Edmonds 4th of July Parade

Yesterday I went to a 4th of July parade with my mom, aunt and uncle, and cousins. Is there anything better than a small-town parade? I think not! Edmonds did not disappoint.

My cousin Rory, who is going into 6th grade and is sassy and fabulous, sat with me on an ivy wall to watch. Which was great, because she's just hitting that age where it's way more fun to make funny comments about the parade than to run around collecting the candy that gets thrown.

Of course the parade had to include clowns:




Next came those most patriotic of all creatures, Stormtroopers from Star Wars:


Followed by Uncle Sam's cousin, Darth Vader:

Rory goes, "Why isn't Darth Vader throwing candy? Is he too good for that?"

...And rounding out the unholy trifecta, there were pirates.

This is their ship. They may have plundered and pillaged their way around the Carribean, but that doesn't mean they don't love America, gosh darn it.

And last of all, a whole backhoe full of candy. Woot!

For me, the highlight of the parade was when I was accosted by a crazy lady who didn't like where we were sitting. Here's the conversation we had:

Crazy Lady: You know, you're sitting in my ivy. (please note that the ivy in question was on the sidewalk, not in a yard or anything like that. I would never be rude enough to plop myself down in a stranger's front yard)

Me: Oh... um?

Crazy Lady: That's my ground cover.

Me: Well, ivy is pretty hardy. I doubt that we're doing any damage to it.

Crazy Lady: Oh no, you won't do any damage. The ivy will be just fine.

Me: Okay... good...

Crazy Lady: But it's mine. (drifts off, never to be seen again)

I'm still not sure what that was all about, although I guess there's nothing more patriotic than declaring posession! So maybe she was just celebrating in her own way. Although I wanted to go find her and invite her to sit with us, which in my thinking would have been way more fun.

Happy belated 4th!

The Phinney Farmer's Market

Friday I went to the neighborhood farmer's market in Phinney Ridge with my mom. I saw a lot of the same vendors as at the Lake City farmer's market, including the makers of the delicious hard cider. There were some new vendors in Phinney though, like the hazelnut stand. Here's what we got:

-Bottle of hard apple cider
-Bottle of hard berry cider
-Market bouquet
-Sweet pea bouquet
-Tayberries (a cross between blackberries and raspberries - yum!)
-Raspberries
-Honey-orange coated hazelnuts
-Yukon gold potatoes
-Bing cherries
-Peaches
-Pluots

...and, of course, we got more ice cream. :)

I also managed to find a schedule of when the neighborhood markets are this summer. Seattle neighborhood markets are in blue. Eastside and outside-of-Seattle markets are in orange:

Monday: no markets (sad!)
Tuesday: Crossroads, Renton
Wednesday: Columbia City, Kirkland
Thursday: Lake City, Bellevue
Friday: Phinney Ridge, Juanita
Saturday: University District, Magnolia, Bellevue, Issaquah, Redmond
Sunday: West Seattle, Broadway, Mercer Island

FYI Seattleites - yes, the West Seattle and Broadway markets will be open today (even though it's the 4th of July)!

Next week: Columbia City

$40 at the Lake City Farmer's Market

I'll be honest - I don't love summer as much as most people. My favorite time of year is September to December, because I love cold, windy days and watching the leaves turn. But there are a few things that I really look forward to every summer, and neighborhood Farmer's Markets are at the top of that list.


In Seattle we of course have the world famous Pike Place Market, but the neighborhood markets are really where it's at. The neighborhoods take turns, so that almost every day of the week there's a market going on somewhere.


I'm going to try to see if I can hit every one of them at least once this summer. Today I visited the one closest to me, in the Lake City neighborhood. I brought $40 in cash, just to see how far it would take me. Here's what I got:

-Market bouquet
-Small sweet pea bouquet (I always forget how good these smell!!)
-Bottle of hard cider
-2 lbs. of heirloom tomatoes (so good in a Greek salad)
-1 scoop of vanilla-lemon swirl ice cream


Next week I'd like to try to get to the market down in Columbia City...

The Last Day of School

Whenever I tell people that we're near the end of another school year, their response is usually something like, "Oh you must be so happy!" Although I sometimes pretend to be, just to seem normal, the truth is that I am a mess this time of year. Many of us are. We work in such a strange field, where every year we have to say goodbye to all of our students (who are essentially our co-workers, children, friends, and family all rolled into one) and start fresh in the fall. This is far from easy.

I cry every year on the last day of school. It's usually the moment when the last photo from our class slideshow fades, when I look at the clock and realize it's about to be all over. Sometimes kids are already crying by that point, which just sets me off worse. We have a tradition where all of the teachers line up in front of the school to wave the buses off with colorful scarves. I'm one of the ones waving a Kleenex and bawling.

This year my class made me a beautiful book full of letters and sweet drawings. They've been working on it in secret, during recesses, lunches, or when they could get permission to go into the hallway during silent reading. They presented it to me this morning as school started, and I completely lost it. It's clear that they had minimal (if any) parent help on the book, which makes it all the sweeter. Getting 24 third graders on the same page about anything takes a lot of work, so what really touched me was that they organized themselves and cooperated on this incredible gift for me.

So if you know a teacher, give him or her a hug this time of year. As Mr. Rogers once said,

"Transitions are almost always signs of growth, but they can bring feelings of loss. To get somewhere new, we may have to leave somewhere else behind."

Happy summer. :)

Last Day of Staff Room Duty: Camping Theme

In keeping with our summer theme, for our last big day of staff room duty, Chelsea and I did a camping subtheme. We started with these delicious s'more pops:



These were a huge hit. They're just marshmallows on wooden skewers. Then we melted a couple of giant bars of Hershey's chocolate in the microwave to dip them in, then rolled them in crushed graham crackers. They taste just like s'mores! I think it's pretty key to use Hershey's chocolate though... just any old chocolate wouldn't have that same effect.

We also made these little campfire cupcakes. They're just frosted with green "grass," then we broke pretzel sticks to make the logs and added a squirt of orange frosting with a star tip. Easy peasy!

Day Two of Staff Room Duty: Beach Theme!

Today is day 2 of Chelsea and me on staff room duty at our school. Of course we have a theme (isn't life always better when you have a theme?): Summer. Yesterday we filled the lounge with rainbows, and today the subtheme is the beach. The idea for the beach and shark cupcakes comes from Martha Stewart. The beaches are just orange frosting coated in graham cracker crumbs and topped with a paper parasol.

The sharks are blue frosting with a shark fin cut out of a plastic pocket folder.

I also made these watermelon-slice sugar cookies:

My frosting skills leave a lot to be desired.

And finally, for no good reason, we are putting out this jar of Starburst.

Come back tomorrow to see Day Three: Camping!

Day One of Staff Room Duty: Rainbows!

For the last week of school, Chelsea and I signed up for Staff Room Duty. This usually entails loading the dishwasher, wiping down the countertops, and maybe bringing in a treat one day. Most teachers might do chips and salsa on one of their days.

Well, naturally Chelsea and I always go way overboard. For Halloween week we decked out the lounge in orange and black, made a different creepy treat for each day of the week, and hid plastic hearts in the refrigerator.

So for this week we knew we had set a bar for ourselves. We decided to go with a summer theme. Here's what we did for Monday (subtheme: rainbows):


1. Make a batch of cake batter. Divide into 6 bowls, and use food coloring to dye each bowl a different color.


2. Pour batter into 6 separate cake pans and bake.


3. Layer the cakes, frosting between layers.


4. Make Dr. Seuss proud with a wonky, wobbly, colorful rainbow cake.

5. Frost the whole thing white, so that when it's cut into it's a surprise! I'll post an update picture when this sucker gets cut into. :)

6. Decide that a rainbow cake isn't quite enough. Make rainbow cupcakes too.

7. Admire their beauty. High five each other.

8. Frost and sprinkle. I just love how the white cupcake cups turned semi-transparent, so that you can see the color swirls!

Come back tomorrow for Day Two: Beach Theme!

UPDATE:
Here's a picture of the rainbow cake, when cut into. It turned out even better than we thought!