New Betta fish V2.0

Daddy took the boys to get a new fish yesterday evening.  They were so excited to ride in the new rental car - unfortunately, our minivan is back in for service!  The Check Engine light came on when we got the minivan back after getting the passenger window repaired.  We brought it in then and they managed to turn it off. And then a few days after that, the Check Engine light came back on again! And off... and on! So Bobby decided to take it back in again yesterday.

Anyway,... as I was saying, Graham and Charlie were so excited to ride in this fancy new SUV!  They decided to make this funny video where Charlie is like the bodyguard, opening up the door for his "boss":

These boys are so silly.  LOL!!!

At first Bobby said that there were no more Betta fishes, and then he shows me this! Supposedly they have moved them all and Bobby said it seemed cruel to have them in those little containers. But for the life of me, I had always known Bettas to be sold like that:

The tribe has spoken, this is the one they are picking:

And looks like the store has raised the price too! Our first Fishy was only $10.  And normally the females are cheaper than the males (as the males are fancier with their extravagant tails).  But this male is only $15?  Maybe its colors are not as favorable.  

Say hi to the newest family member!  Graham and Charlie decided to call it "Noodles".  They say its long fins look like noodles. LOL!!!

So far Noodles have not been snapping at the snails Blue and Zebra like Fishy:

It's a bit dark but Zebra and Blue are on the bottom left side of the fish bowl in the picture (above). We do have a new heater and right now it's set at 74F.  I think it needs to be warmer but let's just see how this goes for now.  I think the previous Betta died because it got too cold.  

Wish us luck! Clock is ticking... let's see how long Noodles will last!

Graham and Charlie's artwork

Graham and Charlie had some artwork for school this week.  It's so cute to see.  This first one is actually for the school's Yearbook, with the theme "Stronger Together".  I think it was very clever of Graham to think about Legos:

I asked Charlie several times to contribute to the school's Yearbook but he was not interested.  So I didn't push him too hard.

Here is Graham working on an art piece called Maritime Romanticism:

I thought he did a great job!

And here is Charlie working on an owl yesterday.  Here's his new (used) desk in his bedroom.  We recently bought him a light that we stuck on the top shelving to provide him more adequate light.  I think this little space is working out pretty well for him:

Ta da! Great job, Charlie!!!

I don't think Bobby and I can retire on these skills, but it's nice to know they still have some interest instead of just playing computer games :-)

Clearing out the tomato plant

The tomato plant is going out of control!  I have so many tomatoes that are going bad and the vines are going everywhere.  I tried to tie them up so they would stay above the ground but then it would all still seems so overcrowded:

Okay, as usual I overdid what I was going to do, but the place looks so much better now - less messy. Ha ha! I really should plant a cherry tomato plant instead.  I do prefer those instead of the bigger ones. In any case, hopefully I can manage this tomato plant a bit better. I do also love tomato mozzarella salads :-)

I ended up moving the Lantana plant (bushy plant to right) out of the way. It was blocking the sprinkler. I also ended up picking some green tomatoes.  I guess I need to try out a fried green tomato recipe??! I also cut off some celery - it's tucked behind the messy overgrown onion plants.  I gnawed on a celery earlier this morning, even the young shoots were bitter and stringy. Hmmm...??!

Looks so much better now that the Lantana is out of the way too!

I moved the other Birds of Paradise over to this area too.  I was going to put it in the ground but thought, why not just put the pot in the ground, so that's what I did. Ha ha!  I think it looks pretty good.  So excited that more flowers are coming up.  I think the hummingbirds like those flowers too:

I've moved the Lantana to this part of the garden:

I have a whole mesh of different types of flowers in this garden bed.  The Lantanas are not looking very good after 2 days. I might have to trim it back so it can start growing again.  It does take a few days for the plants to recuperate the move - sort of like this cauliflower that I moved a few days ago as well.  Leaves were looking rather sloppy:

But I'm happy to say that the two cauliflower plants I've moved into this raised bed are perking up and looking well!  Hopefully we will get a couple good ones like we did the last time.  There were some aphids in one of them so I sprayed them all off with water.  Hope I got all of them. I would hate an infestation of aphids to spread to the broccoli and kale too in this same raised bed!

I'm also happy to say that my Kokedama plant is doing really well! I found some Christmas sock hooks and decided it was a good hook to hang the plant.  I think it looks pretty good by the TV and it gets some natural light as well from the window on the opposite wall:

I really should think about hanging all my indoor plants like this!  Maybe another hobby to pick up at a later time.  Right now, I still have a punch needle project I need to finish.  I'll update that on the blog when it's done :-)

Graham and his race car

 Just a boy and his RC race car!  I think I just figured out that RC stands for Remote Control.  Ha ha!

So glad Graham can still have fun playing outside on his own.  He's funny like that sometimes.  He has taken apart the wheels and was making the RC car drift in the trampoline.  Soon enough, the car will be in pieces, forgotten in the corner, and he'll be asking for another one in a few months.  Boys, I tell you!

Update on Monarch caterpillars

It's been so much fun watching the Monarch caterpillars so far.  Although, it's been rather cold and windy outside these past few days.  It was down to 44F the other night and Bobby said it was around 38F when he woke up a couple of mornings ago.  Yikes!  I hope these caterpillars survive!  

There's been a couple school of thoughts so far that I've read on the internet.  One is to obviously help the caterpillars and bring them inside the house - feed them and make sure they become butterflies.  Then there's the other side that says to let Mother Nature take care of them - if weak butterflies are sent out, the gene pool will be affected.  Both good points! So I'm not sure what I'm going to do... but so far we have bought up to 5 additional 1-gallon milkweed plants.  Ha!

Some of the caterpillars are getting quite big.  It's so much fun watching them move around after they have warmed up in the sun.  It's like watching Caterpillar Acrobats :-)

See what I mean?!

Here's a video of one caterpillar busy chomping away at a leaf.  They chomp so fast! No wonder that popular children's book called it the Hungry Caterpillar!

I think the big caterpillar that Bobby brought home from the nursery with the milkweed is gone.  I wish there was a way to label them - like put a colored dot on them or something.  Although, they molt 5 times so that might not work. I can't seem to find any chrysalis nearby yet.  I'm almost tempted to hang a netting around the milkweed. It would be so much fun watching the butterflies crawl out of the chrysalis!  But aren't we suppose to leave it up to Mother Nature???!

We're suppose to get some heavy rain and strong winds again tomorrow. Actually, the wind has started to pick up now.  I hope these caterpillars make it through this round of extreme weather again! Yesterday I counted 15 caterpillars and this morning, I could only see 10 of them.  I'll have to go searching for those chrysalises. Hope they didn't decide to do it over the wall at the neighbors - that's a rather long hike for a caterpillar!

Impromptu stop at Nature Center

The boys have an invite for a birthday drive-by last week.  After dropping off their gift and picking up the birthday party favor bags, we decided to head over to the nature center on the way home to gnaw on the yummy looking what I thought was cake.  

Looks like I wasn't quite prepared for this trekking.  I was rocking my new Christmas sandals!

Graham and Charlie were already way ahead scouting for a place to sit:

Looks like we found a good spot!  By the Learning Tree.... although I though the Leaning Tree would have been more appropriate:

So looks like it not a cake-pop...

There's some gooey caramel!  

It's a caramel apple!  I love Graham's expression here.  They sure know how to play it up for the camera.  Ha ha!

After finishing up the apple - which was SUPER yummy by the way, we decided to trek down the trail just a bit more.  I love this place but the only thing I wished was if they could just clean up the horse poop along the trail!  I was definitely not feeling comfortable in my fancy new sandals!

A good day just to get out for a little bit.  It was a holiday for the boys as it was Martin Luther King Jr.'s Day.  We've still been home a lot - limiting our time outside with the general public.  Here's the statistics so far:

Over 1 million Covid-19 cases to date and over 15,000 deaths. And that's just for LA county alone. YIKES! Stay home and safe everyone!!!

So windy!

 It was so windy this past week!  Just check out the video below:

We probably should have packed up the tent instead of leaving it in the yard. We did put a couple of bricks inside the tent - I'm guessing that probably helped a tiny bit in not having that tent fly away entirely! I did eventually move it under the covered back patio. 

We're expecting some rain.  This was all the cloud cover when I was just at the school district's office on Friday.  Finally went there to update our home address. It's been more than 2 years. LOL!!!

P.S. We did get some rain today.  Hooray!!!  The grass and plants will be so happy about that.  Hope the Monarch caterpillars are surviving well too!

Monarch caterpillars

We have Monarch caterpillars!!!  This is so exciting. I had bought a milkweed plant sometime last year and who knew that a Monarch butterfly had laid some eggs on it!  We had seen one Monarch fly around so I'm so glad the milkweed plant was able to attract it.  Supposedly these butterflies might go extinct?!  Noooo..!!!

So Charlie and I counted a total of 14 caterpillars.  I'm not sure if there are that many left today as there isn't much milkweed left!  I had to call about 6 nurseries before I finally found one that had milkweed.  And even so, the 2 1-gallon tubs of milkweed that Bobby brought home looks a bit scrawny.  Still better than nothing I suppose.  I did read up online that Monarch caterpillars may also eat butternut squash and zucchini, so I'm going to try that too.  I can't let them die!

Hopefully we'll be able to post some good news once the chrysalis are formed.  I'm tempted to put a large netting over the milkweed.  That way I can track the caterpillars. Supposedly they can travel quite far (up to 30 ft!) to pupate.  Fingers and toes crossed for some future butterflies!!!

Hummingbird

Every now and then, we would catch the hummingbird buzzing around the flowers under the back patio.  This time, I was able to capture a few photos!  You can almost hear the distinct sound it makes while it's flying and sometimes by its chirping.

We may have to start naming this hummingbird. Here it is just flying off the wire:

You can spot it towards the bottom of the planter of lantanas:

I've been tempted to put sugar water in a feeder and place it in this planter, but perhaps the natural nectar from the flowers are better:

Then the hummingbird decided to take a rest.  Can you spot it?

One more photo before it flies away!

I love hummingbirds!!!

Graham's 3D projects

Okay, one more post for the day :-)

Graham has been working with his 3D pen lately.  He seems determined to build an Eiffel Tower:

Kinda leaning...

He's making some progress!

Graham was going to make another one when his 3D pen quit working.  I tried to unclog the filament but to no avail.  So we're going to return that and perhaps get another one.  Or the boys can still share Charlie's and so far, that one is still functional.

By the way, here are a couple of other creativity projects that Graham has been working on. I had to laugh when I saw this on our computer.  He had inserted images on the photos that come up as the computer background. These are hilarious!

Not sure how he came about doing these, but it makes me laugh when I walk by the computer and see him making these faces based on what he has inserted into the photo.  The top photo was a shark right above his head and then this photo at the bottom is a photo of a bomb going off:

He can be so creative when he wants to be.  If only he didn't take as much effort when it comes to writing!  He has still been copying and pasting information off the internet when writing book reviews.  So, okay - I'd say that's pretty clever since why should we re-invent the wheel when the review is already written by someone else?!? I really wonder what he will grow up to be :-)

Pineapple cookies

For whatever reason, I had a hankering for pineapple cookies.  I have not made them since our time in Abu Dhabi - so at least 4 years ago during the International Day for the boys' school.  I've forgotten how time consuming this is:

I'm trying to make a thick filling from the pureed pineapple. I think it took me almost 1 hour to cook down 1 3/4 of a pineapple (we saved the last 1/4 of the pineapple to eat).  After adding some sugar and a bit of lemon juice, here's the sticky pineapple filling:

And again, I've forgotten how time consuming this is!  Both Graham and Charlie helped thankfully.  Here's the first batch:

Charlie pointing to what he helped with :-)

Oh, look what I found on my blog - Feb 2017. Charlie was only 5 years old, helping make pineapple cookies.  Awww... too cute!

As per the instructions, I used the back of a knife to make these patterns:

So after the first batch had cooled and after a few more test bites, we decided that the pineapple balls/tarts needed more pineapple.  So, Graham came up with the idea of just mushing together more pineapple puree with the dough.  It's looking a bit messy:

But boy, these were definitely more tasty!

The tarts were not as sweet so I probably could have been more generous with the condensed milk. But I also have plans now for the leftover condensed milk - can you say Spanish Coffee??! :-D

Might be another 4 years before I make another batch of these.  Although I have to say, the cookies are going quick and I still have a little bit of pineapple filling left.  Hmmm.... :-P

Broccoli and Cauliflower

It was so exciting to finally cut off some broccoli and cauliflower from our garden!  Well, I actually had to because it looked like they were ready to bolt - which means the veggies were getting ready to flower.  I could tell as the florets of the broccoli was starting to turn a little yellow:

I originally left couple little ones on the plant but eventually after some "consultation" with a dear friend, she suggested to cut them too.  Supposedly some new baby ones will grow off the side.  Fingers crossed it will happen so we can have more broccoli!

You can see the yellowing a bit clearer here:

Happy gardener :-)

Charlie is being so dramatic. Ha ha!

And here are the 2 cauliflower I cut off.  As you can tell, the one to the right especially is starting to separate a bit meaning it is more than ready to be harvested:

And I also noticed how the area that was exposed to the sun was more yellow in color, compared to the part that was covered by its leaves:

I had to look this one up too.  So there are no issues with this discoloring.  In fact, it contains more phytonutrients (whatever that means - ha ha!).  The word "nutrients" is good enough for me! And supposedly, farmers have to be sure their cauliflower doesn't turn yellow because it is less appealing to us consumers.  How about that!  I definitely learned quite a few things about harvesting broccoli and cauliflower.  And oh, it's a one and done for cauliflower.  Bummer!

The broccoli and cauliflower dishes were both a hit! The only person that didn't eat them was Graham.  He still has something against vegetables! I baked both veggies in the oven at around 375F for about 15-20 min with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  That's it. For the cauliflower, I did finish it off with some parmesan cheese and also a sprinkle of crushed pepper. Super yum!  And I thought the broccoli smelled extra yummy in the oven compared to the ones we've previously bought from the store.  Although I have to say, it's been a while since we've bought any.  We've been buying mostly asparagus.  There are still some broccoli and cauliflower plants in another part of the garden that are not fully grown yet.  Perhaps I will move those the raised bed where these other ones have done well. I have to say, it's been so great being able to harvest from our own garden and learn all these new things about vegetables that we totally take for granted!