A Princess Birthday Tea

Virginia Rose turned six yesterday. She and Miriam and their two friends, Clara and Lindy, decorated these cupcakes for their tea party.














Make a wish!














Here are the (dainty?) princesses sipping their tea.
Virginia was the perfect hostess. She lay the tea table with a lacy cloth and Mama's china, and some party favors, and even poured the tea for her guests.














Here is one happy princess. Papa picked out the best present!

My Little Chef

I asked Virginia what she wanted to learn for school this year, and she said she wanted to learn to read, to cook, do laundry and learn about bugs. Miriam also said she wanted to learn more about ABC's, to cook, and also drive the car! So yesterday we took a family trip (Miriam didn't drive, btw) to the library and found lots of good books. I found a children's cookbook called "Kids in the Kitchen" which featured easy recipes, most of which were very healthy too. Virginia looked at the book and decided she wanted to make oatmeal pancakes for dinner. She did almost everything herself, even poured the batter and flipped the pancakes. They were delicious. We enjoyed them with some colcannon (an Irish potato and cabbage dish) and apple butter we made earlier that morning.

I Lost A Tooth!

Toast Please

On Saturday we all worked together to create this mouthwatering wild muscadine jam. Luke, using a ladder and handmade picker, harvested the grapes from the shrubs at the edge of our meadow. He managed to get a whole gallon. The girls then helped me pull them off the stems. Virginia also helped to stir the pot of strained juice and pulp and sugar, which cooked into jam. Reuben (and everyone else but Seth) taste tested. We had broccoli cheddar omelets and jam with biscuits for dinner! Mmmmm.
If you would like to read more about how to make this scrumptious spread read my latest hub here.

Seth at 5 weeks

Teeth

Okay, so some people have been after us to post here, so I suppose I'll do so. We've given up toothpaste.

Okay, now the initial gasp is over, I'll explain. We've moved from using toothpaste to using tooth powder. I got the idea from my research into early 20th Century life, but found some

natural recipes. It doesn't have that nasty toothpaste taste and my teeth and mouth feel cleaner than they ever did right after brushing.

After messing about with ratios, I finally hit on 4:1 mixture of baking soda and sea salt with several drops of peppermint oil. I mix the baking soda and salt then drip in the oil. Then I stir it up again and mush up the clumps caused by the oil to get an even distribution. I put it in a container that used to hold breath mints and a mixture with 6 tablespoons of baking soda fills it up and it lasts for several weeks.

To use it, I wet my toothbrush, then give it a good shake. This leaves me with damp bristles which I touch to the tooth powder. You only need a small amount and if you leave the tooth brush in too long, the water seeps into the tooth powder and you're left with clumpy tooth powder.