Taste the Rainbow

With the recent celebration of St. Patrick's Day and spring looming in the near future, Kate and her class have been learning all about rainbows.  ROY G BIV adorns Kate's classroom decor, they've made rainbow art projects, learned about all the colors and pretty much basked in the idea that soon, very soon, they will see real rainbows outside!!!  To top it all off, her class decided to commemorate all the colorful fun by celebrating "Rainbow Day" today!

I lieu of Rainbow Day, Kate and I embarked on a little rainbow project ourselves to bring to her party: an edible rainbow!!

No, seriously, TASTE the rainbow.  It's real.

Our edible marshmallow rainbows turned out so FANTASTICALLY that even we were impressed!  And it was SO EASY to make these fun little guys!  We accomplished this task in five easy steps (repeated 75 times because we made 15 rainbows):

ONE: Gather your ingredients - marshmallows, sanding sugar,
a bowl of water, skewers, and toothpicks.

TWO: Dip your marshmallow stuck on a toothpick in water.
(We chose mini marshmallows but you very well could use big ones.)

THREE: Roll your dipped marshmallow in sanding sugar.

FOUR: Let your marshmallows dry for a few hours.

FIVE: Stick 'em on a skewer!

And voilà!  Your very own tasty rainbow!  The incredible things about these edible rainbows are 1.) they are easy to make, 2.) they are so cool when they are done, 3.) you can choose any colors to combine - not just the colors of the rainbow, and 4.) they are a HUGE hit with any crowd!

We stuck ours in a little bag with a note that said, 'Taste the
rainbow! ♥ Kate xx!'

Plus, they are so colorful and fun that they just make you smile when you see them!  We are kind of glad that the rainbow goldfish and the rainbow fruit kabobs were already taken when we signed up to participate!  It allowed us to explore something new and have fun while we were at it!

For your viewing pleasure because we took a gazillion pics with this project, here are some more that are too fun, cute, pretty, or colorful to pass up!

Kate played with her [clean] spoons and forks in the dishwasher.

While I got busy sanding marshmallows!

Shortly thereafter, she was very interested in the toothpicks.

So I put a few in a bowl that she could play with and asked
her to please not poke her eye out.

Then I got back to sanding!

Meanwhile, Kate moved on to the tupperware cabinet.

And I kept sanding...here is a close up!

Our drying rainbow!

We have a ton of sand...er, sugar...er, sanding sugar left!

The note on Kate's bag!

The final products!

Kate's goodie bag from class included:
rainbow stickers, an egg full of rainbow goldfish,
a necklace made of fruit loops, and our tasty treat!

Kate literally gets to taste her rainbow!

And trust me when I say it was a good rainbow!

This is what we were left with!

For the record, this is more or less what Peeps are made of.  And those who know me know that it's hard for me to pass up a Peep!  I will say that the store bought Peeps have really perfected their sanding and sugar.  Their sugar is a bit finer than what I was working with and their sanding is even overall.  (I suppose being in business for over 50 years and having automated machines process your sanding could help.)  Still, this could be dangerous knowledge in the wrong hands!

Happy Rainbow Day!

250 Years Ago

It was 1764.  Native American Indians were the prime inhabitants of the Ohio area but the American and French had started moving west.  From the 1750's to the early 1800's there was a clash of power between the Native Americans who had lived on this land and the new settlers from the east.  The United States of America did not exist; that would come almost 20 years later through the American Revolutionary War.  Once the US of A was formed, we had yet to recognize George Washington as the first President; that would come 25 years later.  And it wasn't until nearly 40 years after that that Ohio officially became a state...

..but around 1764 there was a little seed that sprouted from the ground.  It surpassed all the other seedlings and fought over the next 250 years to capture sunlight, water, and nutrients to grow strong, tall, and healthy.  It would later become known as an American Linden or Basswood, a native tree to this area.  It lived through rain, snow, sun, sleet, and hail; historic summers, falls, winters, and springs.  It provided shade for generations of children to run beneath, homes for other animals, branches to perch on.  It grew and grew and grew and competed with other trees around to become one of the oldest standing trees in the area.  In 1764, that little seedling began its 250 year life in our backyard.

250 years later.

When we moved into our house back in 2010, we learned that this tree was in decline.  We spoke to arborists, we injected it with some magic solution, we spoke to more arborists, but each subsequent year it had several more branches that just didn't leaf out.  In addition to its decline, it had a severe lean right over top of our house.  Having an old 250 year old declining tree leaning over your house is a little unnerving.  So, despite our best efforts to save this monstrous tree, we decided to have it removed.

Before and after from the front.

Before: Leaning over the house.

Before: That tree top loomed directly over our bedroom.

X marks the spot.  As if there were several 250 year old trees in our
backyard...only one to our knowledge...

Jack wonders what tree he will chase squirrels around now.

After: No more looming...and no more squirrels.

All logs 'a loaded!

And we are left with a stump...

Kate wonders where we put our tree.
Did they hide it underneath??

What we saw and what we now see when we look up.

The arborists were loading the last of the tree limbs when Kate and I got home.  They told us that one of them was up in the tree from about 9:30 am until 1:30 pm getting all the limbs cut down.  When we asked them if they thought we could've done anything else to save it, they said no and that the tree was so rotten inside that the wood was soft instead of hard.  When Kate and I felt it, you could even feel the softness.  They said that the tree had been rotting well before the time that we moved in and that ants had damaged it as well.  Kate and I inquired about the age of the tree with them too.  It was so rotten inside that we couldn't even see the tree rings to count to determine the exact age, but the specialists estimated that it was, "at least 250 years old".

It amazes me to think that a tree in our backyard had been around that long.  Putting it into perspective really emphasizes how young the United States of America really is.  We just cut down a tree that was here before this country was even a country!  (At least according to the arborists.)  Blasphemy!

Nonetheless, the leaning tree is no more.  In a few days, the arborist team will come back and grind the stump.  And in a few months, hopefully we have a nice patch of grass where our old tree used to grow.  We are not without worry, but it is very relieving to know that the tree that loomed over top of us does not pose any more danger with high winds, or gentle breezes for that matter!

UPDATE
The stump grinders came and ... grinded the stump.  Shocking, I know.

It was actually pretty cool!

Kate and I watched from the second floor!

We are now left with a pile of wood chips in our yard.  Hopefully we'll have another update on those soon!

UPDATE II
The tree mulch has officially been removed.  We are 100% tree-less.

Any bets on how long it'll take for grass to grow?!

And here is our final before and after:

So long, tree.  You will be missed.

Fifty Shades of Oatmeal

Kate hasn't watched much TV in her almost 17 months of being outside of the womb.  We typically promote playing when we are together since we are working on limited time with both Brian and me working full time jobs during the day.  The other reason that we haven't really promoted television watching is because I read that it's pretty much useless before the age of two.  Children learn WAY faster and SO MUCH MORE with a human to human contact versus a TV to human contact, so if we're going to use our limited time wisely, we are going to keep the boob tube watching at a minimum.

In light of this, Kate has been very interested in the remote to the television.  She knows what it does and loves to press the buttons.  She'll pick up the remote, point it at the TV, and press a million buttons!

(She has extended our screen, added captions, and put our wide-screen back to non-wide-screen format.  Most of these instances involve Brian fiddling with the same remote Kate was playing with for 15 minutes trying to get the TV back to the way it was.  How is it possible that she can push the exact combination of buttons to swap these sorts of things EVERY SINGLE TIME and we can't for the life of us easily figure out how to navigate the menus to get the screen back the way it should be?!  For the record, she does the same thing with our cell phones too.  We are thankful she has not yet swapped the language to anything other than English.  Though with our track record it is only a matter of time.)

Since Kate became interested in using the remote properly, I figured it wouldn't hurt to have something age appropriate for her to screen should she so desire.  I figured Sesame Street would be our first stop, so I began recording some of the new episodes so that we have a little stock pile saved on our DVR for rainy days.

Today just so happened to be a perfect rainy day.  Kate took the remote and pointed it at the TV.  I asked her if she would like to watch Sesame Street and she nodded her head yes.  I turned on the last recorded episode while I got busy folding clothes.  (Ahh, laundry.  One of the many weekend to-do's.)

The very first clip of the show was with Bert.  He was sitting on a bench reading a book.  The camera zoomed in on him while the birds chirped around him.  And he mentioned he was reading Fifty Shades of Oatmeal.

Bert's book image compliments of www.muppet.wikia.com.

Fifty Shades of Oatmeal?!  I literally laughed out loud!  Who knew Sesame Street was so entertaining?! Knowing the premise of the original Fifty Shades but seeing it in a much more innocent version gave me a little joy.  Hearing Sesame Street incorporating a current fad into their show, one that an adult would understand but a child would not grasp, was refreshing.  I can honestly say that I don't recall watching an episode of Sesame Street for a very long time.  From I what I understand, this is pretty common practice for Sesame Street. A learning show geared toward child but with the humor and current events that an adult would understand?  Know wonder they've been around for almost 45 years!

Prime Sesame Street watching spot: snuggled on the couch,
next to the dog, surrounded by fuzzy, soft, fleece-y pink blankets.
One can never have too many fuzzy, soft, fleece-y pink blankets!

And here's a close-up because she's just so stinkin' cute!

I'm looking forward to our Sesame Street lounge time.  I'm looking forward to Kate finding characters that she remembers and loves.  (We have several Sesame Street books around the house that she is already a fan of.)  I am even looking forward to watching some of the Sesame Street episodes snuggled up next to my baby girl! Especially if they incorporate silly lines like, "Fifty Shades of Oatmeal"!

Seriously!  If you really think about all the things you could think of fifty shades of, oatmeal is the most innocent and child friendly one out there!  And in the child side of my brain, it literally cracks me up every.single.time!

An Extended Stay

My Mom, Scott, and brother, James, all drove down from Canada for an extended stay with us over the past few days.  This was SUCH A TREAT.  It was the first time in a long time that we were actually together for longer than a two-day weekend, and while it was so so so nice to have them here, it made me realize how much I really miss them.  And I miss them a lot.

When I made the decision to move to Ohio to pursue my relationship with Brian, I did not realize how much I would miss my family and friends and the surroundings that I grew up in and knew my whole life.  It really wasn't until I moved away and had been away for a few years that it actually hit me pretty hard that I missed everyone and everything that I've ever known tremendously.

That thought and feeling surprised me.  I moved 5 hours away from my home town of Columbia, MD when I went to college and lived an hour away from that home town when I graduated and took my first full time job.  I like to travel, I like to experience new things, I like to explore and play and learn.  Apparently, I also like to put roots down.

I guess I really didn't know what I had til it was gone, but hindsight is 20/20, and that is a lesson that I've learned time and time again.

I do really like Columbus, Ohio, my new home town.  And it is really great to be in close proximity to Brian's wonderful family.  We are both employed here, we've bought a house here, attempted way too many times to teach our dog to walk properly and not pull incessantly (still not a success), and are currently raising our daughter here.  Brian has a lot of friends here and I'm working on making mine, and there are four distinct and wonderful seasons of the year.  We are definitely spreading our roots.

But it pains me a little that it feels so far from my home.  From my familiar.

What I've realized though is that "spreading roots" does not mean that you will be somewhere forever.  Who knows what the future holds.  (I promise there is a point here.) "Spreading roots" is not necessarily a literal expression, as in planting yourself somewhere and not going anywhere else.  "Spreading roots" is a metaphorical expression, meaning to spread or connect yourself to the important people in your life so that no matter where you are they are always there with you.  Spreading roots horizontally through family and friends, weaving in and out of time, not vertically, down into the soil so that you are stuck wherever you are planted.  (At least that is what I am telling myself these days.)

Whether we are here in Ohio, in Maryland, in any other part of the United States, or the world, we will work continuously to keep spreading our roots, to keep our family and friends in our lives, and to keep our values and our morals close to heart.  It's not easy, but it makes the times that we are together so very precious and meaningful.  No one ever promised life would be easy anyway!

Having my parents and brother in town was a little slice of heaven the past few days.  I am going through a serious withdrawal not seeing them here and having them so near.  I miss them dearly, all of my family and friends, but I am extremely thankful and grateful for the time that we had together.  Extremely.  It was a dose of home that I didn't know I needed.

We went to the Franklin Park Conservatory to see the blooms
and butterflies!

Mom caught a little butterfly!

So Kate got to see it up close!

She also got to see it fly away!

Miss Independent!

Exploring the jungle!

SQUIRREL!  Oh, wait...WATERFALL!

Pretty orchids!

We did a lot of catching up and had a lot of quality time, so there aren't a lot of photos just timeless memories!  We did make a stop at Franklin Park Conservatory to see the Blooms (read: orchids) and Butterflies display (photos above) and we did host a fabulous dinner with Brian's parents (photos below)!

At the heart of every Grandma, is still a Granddaughter!

The photo above reminds me of this one taken just one day
after Kate was born.  Those Grandma's just don't age a bit,
but Kate has tripled in size!

Kate's new thing is hiding between the door and
the screen door and waiting for you to find her...

Pointing at something...

...and something else...

Do they see me?!

"HERE I AM!!!"

Sockless with a sippy cup in hand -  a
common sight these days!

We HEART these people SO MUCH!

I'd be lying if I said my heart wouldn't break a little bit if Kate decided to move 6.5 hours away chasing after some boy.  (I don't even want to think about that honestly.)  But if that is what made her happy, I would support her decision and I would do my best to keep our roots deep.

I'd also try not to cry myself to sleep every night, but I suppose that is neither here nor there.