Karston's Quotable

We went to the North Carolina Zoo yesterday. Karston said he liked the zebra best of the animals, possibly because we saw it last. The kids liked the play areas best, no surprise. Soft serve ice cream after lunch was a terrific cool-down. We all had so much fun, I'm ready to go back!

Karston quotable is: Mommy got a sunburn [at the zoo] so I have to wear sunscreen. I think he missed the point, but it sounds a lot like the old saw, Mom's cold, so we have to wear sweaters. Karston really can't stand sunscreen so we're lucky he doesn't burn as quickly as I do. Lately the campaign has been insect repellent on Cale, to reduce the bug bites on his legs. He probably wouldn't have as many bites if he didn't stomp in the deepest pile of leaves at every opportunity!

Hummingbirds

For Mother's Day, all of my boys gave me a hummingbird feeder. Karston helped me make hummingbird nectar (one cup boiling water to one-quarter cup sugar). Although hummingbirds are attracted to red, red food coloring is bad for them so we didn't use any. Karston and Daddy put the filled feeder outside yesterday. We saw two hummingbirds yesterday, and three today already! Karston is an excellent spotter of hummingbirds.

The Art Museum

Early in our Mother's Day planning, I was asked what I wanted to do. My all-time favorite Mother's Day is when we walked the trails at the NC Museum of Art, so, as always, I said I wanted to do that again. (It was fantastic: easy hike, whimsical whirligig art.) Our weekend plans kept shifting, but since we were all home on a Tuesday, we headed out for my Mother's Day hike. Karston was very eager to go: he told us that one time when he went, he saw (Clyde Jones) animals in the grass, but the next time he went, the animals weren't there. I think he was 2 when we saw the Clyde Jones exhibit! So we had all hands when we could miss the weekend crowds, and off we went!

First we went to the State Farmers Market. Karston started talking about how hungry he was, a very rare occurance, so we went straight to the Restaurant. Karston didn't eat a lot, Cale was a steady eater who ate my fruit, so that was normal. Then we shopped produce since I love farmers markets! When we saw the homemade ice cream, we got some cookies and cream for Karston. He ate as much as he could (whew!), and then I took a few bites before it caught Cale's attention. Unbeknownst to me, my lactose intolerance decided to kick in this afternoon. Yummy ice cream, but crippling stomach cramps for the next two hours.

When we got to the art museum, I could only walk very slowly, but I didn't want to lag behind, so Karston came back and held my hand. I didn't look so out-of-place walking slowly with Karston, and he is sweet enough to hold my hand when I don't feel well. Since a new building opened recently, we went to check it out first. As we went through the Classical Art with 1st century statues, Cale pointed from the stroller and said uh-oh for the missing limbs. The last one was also missing the head, and Cale said uh-oh, lost his head for that. We went outside through the Rodin garden, and the kids played by the reflecting pond. We didn't walk as much as I had hoped because I was still doubled over, but it was very nice. As we left, Karston said he would like to come back again soon. I think so!

Cheese

Karston helped me to make cheese. I had to beg to get him to try any of his cheese, and he only ate a little bite. The resulting cheese is fairly sweet (milk-sweet, not added-sugar sweet), dry crumbles (I squeezed very tightly to make sure it didn't have any vinegar flavor). Notwithstanding the long time at the stove stirring hot milk (but compared to three months), this was a very fast method to make cheese. I could imagine using this if I wanted fresh mozzarella crumbles without going to the store.