Garden Goodness

Finally - enough green beans to make a meal. Yum!

The Birthday Sleepover

Friday night, middle DD finally had the long ago promised birthday sleepover. Her actual birthday is in May, which winds up conflicting with spring sports as well as Mother's Day. But this sleepover wasn't just promised to her in May, it was promised to her LAST May. And no, we don't ignore or forget our children's birthdays. There is always a family celebration. But there isn't always a kids party. With four kids that's just too much to handle every year. So we aim to celebrate milestones. This party is officially in celebration of DD's 10th birthday, which was last year.

Middle DD enjoys crafts. Let me rephrase that, middle DD loves crafts, lives for crafting times, never wants to stop creating something. So her party was a big crafting party. This was great for her friend on the right, who also likes crafting. It wasn't so great for her friend on the left who really doesn't enjoy crafts all that much. First we started by making vests for their Webkinz. (The guests were asked to bring a favorite Webkinz and their American Girl Doll).

Next they crafted hot air balloons for their Webkinz. (These fit the little kinz better). They decorated paper lanterns with markers and strung plastic strawberry baskets from the bottom with yarn.

Then the birthday girl wanted to decorate cakes. I made individual cakes in star shaped foils and mixed up frosting with natural colors. Pink - strawberry juice, Yellow - Turmeric, White, Purple - blueberry juice.

I filled four decoraters bags with frosting and let them go to town. I demonstrated a few different techniques on my cake, but the frosting was rather soft and melty. Apparently the object was to see how much frosting you could get on your cake rather than what it looked like :o)

Here are the finished products. (Minutes before they got eaten).

Here are the girls with their finished crafts - vests, balloons and pom-pom animals. (More about those later).

After the cakes the girls got busy with their American Girl dolls. Time to experiment with different hair styles.

They put together pom-pom animals from some kits I found on clearance at Wal-Mart. These also looked cute riding around in the balloon baskets.

And DD got two new Webkinz for gifts.

By the next morning the curls had dried and the dolls were really stylin'.

An End of the Bounty from the Garden

Are you ready for this one? Here it is, my latest use of basil ...







Yep. That spaghetti and meatballs just would not be the same without that sprig of basil situated so perfectly on top.



What's that? Did I add basil to the sauce as it simmered on the stove? As if my kids are going to eat sauce with green chunks of anything in there. They were a bit revolted just by this sprig of basil on top. Of course, I probably could have chopped up basil and hidden it in the meatballs. Hmm, I didn't think of that.




And here is why last night's dinner featured such a massive bounty from the garden. This is all I could find today.




One zucchini, one yellow squash, five cherry tomatoes and seven green beans. What does one do with just seven green beans? The tomatoes have already been eaten. My youngest and oldest scarfed them up immediately. (Lets face it, I planted the cherry tomato bush just for the two of them).




My squash suddenly isn't doing so well. We've had a rainy spring, and now we've had a decent spell of sunshine - I forgot the garden needed water. Whoops.




The beans are growing really well. The bunnies are really appreciating them. We surrounded the garden with a two foot high fence of chicken wire. We chose just the right size for the bunnies to jump through and remain protected from our dog as she goes nuts barking at the bunnies. We obviously didn't choose that size for that reason. It was supposed to keep the bunnies out.




Oh well. The spices are doing well. And my tomato plants look promising. Maybe the squash will revive.

An Independence Day to Celebrate

We spent the fourth of July at my sister's. Since my parents were also there, my sister and I decided that this would be the best time to surprise Grandma for her 70th birthday. We knew that if we even thought about throwing a party she would disown us - so instead, we decorated her chair for the 4th of July parade and allowed hundreds of strangers to know that she was now 70 :o)

First we lined up our chairs along the parade route. Then I snuck over with the stuff hidden in a bag.

While others distracted Grandma, my sister and I tied the balloon to her chair and placed the hat on her head. Middle DD thought the whole thing was supremely hilarious.

Grandma was a good sport. I think Grandpa enjoyed embarrassing her as well :o)

A nice old-fashioned, home-town parade. Lots of candy, and not too many horses (which made deposits right in front of us). "Mom, why do horses have to be in the parade anyway? Eww!"

I got the headband at Target's dollar spot. I expected to see lots more, but only one float had them. You would think that lots of people would take pity on the girl with the broken arm and toss lots of candy at her - nope. Only one grandmotherly type noticed it and tossed candy, everyone else seemed mesmerized by the identical twins near us.

The cousins spent some time on the Wii.

(I'm not quite sure if even trucks and cars are as appealing to boys as video games.)

They also spent some time together at a local park in the afternoon.

Here they are, all seven of them.

Some went hiking and disappeared for a l-o-n-g time

- with my camera!

Broken arm? Hey! That sling is supposed to be supporting it!
It's not just there for decoration!

And fireworks that night. It was downright COLD on that field!

Pasta Primavera

I'm still using my garden produce in my meals. This is a pasta dish that doesn't involve any tomatoes - just fresh garden produce. The veggies can change depending on what you have on hand.

First I saute carrot strips in hot olive oil. (The carrots need to be started first because they require time to become soft.)

The carrots, by the way, did not come from my garden.


Next, add chicken stock. When I make chicken stock I freeze it. This was a container of about two - three cups. The extra liquid is okay, it will reduce somewhat as it simmers, but the pasta also absorbs liquid as it sits.
You may notice that I didn't need to thaw the stock before using.
Just toss it in the pot, it'll melt.

This lovely came from my garden.


To make zucchini strips use a vegetable peeler along the side.
(Toss the first strip of just skin). This gives nice thin ribbons of zucchini.
(This is also how I prepped the carrots).
Rotate the vegetable and use all the sides, this avoids really wide ribbons.


Fresh basil from my garden.

At this point the carrots are tender and you've got the pasta boiling away in another pot. During the last five minutes of cooking toss in the zucchini. Toss in the basil during the last two minutes so it just wilts nicely. Add salt and toss it all together with the drained pasta. (I used ziti this time, the shape is up to you.)

A sprinkling of Parmesan and you've got a meal.

And yes, all of my kids eat this. My youngest doesn't recognize the "pickles".

Family Time

Family get togethers. Here's what ours look like.

A cousin of my parents moved away and came back for a visit.

Thus the reason for the family gathering.

Most of the time we sit around talking.

And talking.

and talking.

And horseshoes?

Yep. Gotta play horseshoes.

Three generations. That's what family gatherings are all about.

Everyone talking, catching up on everything going on in each other's lives.

Oh, and food. What happened to the food? Oh yeah, I was eating, I put the camera down.

Aww, the newlyweds.

The youngest generations is all about playing.

Some wise parent brought balloons and an air pump.

A balloon got stuck on the roof.

Here's a good example of the cousins all playing together.

(The little one was either pretending to sleep, playing dead or throwing a tantrum, I don't remember which).

Also notice youngest DD's reliance on the sling for her broken arm. It's nice to be young.

Then we lit sparklers for all the young ones.

Youngest DD immediately realized she could make shapes.

Mesmerized.

Okay, this is fun. But I wanna catch more lightening bugs.

Small circles. Lets not catch that grass on fire.
(Good thing most of the relatives were firemen.)

Wow! (Scribble, scribble, scribble,) Wow!

Okay, lets hold this thing as far away from my body as possible.

Hmm, I think I could write something with this!

Ohh! How did he make that spark jump like that? Supremely cool!

Love ya!