sweet peas

Oh man. We have so many sweet peas! The kids came out tonight and were sincerely helpful. Both of them could pick the peas off and put them in the bag. When we dumped the two gallons of sweet peas into this white bowl we found a few with Elsie bites out of them, but I suppose that was helpful too. Quality control.

Tonight Rory froze some of the peas after shelling them. And I made a batch of sweet pea pickles. The recipe looked awesome and it was worth a try. I'll know how those turned out in a day or two. We still have a gallon of sweet peas left in the fridge. Good thing we love them so much!

healthy hives

Saturday morning I went out and checked on my hives. And both are looking awesome. The second hive had looked a little weak just seven days earlier but they both were thriving. I brought the camera again and wanted to get pictures as close as possible. My gloves were sticky so I ended up taking my gloves off, which I find to be pretty hard core. :)

Ironically, I did not get stung (I haven't been stung once yet! And I've been out at least six or seven times.) but I did get bit on my hands by two mosquitoes. I was so annoyed. But those mosquitoes are so thick in the woods...I was grateful to have all of my bee gear on, just to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

This time I was just checking on the bees, making sure the ants had gone away, checking to see how full the frames were and guessing when I'll need to add another box. So once I decided everything looked healthy I just stood for a long time and watched the bees. I would watch one bee and follow just that one, watching it's pattern, trying to figure out what it was working on. It was so fascinating.

This week both hives are looking healthy. I can't say it loud enough: I love keeping bees. I would wish this experience on everyone.

what a weekend

During our three day weekend we attended five parties. It was pretty awesome. And just for the record, it may be a while before I can eat another brat or hot dog. I just need a bit of time and a few green salads...

This may require a post of it's own, but Ruby had a chocolate birthday party on Sunday. It was epic. And since it was during nap time, Elsie stayed with my parents and had a long, sweet slumber.

We had root beer floats with neighbors on Friday morning, and were invited to a family gathering for our neighbors across the way. I played more bean bag toss, drank more coke and ate more peanut butter rice krispie bars this weekend than I'd care to admit. But it was a great weekend.

Happy Fourth of July!

My mom and dad came this morning to celebrate The Fourth with us. First we went to our neighbor's house who had invited the neighborhood over for root beer floats at 9:30 in the morning. Ivar thought he was in heaven eating ice cream that early in the morning! Then we drove to Cannon Falls for the parade.

It was a great parade with lots of fire trucks and tractors and beauty queens. Elsie liked to wave at all of the girls in convertibles waving to her and clapped when a float played music. My mom told me that at one point she had a dill pickle in one hand, her sandwich in the other but needed to clap. So she stuck her pickle under her arm pit and clapped and said, "Yay!"

But she did not like the loud sirens or truck honks. Loud noises are scary for her, so it was nice she had a grandma nearby to take her for a quiet walk.

They came back after a while and we finished our picnic lunch and the parade.

Butt-Yah!

For months now Elsie has been saying a phrase that I have not been able to figure out. When driving in the car she'll just yell out, "Butt-Yah!" If we're at home telling Rory about our day she'll add in happily, "Butt-Yah!"

I have been so confused, similar to how I felt every time Ivar would yell, "Sockie BooBoo!" when he was this age. It clearly means something. And I have had to work so hard to crack the code. But I did it. I've finally figured out what Butt-Yah means.

It means, "park." Butt-yah is the way Elsie says that little one syllable word. I have no idea how she got there, but I'm certain I'm right. I'll ask her, "Elsie, do you want to go to the park?" "Butt-yah!" Or, "Elsie, tell daddy where we went today." "Butt-yah!" And when we're driving around and she sees any sort of jungle gym out her window she'll let us know what she sees, "Butt-yah!" It's a happy word.

My next mission is to figure out how she has gotten from park to butt-yah. I'll keep you posted.