Ancient Egypt Birthday

My little Pharaoh decided, back in September, that this year he wanted an ancient Egypt birthday party. Luckily we had access to lots of Egyptian goodies since my mom lived and taught in Egypt for two years, and shockingly, my son's pharaoh costume still fit.

We were able to borrow so much from grandma, that all I needed to buy was the gold overlay for the table cloth and the fake papyrus plants for the table.  

We covered the table with the Pharaoh's gold; gold candy that is.

I made the banner, the place cards and the napkins. (Notice how they are folded like pyramids? Clever, aren't I...) We also used the special occasion to get out my grandmother's Dirigold flatware. It's a bear to polish, but it was the prefect addition to our golden table. (No gold in Dirigold - in 1935 the company was forced to change its name to Dirilyte since the US government felt the name was misleading.)

As usual, my husband, Allen, made the cake. He used some little pyramids I brought back from my trip to Egypt as molds to make the pressed brown sugar pyramids he put on top of the cake.

Mackinac Prank

I was in town the other morning and found this on main street. Someone was up early and had a little fun; luckily it looks like there was no harm done...

Mackinac Moment

Finally a dry morning after eight straight days of rain. Though, with the look of that sky, I'm not holding my breath...

Neighborhood Friends

My daughter has been asking my husband for a while now if we can all sit out on the roof of our porch (through her bedroom window, of course,) so we can watch the stars. Last night was relatively warm, so we all climbed out her window, got comfy, and watched the sky. In addition to stars, satellites and shooting stars, we also heard some of our neighbors whooping it up on a Friday night.

First we heard the island coyote pack yipping and barking. It was most definitely a group of them, and they were really talkative about something. Coyotes have been on the island for quite a while now. Back in summer of 2006 a number of cats "went missing" from the village - most likely eaten by coyotes. I personally haven't seen one, but my husband has seen them, on several mornings, ramble through our backyard just as the sky was lightening. Luckily, it's always been a single animal. Our neighbor has also seen one walking on our street as she's been leaving for work early in the morning. Needless to say, these days, we have an indoor cat...

Last night we also heard several barred owls "hooting." Hoot really isn't the right way to describe the sound these owls make though. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes their call as "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?" It's really amazing to hear them calling back on forth to one another so close to the house. It's so nice just to sit out there and not have to listen to traffic.

Mackinac owl picture courtesy of Zach Coston, coyote courtesy of northamericanwhitetail.com, 3rd Rock From the Son is owned by The Carsey-Warner Company.

Back Again...

When we're in the neighborhood, we just can't resist stopping at Kitch-iti-kipi, also known as The Big Spring. We don't usually stay for long, but it's so interesting we just have to stop.

The kids love "driving" the raft (A.K.A. turning the wheel to pull the raft across the spring,) and, of course,

watching the trout swim around beneath them. Something like 10,000 gallons of water feed into the spring each second, so watching the sand erupt like little volcanoes on the bottom of the spring is pretty cool, too. 

The hardest part for Allen and K was not being able run back to the car to get their fishing poles. So many trout, but no fishing is allowed in the spring. Sigh.

I'm going to look into taking my class there this fall for a field trip.  They have a naturalist  on staff who may be able to put a program together for us, and I'd be willing to bet that not many of my students have ever been there.

Back in the Saddle

The kids and I have been back to school for two weeks now. As much as we love summer, we tend to be a routine oriented family, and being back into the routine of school feels good...

Ouch!

When you live on Mackinac Island, going grocery shopping off the island can take all day, so sometimes it doesn't happen all that often. In addition to the cupboards being bare, this time of year we start stocking up on stuff we'll need over the winter. Today, those two things made for our most expensive shopping trip ever. Luckily, except for fresh fruits and veggies, I won't need to shop again for quite a while...

All I Can Say is, "Yum"

Allen took the kids and I on a wonderful camping trip recently in the Upper Peninsula, near Manistique. The campsite, the only one on the lake, was lovely and quiet, but, for me, the best part of the weekend was the wild blueberries growing near by.

With a bit of help I managed to bring home 12 lb 9 oz (just under 6 kg) of deliciously sweet berries.

I'd never made jam before (just apple butter,) but wild blueberry jam seemed like a good place to start. I used this recipe. There's a ton of information to sort through on the page, but as a beginner I really appreciated all of her experience.

I crushed, cooked, poured and processed three batches and ended up with 36 eight-ounce jars - just over two gallons of jam! (about 8.5 liters.) And I still have most of a gallon-size zip-lock bag of berries in the freezer.

It was yummy. So much so, that we are heading up to Paradise next week to see if we can pick more. Allen even surprised me with a blueberry rake. I think he's hoping that we'll stock the pantry with blueberry syrup and pie filling, and fill the freezer with berries to enjoy all winter. So, if you know of any good blueberry recipes, please send them my way!

Stopping Traffic

We were off the island exploring the other day and found this guy stopping traffic. Not sure if he was a young raven or a crow, but he limped as I encouraged him to move off to the side of the road. 

No Climbing?

As I was out for a walk the other night I stumbled on this. Too funny...

Into the Wilderness

We finally made it back to the Sturgeon Cabin

at Wilderness State Park.

WSP was wonderful, as always, 

though this year it was rather wet.

But the fish didn't seem to mind...

Independence Day

Instead of our usual Fourth of July spot down by the school, this year we went up to Fort Holmes - the highest point on the Island. We were not disappointed. We got to see our fireworks as well as Mackinaw City's, Cheboygan's and even some from the DeTour-Cedarville-Hessel area off in the distance. The best part was, after the fireworks were over, the walk home was downhill!

This picture is a composite of three separate bursts that I photoshopped together... 

Mackinac Moment

We've been having some lovely evenings up here...

This is SO How My Husband Feels...

Well, except for the singing. Allen rarely breaks out in song.

But to his credit, he bought the soundtrack for the kids. He even got the CD with the bonus karaoke version of Let it Go. He must really love us...

Mackinac Must Have: Rain Gear

photo via

Summer in Northern Michigan means occasional rain. It's just a fact of life. Some days it might be a quick passing thunderstorm, but other days we have all day soaking rains; either way being prepared is important. In fact, this time of year, we pretty much never leave the house without stuffing our rain gear into a backpack first.

With no cars on Mackinac, we're often  out in the elements. Umbrellas are nice when you're walking,  but not very practical while riding a bike. For the kids I love LL Bean rain gear. Both kids wear it in the spring and well into the fall with a fleece underneath. (I took that picture just a day or two ago - yes, it was so chilly that we needed mittens in June!)

photo via

So, if you happen to be coming to Mackinac Island this summer, take my advice and throw your raincoat  (or an umbrella) into your bag. It's true, you may not need it, but if you hit the island on one of the wetter days, you'll be glad you have it. Especially if you happen to be riding a rental bike around the island and are three miles from town...

Hope

Has it ever hit you that you never blogged about something important to you? Believe it or not, I never seemed to post about the quilt I made for Craft Hope. (If you've never checked out Craft Hope, you should.) My friend, Maggie, and I participated  in Project Five - we each made a quilt for Margaret's Hope Chest. The photos I took of the quilt I made for the project didn't turn out, so I never posted about it.

Photo via

Thankfully M.H.C. took photos of all the quilts they received! (The complete set of photos can be found here.) M.H.C. specifically asked for boy quilts so when I saw that football fabric I just had to get it. So anyway, Maggie bought the Craft Hope book for herself and emailed me telling me that I had to get myself a copy. Now I know why! My quilt is in two photographs in the book. I know I just contributed a teeny tiny part to the project, but it was really exciting to see my quilt in the book. It has me wondering if the little boy pictured with it is the one who actually got it...

This photo was taken by Lynne Harty and is owned by Lark Crafts,
A Division of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

Camp Pet-o-se-ga

My mom and dad discovered this little gem not too far

from home and suggested we check it out...

Except for the mosquitoes, it was lovely.

We hiked along the river and check out the cabins,

and, of course, my son made new friends;

lots of new friends.

Their campsites looked nice, so I'm sure we'll end up back

there for the weekend or two later this summer...

Mackinac Moment

Hello June.

It's so nice to see you. 

May is always so rough for me; the craziness of the end of the year, field trips, report cards, packing up my classroom - it's a whirlwind. But once my dear friend, June, arrives things calm down. Hopefully I'll have time to post here more often...

Honey Bee Birthday Treats

Since we are still allowed to send treats in for birthdays (yippee!), my daughter wanted bee cupcakes. We were worried the Pringles wings wouldn't make it down the hill in my bicycle basket without breaking, so we waited to put the wings on after we arrived at school. 

A Party Fit for a Queen

A queen bee, that is...

It's hard to believe my baby just turned eight. She really doesn't appreciate being called "my baby," but that's what she'll always be - my sweet little girl, even though she's not so little any more. Second grade has been a good year for her. She's developed into a great thinker - whether it is mathematical problem solving, spelling patterns or reading fourth grade level books - she does a super job. Each day she is getting better at controlling her temper and remembering that it's more important to be a good friend than it is to get your way all the time. I'm so proud of her. And I love that even though she's eight, she still wants me to tuck her into bed every night.

For her party, I made the bee dress and our friend, Miranda, whipped up that adorable crown - Her Majesty didn't take off off all day. You should have seen her face light up when she saw her place at the table. Plus we tried to call her things like "Your Majesty," "Your Ladyship" and "Your Highness" pretty much all day long. Each time we did it we got the look, but I know she secretly loved it.

We know quite a bit about bees 'round here, so Her Royal Majesty laughed heartily when she noticed that all the female party guests had name cards, while the male's place cards simply said, "Drone." She even told her brother  she was going to kick him out of the house after the party. He so didn't appreciate that...

About a week before the party she managed to find my stash of party goodies and noticed the bottles of Diet Vernors in the tub. She smiled to herself and said,"It's going to be nectar, isn't it?" Guess I'm not as clever as I thought...

However, borrowing the yellow hexagon pattern blocks from school and raiding our Honey Bee Tree game for free table decorations was quite clever. 

And, of course, what bee themed party would be complete without one of Grandpa's favorite candies?

As usual, Allen made the cake. (He found it here.) He made a few changes and described his result as, "A complete fail," but I disagree. It looked cute and was really good, though I don't think it was sweet enough for the Queen. (Allen says that if he made it again he'd decrease the amount of cocoa by one or two tablespoons, and increase the amount of sugar in the pastry cream. That said, it was delicious with my coffee this morning.) In the cooking department, I got off easy this year. K requested chicken nuggets, french fries, green bean casserole and honey buns for dinner. As a rule we do not eat chicken nuggets and french fries at home  - ever. But what the Queen wants on her birthday, the Queen gets.

In the end, my little honey loved her bee themed birthday dinner. Since she was happy, I was happy. And, luckily, in the end, she decided not to kick her brother out of the house...

Find free bee party printables here, here, here, and over here. The garland I used came form here.  Some cute bee fonts can be found here and here. I found the background of my nectar labels here and the little bee here.