Mike and his friends got together this year again and made molasses. This, is Dawson's thing, all the way. He was SOOO pumped to get to do this. You know, use his machete to chop down cane. When you think about a 5 year old and his own machete, you this, tad unsafe? But then you set the scene, Koeltztown, cane field, Friday Night, dad is there, it all seems, normal, almost. Dawson got home about 10 pm that night and Mike said he barely made it to bed before he fell asleep, he was beat! The next day though, he was up, bright and early ready, for the cane cook! Him and Mike headed to grandpa Kenny's for the Johnny popper. I had to bring him a snack at 9 am because he had been working hard stripping and pressing cane. Hunter missed all this as he was spending the night with Grandma Jean. He earned 20 green dots for good behavior and this was the reward as Grandma's house, WITHOUT Dawson, is like a trip to Disney World. At 10 am I had to pick Dawson up to go to soccer, he was not happy about this at all! However, his and Hunter's game overlapped, I was able to watch both of them at the same time on two different fields. It entailed me jogging, some cell phones and probably standing up in front of people watching the games, but no one ever said being a mom would be easy!
So, two games down, we headed back to Koelztown from Belle to cook the cane. I sat and talked with my friends Amy and Sara and the boys ran from stirring the cane to running with the other boys. Once the cane was ready to jar, the boys were there to help in no time. Everyone was ready with a jar or a lid and having a hard time remembering that the jars were SUPER hot. However, once it was all jarred, the men ended up with 7 gallons. We then headed out for a hay ride and some corn stalk chopping, yep, the return of the machete. After that the boys were tired, hungry, and DIRTY! We headed home, after a lot of disagreement from the boys. So, what did we do the next night, well we made molasses cookies of course! I find it hard to believe, but the kids LOVE them. Dawson brought some to school to share. I told him to not be hurt if the other kids didn't like them, as I would think, most kids wouldn't like them. Well, much to my amazement, Dawson said, "mom, everyone loved them and wanted seconds and we were out!!"
