Tea... A Drink With Jam and Bread

In the spirit of sharing our lives with great friends and giving back, my girlfriends and I hosted our first annual ladies tea.  Our goals were simple, to celebrate and connect with the ladies in each others lives and to be able to give a little back to the wider world in areas that are impacting members of our group.  Our inspiration for this was the memory of Misty's bridal shower tea and what a fantastic time we had.

April 2010 - Misty's Bridal Shower Tea

We spent a lovely afternoon at the Village Eatery and Tea Company located in the Country Village near my house.  It was so relaxing to sit back and enjoy a wonderful tea service with just the ladies and to catch up with some of the mothers who I hadn't seen in a while.

I was lucky enough to have both Grandma Mary's join me for the tea!

Tea attire made it all the more fun.

These two fancy ladies only had one set of gloves between them but somehow pulled it off.

The young fancy ladies.

Lovely tea ladies.

It was an afternoon spent in good company, just how I imagine attending a tea party should be.  We had some good laughs and made some memories and raised some money to donate to this years cause which is ovarian cancer which has impacted several in our group.  Looking forward to next year's event.

Magnificent Mother's Day

It was my day and it was perfect.  This year for Mother's Day we stuck with our usual tradition and headed out to take the ferry over to Whidbey Island and have a great meal at Ivar's.  I love having traditions like this with the family so we can compare each years details and improve on it.  We have typically eaten at Ivar's after our ferry ride but by the time I tried to make a reservation they only had one slot at 9 am.  So minor adjustment and we ate breakfast instead of lunch which actually worked out perfect because the kids love pancakes.  We also brought our kites since McKenzie asks to fly her kite constantly at home where we don't have enough wind or open space so I figured we'd give them a try on the beach.

Starting our day out with the Ivar's big fish.  We also go to look through the hatch they have in the floor down to the water and rocks under the dock.

Two out of three looking at the camera is as good as it gets these days, but I'll take it when all three have smiles on their faces.

 We had the perfect amount of wind for flying our kites.  The kids were amazed that they didn't have to run to keep them up in the air.  That is the only way they have seen kites fly until now.  McKenzie was one happy girl.

 Ben's kite soaring up to the sun.  It was a wild kite and also went swimming in the water.

Adding some accessories to a driftwood structure they found on the beach and claimed as their home.

Our annual family picture attempt - always a favorite of mine!

Matt training the seagulls or maybe they were training him.  Either way the kids think Daddy is amazing.

After naps the kids rounded out a perfect Mother's Day by testing out our sprinkler collection.  And what better time to wear goggles than in the sprinkler.  I am so lucky to get to be Mommy to these two kids.  They fill my heart up every day.

Ode To Pinterest

As a mom, a wife, an employee, and an individual there just isn't enough time in the day to keep up with it all and make every occasion special for the kids.  Thankfully there is Pinterest to save the day with great ideas that I can easily copy and adapt to fit our needs.  My most recent occasion to seek help was Teacher Appreciation Week for the kids' teachers at school.  We received a listing of ideas from the PSA group on how we could recognize the teachers but the kids get very little satisfaction out of buying their teachers a Starbucks gift card.  They love to make things and create so I hopped on Pinterest and gathered my supplies for a great art project gift.

We created these little dynamite bombs out of three Rolo packs and some scrapbook supplies I had in my office.  They kids loved it and so did their teachers - win / win for this Mom.  Looking forward to many more crafty projects with the kids as they grow.

Ready, Set, Grow!

Operation Garden 2012 is underway, we officially planted on May 6th this year starting mostly from nursery plants like we did last year.  Taking into account some of the lessons I learned last year from my over planting issues we put in far fewer types of plants this year.

Here's a list of what we're growing for 2012:

• Tomatoes - one small beefsteak variety, one Early Girl and three Sun Gold
• Peppers - red pepper
• Zucchini - yes I do eat them!
• Pumpkins - these were from seed like last year
• Broccoli
• Cali-flower
• Brussels Sprouts - no idea why but they seemed interesting 
• Chives
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Thyme
• Yellow Onions
• Cabbage
• Leaf Lettuce
• Peas
• Carrots
• Radishes 
• Sweet Pea Flowers - my favorite
• Pole beans - ** still need to plant these

I took into account plant size and the sun angle this year so everything besides the chives which actually survived the winter in the garden are in new locations this year.  The kids were so excited to help get the garden ready and plant everything.  

The garden with it's winter cover of leaves

30 minutes later the kids were mixing in some new dirt

Later that afternoon everything is planted and ready to grow!

The red covers on the tomatoes and pepper plants came recommended from the nursery as a great way to give them a warmer start despite our cool conditions for late Spring.  So far they look happy and healthy in their covers.  The tomatoes were at the other end of the garden last year but I felt they shaded the other plants too much.  I also had them in two rows of three last year which made harvesting and maintaining the bushes a bit difficult so they are in an 'L' this year with the zucchini and pumpkins in front of them. 

The other big change is pea / bean / sweet pea netting that I put up.  It's hard to see in the picture but there is  a five foot net on the bamboo poles that the plants can climb up.  I didn't provide anything for these plants to climb last year until it was very obvious that they needed something and then they preformed poorly.  

Looking forward to seeing what this years garden will teach us.  Last years garden sure taught me a thing or two.

Secret Agent Man

Last year I posted a picture of McKenzie is these same glasses and talked about her special sparkle that makes her who she is.  Ben has a special sparkle too but he's very selective about when he shows it off.  He tends to be much quieter than McKenzie and observes things waiting to deliver a funny punch to the conversation.  The average person meeting Ben might think he's quiet and shy but get to know him and you'll know he's secretly plotting some sort of plan behind those glasses.  There's going to be some wild times keeping up with this guy!

Sew Fantastic Weekend

The end of April marked our annual trip to Chelan to visit Grandma and Grandpa C to sew the Thanksgiving table cloth.  This year Aunt Diane, Aunt Wendy and cousin Dawna were able to come join in the fun.  It was just a girls weekend so Ben stayed at home with Daddy and Kenzie and I headed out on a beautiful sunny Friday.  McKenzie was a great companion on the road, I thought she might be bored without Ben but she didn't even watch any shows she just wanted to pick out songs on the stereo and talk.


Friday was also a big day in McKenzie's life because she got her cast off her arm.  How ironic that we would go to Grandma and Grandpa C's four weeks to the day after she first jumped off the bunk bed.  She was very glad to have the cast off but her arm was very dry and itchy from being in the cast. She also didn't want to use her arm at all.  Nothing some lotion and motivational speaking couldn't help.  When McKenzie woke up on Saturday morning she told me she talked with her arm and told it to stop being lazy.  It must have listened because before breakfast she was lifting weights with Grandma.

We got started on the table cloth on Friday night and were able to finish up by mid morning on Saturday.  It was our quickest year yet but we have decided we need to recruit harder for people to write on the table cloth this year to ensure everyone is represented.

Aunt Diane, Dawna and Aunt Wendy slaving away.

Once the sewing was done we were free to enjoy the day and so we headed downtown Chelan to shop.  I usually don't go downtown shopping when I visit because taking both kids into stores with lots of knick knacks is not a good plan so this was a real treat for me.  McKenzie loved it too, you could tell I rarely take her in stores though, she wanted everything she saw.  I did let her pick out one thing and she thought about all the wonderful things she had seen and decided on a baby doll from the bookstore.  She would have bought this pink wheelbarrow had she thought she had any chance of convincing me she needed it.  It was pretty cute when she was in it!

McKenzie pretending she is auditioning for a role in the next Heidi movie.  She was picking balsamroot flowers on the hillside behind the house looking so adorable.

We had breakfast out at Blueberry Hill Farms on Sunday morning - always a favorite.  Who doesn't love a whip cream smiley face?

McKenzie with Grandma C and her sisters, Diane and Wendy.  We are so lucky to have so many great aunties in our lives!

Beautiful flowering tree with my favorite big sky in the the background.  Absolutely a perfect picture of Spring.

Score One For The Bucket List

Seeing the tulip fields in bloom has been on my unofficial bucket list forever but it has jumped up on the list since having kids.  Every year I think about heading to Skagit Valley to see the tulip fields, unfortunately I usually think about it in May when the tulips have already finished blooming.  This year I was determined and did my research early to ensure I wouldn't miss out.  After rescheduling several times and losing the majority of our tulip party we lucked out and picked a beautiful day to visit the fields.  It ended up being just the kids, our friend Kim and me joining literally hundreds of other people seeking a view of the tulips.

When we were planning the trip, Kim asked me what time I thought we'd be home since she had another event that evening.  She imagined spending the entire day visiting the fields.  I don't even like to imagine what that would have been like with the kids.  I assured her I planned to be home after lunch in time for naps.  She also thought we'd perhaps visit more than one field.  Again I assured her one would be more than enough and by the end of the visit she was more than happy to agree. Children can only be entertained by looking but not touching flowers for so long.

The pictures can't do justice to how massive the tulip fields are.   

We had two different locations scoped out based on their recommendations of being child friendly. We ended up seeing the signs to Roozengaarde first and headed there.  They had every imaginable type and color of tulip and had a beautiful walking path that took you through all their different varieties.  The kids loved picking out their favorite... and then their new favorite... and ... .

The kids wondered what this weird building was.  I guess they had never seen a windmill before

I guess tulips don't smell as good as they look!

I asked the kids on the way up to the fields what colors of tulips they wanted to see and Kenzie named all sorts of appropriate tulip colors but Ben only named blue.  He wanted to see blue tulips and kept asking where the blue ones were.  Luckily someone at Roozengaarde must have met a little boy like Ben before and planted some rouge flowers that were blue.

Ben's favorite blue 'tulips'

I asked Ben to stand by the tulips for a picture and he instantly did this... perhaps I take too many pictures!

The kids got a little wild when we got out into the fields where you aren't allowed to walk among the flowers.  You have to stay on the main paths and all the fresh air seemed to go to their heads all at once.  They were a bit wild in the fields and caused some trouble.  Ben was jumping over the puddles in the path and jumped too far and slipped into another puddle but he got up and kept walking because he knew better than to complain about wet clothes after I had just asked him to slow down.  This picture sums up the wildness that took over in the tulip field.

Love her wild shadow, it looks like it is trying to get away from her.  

We had the kids run down this long path between two daffodil fields to burn off some of their energy.  It was an amazingly beautiful day for being outside.

And with every item that moves off the bucket list another one seems to appear.  Taking the place of visiting the tulip fields is getting a good picture with the kids in front of the tulip field.  There's always next year!

Smile!  Please?