Mermaid

She saved her money.

She did her chores.

She stained the fence.

She cleaned the blinds.

And now she is an honest-to-goodness mermaid. And it is everything she hoped it would be!!

Perfect destruction

Those Japanese Beetles really have a flair for destroying the garden.

Dad lists

He just brings that "little extra something" to everything he does.

SBL: Search for the Best Shakes

First of all, this was one possible with the professional execution and timing we Huffords pride ourselves on. Mark completed curbside ordering as we drove to our pre-assigned restaurants. Ethan took a couple little girls and headed straight to Freddy's for 1 chocolate shake and 1 cookies and cream. We pulled up to Chick-fil-a and they brought out a chocolate, a strawberry and a cookies and cream, we then drove straight over to Five Guys where we got another chocolate, a strawberry and a cookies and cream just as Ethan pulled up. That's 8 cold shakes from 3 different establishments. 

BAM.

In order to ward off fighting over eventual ownership of the cookies and cream shakes (who are we kidding....Oreos win every time)...we just kept sipping and passing. 

There was an air of seriousness...

A task at hand....

No effort was spared at detecting the subtle differences between the flavors.

The finer points were debated.

I pushed through my enamel sensitivity. Momma so old.

Consensus was reached!

The winners:  Chocolate: Freddy's (so dark and delicious), strawberry: Five Guys (fresh strawberries!), cookies and cream:  Five Guys

Chick-fil-a was a loser on this one, but we will always love them for their yummy nuggets and polite teenagers.

Next we will find the best fries!!

There have been developments

Remember that time I learned that we can make brownies without a mix??

Well, we just figured out that onion rings are super easy and super cheap to make.

This is a fork in the road, friends.

A big old, greasy, fat fork.

8 am

Our summer routine...scriptures at 8 am and then out the door to crossfit. They mostly come without a fight, but their ability to follow along and stay awake reduces with age.

But nothing is perfect and we are doing our best.

The coconut

Remember the coconut we bought at City Market??

I got that knowing it would be the perfect distraction for Ethan. He has weaponry and he loves a challenge.

Let's just say...I wish with all my heart I had waiting to see the inside before I took a big swig of that milk.

July Garden

I have a confession. 

I have never, ever...not even once...taken care of my garden in July. It so dang hot. I always abandon it for the air conditioned indoors. The beans get all fat and hollow and I forget to pick the cucumbers before they turn into sour watermelons. The tomatoes ripen beautifully and then shrivel up and fall to the ground. 

It's shameful. 

But I am making up for it this year! I am on it! I am daily weeding and harvesting and (this one is shocking) I am using everything up and we are actually eating what we are growing. I am doing everything in my power not to allow this beautiful produce to shrivel on the vine or on my countertop. If we can't eat all of it, we give it away.

The bachelor's buttons are in bloom! I am learning how to save seed from all the different veggies and flowers so I can plant next year without having to rebuy most of things we have.

So far I have:

Blanketflowers
Bachelor's Buttons
Arugula
Cilantro
Green beans
Green onions
Dill

I'm hoping to get basil, tomatoes, cucumbers and zinnias. If I can be super patient, I'd like to try to harvest beet seeds, but that means I have to let a beet go for 2 years. Not sure I can manage that,

Not sure what these are, but they sure are cute!

Our first batch of tomatillos!

I roasted them up and made salsa verde!

And the very funnest thing...6 ears of corn! We'll have them with dinner this week! Mark was super excited to have something out of the garden that he likes!

Live at the Roxy

Mark and his band, Threat Level Midnight, played at the Roxy tonight. They did so great! The music was killer and he absolutely NAILED his solo in Sweet Child of Mine that he was so nervous about. I was too busy saying silent prayers and crossing my fingers to get a video...doh!

Holy heck, I love him.

The Flume

We took another trip out the Millcreek Streamway to escape the intense heat and let the kids do something other than beg to watch another episode of My Little Pony.

The water felt amazing and a nice breeze was coming through.

Mika was happy as a clam, sucking on her river rocks.

Mark became totally committed to clearing a path and redirecting all water into one spot so that the kids could ride their tubes down the river without any interference. He worked tirelessly and moved a crazy amount of river rock!

And it worked! The kids had a man-made flume straight to the swimming hole! I was a bit too heavy to clear it without hitting the bottom a couple times, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

Check out his handiwork!

Greedy Gus

This fabulous fellow kept me company in the garden this morning.

Doesn't he look like he rolled around in the sugar bin?

Rockets and Shakes....a tiny bit illegal

The weather was looking mighty fine, so we put the word out....rockets and shakes at Prairie Creek Elementary. Be there or be square. 

Look at our new rocket!! It's a beauty.

After catching all the rockets and shooting all the breeze, we went over to Freddy's for shakes and french fries. Have you ever tried to make a gaggle of teenagers and kids that have spent their lives together socially distance? We failed miserably. At one point, they were sitting on the taped off tables and singing Hamilton at the top of our lungs. I'm fairly certain there is video of our performance on at least three community alert websites.

Another fun night!

SBL: Kansas City Fun

We had plans to go downtown to the City Market, pick up some Indian food and have a picnic on the grounds at Nelson-Atkins while we watch people bonk their noses in the glass maze. 

The museum is closed and the maze is roped off. Stupid Covid is determined to thwart our plans. Well, we aren't having it! We'll have a picnic at City Market and, by george, we'll buy a coconut...husk and all. We are laser focused on having some fun today. 

Even if we have to walk in one direction to find it.

After lunch we set out in search of art installations. They are outside and are impossible to close to the public. So we had a photo shoot. In 94 degree weather.

It was so hot.

But we make sacrifices for cute photos.

We did pop over to Crown Center to do our annual candy grab. I was worried they would be closed, but they were ready to roll with personal candy scoopers, plastic gloves and hand sanitizer for all.

We stumbled on this guy as we were headed back home

I mean, come on....pretty great. And also just totally weird. I still can't get used to the massive changes we are living with.

Our summer bucket list is getting very close to complete! All we have left is Pensacola, Rockets & Shakes, hammocking, search for the best fries and shakes, and 1/4 of the movie marathon. We are killing it.