Finally Home!

I broke my one-time-rule and blogged about a vacation while still actually on it. But we are finally back home from Rocky Mountain National Park and getting settled back in! I will post more about the trip, our car ride, and other fun stuff when I get a chance!

How to Build a Teepee

When we arrived in Estes Park, Becca & Tommy had lots of fun ideas for things the kids could do. The cabin where we stayed was right next to theirs (Did I mention that the Rocky Mountain National Park is in their backyard? Literally!) We had a wonderful view of Longs Peak, and you just walk out the door and into the trails of the park! So anyway, Becca had the idea of building a teepee on the patio for the kids to play in all week. They have been having a great time playing in it. And we all had fun creating it too!Do you want to build a teepee too? Here's how.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Again, we got to visit our friends Becca & Tommy in Estes Park, CO. Remember when we visited in 2010 and 2009? This place is so amazing! Have you ever been to Rocky Mountain National Park? If not, you should definitely go!
Cool Stuff to do in Estes Park, CO
Eat at The Rock
Visit the Stanley - Have you seen "The Shining"?
Hike & Explore - We did the Cub Lake - Pool loop, Gem Lake, Sprague Lake...
Become a Junior Ranger - The visitor center has a free Junior Ranger book, which is full of fun activities, like finding animal tracks, scavenger hunts, etc.. Sprague Lake was a perfect easy, flat trail for little ones to explore.
More to come!

Baby Shower

We just had a shower for a dear friend who is having a baby boy. We had a great time and I had fun with some DIY projects. I'm so grateful for my wonderful friends. And neighbors with beautiful hydrangeas!!!
watercolored place cards, silverware wrapped in scrap cloth
hydrangeas, hostas, in mason jars, wrapped in twine.
beautiful cake by my sister-in-law, libby!

8 Month Update

Another rendition of the happiest baby on the planet! At 8 months, she is everywhere! Crawling, pulling up, becoming acquainted with the first 3 stair steps, obsessed with anything crinkly, shiny or off-limits, squirming, blabbering, slobbering & putting everything in her mouth. And...still smiling! Here is KB's 8 Month Update. It seems like yesterday!!!

CSA 2011, Week 6

This week: Cucumbers, Blackberries, Carrots, Beets, Kohlrabi, Kale, Lettuce, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Green Onions, Cabbage, Snowpeas, Pattypan Squash

CSA 2010, Week 5

This week we received: kohlrabi, broccoli, onion, blueberries, Kale, buttercrunch lettuce, cabbage, beets. I'm still working to like greens. This week I made this greens recipe (with the kale, kohlrabi greens, and beet greens). I had some pancetta leftover from another recipe, so I used in place of the ham. Lance said it was the best greens he's ever eaten. We still don't love them, but we're making progress. We do, however, love kohlrabi! I roasted mine, and topped it off with a sprinkle of very good balsamic vinegar that we received as a gift. (Side note: Wow - have you ever had a good bottle of balsamic vinegar? I hadn't, but there is a huge difference. It's delicious!)

What are you cooking this week? Happy Cooking!

Rainy Days

What's the Noah's Ark story without some rainclouds? Still thinking about a Noah's Ark party. Here are some clouds that would be cute hanging from the ceiling.These cute rainy cloudy day ideas that you could buy or DIY: goshandgolly, kategriener, babyjives, Sara's Party Perfect, or here.

Rainbow Parties

My kids have "friend parties" every other year. This is, in part, because I tend to get a little consumed by the party-planning. I love it, get my crafty-fix, and have a DIY mentality, but I don't want to spend too much time or money on kids parties! So far, we've had big parties for Ethan every-other-year, and then the most simple of parties on the alternating years. Last year, Katie Belle had her big one (doggy party here and here), so it should be her "year off." (Notice how I said "should"?) But I won a party package at a silent auction for a good cause. SO...it looks like it's a lucky year for Katie Belle! Now, I know that I could just take it easy. But I do love a good party, so I'm trying to decide whether to go all out, or do nothing and let the experts do it all! And have you seen all the rainbow themes out there right now? So cute. But instead of rainbows & unicorns, I'm going the "Noah's Ark" route. Rainbows & Animals - can't go wrong, right?
Above Rainbows & Unicorns party here. Rainbow & Race Cars party here. And the one with the cute ruffles is here.Veggie Pic from here. Rainbow cake from here.

Cabbage Rolls

(pictured above, before cooking & adding the sauce on top.)
This is, hands-down, my favorite thing to do with cabbage. Cabbage Rolls are delish, although a few years ago, I made Bierocks, which also ranked up there!

CSA 2011, Week 4

This week, we received: a bag of mixed greens, strawberries, green onion, strawberries, kohlrabi, cabbage, radishes, snowpea, bibb lettuce, broccoli, lemon balm, and some dark green (mustard greens?). (We were traveling and missed week 3). I just looked back at 2009, and May was pretty similar. The only thing we didn't receive this year were garlic scapes. Bummer, I was looking forward to trying out some garlic scape pesto.

If June this year is like it was in 2009, here's what we'll be eating (it starts to get fun in June!): Various Spring Greens, English Peas, Green onions, Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Swiss chard, Broccoli, Potatoes, Strawberries, Garlic scapes, Purple Cauliflower, Carrots, Onion, Potatoes, Herbs, Peaches, Garlic Scapes, Greens, Green Beans, Blackberries, Carrots, Onion, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Beets, Broccoli, Radishes, Squash, Cauliflower, yellow zucchini, garlic, Green Pepper, Pole Beans, Cucumbers, Potatoes, Corn, & Garlic!!!

Beach, 2011

We're at the end of another fun beach trip. We've spent our last 3 beach trips with friends, but this year we flew solo. Last year we went with our church life group. And the year before, we went with Ethan's playgroup. In some ways, it was more fun being with our family. But in other ways, it's more fun to be with friends! We managed to visit family (Lance's cousin, Frank), make some new friends, and squeeze in some surfing (Lance) and fishing. Mostly, the baby stayed indoors (does anyone have any tips for keeping a baby happy on the beach, instead of their just eating sand?)

Tiger Nuggets

This is another attempt in my quest for child-frendly-and-healthy-proteins. These are Jessica Seinfeld's Rice Balls. Her recipe includes either spinach, broccoli or butternut squash puree. I used spinach, which tinted the nuggets green. If I were to do it over, I would use the butternut squash instead. These were actually very good. However, my kids wouldn't eat them until we declared that they were TIGER FOOD!...AND THEY WERE THE TIGERS! Here are my tigers.

Bubble Station & Party Prep

I meant to show these after our "Feasting on Fresh" potluck a few weeks ago. Lance installed a "bubble station" next to our deck. It may not look exciting, but I love it!!! THe kids love bubbles, but they make me kind of crazy, because I have to hold the bubbles while they blow, and they end up making us all sticky. So this way, the mess is kept to a minimum! Lance screwed on a cheap potholder with holes in the bottom. Then, we found a plastic container that we could slide down into it (we used an empty cottage cheese container) to fill up with bubble soap. Pour in a little soap and the kids stay happy and (relatively) clean! Or at least I stay clean! Here's another little thing that I made for the party. A box, wrapped in scrapbooking paper and a little sign glued on top (a free downloadable label from here). I thought it turned out cute.

Nan's Veggie Tuna

When most Southerner's wax nostalgic about their mother's cooking, it typically involves delicious casseroles, fried chicken or tasty pies. Not me. My lunch bags were packed with avocado & sprout sandwiches, and I came home to dinner of lettuce wedges topped with "Nan's Homemade Ranch" (yes, I have that secret recipe!) This was one of my favorite things my mother made for me. Here's a recipe, although I'm a bit intimidated to make it. It's called "Veggie Tuna," although there is no tuna or meat otherwise. It is given the title because it's very close to a tuna-like consistency. Although I've never made this, I thought I'd share it with you!

Using pulp from juicer: 5 lbs. of carrots run through juicer. Drink the juice and save the pulp for the recipe.
2 stalks celery, chopped fine
1 bell pepper, chopped fine
1 small red onion, chopped fine
1 large tomato, chopped fine
½ c. Vegenaise
2 tbsp. soy sauce (or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos)

Using food processor (makes a smaller quantity)
2 c. processed carrots
½ bell pepper, chopped fine
1 stalk celery, chopped fine
½ small red onion, chopped fine
½ tomato, chopped fine
¼ c. Vegenaise
1 tbsp. soy sauce or Bragg’s

Juice the carrots in an electric juicer. Save the pulp. Finely chop the celery, bell pepper, onion and tomato. Add the pulp of the carrots to the chopped vegetables. Add the mayo substitute to the mixture. Then add Bragg’s or soy sauce. This is great as an open faced sandwich on hearty whole grain bread, topped with a thin tomato and cucumber slice.

7 Months

The more months that pass, the harder these pictures are to take. These days, the baby is everywhere. Now, I put her down on the floor and she has done a full-fledged army crawl across the room. It's harder these days to keep those tiny little toys out of arm's reach. A couple of times I have found her with little choking hazards in her mouth and in her tiny clenched fist. She puts everything in her mouth, and gets very upset when a favorite toy gets taken away. She is still a happy, happy baby and I'm surprised every day that babies like this exist out in the world. But back to the wiggling...Jewell is all over the place. So the majority of my pictures look something like this:With a little of this thrown in...And then a little of this!followed by a little of this. And here we are again, at 6 Months, 5 Months, 4 Months, 3 Months, 2 Months, 1 Month

KB Gets Her Hair Cut!

Can I tell you how much I love little girls with pigtails? I always pictured myself with a little girl that always wore pigtails. Wrong. My little one will wear a ponytail for a max of 180 seconds before the ponytail holder hits the floor. So today I decided to stop trying. We chopped it off! Doesn't she look so much older? Cute, but older! Boo hoo!

CSA 2011, Week 2

Another week of CSA Cooking! Unfortunately, no cinnamon rolls worked their way into my box this week. This week we recieved: Cabbage, Broccoli, Lettuce, Strawberries, Green Onion, Spinach, snow Peas, Radishes, Bok choi

This time of year we receive a bounty of green onions. Here are some of the things we do with them:
1) Freeze them!
2) Throw them on top of a baked potato
3) Test out this recipe for Asparagus, Green Onion & Goat Cheese Quiche
4) Or this Jasmine Rice with Carmelized Green Onions
5) Oh...And check this out. Chicken Breast with Goat Cheese, Carmelized Green Onions & Thyme.
6) And then here are even more great ideas for what to do with green onions.

See why I love the CSA? I never would have run across some of these ideas, had I not planned my weekly menu around how to use up some green onions!

This week I'll also be trying this easy snow pea recipe, steamed broccoli with lemon, cabbage rolls, & a bok choy salad (also uses green onions).

Feasting on Fresh

Last night we hosted a potluck dinner with some friends from church called "Feasting on Fresh." I adore potluck dinners, but always leave feeling so weighed down. So this time, we asked people to bring food inspired by whole, unrefined foods. I didn't want people to get weighed down by "rules" of what they could or could not bring, but just bring something in the spirit of the evening. We had such a great time, and the most amazing food!!! (See picture below: Please note that this is too many lemons. I could have added some sugar and called it lemonade.)The party started at 5. All afternoon we delayed the setting up, due to a 10% chance of rain. Finally, at 5:00 (as guests started to arrive), we decided to move indoors. It was a little kink in our plans, but it worked out just fine. We ate quinoa salad, russian carrot salad, collard greens & cornbread, wheat berry salad, kohlrabi/apple slaw, coleslaw, kale & white bean soup, cucumber & tomato salad, yellow squash & goat cheese custard, radish dip & crackers, cowboy caviar, asparagus, fruit salsa & chips, orzo & broccoli salad. And I'm probably forgetting some other delicious foods!! Dinner was topped off with some amazing cupcakes, cookies, pie and freshly whipped cream!
I made radish dip (I can't find the recipe online, but it's radishes, cream cheese, & green onion) and also summer squash goat cheese custard (pictured above).

Are you a church friend who would enjoy "Feasting on Fresh"? We invited people we thought would enjoy it, but we hope to do this again! If you would like to join us next time, let me know. We'd love spending time with you!!

Titus 2: Flower Arranging

Our church has a program called Titus 2 Women, based on the verse from Titus 2, which advises older women to teach younger women to love their husband & children, to be self controlled, pure, kind, submissive & hospitable. About once a month, we take a variety of topics that women are able to teach each other, meet in homes and just talk! Some topics are fun & "light," while others are more serious. In the past year (since it started), we've talked about foster care, forgiveness, hospitality, infertility, cooking, parenting, marriage, & raising a child with learning differerences. My friends Jana, Lauren, and Amanda each demonstrated several different styles & ideas. I love these nights!