Spring Flowers

Back in April...

These purple iris' are near the library...

So many Blossoms on my apple trees this year.

April 14, 2012

The smaller apple tree too...

Up close...

 Spring "snow" on April 16th...

The early days after planting in the garden boxes taken April 14th...

The Dogwood tree that lost most of it's limbs in the storm this past December...

A small branch with a lone blossom...

The Pink Azaleas

 Red Azaleas in the backyard...

 White Azaleas (we have these in the front and back)...

 Sister Kitty Walker is a gardening genius and has an amazing yard.  She took Jordan, Kammie and I on a tour of her yard (and house) on May 5th.  

These are from her flower garden...

Jordan runs on the Track Team

     Jordan has always liked to run.  When she was little, she'd do laps inside the house, or at the church or where ever she could find.  She then took the 8th grade girls athletics class last year, which covers volleyball, basketball and track.  She worked out and ran, but they could only take the top one or two to the meets in middle school, so that is all she did.
     Maumelle High School had never had a girl run the two mile before, so as soon as she ran in her first track meet, she set a school record.  As she improved, she improved that record.  Then the girl who runs the half mile and the mile missed her event at a track meet and ended up running the 2 mile instead.  She beat Jordan's time and holds the school record, but Jordan still participated and improved her own time.
     We thought the track meets would be held on weekends, but they ended up being on Tuesdays and Thursdays most of the time and occasionally other days as well.  Jordan didn't want to miss her government class regularly, so we'd have her stay in school and then we'd drive her to the track meets around central Arkansas.  Bryant, Little Rock, Hot Springs, etc.  Sometimes she was running at 10pm or later.  Sometimes it was freezing cold.  But she did it.

At the starting line...

 Here are some of our shots of her on the go...

Here's a video clip of her in action, taken by James.

Making Ricotta and Mozzarella cheese

The Marshall cousins sent us a cheese making kit as a late Christmas, but right on time Valentine's Day present.  Jordan was the most excited about it and was eager to help, or rather, do/make it for us.

Her first attempt was to make Ricotta cheese on April 9th.  We made it with a gallon of whole milk. 

This is the result.  We made lasagna with it the next day.

On May 2nd, she did Mozzarella cheese with a gallon of whole milk.

All grated up and ready to use in lasagna (again).

 We read (after making Ricotta cheese the first time, that you can make Ricotta from the whey of Mozzarella.  So we attempted making both the second time.  It worked, there was only about 3 oz. of the Ricotta though after making the Mozzarella.

The Lasagna was yummy and so was our freshly made cheese!

Kammie had some fun as well...