Mad Hatter's Tea Party

The next and final week of Summer Reading was a smash! My mom threw a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. The kids literally gasped when they walked through the door.

 

Leading into the party room.

Need directions to the bathroom?

The tablescape.

Flower faces.

"Happy Unbirthday!" - The March Hare

Ice Cream Cone Teacups.

Queen of Hearts Brownies.

    

Ladybug Pretzels.

"It's always tea time." - The Mad Hatter

Do you see Chip?

Grape Caterpillars. Marshmallow Cat Tails.

"We're all mad here" - The Cheshire Cat.

Do you see the giant teapot?

"Drink Me"

 

I love the googly-eyed flowers!

Butterfly treats.

Posing with the Mad Hatter!

Alice in Wonderland story sacks.

This year's Summer Reading program was phenomenal! I know it will be an experience the kids won't ever forget. Thanks Mom for sharing your awesome talents with the kids of the library community!

Off To Neverland!

This last week's theme for Summer Reading was Peter Pan. My mom went all out yet again, with awesome food, crafts, and possibly the biggest project for this year's program, a pirate ship!

Food Table

Pirate ship cupcakes.

Crocodile candy envelopes.

(My mom handmade every one of these suckers!)

Tinkerbell with the chest of (chocolate) gold!

Fairy Wands.

Peter Pan story sacks.

Pirate Ryder and his mommy Tinkerbell.

Wow! What a ship!

Ryder loved it!

Deep In The Jungle...

This week at Summer Reading we dove into the jungle to find Mowgli and his friends. The theme was Jungle Book and the kids seemed to have a really good time.

Kaa's got Mowgli in his coils!

Baloo, King Louie and Bagheera.

Food table.

Worm Burgers: vanilla wafers, chocolate frosting and gummy worms.

 Kaa Coils: lil' smokies, biscuit dough.

Jungle Pops and Spider Suckers.

Bug Juice.

Mom's palm tree - so awesome!

Story sacks.

Ryder in his safari garb!

Mom is truly talented at all that goes into making Summer Reading as amazing as it is. She's constantly coming up with cool ideas and her execution is just as perfect. Yea Mom!

Canning Tomatillo Sauce

Yes! I finally did it! I made and canned my own tomatillo sauce from tomatillos I grew myself! I can't wait to try it out!

I used tips from this tutorial. They told me how long to process my sauce. Also I used water instead of chicken broth.

Happy canning!

Freeze Your Own Corn

Have you ever wanted to freeze your own corn? Well maybe the thought never crossed your mind, but it's really easy to do, and it costs less than buying frozen corn.

During the summer, corn can get pretty cheap at the store. For us lately, it's gone down to 20 cents an ear. So I've been buying a few ears a week and freezing up for later use. There is a quick method for freezing corn so it comes out its best, and I'll share with you what I've learned.

You could use your home grown corn if you have it, but my crop is pathetic so I have to resort to buying it.

 Start by filling a pot a little over halfway full of water. Cover and bring it to a boil.

Husk your corn and make sure it's free of all the little hairs.

When your water is at a full boil, place about 3-4 ears in at a time. Boil for about 5 minutes.

Remove your corn and immediately place in a bowl of ice water. Leave them in there for about 5 minutes.

Once they've cooled, cut the corn off the cob.

Store in a freezer bag.

Zip, Zip, it's that easy. Enjoy your corn whenever you want it.

Fruits of the Garden

The garden is coming along well. The weather has cooperated in giving us enough rain to keep things green and keeping the temperature under 100 degrees. Of course, sprinklers help too.

First crop of tomatoes: cherry. They are the biggest and juciest I've ever grown! I've since picked both regular tomatoes and romas. Soon to be making salsa and hopefully canning tomatoes.

This was my first crop of tomatillos, just enough to make one batch of salsa verde. It turned out perfectly! I've since picked enough to make another batch, and I've found a method for canning the sauce that I'd like to try. I'll let you know how it goes.

This was my first jar of pickled okra. Using Nick's grandma's recipe for pickling, I'm able to pickle one jar at a time, as a get enough okra. We'll see how it turns out!