Creekside Homestead

Birthday Wishes

Time flies and we wander where it goes, Kaelyn turned 8 today. She requested pancakes for breakfast which of course had her candle in it. I worked most of the morning on her cupcakes, she helped me make candy clay flowers for them. They are alot like the hello kitty gum paste I did last year here. She lost another tooth today which I kept saying was just hanging on but she will not let you touch them when they are loose. Tommorrow we will have the official celebration of her day with her friends.

More BEES

We got the call that a swarm of bees was at my moms and took off to see.

: This is what we saw when we got there.

: Little closer look.

: another look

: Hoping they would go in the hive on their own.

: Just after he shook the branch.

: Trying to get them all in to close it up.

Craft turned Math

We were making a toy top out of recycled items and I turned it into a little math. As we were making it and I was asking questions, she finally realized she was doing math and loved it. Hands on and fun was the key.

Use old CD and cover with paper divided into six parts and colored. A ping pong ball on bottom side (opposite from paper), I hot glued it. Then I hot glued a bottle cap on the top for the handle. Cute!

Homeschool Swap

It’s always nice to get a surprise in the mail.

Thanks to my swap sister we did get a nice box of goodies.

Labeling Seedlings

How do you label your seedlings?

We have tried several ways of labeling our seedlings..

Popsicle sticks

Wooden stakes

We bought plastic labels from the garden supply. (got costly)

Go unlabeled (not a good idea)

The wooden stakes and popsicle sticks when you mark on them even with a permanent marker it would fade with the sunlight and water. The labels from garden supply just seemed costly and would also fade with permanent marker. Going unlabeled is not a good idea at all. We got some of ours mixed up once and labeled them wrong, in turn we ended up with lots of cucumber plants and no cantaloupe. (I’m still not sure what happened there) After trying these different methods we now use broken mini blinds that have been cut apart to the appropriate length. We even purchased a garden pen for marking on them with and even after the year is over it is still very clearly marked. (Can be pricey for a pen I think we paid like $3+ but worth it)

Repurposed Mini Blind Garden Label

Gardening

The greenhouse seems to be thriving here is a peak…

: Pretty Little Homestead Tomato

: More Tomatoes

: Flowers

: Tomatoes

: Squash

: Potatoes in the corner in a homemade grow bag.

: If this baby will only get pollinated, early squash!!

: Lettuce/Cabbage

Homemade Bread

My first attempt at homemade bread. It rose beautifully..

It looked really good coming out of the oven too, then it did not come out of the pan in one piece. The taste was good but it was a little doughy still in the center. I was afraid to cook it any longer for fear that it would be too hard.

I will try again. I’m sure it is like making biscuits, it come with practice.

Signs of Spring?

Is it signs of spring or just early start?

Squash

This was the squash a couple of weeks ago.

lettuce

The greenhouse is thriving, thanks to a few new additions.

First Day

Yes, they are getting in the van for the first day. They wanted to be taken to “school” on the first day, so their dad drove up blew the horn and took them around the driveway and brought them in for their first day.

This is our newly created work area.

Hard at work.

Finished Project

Jaxon is participating for the first time this year, he did fantastic and was very proud of his accomplishments.

“School” Table

With the beginning of a new school year rounding the corners we are not ready and still working on projects in preparation.

This is my latest project I am redoing this table and chairs for our “school” table. I am hoping that if we have a little more designated kid sized space that will help with the transitions.