The Bests' Visit

It's not everyday that we meet another family like ours! We are lucky enough to have met the Best family- Their family has 4 kids and is almost a mirror image of our own! We had a swimming playdate with Ms. Michelle and the kiddos today. Here's how they add up:

Noah and Adam swimming- They are only 3 months apart in age. They spent most of the afternoon showing each other their favorite computer games!





Elena and Elizabeth (and Nibbles) visit the fish behind the house. The big girls also made some yummy glycerine soap today! Although Elizabeth is a few years older than Elena (she's 12), they have a lot in common.

Sarah and Annalee were best buddies today. They played dress-up and combed Annalee's dolls' hair. Sarah and Annalee are only a couple months apart in age!







Here's Nick and Gabe- they are two peas in a pod, and about 8 months apart in age! These two played with homemade playdough and legos all afternoon.

It's always nice to have friends over, but now we have friends for everyone in ONE family! What a blessing.

Last, But Not Least!

Annalee has finally done away with her floaties! She was inspired to learn to swim for Daddy's birthday :) Here she is swimming the length of the pool with no help- Go Annalee!

Bowman's Beach

Woohoo! I read today that Bowman's Beach on Sanibel Island was rated #2 best secluded beach in the U.S. Here are some pictures we took the last time we were there... enjoy!

This beach is FULL of shells. Shelling is one of my girls' favorite activities, so it's a great beach for us! We even found sea urchin shells closer to the dunes.

Here's Elena hunting for shells...

A beautiful day at the beach!

As usual, Noah wouldn't leave the water!

Making Homemade Sodas

Having been somewhat addicted to sodas earlier in my life, I know the lure of the bubbly, sweet drinks! However, being the meanie mom that I am, I do not allow my children to drink sodas at home... the dilema comes when the kids get sick of drinking milk, water or juice. So, I did some research (my favorite passtime) and found a book on making homemade sodas! I had already made homemade ginger beer for Noah's occasional upset stomach, so I was not a stranger to bottling fizzy drinks. Although the ginger beer called for natural fermentation, I am able to make these new sodas with baker's yeast. It is a fun activity with the kids, also! They enjoy checking the bottles for carbonation- and we can control the sugar content, which is much less than the commercial brands.




The ingredients/tools for making sodas are very basic- all you need is fruit juice, ginger, filtered water, various spices from your pantry, and bakers' yeast! I bottle my sodas in brown, 16oz bottles with caps, but it is possible to put them in recycled, plastic soda bottles.





Here is a photo of some cherry-citrus soda I made yesterday. With our tropical climate, the soda only has to ferment for about 36 hours before refrigeration. Look at all those beautiful bubbles!

Here's 2 recipes you are welcome to try:


Cherry-Lemon soda
1/2 gal cherry 100% juice mix (we enjoy cherry/white grape juice)
1 T lemon juice
1/16 t bakers' yeast + 1/8 c filtered water

1. Allow juice to reach room temp, then pour into 1 gal jug (I use clean plastic milk jug) with lemon juice.
2. Let yeast + water sit for 5 min, then add to gal jug.
3. Cap jug and invert jug several times to mix.
4. Bottle (in glass or plastic bottles) and cap tightly; place in dark place for 36-72 hours, depending on temperature. Check for carbonation until ready for refrigeration. Place in fridge until ready to drink!



Lemon-Lime soda
2 quarts filtered water
scant 1 c sugar (you can substitute with rapadura or other natural sweetener)
1 lemon
2-3 limes
1/16 t granulated bakers' yeast + 1/8 c filtered water

1.Heat 1 quart water and sugar until sugar is dissolved.
2. Mix with other quart of water in 1 gal jug (I use a clean plastic milk jug)
3. Juice the fruits and pour into sugar water- LET COOL TO LUKEWARM
4. Let yeast sit in lukewarm 1/8 c water for 5 min. , then add to gallon jug.
5. Cap jug and shake vigorously.
6. Let jug sit loosely capped for 2 hours, then agitate again before bottling.
7. Pour into bottles and cap tightly.
8. When carbonation is right (about 6-8 days*), refrigerate!
* carbonation is slow with citrus fruits*

Making Liquid Soap

The kids helped me to make liquid soap for the first time ever! It was a bit trickier than hard soap, and I have to admit that I burned the first batch- in my crock pot, no less! So, the second time, I used another method which uses the oven. After about 5 hours of waiting, we finally have liquid soap :)

My crazy kids "helping" me burn some soap in the crock pot!





This is the batch I made in the oven... much better!





Into the bathroom with the finished product! All I had was an old Germ-X pump bottle :)

Attention Everyone!

Just to let you all know, Gabe changed his name today. He will now be known as "Dave". Even Noah has stopped calling him "Fabio".

We were blessed with a beautiful day today! It was cooler than normal this evening, so the kids and I took a bike ride to the end of the street and back. The breeze was coming in off the ocean, and the sunset was colorful...

Here's Annalee with some flowers she picked.

Elena and Gabe are digging up some fossilized coral they found in an empty lot.

We also found out we are getting new neighbors! Our street (about 1/2 mile long) consists of only five houses and dozens of empty lots, so this is big news... here are the girls in front of the construction site. The workers are just putting in a seawall.