Fun things

Today was a fun day. It was Jack's last day at preschool and we took a fieldtrip with all the families and teachers to the zoo. It was a ZOO quite literally, and at one point I panicked a little because I couldn't keep them all in my sight. It went down fine, though, and they got a lot of sun and buddy time in today.

Waiting for us at home were:
1) landscapers
2) sodders
3) my MIXER!

So the rest of the day was stellar as well. The boys were enthralled with watching the sod go down. They ran from the front window, where they watched the men load up the sod rolls on their machine, to the back deck, where they watched them lay them down:



I am just happy to finally look out our back window and see a yard.


There she is, Ms. Tangerine Beauty. Isn't she gorgeous?


My very first recipe whipped up with the mixer was chosen out of a mix of nostalgia and triumph. I made a pavlova from a handwritten recipe I brought back from my host mother in New Zealand in 1995. Yes, 16 years ago. Yes, I'm old. I never make this recipe because it's one of those that requires whipping egg whites till they are stiff, and wooden spoons just aren't made for that. So I've carried it around in my recipe stack for years and years for this moment.


Light, airy, melts-in-your-mouth-like-cotton-candy pavlova. Ummm. Topped with kiwi slices, just like kiwi mom-away-from-mom used to serve it.


Lately I've been musing on what traits of mine and Mike's will our children take on as they grow?
So far, Benji has not inherited my foodie-ness. Check out this gag-worthy concoction he not only mixed up but DRANK:



Jack has my love for animals:


None of them have yet taken on my (or Mike's) OCD anal retentive notion that this type of chaotic mess is not okay:

but I suppose there's still time to instill that in them.

This weekend was fun for us as we had very little plans, save for a visit to the landscaping nursery to approve of plants for their front yard design and a graduation party. True to form, when we have no plans, we make them. We searched out and ordered/purchased prints for our family room and got a dining set for the deck. I'm WAY excited about the family room prints by Natasha Wescoat. I'd been thinking constantly of trees. I just want to decorate with trees! But we also want lots of color and whimsy, nothing too serious or sophisticated. I want the house to feel warm and lived in, family-oriented and not formal. Natasha's work is perfect for this, and fits the tree-theme so obviously. Thanks, Steph, for the idea of using our largest family room wall to put up a series of "3" paintings. We followed that advice, and you'll see the "3" theme (so appropriate for us, as it is) in the prints themselves once we get them up :)

Disturbing?

Does anyone else think this is a disturbing site to see upon entering a room?



This is how my boys play with dolls.

Wacky Facts

I just got my zoo news and saw some seriously cool facts in there.

Which is NOT true?

a) A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair.
b) A snail can sleep for three years.
c) There are more chickens than people in the world.
d) About 20 percent of the plant life on earth is in the ocean.

Give up? Tantalized? Answer is d). It's actually 85% of plant life that lives in the ocean. Aren't those 1st three facts awesome?! Here's one more set:

Which is NOT true?

a) The cheetah is the fastest animal on earth.
b) Most sharks live near the ocean floor.
c) If the sun stopped shining, it would take 8 minutes for people on earth to know.
d) The blue whale is the largest living animal.

Answer is.... b. Most sharks live near surface of water since that's where their prey is.

I thought these were cool. They were only ruined by my know-it-all husband who was unsurprised by all of them, and gave answers like: "oh yeah, that's true about rhinos. Just like antlers on other species are compacted hair." and "Sure, it'd take 8 minutes if the sun simply stopped shining, but if it exploded, we'd know immediately because our gravity would disappear and fling us spiraling into the universe. Geez, way to kill my enthusiasm for trying to stun. He will heretofore be known as, "fun hater."

Eating with the seasons has once again begun

I am so excited that we picked up our first CSA box of veggies last night! Well, not really a boxful. The boxes will begin in 2 weeks. But the asparagus was ready for us last night. I eagerly picked it up with a recipe already in mind for that first bunch. Tonight I made creamy asparagus soup. It started with the steaming of onions and fresh asparagus:


and ended with this creamy yumminess:



First lesson for me of this season's cooking: decrease the salt a recipe calls for when adding chicken stock that has also been made with salt. Other than that, it was a lovely, fresh soup. Very asparagusy.

I'm just so tickled that soon we'll be enjoying the first crop of spring's bounty, and I will again start trying new recipes and cooking with more variety. We haven't totally committed to cooking with the seasons, as we find it more important to keep as varied a diet as possible in the winter months (including buying imported bananas, tomatoes, and other produce) rather than restricting ourselves to what can be grown locally during those cold months. But we'll do our best to do our part this summer, especially with more time to cook post-PhD!

Rainy Days

I'm continually amazed how we can go from air conditioning during the day to considering the heat at night. Funny weather. We are making the most of today's rainy day, playing inside. I helped out with the preschool's fundraising garage sale this morning and snagged some super stuff for our own house. Saved $100 on a wooden easel that I had wish listed at Amazon.com when I found one at the sale. It's one of those with the chalkboard, magnetic dry erase whiteboard, materials tray, and a roll of paper you can hook up and over to color or fingerpaint on. Super!






I also scored an awesome bike, same size and style as Jack's new one, for Benji's future use. Although it's Hawkeye colors and Jack is in love with it, so chances are he'll start using that one now :) Mike got some golf clubs (so I assume he plans to learn to golf?) and I found a complete knee/elbow/wrist guard set for when Jack learns to ride without training wheels. I'm not a garage sale person, but I felt good with these deals today!

I feel so blessed to have so much great shelving and storage in the new place, but the combination of having dramatically cleaned out our last house in prepartion for moving and the fact that neither of us are "knick knacky" people, means we have NOTHING on these shelves. The few pieces of Willow Creek carvings I did have were promptly broken after kids got to them on the built-ins. So now, it seems, they work for cars:



Gavin is a book worm. From the moment he wakes up till bedtime, he's asking for "book! read! chair! couch!" He crawled right into Benjamin's nap at breakfast and brought "Goodnight Moon." Benj said, "Okay, Gavy, I'll read to you." It was too cute.



My newest favorite photo:

RED

We finally live in a RED house :) I was worried at first because it's much brighter than we had originally anticipated, but now that the whole color scheme is up together, I'm loving it. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback from neighbors, so the anxiety has lifted. Yeah for bold color choices!




The fence is starting to go in. Hopefully both sod and fence will be in by the end of the week, weather permitting. I cannot WAIT to have a backyard to chill in again.

My bird watching has taken on a whole new dimension now that I spotted these little lovelies today:


AHHH! Baby geese are so cute!


We've been having fun watching the house go up next door. It's amazing to see a house built from ground up. I wonder who our new neighbors will be.


I was super excited about the recent warm weather. We got out the sand box and the water table. Whose idiotic idea was it to put them both on the deck? Oh mess of messes.

There was a bit of cute after it all, though.

Benjamin's 3rd Birthday--The Parties

We had a busy, busy weekend. It was full of cleaning and cooking and hosting. And all well-worth it. I learned that pastry chef will not be my back-up career. Not only did Mike describe my DIEGO cake as "Diego's down syndrome little brother," but I hated every minute I spent making that thing. I figure you might as well try something once, and if it's not your thing, then at least you know from there on out. Cake decorating was not my thing. I didn't like it, and I don't plan to do it again.

Mixing the colors of frosting two nights before the party. Yes, that glass of wine was incredibly necessary to get through that portion of the prep work.


This was taken after 2.5 hours of work decorating the night before the party. I had already had it, and was barely half done. Fun, fun, fun.

In the end I decided that as long as a certain 3-yr-old thought it looked relatively like Diego before he dug into it with his buddies, then I would have fulfilled his birthday wish. So I'm fine with how it turned out.






We did a "stick the badge on Diego" game










The gift opening was a free for all, with lots of help. It was super quick :)



Benj's buddy Shannon, daughter of his preschool teacher Mrs. Maxwell. Aren't they super cute?


Benj's family birthday party was the very next day, and we hosted a combination birthday party/ Mother's Day brunch. It was a nice, relaxing day with a small group of close family. The weather was gorgeous, the food was good, and the company was wonderful.







Now THIS cake was MUCH more my style. Homemade, with a hand-written "3" on it ;)





It was a great weekend. Another full and fast one, though. When, oh when, might we enjoy a weekend of *no* plans? I don't even think we'd know what to do with ourselves.

Oh, and I believe in a few days I'll be ordering myself a Mother's Day present. I've got my eye on this sweet little baby:
Persimmon....