtime, enjoy the spring-y setup.

A Word of Advice

Build a man a fire; he'll be warm for a day. 
Set a man on fire; he'll be warm for the rest of his life. 

(Yes, I know, I always give the best advice.) 

Exciting News

As most of you already know....

I'll be attending FC this fall! Huzzah! I can hardly wait!

Good Morning