Battle Top Party

We were having some of the neighborhood boys over for a play date, but see, we just can't have a regular play date. Once James is told, he gets his own ideas. This time, his idea was a battle top party. A what? A battle what? They are apparently the latest thing in toys for boys. They had some at McDonalds, and then a friend had a "stadium", and then James broke his arm, yadda yadda yadda, now we have all the equipment. ;)

The battle begins. First you wind them up,



Then let them go.



I love Henry's expression in this picture!

After a couple of rounds, everyone started getting tense, so the players took a break to watch Duck Tales (a woo ooo!) and eat some popcorn. Look at Christopher there with the big boys!



Then some more rounds:





Eventually, Christopher and Andy gave up since they never got a turn:





There might have been another round of Duck Tales in there as well (a woo ooo!)

Kombucha

I have mentioned a few times that I started brewing my own kombucha and that I liked it. Some people I have mentioned this to have no idea what it is or why I do this. This purpose of this post is to explain this a bit.

Kombucha is one of the current big things in "real food" "vegan" or "raw" diets. It is a drink. Picture a combination of sweet tea, yogurt, and beer and you have kombucha. My blog crush started making her own. I had never heard of it so of course I had to try it! At first taste, I was underwhelmed, but kept drinking. Really it was the scientific aspect of the whole process that made me think, "I have to try that!"

Here is some more explaination about kombucha.

Here is the blog post that I base my procotol on.

So, why do I do koombucha? Well, I drink a lot of water. A LOT. It is just a habit I got into, and a good one, but sometimes, I am just so tired of water. I also drink a lot of tea: sweetened with splenda and lemon. And sometimes I am just so tired of tea. Other drinks are just too sweet for me, but kombucha is a perfect blend of sweet and tart and is very refreshing. I drink it in the afternoons at work with a Kerri bar. I do feel it gives me extra energy and if I don't drink it, I really crave it.

Where can you buy kombucha?

The only place I have found it in the area is at Whole Foods, which is an hour drive away. It is about $3 a bottle.

Well that is far and expensive. Now what? Make your own!

I bought a bottle of PLAIN, UNFLAVORED kombucha at whole foods. I poured that entire bottle into a glass bowl with some sweet tea. I let it sit for a few weeks. I checked it occasionally for a film on the surface of the liquid. When that film became 1/4 inch thick, it became my SCOOBY. This scooby is a blend of bacteria and yeast. I am a microbiologist, so I feel highly qualified to work with this lifeform.

Wait, wait. That isn't right. This kombucha is like $3 a bottle and I wouldn't have just used a whole bottle for this. Instead, I took the dredges of a mostly dranken bottle of kombucha. I filled it with sweet tea. Shook. Poured into glass bowl. Added more sweet tea. Covered with a towel and let it sit and develop film and that was my scooby.

At first my scooby was pretty thin, but now she is huge and BEAUTIFUL. With my new scooby, I now brew my own kombucha.

First thing I do is boil 3 qts of water. Then I remove it from the heat and add 1 family size black tea bag and 4 regular sized tea bags. This is different from our normal sweet tea recipe and other homemade kombucha recipes. I let the tea bags steep for about 5 minutes. Then I add 1 cup sugar, again, more than when we make regular sweet tea. I tried using less, but the results were not as good.



I then let this sit for like 2-3 hours or until completely cool. This sweet tea is then added to a glass container. I currently used a sun tea jar, but have also used a punch bowl. After addimg the sweet tea, I add about 2 cups unflavored kombucha. This increases the acidity which prevents growth of non-kombucha microorganisms.



Then add your scooby. Isn't she beautiful?





Cover with a towel and put in a quiet, dark place:



After seven days, taste for a slightly sweet, slightly sour tea. Carefully remove scooby, and then I pour off 2 cups of unflavored kombucha:



With the rest, I do what is called a secondary fermintation. I basically flavor the tea. In this case, I was adding pomegrante/cranberry juice. Add about 1/4 cup to the bottom of a glass bottle. I use old kombucha bottles or mason jars:



Then add kombucha and cover with a towel and put in a quiet dark place for 2 days:



After 2 days, remove and discard mini-scooby, cap and chill until ready to drink.

Repeat with a new batch of sweet tea, same old scooby, and washed glass container:

The Race Must Go On

So every March is the Reedy River Run, with the Reedy River Kids Fun Run. We have done it before:

2010
2011

It wasn't like years past where James had been asking every day, but in the last couple of weeks, James started bringing it up. Then this week, he had been asking everyday when his race was. Again, so excited. Every day when I picked the boys up at school, they had been talking about their race and practicing their race, and then, like many promising young athletes, an injury. But luckily, it was not season ending.

We talked to James's doctor, who was not thrilled, but it is only a 1/4 of mile. James wanted to do it, and it would have been so sad for Andy who had also been looking forward to it, to not allow him to go. So we went.

And it rained. And it was in a new location. And my parents came. And I was stressed:





It poured as we were walking to the start line. We took cover, but it cleared in time for the race.





They directed the kids to the starting line (which yes, was labeled finish) and then made them wait. I took it upon myself to warm up and stretch everyone out. Hey, it is a gift, I just can't turn it off!



Then they lined up and they were off.



That is James in the blue. Here he is in second:



He was passed coming up to the finish. Hey, that red cast he got earlier is heavy!



He ended up in 4th, which is awesome! Andy is in red. Just plodding along:



He was still happy when he finished:



We had a post race dinner at Smoke on the Water (Papa was paying). A good time was had by all!

We had a good run

The boys are all boy, fighting, running, jumping, wrestling, and usually end up getting hurt. Because of this, I am very surprised, other than a little incident that was treated at the pediatrician's office, we have never had to make a trip to the ER. That streak is over.

Thursday I went to pick the boys at school, and James was sitting on a bench away from the action. To be honest, my first thought was that he was in trouble. But no, he fell going down "the pole". He scraped up the back of his right arm pretty good, but seemed ok. He could move his arm, everything felt ok, but he just wouldn't calm down.

I tried to get him to forget. "Hey James, we are meeting John at the park" "No, I want to go home" "What about your race tomorrow?" "Mommy, I may not come in first place." That is when I knew it was serious. We dropped Andy off at the park and picked up snacks (thanks SOOO much Ms. Juliet) and headed to Urgent Care.

And we waited.



And waited.



For the first 2 hours, James had little to no motility in his arm. After that, he was able to move it, but not do some things. He cheered up considerable when finding out he was getting an xray. A picture of your bones...how cool is that?



James charmed all the nurses (um, who used to be one of my students), the xray tech (also a James), and even the doctor (who, unlike all the rest, realized that even though James was happy something was wrong). After 3 hours we finally got our diagnosis:

"greenstick fracture of the proximal radius" I am trying to get James to say that, but it is tough for a 5 year old. We got a temporary splint:



And were finally allowed to go home. After stopping at McDonalds on the way. The next day we went to the Orthopedic doctor, which, after waiting, (and we heard a cast being sawed off and then they came and told James, let's get that cast off. James was totally like - NO WAY!) But then we got his new, elbow covering RED cast:



Another set of xrays to make sure it was set right:



Then it was off the McDonalds again. Then to Target to buy some new "hey, I broke my arm toys" Then to pick up Andy at school (poor Andy) then finally home to play with new toys:



We might have also gone out to Blueberry Frog that night (which holy cow is so much better than 3 spoons!)

All in all, James is fine. He has little to no pain, and his cast really bothers him more than anything. He will have it on for 3 weeks and hopefully get to take it off and be as good as new.