A Month in Photos

We started April with Easter and Michelle's 7th birthday. Both on the same day-How exciting is that?


Forest was so excited to help Michelle celebrate! When he saw the presents he came running in saying he was ready to unwrap his gifts.

We had our egg hunt in the back yard The kids were so fun to watch as they ran around looking for eggs.

Peter showing off his loot.

Forest was so cute. When most of the eggs were found, the kids walked in front of Forest hiding (really more like dropping) eggs quickly so he could find more.

Hey Crissy, I spy a blue egg just to your right!

Being the oldest and fastest has it's perks, Abby found the golden egg, loaded with spare change.

Peter's class went on a fun field trip to OMSI. Cristine and I met up with them there. This is Sampson, the super cool dinosaur. Peter was in heaven looking at the cool fossils. We need to take a family trip here!

These next photos were taken Sunday. The orchard is almost in full bloom. It is just beautiful right now!

I tried to get the kids to pose for me. Instead of a nice group of photos, the kids were having way too much fun joking around.

Michelle finally lost one of her top teeth. She didn't want anyone to pull it. It was so loose I thought she might swallow it.

I didn't get any photos from Saturday. But we got to spend the day with Rick's nephew Michael his wife Christina and their fun 11 year old son, Jacob. We haven't seen Mike is so long it was really fun to catch up. The kids weren't too excited about their visit until I mentioned they had a son. I wasn't sure how old he was, the kids decided that as long as he was able to walk and talk they would have fun. I think they were especially pleased when they realized he was old enough to play with. We are looking forward to many more fun visits!

With April not quite over, we are looking forward to many more fun activities.

Soup's On

Rick's mom has eating a lot of soup lately. She likes that it warms her up and is easy to eat. Usually the meat is soft enough that she can chew it. I have been making lots of different soups: beef with veggies, chicken corn chowder, chicken noodle, Swiss potato cheese soup, chicken stew, beef stew, clam chowder.....We have also been buying good soups from restaurants, opening canned soup and adding water to dry packets.

I like that many of the soups I've been making can be cooked in the crock pot. But I'm getting a bit burnt out, so are my kids. Nothing sounds better to me right now than a big juicy steak. Plus I'm running out of recipes. What is your favorite soup recipe?

A Crafty Fun Time

We got into the Valentine Spirit by making several fun crafts. We even had a few friends over for a craft party. The first 3 pictures are the things we made on our own. The last 3 pictures are from our crafting party. I'll try to give some quick explanations in case you may want to try some. Cristine's Valentine's all packed up, ready for school.

These are yummy pretzel sticks dipped in melted chocolate. After dipping, we carefully placed them on a parchment lined cookie sheet where sprinkles were dumped on top. I sampled quite a few and each time decided they were really tasty. We put 4-5 in cute little bags to give to the teachers. We made enough that I was able to Valentine's to my co-workers.

I saw these lolly pops on a blog, somewhere. After Christmas I found small candy canes on clearance so I bought several boxes. After carefully opening the packages we placed them on a lightly sprayed cookie sheet and baked them at 250 for 5 minutes. After removed from the oven we placed the stick and with two table knives squished the melted candy cane onto the stick. I then put it back into the oven for 2 minutes and squished the candy cane onto the stick again. After they cooled we placed them in cute bags for our friends. These were very fragile and many broken by the time we finished bagging them up.

Cupcake decorating and pink party trail mix.

Marbled paper made with shaving cream. We have made these several times and they are always fun. Spray shaving cream into a cookie sheet. Drip paint into the shaving cream. We use ink pad ink (not sure of the real name of the stuff, but it works). Use hands to lightly swirl the paint. Gloves would have been a good idea since we all ended up with purple hands. Lay your paper and top and lightly pat in down. Pull it up and with a spatula scrape off the shaving cream. Let the papers dry. Repeat. Washing the cookie sheets off outside would have been helpful too. Cut paper into heart shapes and make Valentine's.

Heart shaped crayons. Abby collected broken crayons from her classmates. We put the broken pieces into a silicone heart shaped baking thing. I placed it on a small cookie sheet and put it in the toaster oven. I set the timer for 10 minutes. I checked on them every few minutes. When the crayons looked mostly melted I turned off the toaster oven and let them sit in the warm oven. Since these were part of our party favors and I needed them to cool quickly I put them in the freezer to speed up the cooling process.

We had a lot of fun. The girls and their friends all got along well and they seemed to enjoy the crafts. We may have to try this again closer to Easter.

Sweet Things

Tonight I am watching Jane Austen's Emma on Masterpiece Theater. Poor Mr. Knightley. My sweet husband is patiently watching with me, actually he is playing solitaire. But isn't it nice of him to indulge me? I need to treat myself to the boxed set of Jane Austen DVDs-I think I saw them at Costc0 a while ago. I has been a while since I've read Emma, I may have to go to the Library and check it out so I can read it again-hmm might have to treat myself to a set of Austen books.

Pride and Prejudice and Emma were my favorites. What was your favorite Austen read? One of my favorite Austen style books was Austenland by Shannon Hale. It was fun to read about a modern day Austen loving lady experience Regency England. While looking at this book on Amaz0n, I am amazed by the number of other Austen-style books that have been written. Makes me almost want to look into more of them. One of my co-workers loaned me a series of contemporary Christan-Austen styled books. I tried to read the updated Mansfield Park. Couldn't get into it. Really I am not an Austen junkie!

Back to the thought of treating myself, I am craving German Chocolate Cake. Actually, I find that I crave German chocolate cake every January. Today is my parents 41st anniversary and I recall with fondness watching my mother make this cake from scratch. This is on my list of things to try. Maybe I should have ordered the German chocolate blizzard at DQ last night! I think having a special dessert to celebrate your anniversary is so fun. For Valentine's Day I use to make Creme Brulee for Rick, until I started helping in the Floral Department. Maybe this year I'll find the time to make it, the kids always enjoyed helping to torch the sugar on top. Dessert + Fire = Extra Special. Do you have any special desserts or traditions for Holidays? Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Look at Who I Got to Meet!

Just wanted to quickly show off my newest nephew. Isn't he a cutie? Congratulations Erin and Bridger, he is so sweet. Thanks for living nearby so I could visit! Welcome little Westley.

Here's their first family photo. I love how Forest says his name. Love you guys!

Just How Do I Explain This?

I have been called to serve on Jury Duty. During our marriage, Rick has served 3 times. This is my first time. My kids have had a hard time trying to make sense of what I will be doing. Abby asked what I was on trail for, then asked if I was a witness. Today I heard that Michelle told her friends I had to go to prison. Wonder if they'll still let me be in the PTA.

Cristine/Crafts and Candles

Cristine turned 4 last week. She has been so excited about her birthday. A few weeks ago while we were driving she told me that when she turned 4 she would know how to read. Then she said that when she turned 4 she was going to learn how to ride a bike. I thought those both sounded like pretty good goals. Then she told me that when she turned 4 she was going to learn how to drive a car! I decided that she thought 4 was a magical age. Until the day after her birthday. She told me that she decided that she was going to skip 4 and just be 5. I am just loving all her fun comments!

I've been making some cute gift card/cash holders for a few lucky family members. They were super easy. First I cut out the holly leaf shapes, placed them on some card stock and sewed through them with fun red string. After sewing the leaves, I folded the card.

I folded it twice. One fold was maybe only a 1/2 of paper. I stitched up the sides a bit to hold the bottom fold. Then I painted on 3 red circles to look like berries. I used double side tape to hold the front of the card down and to keep the money or gift card inside. I thought they turned out so cute. I had planned to make our Christmas cards this way, minus the bottom fold. But haven't gotten around to that...maybe next year!

These are our ice candles. Each winter we have a week or two of below freezing weather. During the day we place plastic containers with water out to freeze. Then at night we invert them, add a candle and light it. They are beautiful. I love seeing them when we go outside.