Flower Planting v2013

Back in the day I shopped for and planted all of my flowers by myself. But that’s not that fun, plus it always needs to happen around my birthday and Mother’s Day, so might as well make it a family adventure. It’s fun to look at our flower planting adventures throughout the years. The girls have definitely gone from being mildly in the way to actually being really helpful.

We have our routine down. My dad loads up a wheel barrow full of dirt, I fill the containers 3/4 full with wet leaves, and my mom and the girls plant the flowers. My dirt was awesome this year, we didn’t have to augment with anything. Every fall I dump all of my pots in the corner of my backyard and let everything compost over the fall and winter. It makes for lovely dirt the next spring!

My poor dad. He was in charge of seeding the lawn. He had to push this heavy seeder thing and haul the big seed bags around. I’m now watering like a crazy person in the hopes that this is the summer my lawn makes a turn around back to green and lush.

I want to do a post on this, but I kept my 50mm lens on my camera this weekend and was wowed with some of the pictures I got from it. Shots I’ve tried to get in the past actually came through! Love this close up.

This kid would not stop planting. Delaney took a break and went inside to listen to her music, but Caden kept at it. Shoveling dirt into the containers, sprinkling osmocote, picking out plants, digging and watering. Gardening is in her blood! She maybe pushed it a little too far though, since she had some trouble sleeping. I have to remember that this one needs more breaks than her sister.

At the end my mom gave her a pot and all the leftover flowers. It’s a mishmash of petunias, snapdragons, and impatiens but she is insanely proud of it.

So pretty! My goal for the summer is to teach the girls how to water efficiently enough that it can be their chore. I love watering for about a week, and then I lose interest. But I love my beautiful containers! So hopefully this can be Caden’s thing.

Final Beach Walk

Things warmed up here on Tuesday, which is when we hit the beach, but beyond that the winds and the chill have stuck around. Wednesday was very windy. So windy we never even made it in the pool. I was determined to hit both the beach and the pool on our last day, even if that meant a chilly morning beach walk.

Delaney was not thrilled. She demanded a short walk, but once we got going we all realized a short walk was in our best interest. The breeze was brisk!

We found a dead crab and a dead fish though, so at least we had some interesting treasures on the walk.

We headed indoors after this for some coffee and ice cream. The wind died down and the sun warmed up and we were able to hang at the pool for the rest of the day and bask in the sun (with spf 70 on so we wouldn’t burn). This possibly wasn’t the warm weather vacation we were hoping for, but we did have a blast, and our weather was miles better than the huge snowstorm we had back in MN.

Sandcastle Building

Sandcastle building is an essential part of the beach experience. I’ve learned the hard way that in order to build a decent sandcastle you have to have the right tools. We bought two pails with shovels at Public, along with two perfect molds.

Their castle came complete with shell topped towers and a moat!

My dad laid out the design, but Caden was a tireless worker. She kept at it all day long. They mostly finished this in 30 minutes or so, but she kept adding and enhancing the rest of the day.

Caden worked so hard on the moat. She was constantly trying to get it deeper and get it to hold water.

The plan was to stay at the beach for two hours, and then head back in for a nap. But, the day was absolutely beautiful. The sun was out, it was warm but not so warm anyone was melting. We were having such a great time, and I knew it was probably our only gorgeous day, so I just couldn’t justify making the girls leave.

It was worth it. I definitely paid the price, but we had an amazing day, and built an amazing sandcastle!

Beach Walks

Being out of commission for a day means there is a lot of this, one of the girls running to me. She started out running towards the ocean with Grampy, but couldn’t bear to be too far from me.

Last year my parents went on a beach walk every morning, ending at our hotel room as we were eating breakfast. We did beach walks, but moreso in the afternoons I think?

This year we’ve been heading out in the mornings. It’s cold, but bundled up it’s not so bad.

My girls are water girls though, so even the chill doesn’t keep them out of the ocean. Caden was practically hip deep! But thrilled to be there.

Pool pictures are fine, but everyone looks a little green and they are never what I want them to be. So I was super happy to get to the beach and be able to capture the ocean, sand and sky. Even in bright sunlight, I’ll take it!

The girls have quite the collection of sea shells already. They have grand plans for shell crafts, we’ll see what we can actually pull together. (I’m thinking sea shells on a picture frame?)

Today is supposed to be 77 and we’re rejoicing! Please let it be warm enough that we can spend the day at the beach!

Cooking Birthday Party

Back in January, I had basically talked the girls into doing a faux cooking class, with a hibachi family dinner after. I made the reservation, and then put it out of my mind until after Valentine’s Day.

We did the cooking class at my brother’s house because he has the better kitchen for it. It also meant I didn’t have to clean my house in preparation for this which was a much needed break. What I didn’t think through was that this meant my brother and his wife *did* have to clean before we arrived. Oops! Thanks guys!

The girls are in a great stage with food right now, very open to trying new things, but also really loving certain favorites. I decided to make their very favorite thing – Starbucks Pumpkin Scones. Scones are easy to make, and I knew they would love the whole process. Found a copycat recipe online and we were set.

Everyone took part in this. They all measured ingredients, cut butter in, and when it came time to mix the wet with the dry, I told them to dig in and mix it up!

Oh my god these are so good! We will absolutely make them again, but only when I know they’ll get eaten in one day. I cannot have these in the house, too tempting!

I had two other recipes planned for the cousin cooking class. The first was peanut butter stuffed bananas dipped in chocolate. Sounds amazing right? The inspirational pin:

Source: celebrations.com via Erin on Pinterest

 

And our results. I have no idea where this woman found straight bananas. Also? She did not use melted chocolate chips, she either added something to the chocolate, or used melting chocolate. These tasted good, they just didn’t look very good.

The last recipe was Healthy Homemade Fruit Snacks. No pictures of these because they were a bit of a letdown. They taste okay, although I think there is too much gelatin. I’m the only one who liked them, and I would say they are just meh. Decent snack though.

Oh they like to shop

I’ve been holding off digging through the girls’ clothes for vacation because I knew once I brought the bin out, clothes would be everywhere until we left. I finally dug through things at the end of last week and it wasn’t good. Delaney had one pair of shorts that fit her! Yikes. I feel like the girls grew incrementally from birth to age 4.75, and then BOOM! They’ve grown so much the last few months. Legs are longer, waists are bigger, it’s crazy.

I knew we would need to do some shopping, so we had planned to go to the Mall of America* on Saturday. Never again. Well and truly, never again on a weekend. That place is a catastrophe with any sort of traffic at all, they just can’t handle it or figure it out. Honestly. It can’t be that difficult can it?

Anyway, after some rides (Caden rode the big rollercoaster!) and some dinner, we headed to Old Navy. The girls are in a bit of a weird place size wise. They need the longer shirts that come in the Girls size, but need the shorter pants in the Kids size. But sometimes they can wear the Girls bottoms? Basically, we need to try everything on before we buy.

We divided and conquered. Mom, Delaney and I hit the Girls section looking for shorts for her. Dad and Caden hit the Kids section looking for ….? After digging through the shorts to find Delaney’s size, Mom told me Caden was in a dressing room, so I headed back there with Delaney and a pair of shorts for her to try on.

My girls LOVE to shop and they LOVE to try clothes on. This was like nirvana for them! And to have people bringing them things in the dressing room? Oh they were in heaven. It was also chaos.

“No Caden, you cannot get that full price skirt.”
“No Delaney, you don’t have to try on the dresses, we know they’ll fit.”
“No Mom, Caden doesn’t need any more pairs of shorts.”
“Yes Dad, they actually do need flip flops.”

No, yes, no, yes, no, yes, you can get one too then! Over and over. My dad was shaking his head, but although it’s chaotic, it’s the only way to get through it and make sure we get clothes they like and fit. They each got a pair of jean capris, cardigans, and flip flops, Delaney got four pairs of shorts, we found a bunch of dresses on sale, and they each got beach hats that kill me they are so adorable. We are now set for vacation. (Actually, after picking up a pair of sandals for Delaney yesterday, we are now set for vacation.)

*I avoid the MOA like the plague. It’s huge, you can’t find anything, it’s inefficient, I hate it. But, Delaney wanted to see the ice castles (which we never made it to), and they’ve fallen in love with the bubble bars from Lush and that is the only store in MN. Next time I will simply order online, although we bought enough to last us a very, very long time.

We WILL enjoy this snow

At daycare, the girls go outside from 4:30 – 5:30. Unless I get out of work way early, they are outside when I pick them up. Or even worse, they are dressed but not yet outside. That happened last week, so both girls wore their snow suits home and played outside for 45 minutes while I made dinner. Friday we brought everything home, which is something I don’t do often. They are loving playing outside so much, I just can’t say no.

Friday evening on our back deck. They played and played, even though it was dark outside. Delaney is making snow cupcakes, Caden is probably throwing snow cupcakes at Delaney.

Saturday, snowman at my parents. They had been playing outside for 30 minutes by the time my dad and I got back to the house. My dad got dressed and went outside with them for another hour of snowman making and sledding. Love the look of pure joy and happy dance by Caden.

I thought all of this fresh air would wipe them out, but not so much. They loved it! (Sorry about the blue toned face Caden, snow is hard.)

And Sunday. I snowblowed the driveway and they ‘shoveled’ the sidewalk. They really wanted to go to the neighbor’s house to sled, but I was wiped out and said no. Mean mom. Two hours of driving in the snow wiped ME out, so an executive decision was made.

Projects with Grampy

My work holiday party was last weekend, so my parents agreed to take the girls overnight. My dad came up and went to dance class with us Saturday morning, then took the girls back to their house. Being away from the girls is always such a catch-22 on the weekends. You miss them so much, but you also need time away. There’s been a lot going on emotionally in our house. I really needed just a little time to myself, so this came at the perfect time.

I sent my camera down with them and it’s always interesting to see the pictures that came back. They decorated Christmas cookies, posed by the tree, and made a treasure box with Grampy.

I love the pictures where they are peeking out behind their sister! They had so much fun measuring and sanding.

I grew up helping my dad in his workshop, so I love that they are getting to do that too. You aren’t part of this family if you can’t work power tools!

This must have been after she got to sand her box. She said it tickled.

Finished box! Don’t tell my dad it was actually December 9.

When they got home they immediately filled their boxes with random ‘treasure’ from around the house. I’m hoping these bigger treasure boxes will mean we can ditch the other two treasure boxes they each have. Who needs three?

Bake Day 2012

It was time again to head out to my aunt’s house for our family’s annual Bake Day. I look forward to this day every year!

The girls were awesome helpers! They love to be helpful and took on any task they could.

My cousin’s wife commented that as soon as my kids see the camera come out they turn and smile.

So true.

My mom had the girls do snowmen nutter butters. You dip the nutter butter in white almond bark, use orange tic tacs for the nose, m&ms for buttons, and black icing for the eyes and mouth. Their baking entry won first prize! They won a candle for their prize and Delaney has already declared it her candle, and that she is the only one to blow it out.

My mom made a batch of cookies where you press pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough into tiny muffin tins, bake, and then pipe in melted chocolate & peanut butter chips. Caden could not get that cookie into her mouth fast enough! Definitely her favorite.

We got a lot of baking done, although next year I’m lobbying for more vintage recipes. We need peanut blossoms and gingersnaps in there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! We headed down to my parent’s house early to get hair cuts for everyone, and to help my mom with the cooking. While we cooked, my dad took the girls to see their favorite horses – Bullseye and Lucky #7. They were thrilled to see them! And also thrilled to run errands with my dad and get to be his helpers.

My mom likes to get as much done the day before as possible, so we set the table after eating dinner Wednesday evening. My mom was positioning plates and glasses when the girls jumped in. It was so cute watching them go around, trying to get the forks & knives in just the right position. Like I said, they love to be helpers.

Thanksgiving morning we had some time to kill, so the girls relaxed on the couch.

And played a little soccer on the back patio.

I have a bunch of pictures of the craft we did (post to come tomorrow), but that apparently is where my pictures end for the day! I can tell you that the ciabatta stuffing we make every year is fabulous, as was the pumpkin roll my mom made. That pumpkin roll was *really* good.

I threw caution to the wind and ate the gluten. What else can you do? I tried to just eat bits of anything gluten-full, but I only have so much will power. I can report that after eating the pies my lungs felt awful. Is my asthma also related to the gluten? Gah. I hate my body these days.

On the thankful portion of the holiday, the girls and I agreed that we are all incredibly thankful for our family. The girls make me laugh and make me proud, and of course make me cry. My parents have been so supportive of our little family ever since I got pregnant, of which I am incredibly thankful for. We’re happy and we’re so thankful to live the life we do.