This is the rhubarb! It's huge! We picked several stalks and gave them to my friend Jenny. Jenny doesn't know this, but Landon said, "Let's give some to Jenny and see what she produces with it before we attempt to make something on our own." I said, "How will we know what she makes and if it tastes good?" He said, "I bet she'll give some to us. When we gave her some potatoes, she brought hot banana bread over to us the same day." Well, 5 minutes ago Jenny called me and told me to bring over an 8 X 8 inch pan and she'll make a double batch of strawberry/rhubarb crisp so we can have a pan. Mission accomplished!!!
The little baby shoot is corn! The other green things are peas, I think.
We bought some tomato and onion starts at the nursery where I got my hanging flower basket for Mother's Day. (I'll have to post a picture of my basket soon.) Lauren is wearing the little tomato plant covers that keep the plants warm.
This onion patch is an example of our complete gardening ignorance. We thought that when you buy the onion starts, you just plant the whole bunch in one spot, like the tomatoes. Well, we learned that each little shoot of green is one onion, so you separate them and plant them each about 6 inches apart. We bought 4 starts, so that's about 200 potential onions (Walla Walla onions and yellow onions). I hope my friends who live nearby are interested in some free onions later this summer.
Lauren insisted on a "before" picture. 
That's Mr. Jeppeson first, then Mr. Bowman (my buddy/guitar teacher), Mrs. Hill, then the kids with Mr. LeFevre looking thrilled to be in charge and not being dunked.
These are the 32 4th graders in Mr. Bowman's class that I eventually bonded with. The boys are wearing the ugly teeth I gave them. We had a lot of fun together, all things considered.
Emma and her friend Cheyenne made these snickerdoodles all by themselves. I stayed completely out of the kitchen and prayed I wouldn't regret it. They were seriously the best snickerdoodles I've ever eaten! They did a fantastic job. Emma gave a plate of cookies to her beloved teacher, Mrs. Lauritsen, who she would follow to the ends of the earth.
Lauren used her bendaroos to create some stuff for Mrs. Burt. She made a flower, a ladybug, and of course, a duck. We also gave $5 to another mom who combined money to buy a really nice flower pot from 4 of us. I didn't think Lauren had the best experience with her teacher this year, but I still felt obligated to thank her for spending time doing art projects with Lauren all year.
I made these little hair things for the girls in my class, and bought some ugly teeth for the boys. The hair things are being sold at the farmer's market for $2.50 each! They're just covered buttons with an elastic band through the back. Kind of cute, but not for $2.50 each.
The eye doctor said that her eyes are weak by about 2 "powers" and it's up to us whether or not we want her to wear glasses. He recommends glasses at 2-3 powers, so he said we could go either way. The girls are on Medicaid, which means it's free, so of course we said yes. She couldn't be happier! She can wear them when she needs them, not necessarily all the time. I think she'll be wearing them non-stop for a while. (If you don't know why it's such a big deal to her, look back to the first day of school post...)
Good news! Our little kids are finally developmentally advanced enough to play Settlers of Catan! We taught them last week and played one game with them. We played again today while the potatoes processed, and it wasn't just a fluke. They really do understand how to play! We've entered a new game playing era! 
This is where I found Lauren during the raking process:
We (and by "we" I mean Emma and Lauren) planted 4 rows of corn, 2 rows of carrots, a row of radishes, 2 rows of peas, a mound of summer squash, and a row of lettuce. In a couple of weeks we're going to plant some tomato starts and some onions. Landon and Kevin supervised and educated during the planting process, while I handed out the seeds, marveled at how the seeds looked just like the actual food, and completely avoided touching any dirt. Here's a classic gardening butt shot, followed by the front shot:
then you put it in a mixer bowl with the remaining ingredients, more flour, more yeast, more water, salt and a little milk. You mix it for 6 minutes with a paddle, then attach a hook and mix it for 10 minutes until it gets shiny, sticky and clings to itself:
You let it rise for 2 hours, folding it in on itself 2 different times during the last hour.
Then you dump it out on a floured counter, divide it in 2, gently shape each half with floured fingers into a 12 X 6 inch rectangle. Then you fold the rectangle into thirds and allow it to rise 30 minutes on parchment paper. (This is a double batch, so there's 4 loaves.) 
Cute little bubbles start to form on the top of the loaves as it rises. That's a good sign.
You preheat the oven to 450 degrees, mist the loaves with water, then slide the loaves onto a pre-heated pizza stone. Mist the loaves twice more during the first 5 minutes, then allow the loaves to cook for a total of about 22 minutes.
The loaves should look kind of like this when they're done.
The bread should have lots of little holes and a chewy texture. I guess it's good for sandwiches...we haven't had it last long enough for a sandwich yet. 
Landon and Lauren love the pickles. I like the pickles, but faced with a choice, I choose a cookie or chips any day. 
I had to make copies, put ribbons on candy bars, write names on Primary CDs and other odds and ends. It was a family effort, which made it much easier. 
Lauren loves it when I make this face, sneak up on her and say, "Hey Lauren, do you want to play with me?" I can get a few laughs no matter what her mood is.
Landon is the assistant Webelos leader, so we were able to participate in the Pinewood Derby this year. We entered a car in the "family race." The girls painted it pink and used some glitter glue and Landon glued decorative stones on it to make it weigh 5 ounces. I used a Sharpie and wrote fun phrases like, "Hand over the trophy, boys," "Girls Rule," and "Eat our pink dust." We came in 2nd place in our race, just barely beat by a 3 year old little girl named Riley (whose dad happens to be the Cubmaster). It was probably our first and last Pinewood Derby, and I'm not really sad about that.
