More Krispy Kreme Pictures

I didn't post all the pictures I wanted to from our Krispy Kreme trip (see post below.) 

So here they are!

This is a perfect picture of a lone doughnut gliding under the glorious waterfall of glaze!

Here are some doughnuts that were generated from a hand held vat (barely seen in the upper right hand part of the picture) and are frying in very hot oil.

  Here are the doughnuts in a vat of hot oil.  The machine at the right of the picture flips them over...so they are fried on one side, go through the machine and are flipped over, and then fry on the other side.  Very cool!

Trip to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

I'm into super educational field trips.  So today, we leaped up, got in the van by 7:45 a.m., and were at Krispy Kreme doughnuts by 8:15 a.m.

I know what you are thinking. Not very educational. But it was, it was!  And it almost wasn't.

We've gone once before. Krispy Kreme has this wonderful doughnut making area that has clear panels so that patrons can view the doughnuts being made. There are vats of glaze!  Sizzling tubs of hot oil!  Sprinkles!  Chocolate frosting!  Interesting machines that flip the doughnuts over!  The children enjoyed it, especially our mechanically inclined ones.

When we got in the restaurant at 8:15 a.m., there were a few doughnuts that were just going down the final conveyor belt. I assumed that we had hit a lull and that they would start making doughnuts again soon.  So we went over to buy doughnuts so the kids' could have their thoroughly luscious breakfast.

I casually asked the lady at the counter if there would be more doughnuts made today. She said no!  She said that they were done.  I was surprise and disappointed.  We came at 10 a.m. last time and they were making doughnuts. She explained that they had gotten a new machine that made doughnuts much more quickly.

Well, that was wretched. But doughnuts still has to be eaten, so I bought a dozen and the kids settled down to eat them.

And lo and behold, some doughnuts started moving along some conveyor belts.  Over the course of the next hour, we watched some specialty doughnuts being made with a big hand controlled vat.  We also watched as a dozen of the plain doughnuts (which had been made previously) were placed on a conveyor belt which took the doughnuts through a warming oven, down a slope onto another conveyor belt, then around a corner, down another slope onto another conveyor belt, and finally through a waterfall of sugary glaze.  When the doughnuts were dry, an employee put them in a box and gave them to us.  (Yep, I got a SECOND dozen doughnuts to bring home. We don't have doughnuts often, I promise!)

 So, it was a successful field trip.  And we were home before 10.  Some mommies get more field trips done before 10 a.m. than most homeschooling mommies do all day.

The options, and the dozen we picked out.

Birds and Cat

We've had more than one bird fall to the fierce fangs and claws of our pack of cats.

BUT...the guinea hen is obviously completely safe from our kitten Moonbeam, and indeed from any of the cats.

Because she is bigger than all of them.

I thought this was an amusing picture with Moonbeam eyeing the guinea cautiously, the guinea regally ignoring him.

Teensy Watermelon

It is a little hard to tell, but this was a very small watermelon.  I was surprised that it was good, but it was!



Puzzled Guinea Hen

  Our guinea hen is puzzled.  For 2 years, she had many buddies.  Or at least she a flock to boss around. She was "top poultry" and she knew it.  Our chickens had to keep in line or she would chase them around, peck them and step on them. 

Then, one strange day, all the chickens left and never returned.  They are, of course, in our freezer but she doesn't know that.

  Her behavior has changed significantly.  She used to spend 90% of her time in the chicken yard with the chickens. She does fly enough to get out of the yard, but she rarely wanted to. When she did fly out, she tended to stay very close to the chicken yard.

  Now she is going much further afield.  We find her on the fence outside the pool. This morning she was by the door to the deck.  She is often seen eating bugs in our garden.  All this is a fine thing as we bought her to eat bugs, and previously she wasn't eating bugs. 

  Truthfully, she is so picturesque, so truly ugly in a charming way, that she is earning her keep. But it is nice that she is also gobbling up bugs right now.

 

  We are still trying to decide whether to get chickens soon. 

Tummy time

Nowadays, babies are put on their backs to sleep to reduce the risk of SIDS.  In order for babies to get experience on their tummies, parents are encouraged to put their babies on their tummies for a few minutes a day, starting from birth. 

True confessions, we didn't.  Sarah, like our other babies, was a very tired child and slept a lot as a newborn.  Then she would eat.  Then she would be so full of milk that if she was put on her tummy, she would spit up. It wasn't worth it.

PLUS, the house was very busy.  I didn't want her out on the floor anywhere that a careless sibling might step on her. So she was usually in a bouncer and couldn't be on her tummy.

By the time she was older and able to stay awake and not spit up copiously all the time, she HATED being on her stomach.

End result, she has been on her back most of her life.  Now she sits up beautifully but she doesn't crawl.  She doesn't locomote much.

At 10 months, most babies are crawling or locomoting.

Am I worried?  No.  First, all of her sibs have been late to roll, late to crawl, and late to walk.  She is strong and loves to stand up though needs to hold on to something to stand.  I have given her a lot of tummy time the last few days and after some squawking, she settles down.  She is getting used to it and is moving around a bit.

As a new mom, I was rather obsessed with doing everything "right".  Reality is, what is right for one family doesn't work well for another.  There are things we need to do to make life work when we have a new baby and a bunch of older sibs to care for.

And true confessions, it is SO nice that she stays roughly where she is put.  When she starts crawling in earnest, life will be significantly more complicated.  I'm enjoying these last few days or weeks of Sarah staying mostly where I put her.

Sarah's weight

Sarah had a weight check on Wednesday.  One month ago, she was only 15 lb 11 oz.  That's not necessarily a problem except that she had "fallen off her weight curve".  She was previously about 40th percentile in weight, and had dropped to 5th percentile in weight compared to other babies her age.

I realized at the time that I had a milk supply problem.  I started supplementing with formula, then weaned her entirely as my milk supply dropped.  I started feeding her larger quantities.

And the results were very encouraging.  She was up almost 2 lbs, to 17 lb 7 oz!

So our big girl is getting bigger fast, and is back on her weight curve again.  We are thankful...sometimes weight issues are indicative of an actual problem but in this case it was just that she wasn't eating enough.

  She has always been a happy girl.  Now she is a chubbier, happy girl!