Update

It's been busy, obviously.  I can't believe I haven't posted since April! Here's a run-down of events in our household:

I launched my beekeeping business, complete with designer labels (by my sister) and accounting tracker spreadsheets (by my husband).  The bees are doing well now despite some early chalkbrood (fungal disease) issues.  I had to kill the queen on one hive, replace her with a new queen, remove diseased frames and do some other technical things to keep them going.  This first season of beekeeping has been more challenging than I anticipated, but I've learned a lot and am looking forward to more adventures.  The kids have been involved and very helpful at times.  To answer the most FAQ's - I've been stung three times now.  No, we will not have any honey to harvest this first year.

There's more than just the bees to keep us busy outdoors.  The garden has been a great success this year too.

April

May

June

We began harvesting peas, beans, and cucumbers by early June.

 

Early July brought us our first corn and tomato harvest:

And the brussel sprouts are well on their way to producing.  Pumpkins and gourds are in and leafing nicely for a fall harvest.

We finished up the school year with a frenzy of parties and academic/sports award ceremonies.

 Both girls had great seasons on their softball teams and look forward to playing on the Fall Ball teams.  Amy earned recognition for straight A's every term the whole school year.  She especially enjoys science, in which she earned a grade of perfect 100 for the entire school year.

The girls joined the F.A.S.T. (Franklin Area Swim Team) Frogs this summer.  They had early morning practices each day and one meet each week.  The Championships were this past weekend and both girls earned several ribbons, medals, etc.  The FAST Frogs went undefeated this summer and even won the overall Championship for Williamson County.  The girls competed against over 100 swimmers in each event and came in anywhere from 1st to 43rd but improved their personal time each meet. 

 

Summertime also brings camps and this year Amy participated in her school's Encore program again.  She got to choose 4 classes: Cake Decorating, Super Science, Cooking, and Gross-ology (study of all the gross things about the human body).  She came home with all sorts of interesting hand-made contraptions from her science class, some beautifully decorated cakes, and even made calzones for dinner one night.

This week the fun continues as our niece/cousin Karen is visiting with us.  Tomorrow we start my very own summer piano camp and some sewing projects.  Not to mention touring some of the local sites.

Posts on our summer vacations are coming soon!

We Are Beekeepers

Finally, after a few weeks of delay, our honeybees have arrived.  We ordered two "nucs" (nucleus) which means they come packaged with a queen bee, some brood (baby bees), honey stores and about 30,000 other bees (workers and drones).  This is a small colony which should double in size over the next few weeks. And we have two colonies! Amy suited up and came with me to the county Agriculture Center, which is conveniently located 1 mile from our home.  We collected our nucs - packaged in these sturdy cardboard boxes and secured with duct tape.

Notice my cute little helpers.  Pictured below is Emily - all suited up behind me.  She comes with me to my monthly beekeeping classes at the Ag Center and even takes notes.  We have a fabulous friend at the club (who is also our neighbor) who's kids have outgrown their bee suit, so she has graciously loaned it to us so our kids can be involved too.  Em was great at spraying sugar water on the honeycomb and helping me look for the queen bee. 

Here is a photo of one of the nuc frames installed into the hive:

The comb has been 'drawn out' or built out for space for the brood and/or honey.  These boxes will primarily be used for brood.  Later in the summer I will put on the honey supers and be able to harvest the excess.

The smoker is a pretty fun tool -  great for directing traffic in the hive.  I wish I had a similar tool that worked for children in the home! 

Amy was my helper on the second nuc installation.  She is very fond of the bees and loves them as if they were a cuddly pet.  She is very patient and helpful during the inspection process and is a useful source of factual knowledge. 

We've got the bees situated in a nice corner of our lot, facing southeast towards the farmer's field next door so they will have plenty of early morning sunlight and ample space for foraging.  We hope they'll have fun visiting our own garden and berry patches (posts to come)!

New Hobby Desk

Grandma gave me $50 for Christmas.  I used it to buy this desk I found at a local thrift store:

A nice, solid desk (very heavy) with great drawers all in working order.  But not very pretty.  So I sanded it all down and gave it a makeover.

Voila - my hew hobby desk:

I spent about $50 in paint, polycrylic finish and new hardware.  Grandma said a person should have a little bit of red in every room, so here's my bit of red for our upstairs living area.  It's a great desk with pull-out work tops, nice deep drawers and very sturdy - which is nice for when I'm using the sewing machine and serger.

The table I used to have for my sewing/quilting has now moved behind the sofa and works as a nice cutting table and worktop for paper crafts.  (I like that I can work at the table while Matt watches sports and still feel like we are together and each doing something fun)

And then there's the wall-mounted cabinets that I salvaged from the garage when we moved in. 

I'm really enjoying the storage space as well as the worktop areas.  I'm working on some ribbon holders/shelves that will mount onto the wall above my thread organizer and that should free up some more cupboard space for my floral supplies.  (I know, I have too many hobbies)

Just moving closer to my goal of being a gardener/beekeeper by summer and seamstress/quilter by winter.  :-)

Cake Fest 2012

Matt had another birthday and we celebrated with another Cake Fest (per tradition).  We kept it simple this year and only invited 3 other families over.  We ate croissant sandwiches and two large and delicious cakes. Even with only 2 cakes, we still had leftovers!

Matt's childhood favorite: Vienna Torte

A new one this year: Oreo ice cream cake with fudgy layers.

This year marks the 100 year birthday of Oreo cookies so I felt the need to incorporate this classic cookie into our repertoire.  It tasted amazing and was simple and quick to make (no baking!) 

Harry Potter World

The highlight of our trip was visiting the Harry Potter world inside Universal's Islands of Adventure.  It had the best rides, shopping, and food... of course, we are big fans.

Hogsmeade

Hogwarts Castle

Hagrid's Hut

The Hogwarts Express

Shopping at Flourish and Blotts, Ollivander's Wand Shop, and the Owl Post Office

Lunch at the Three Broomsticks

 The ride inside Hogwarts Castle is the newest and most impressive we've experienced.  It's a combination of ride and simulator (like Star Tours) that makes you feel as though you are actually flying on a broomstick through and around Hogwarts Castle - with a Hungarian Horntail (dragon) chasing you down.  Complete with dementors and the Womping Willow tree - it's quite an adventure!  Another neat part of this ride was waiting in line because you actually get to tour the castle and visit with the characters from the books.

Mandrakes in the Herbology Room

the portraits on the wall move and talk

the Sorting Hat

We did leave the Wizarding World for long enough to get soaked on the Rip Saw Falls (Emily loved it and insisted on sitting up front).

We were glad for the 85 degree days.  It made the water rides well worth it.

We also hit a few of the Dr. Seuss rides.

The Harry Potter area is by far the most popular portion of Islands of Adventure.  It was packed from opening time till about 5 pm.  Then everyone disbursed.  So we headed back about that time and enjoyed some frozen butterbeer (like a slushy cream soda) and walked right onto the rides over and over (no lines!).  Amy took Matt on the Dueling Dragons roller coasters (I went once and about lost my head).  Emily and I did Flight of the Hippogryphs - a more moderate roller coaster.  We kept playing till late in the evening then finally decided we would have to say goodbye.

A Little Rest

We decided to break things up a bit and take a day off from park hopping. We enjoyed some Pirate-themed mini golf and some shopping in Downtown Disney. 

We decided to see if the Ghirardelli Shop - with its famous fudge sundaes - was as good at Disney as it was in San Francisco.

Yep, it was.

A little swimming in the hotel pool and we were refreshed for a few more days of theme parks.

Magic Kingdom

We actually did 2 days at Magic Kingdom (and skipped EPCOT).  Who needs to see fake countries round a giant golfball when we've seen the real ones?

We simply had a lot of fun - shooting aliens, driving cars (how come Disney hasn't updated Tomorrow-Land to have electric vehicles???), flying through outer space, down Splash Mountain, watching Bears sing... and hanging out with real princesses.

 

iphone games while waiting in line