More Middleton Scenery

This morning I went back to Middleton Place. This time I went with my neighbor Nancy.

Looking out from the house site to the Ashley River.  Waking up to this view every day would be amazing.

The little gator is thinking about how fast the bird really is

that is a log, not a gator, we did see a couple alligators in the pond, but not as many

I like they left the gate standing.

We learned about the rice harvest. This year they had just a little bit of rice already harvested.  They taught us more about the process of making it ready to ship to Europe. The process of husking it, polishing it and putting into wooden barrels.  How new trade routes with Asia helped bring about the demise of Carolina Gold Rice.

They are making a new morter. First they started out with a chisel and a hammer. Then they decided to burn out the center. The burning went much faster!

The view from the window of the cooperage.

Stable yards.  We did not see any of the cats today.

It was a fun way to spend a couple hours.

Middleton is a wonderful place!

Sweet Tea Festival 2015

The rain held off. Even if it had not, the Sweet Tea Festival would have gone on.

The line moved quickly for the sweet tea cups. They were pre filled with sweet tea from Publix

Lon is having fun

I am still trying to figure out what this was, but it is some kind of mascot for Publix.

Pizza snack for Lon. He was not drinking my sweet tea, he tried it and said wow Mom is that ever sweet.
He stuck with his water

My sweet tea mug. Last year they had glass ones, but no lid and no straw.

Mark finished his sweet tea and got some green tea from the Nexton booth.

We met up with the Yis!

Train!

Counting the train cars. There were 111

The kids all had pizza, the adults went to Pick Thai for dinner.  We all ate way too much. It was very yummy. I thought I would have leftover for lunch. Nope.

The kids kept themselves amused.

Waiting for the adults outside the Low Country Olive Oil store. Love that place.

Met up with some more friends downtown!

Sunset over Short Central.
We had a great time tonight.
We love Third Thursday!

Middleton Place Nature Pictures

On Saturday, my friend, Jessica and I went to Middleton Place. It was an event called Genteel Pursuits and Pastimes.   We loved the circus performer.  But I did not get picture of that.  I did not bring my camera, but I brought my phone.  We walked around the rice ponds, and watched the alligators and birds. The camera phone is not the quality I would have liked, but I loved these photos.

That lump in the water is an alligator

not sure which picture is better so I put them both in

I need to bring this one closer

He just got a fish! This is my blind pig shot

This is the wonderful day I had on Saturday while the boys were camping.

Death Star

When we moved to South Carolina, all of Lon's big legos were packed into boxes. They did not survive in tact.   Lon has rebuilt all of them, the Black Pearl, The Queen Anne's Revenge, the Millennium Falcon and the last one to be rebuilt, the Death Star.
Lon worked on this for most of Labor Day weekend.  He finished it up after homework tonight.

Ta Da!

He is missing the green laser pieces, but he is working on finding them.

Showing me all about it

See the elevator, Mom? It moves up and down. Pretty cool huh?

Showing the Death Star to friends. They thought it was pretty cool too.

Labor Day

Most of Labor Day I forgot to take photos.  We had lots of boys over, and that was fun. Uncle Chong and Auntie Michelle came for dinner. We had ribs, grilled chicken, coleslaw, and potato salad. I forgot to make rice for Uncle Chong

 Jack came down like this. I think he was pretending to be an Ewok.  

For dessert I made funnel cakes, with fresh strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream. The kids liked them.  Even the Ewok.

Happy Birthday Austin and Chelsea!

Today was Austin and Chelsea's combined pool party birthday!  Everyone had a blast!

Chelsea's cake.  I made the snowflakes on the side of the cake from royal icing.

Austin's cake!

boys in the pool.

Pretty sure Lon was using his snorkel as a squirt gun.

Birthday boy!

Singing Happy Birthday!

I did get a photo, sort of, of the inside of the camo cake!

Mark took home one of Chelsea's favor bags,  and since it had a Frozen hair clip in it, I made him wear it at least once.


It was a great time. We had a blast.  The rain held off, we got out of the pool, had cake, cleaned up and then the rain came.  Perfect timing.

Thank you!

Camo Cake!

I made a camouflage cake. Inside and out. I promised I would share how it was done. Here goes.

First make two batters, one chocolate and one vanilla

divide the vanilla into two bowls, tint one yellow/tan keep it very light, the other green. You could divide it out further but I wanted to try simple first.

 Now you have three bowls of batter

I did not get a chance to take a photo of me plopping batter into the pan. I added the chocolate corner, just a cup, then added the tan next to it, just a little, and I filled the bottom of the pan, just a little at a time, then I built up those colors if they over lapped a little on top it was not a big deal.

I baked it according to the directions of my recipe. Came out great

Then I did a crumb coat of tan.

I drew a random pattern on the edge of the crumb coat, and filled it in with light brown, dark brown and two shades of green.  I smoothed it out with parchment paper.

I added the edges to make it look finished. I put the soldiers on the top, and then sprinkled graham cracker crumbs in top to make it looks sandy

I did not get a chance to take a photo of the inside but it turned out camo!

I am proud of this cake!

Evening in the Pool

Last night we had a great time over at Uncle Chong and Auntie Michelle's pool. Well, the pool at their temporary apartment.

It's a fun little pool.  Daddy even helped out by clearing out some pine needles. After swimming Auntie Michelle had ice cream for all of us!

It is so nice to spend time with them again!