simple summer pleasures #1

Fresh squeezed orange juice.

Ready. Set. Summer.

It's official... it's summer.

This week has been a doozie.

The quick run down is; planting flowers, laying mulch, power washing the deck, playing in the sprinklers... someone loosing his drawers, new sassy summer haircuts.

A trip to the zoo, a walk and dinner and ice cream in our most favorite of towns and spending the night in a "hometel".

An end of the school year pool party with pizza, snacks, and lots of sunscreen!

Hello Summer! Glad you came to visit.

Rhubarb-a-licious

After keeping my eyes peeled the last couple of weeks, I finally spotted some rhubarb at the farmers market last week. So this weekend I was busy making rhubarb treats.

I started with some strawberry rhubarb skillet jam. I didn't have an actual recipe, I used some different ones like this one and this one... and I feel like I am missing one... sorry!

We had it on biscuits Friday....

and fresh lemon scones on Saturday morning.
Mmmmmmmmm.

Finally, I made a strawberry rhubarb pie on Sunday for dinner with my parents and brother in law... unfortunately, my dad doesn't like rhubarb.

However Mark and I had it again for breakfast, and lunch, ahem....

I wonder why I am not losing weight....


I am going to go back to see if they have more, and am going to try it out with raspberries

a nature haiku

family nature hikes

searching, exploring, learning
walking in the rain

looking for cool rocks
splashing in every puddle
naming wiggly worms

The man of the house

With Mark having been gone for the last nine days, Isaac has technically been the "man of the house".

He has just about officially given up naptime, which means 2 things. 1-he goes to bed much earlier and easier. 2- Mama is more than ready for peace and quiet.

Today, during "rest" time, he came down stairs and said,"Mom. you. are. not. going. to. believe. this.... I was reading my bug book, and it says that caterpillars eat sweet gum!!! Can you believe it? I just can't believe it!"
The way he said it just made me feel like he was so old... you know he will be 5 in three months, a fact he reminds me of multiple times a day.

Recently he just seems so much more mature the last few days/weeks.

He has developed a fabulous fashion sense.

He is an awesome brother.

Mark will be very proud to hear how well Isaac was while he was gone. I know I am!

Mothers Day Recap

While I think it is a nice gesture, Mother's Day isn't too different from any other day.

According to my girlfriends, we think it is a little bit stressful and a lot of extra work, quite frankly.
We want to please our mothers and mothers-in-law, yet, we are mothers too! And we are in the throws of parenthood!
So we plan a dinner or mani/pedi session or maybe a brunch.
Maybe a nice low key dinner at home since all of the restaurants have a zillion hour wait.
Regardless of how we celebrate our mothers, we do it because we love them and we would not be where or who we are without them... and because they did the same things for us. Thank you mom, for always supporting me and being in my corner when I need you. Thank you for being loving and compassionate. Thank you for being my friend. I love you.

Plus, without Mother's Day, I wouldn't have gotten these sweet cards from my kiddos!

Park It!

With the weather as awesome as it has been this week, (and with this weekends forecast looking cool and bleak) the kids and I have been hitting the park... sometimes twice a day... we're addicted.

New endeavors at every new play ground. Each time we go to a fav, instead of being bored, one of them gains more confidence. Amazing that my babies are getting so big and independent. It's great... right? This is the first time in my experience as a mother, that I haven't had to be a shadow at our outings. It is amazing to just sit back and watch.

I love how Meg says hello to everyone.... and I mean everyone, until they say "hi" back.
A few unfortunate mishaps have taught a certain little someone that they are just not able to do everything a certain older sibling is. My eldest, well, lets just say it was for kids like him for whom parks were created. (Is that the correct use of whom? I never know.) He is a lightening bolt up and down, left then right. I have to keep him in a neon orange shirt just so I can spot the blur running past me.
Thank you, Park builders... we are huge fans!

Dear Mark,

Hey hon,
The morning went well, I was very productive this morning... Straightened up the house, had Lori and Calder over for coffee and transformed Meg's crib into a toddler bed.

Now it is nap time and the new found freedom of a three sided bed is proving a bit much... hopefully tonight will go better. I promised 2 quarters if she could stay in bed and take a good nap... 30 minutes later, "I don't want to earn my quarters! I don't want to buy princess clothes!" great. The positive reinforcement tactic isn't going quite as planned.

I hope you are getting lots of work done! I love you and miss you already!