Botanical Garden "Dinoquest"

We've visited the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) before - but Saturday was our first visit this year.

As we walked to the entrance of the MBG we saw a large sign advertising "DINOQUEST A Tropical Trek Through Time". The MBG Climatron "becomes a time machine transporting visitors back to the age of the dinosaurs as dozens of these realistic prehistoric creatures take up residence in this lush, tropical environment."

Sounded cool - ended up being tacky!

The Missouri Botanical Garden - "Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden is the nation's oldest botanical garden in continuous operation and a National Historic Landmark.

The Garden is a center for botanical research and science education, as well as an oasis in the city of St. Louis. The Garden offers 79 acres of beautiful horticultural display, including a 14-acre Japanese strolling garden, Henry Shaw's original 1850 estate home, and one of the world's largest collections of rare and endangered orchids."

The MBG is such a beautiful, wonderful, interesting place to visit - adding the dinosaurs throughout the Climatron and outside of the Climatron, looked tacky - something you'd expect to see at a theme park...adding the dino "roaring" sounds occasionally did not help matters at all.

It's as if the marketing folks thought how can we get parents to take their kids to the Botanical Garden? Why don't we add dinosaurs!!

The Climatron itself is worth visiting but I sure wouldn't pay extra to see the dinos lurking about.

I have nothing against dinosaurs and I actually enjoy seeing the large, moving, dinosaurs at the Science Center :)

The kids loved seeing and feeding the koi fish - they are super cool to see up close...though their mouths wide open look kind of creepy :)

Tadpoles - 1 Week Old

The tadpoles are one week old today and large enough for a photo.

I'm not sure whether these fellas have been officially named yet or not. There is actually a total of 7 tadpoles.

I've enjoyed seeing how much larger they have grown everyday :)

Rendezvous - Fort de Chartres

For a number of years we have talked about attending the Rendezvous at Fort de Chartres in Illinois.

Unfortunately we'd usually think about the Rendezvous at the wrong time of the year and the planets were never aligned properly for us to attend during the correct time of year - until today :)

"Fort de Chartres State Historic Site hosts the largest rendezvous in the Midwest with over a thousand participants, hundreds of encampments, and thousands of visitors joining in on the festivities. Based on the traditional French fur trapper’s rendezvous where trappers and traders would meet at a predetermined location to trade furs for necessities, the rendezvous was the highlight of the fur trapper’s year...."

The boy didn't seem all that excited about the whole deal - which is somewhat surprising knowing his bent towards all things military-ish. I thought it was interesting but a one-time visit is enough for me...I did enjoy listening to the bagpipes.

The girl bought a bag of mixed beads and the boy bought a large wooden sword :)

"Ice-cold lemonade" called the man pulling the wagon with the crock of lemonade. The girl and I were "dying of thirst" so I bought some. It was NOT ice-cold and it was rather watery. But it was liquid :)

The prices on the food and goods being sold seemed reasonable.

I think some of the "savages" (unlike the two at the top of the page) were a bit too uncivilized in their attire (or the lack thereof)...I guess they were trying to be historically accurate...or maybe just trying to stay cool.

Revolving Critter Collection

Well it seems like there is a revolving door in regards to the girl's critter collection.

We still have the two hermit crabs and the small toad - but Myrtle the Turtle was returned to the park and the two large toads were let go in our backyard.

THEN a couple of weeks ago the girl found a white moth and kept it in her room in an empty cool whip container with holes poked in it. A day or so later she excitedly showed me some "eggs" in there. They were not much bigger than a grain of sand.

Then a week ago Sunday, we arrived home from church and the girl came running to find me, all excited - the eggs hatched and there were caterpillars! The caterpillars were not much bigger than an ant...thing is the holes in the container were large enough for them to crawl out of and so her room and my house could be swarming with hundreds of micro mini caterpillars! If we have a moth infestation in the days ahead you'll know why! Though I figure they won't have anything to eat and hopefully die before doing any damage.

Recently the girl let the caterpillars go except for a small amount which she put back in a smaller container with some grass etc. It's been fun to watch the little critters grow - they've probably tripled in size.

THEN the day we left Arkansas - Sunday - less than 1/2 hr before we got in the car - we took one last look around the swimming pool for some of the girl's dive sticks. We didn't find the sticks. But the girl (in her mind I'm sure) found something much better - she held out her palm - there was a slimy mass with little black dots. Tadpole eggs!!

She put them in an empty water bottle and brought them home. The very next day they hatched! Much excitement.

The girl transferred them into her aquarium - previously housing the toads - and by today (Wed) they are already looking more tadpole-ish.

Who says education can't be fun?

Another Double Rainbow!!

It was almost a month ago that I spotted a double rainbow from my front yard.

Today there was another one!

It's hard to tell from the photo...click on the photo to enlarge and that will help a bit - trust me there are two rainbows.

Driving home from church tonight I saw another huge beautiful rainbow (or is it the same one but from a different angle?) - it was out in an open area so I was able to see both ends of it - I drove through the "arch" two different times :)

My Side of the Mountain - Jean Craighead George

I wrote about this interesting book for children here.

This morning I ordered a hardcover copy on Amazon for about $16.00.

I don't normally buy books new - unless I can't find it anywhere else and it's a great book. And I don't normally pay $16.00 for a book for my kids - but it was a hardcover and a favorite book and 3 books in one.

This afternoon I was at a huge library book sale and found a hardcover copy of "My Side of the Mountain". Actually I found NUMEROUS copies of "My Side of the Mountain". I bought more than one :) The sale was $5 for all the books you can fit in a grocery store plastic bag. My kind of sale.

Now it isn't the trilogy of books - just the first book in the series - but usually the first book is the best anyway.

Needless to say, when I got home I canceled the book I ordered for $16.00 from Amazon. The price of that one book was more than I paid for 3 bags STUFFED with books. My dh saw all my books and said "just leave them in 4 bags". But I knew I could fit them all into 3 bags :) and I did!

Puffed Wheat Cake / Squares

A couple of weeks ago I made an old family recipe - Puffed Wheat Cake.

I've probably never tasted it during the 15 years I've lived in the USA - it seems to be more of a Canadian "delicacy".

The first batch turned out hard as rock...as I lay in bed after making the cake I got to thinking that that was not how I remembered it being. It needed to be softer and much more chocolaty.

I made another batch the next day and it turned out WONDERFUL. I'm kind of wishing that I had some right now...but probably best for my waistline that I DO NOT have a big pan of it cooling on the counter right now.

I'm not sure what recipe my family uses - here is a recipe I found online. It's not quite the same one that I used - I made some alterations that I did not record... I know I used waaaaaaay more cocoa - like 6 or more HEAPING tablespoons. Some recipes I read said to bring the mixture to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. DON'T!!!! That will turn this into a pile or rocks. Once it hits boil - take it off the stove.

I remember Grandma McLeod making this when we'd all have a picnic/BBQ down by the lake...sigh

Puffed Wheat Cake
Ingredients:
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine
• 1/3 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa
• 6 cups puffed wheat
Directions:
1. Combine butter, syrup, sugar and cocoa
in a saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil while stirring over
medium heat.
3. Measure 6 cups of puffed wheat into a
large bowl.
4. Pour mixture over puffed wheat and stir
until all puffed wheat is coated.
5. Press into an 8x8 inch greased pan and
let stand to cool.