Saturday Happenings

I started my day with a 4-mile run/walk, followed by this week's chore: vacuuming.  I have felt completely unmotivated to vacuum for the last several months, but this morning I was in a groove and wanted to finish even before I had breakfast.  Until the vacuum broke.

We have a central vac (which I love), and it turns on and off automatically when you plug the hose into the outlets in the wall that are scattered throughout the house.  But halfway through vacuuming this morning, the downstairs unit kept running even after I pulled the hose out of the wall.  Uh oh.  Looks like we're going to have to get someone in here to look at what might be wrong.

Later the girls and I walked with Grandma to the opening of the farmer's market, which was disappointing to say the least.  The produce vendor that has been there the last couple of years bowed out for this season, so there was no fresh produce.  Produce is THE reason I go to the farmer's market since I don't need baked goods, meat, donuts, crafts, etc.  Guess I won't be going much this year.

We did walk across the new pedestrian bridge on our way there though, which was the first time for the girls.  They thought it was very cool.

Charles picked up two free chicken halves from a new guy in town who is doing barbecue in the parking lot of the nursery on Main Street.  They were giving away halves today to try to drum up new business and make folks aware of them.  We had them for lunch, and they were very tasty.  Good flavor, very tender and moist.  Sophie especially enjoyed hers (eating almost an entire half herself, minus the breast that she allowed me to have), and Hannah enjoyed her favorite of late: a toasted mini bagel sandwich (alternating between cream cheese, peanut butter, Nutella, or some combination of those three as a filling).

Charles also took the girls to the library.  The girls and I went just yesterday, but each had already read their books and were ready for new ones.  Mind you, they are both reading chapter books now, and they are clearly whipping through them.  Next week we can sign them up for the summer reading program so they can earn library bucks for prizes for their reading.  Sophie snuggled up with a bear while they were there.

While they were at the library, I was testing a recipe for Japanese melonpan (melon bread) that I want to make for the summer program when we study Asia.  It is an interesting sweet bread that is a ball of regular soft bread (not sweet) coated with a cookie topping that gets crispy when baked, while the center is soft like regular bread.  I wanted to try them at home before I tried them with the kiddos at school, and I think they turned out quite yummy, though they don't really look like they're supposed to (I googled them after finishing, rather than before).

Sophie had a time out in her room when they returned from the library, and when she came out she was sporting this sign on her chest:

Quite the face, isn't it?  She was a little pouty about her time out, but she snapped out of it before too long and was happily chattering away again.  Later in the afternoon the girls enjoyed a swim in the pool; it's warming up nicely at around 86 degrees already.  I'll wait until it's a few degrees warmer before I get in though!