Rain, That We Desperately Needed

Nothing like a good summer rainstorm to break the heat, and make for some fun puddle splashing.

And give me a chance to use my new telephoto lens, where I can photograph all the fun from the safety of the garage.

Plus, it gets the kids off the couch so they aren't just doing this:

I always feel like I should be scared of the TV and what it is doing to their brains when I see pictures like this, but they just make me laugh. (I also have to laugh when I see Bugaboo wearing bright orange socks pulled half way to his knees when it was probably 80 degrees in our house.)

Quinoa Tabbouleh

I've mentioned my quinoa tabbouleh before (here and here), but as I'm back to my summer habit of making up a batch each week, and I've had a few different people ask me for the recipe lately, I thought I should actually get my version of it written down somewhere. It's based on the Tabbouleh III recipe from allrecipes.com, but I've changed amounts on the dressing and the quinoa, and the way I combine things. So really, its not that recipe at all anymore :)

Quinoa Tabbouleh
1 cup quinoa
2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1 cup chopped fresh parsley (I use about 1-2 Tbsp dry if I don't have fresh--it won't have the green appearance in the final product, but its still good)
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves
1 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
feta cheese (optional)

Cook quinoa according to directions. Let cool a little and then mix with cucumbers, green onions, and parsley. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, salt, garlic, and mint and then pour over quinoa. Chill for a couple hours before eating. You might need to adjust the salt, especially if you won't be eating it with feta cheese.

If I'm serving it all right away, then I add the tomatoes, and offer feta cheese on the side to be added as wanted. If I make it for the week's lunches (which is what I usually do), then I just add tomatoes and feta as I eat it so it doesn't get watery or mushy. I like grape tomatoes for this since its really easy to slice a few in half and throw them in. It will last for several days this way, just stir it well to mix the dressing back in.

And totally random note, but I was comparing the picture in this post to the last one I took of my tabbouleh in the second link, and you can see the vast improvement due to my new camera. Daddy-o surprised me with an SLR for mother's day this year and even though I still have so much to learn about using it, I've been loving the quality of my pictures the last couple weeks!

And final random note, don't forget to sign up for the giveaway before tomorrow night!

New Toys

This create-your-own-water-fun kit was one of the presents we got for Bean this year. I'd seen the idea in the Family Fun magazine, I think last summer, and really wanted to do it with the kids.

It's seriously fun to play with a bunch of pipes--we need to get more because I have some ideas of designs I'd like to try, and I think it would be fun to invite a bunch of our friends over to see what they can all come up with. But for now, we're getting a feel for how the water pressure changes and what combo's work together.

And we get to cool off at the same time--a VERY big bonus!

500!

I can't believe that this is my 500th post, but here we are, just a couple weeks short of the 3 year anniversary of the start of this blog!

And what better way of celebrating it than a long overdue crafty post. I haven't been doing much in the crafty realm lately, but in the spring, we did take on a few projects that I've been meaning to post.

First was our adventure with paper mache while Uncle D. was here. There is no way I would have been brave enough to try this on my own, but the kids had a good time getting messy (and we learned after the first day to do this in the driveway, rather than the kitchen.)And the finished product turned out so cute! This was supposed to be our pinata for Cinco de Mayo/Uncle D's birthday, but Bean couldn't stand the thought of smashing him to peices, so he's still hanging around. She keeps saying maybe for July 4th, but I have a feeling I should just find him a permanent home hanging from a ceiling somewhere.

And to follow the monkey theme, I made the kids breakfast placemats.These were supposed to inspire them to get themselves ready without so much interference by me, but inspite of the cute song Bugaboo made up to help him remember the list, I haven't seen much change. The fastest way to get them dressed is to hand them their swimsuits and tell them we're going to the pool. Too bad we don't usually do that until after naptime. And finally, I'd decided that I wanted to get better about our daily scripture reading. We'd originally started out our "school year" with a little morning devotional but that only lasted a few weeks. I recently heard a fun idea to get the whole family involved at whatever their level of reading and studying, so I made the kids and I each a Scripture Notebook (I just covered notebooks or for Bugaboo, a pad of drawing paper).

Now we try to read a story each morning, and Bean and I record the date, scripture reference and then a summary of what we read, or something we learned. She and Buggy can each draw a picture to go along with the story. It's been great reading practice for Bean (and she's learning to recognize some less than common words, like "goeth" and "thy", LOL ) and also makes sure we get in a little writing every day, no matter what else we do. And its good practice with the calendar. My goal is to get a good space set up in the playroom where we can do this near their wall calendar so it can all tie together better.

And what would a milestone be without a giveaway? So one random commenter will get a personalized notebook of your choice and a colored pencil roll (my new favorite writing storage--but I forgot to take a picture of the one I made the other day.) I'll contact you after for color preferences and notebook type. Just leave a comment by July 1st! I love writing, but of course its more fun when I know who's reading.

PS (For my foriegn readers, I love you, too, and will send it wherever :))

My New Favorite Breakfast

My kids are oatmeal addicts. They LOVE a big bowl of slow-cooking rolled oats sprinkled with brown sugar in the morning. For me, its kind of "eh". I'll eat it every now and then, but especially in the summer, when I've just gotten back from running in the nasty mugginess that is every morning these days, it doesn't sound very appealing.

But I found a way to fix that. I call it an oatmeal sundae, and it is just the right balance of warm and cool, sweet and nutty. There is oatmeal in that bowl, but its topped with blueberries, a dollop of plain greek yogurt, a little blue agave nectar (I love that it tastes like honey, but is runnier so it drizzles nicely), and a few walnuts. Now I feel like I get dessert for breakfast.

Little More Birthday Fun

The big day was spent going from one fun place to another. First up, Build-a-Bear. Both kids had been saving their money for this, and we had a couple great coupons sent to the birthday girl, so they each picked out their new pet (which were named Treasure and Build-a-Bear Build-a-Bear--isn't Bugaboo creative with his names, LOL!) and some clothes.Next stop, Taco Bell for a quick lunch to fuel us through Chuck E. Cheese. Once again, we'd been sent a coupon for a few free tokens for the birthday girl, and amazingly, they stretched 30 tokens into 1.5 hours of playtime. It was about an hour longer than I'd planned to spend, but they were having a great time.When I finally dragged them away, we had just enough time to run to the library for their summer afternoon program, and then it was home to get ready for dinner (tacos, picked by Bean) and presents.I think she liked the bike we got her. Now she just has to learn how to ride it--no training wheels.She also loved the gifts and cards everyone sent. Thanks, Uncle D and Rara and Grandma Linda and Grandpa Archie!

The Birthday Bean

6 years and . . .

reading,

planning her tree house,

constantly discovering new things around her,

creating her own dessert recipes,

dressing the dog up,

swimming underwater,

making her own bed,

making up games to play,

counting all 210 concrete sections between our house and the pool,

using her own email address,

making new friends everywhere she goes,

and keeping our lives exciting and spontaneous.

It was a sweet moment when we snuck into her room, at 10:34 p.m., to reminisce about the moment, 6 years ago, that she took her first look around this world, and then heard her daddy's voice and focused in on him with her wide-eyed stare. Hard to imagine our family without her--these last 6 years have been everything and more than we could have imagined! Sometimes we feel like we're just barely hanging on for the ride, but what a ride its been!

Happy Birthday, Bean!

Happy Father's Day!

I'm so grateful that my kids have such a great dad! We love you, Daddy-o!

A Little Fun in the Sun

Since Bean wanted to go to the beach for her birthday, and that wasn't going to be a possibility, we thought we'd bring the beach to her.

The sand castle cake was so much simpler than some other years' concoctions. And any time you get to cover the entire thing in crushed cookies, its a good thing. No worries about smooth frosting!

A few festive decorations inspired by our beach towels' colors, a few water toys in the backyard, a sand art craft, and we were set.

Bean was incredibly excited and grateful.

She just had three friends come over to play--neither one of my kids seem interested in the big birthday parties. And when I think back, I only remember having one of those myself. It's just a little too overwhelming.

But this group had a great time today. And sadly, this was the best picture I could get of the 5 of them. Sorry, A! The water balloons were a big hit. Even if they only last for a couple minutes.

Daddy-o got caught in the middle of all of it (one of the benefits of the being behind the camera--although with how hot it was, maybe I'm the one who missed out.)He was the favorite target by far. There were a few attempts at some version of surfing. Beach Boys playing in the background, sun and water. . . what more could you want?

I can't believe she's turing 6 in two days!

Baking Frenzy

The third weekend in June is always busy for us. Bean's birthday and Father's Day, as well as a couple of Bean's friends' birthdays means a lot of celebrating, and that means a lot of baking. I've been avoiding using the oven, so I figured as long as I had it on, I should just take care of everything in one moring. Two types of cake,

cookies for honoring the fathers at church,

croutons for our salad, as well as some toasted pecans for one of the cakes, and we were able to call it a day. Let the parties begin!

A Little Bit of History

We spent the day at the Schiele Natural History Museum with friends. We've been inside a couple different times, but the outside areas are only up and running in the summer, so this was our first visit to the farm and the Catawba Native American village. I think the most amazing thing to me was how much cooler it was inside some of these structures--if they really are built in an authentic fashion, then these people did a lot better insulating than I would have thought!

The kids had a great time running around (in spite of the 90+ degree weather), making up performances on the stage, throwing rocks in the pond, and generally being loud and crazy.

These two were SO sweaty by the time we finished up outside. But it didn't seem to slow them down.

And then there was the new pirate exhibit inside. So kid friendly--I think they could have stayed here all day.

Doesn't he make a great captain? Something I didn't know--pirates were actually some of the more democratic groups in the age of kings and queens. A lot of them elected their captain, and all agreed upon and signed the ship's rules.

A couple of modern day pirate queens.

Not sure I love who Bean is choosing to hang out with.

Random Question of the Night

Not sure exactly how this question came up tonight, but. . .

Would you rather die of starvation or eat your family's dog?

I'll leave it up to you to guess where we stand, but Daddy-o is sure that he has the reader's support, so we'd love to hear what you would do.

(P.S. We're not hungry. At all. And don't forsee that being an issue anytime soon. So the dog is in no way threatened.)

Dan Nichols Park

To celebrate the first day of summer vacation for the local schools (and all our friends from playgroup), we headed to Dan Nichols Park. It's the perfect place for kids--there's a carousel

a farmyard where you can pet the animals,

gem mining (and the kids LOVED their loot--they got some really pretty gems from their bucket of sand.)

and a spray ground, picnic areas, a small zoo, and a little train ride through the forest. And most of the activities are only $.50 or $1, so you can do as much or little as you want.

We had a great day with our friends and were totally wiped out by the afternoon. Summer is making these two kids sleep hard!