Meet me in St. Louis

Off to the city we go.

Arches and weddings await us.

Happy Thursday…

I am off to a Volunteer Brunch that I got a personal invitation to. Can I just say, I love having children, & a wonderful school for them to be in!

It is wonderful when you truly enjoy the people around your ‘community’. It makes ‘volunteering’ actually fun with friends.

Home.

When I was a young teenager I remember telling everyone who would listen: ‘Once I am an adult I am moving out of poe-dunk USA Midwest, I am going to the city’. Now although I have not moved to the city, I did move about Three Hundred miles away. I also remember my father telling me upon hearing this: ‘One day you will appreciate your hometown and grow to love it.’ Then he made a comment about me missing it if I really did go to a city. Now that I am no longer that mouthy teenager, I am beginning to realize that Father Indeed Knows Best!

Now like I said, I am not a city girl, and I am still surrounded by farm land 360, but I do…

long for my hometown,

miss my home county,

When I drive that long 300 miles, I am transported back in time. I see the things that hold such strong memories for me. In fact, now that I have a decent camera, I want to pull over every few miles, to capture every. single. one. of. those. memories.

Here are a few:

 

Sometimes just looking at a picture can open the flood gates on memories, guess that is why they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Having girls

Can I just take a minute to express how much I love having two little girls?! I love the fact that they get excited to watch “Cupcake Wars” with me… I love that my little one asks when “Sweet Genius” is going to be on. I just love the fact that I have prissy little girls that love to get excited about the same things that excite me!

This Tree!

I hyper colored this picture to give you my view point of this tree!

I am in. love. with. this. tree!

Can someone out there in the blog world tell me what kind of tree it is? I seriously want one for my yard.

Shrimp Tacos!

A couple days back, I was tootilin’ about my garden, & picked just a few pieces of lettuce. As I was walking back into the house, I spotted my cilantro, and picked a bit of that as well.

Thinking, thinking, thinking… what’s for super? hmmm Opened the freezer, and the shrimp smacked me in the face. This got me thinking about a post the other day from a friend, Cheesecake Factory: Shrimp Tacos!

Absolutely. I found what sounded close enough for me over here. I had all the ingredients listed, besides limes, but I did have lime juice, so I dove in.

They tasted wonderful, especially knowing that my shrimp were from Whole Foods, and not farm raised. It was also satisfying that the greens were from my garden.

I believe that the only thing that would have made them taste any better? A margarita would have finished it off, of course!

More baby arrivals

Here are the centerpieces for the other baby shower I went to. I really wish I would have taken pictures of all the diaper cakes. Every single one of them were different. The one I was sitting in front of, there were two ‘NUK’ food-mesh-spoons crisscrossed on the top. Again, wish I would have taken pictures. I was running around visiting with family, and didn’t have the camera enough. But, the point is, all of them were very cute.

Mother’s Day 2013

Did everyone have a wonderful Mother’s Day?

I believe every year with my girls gets better and better! Being a mom is so wonderful, but it seems as they get older it gets better. <3

We went to Whole Foods for a free coffee, flower, & mini pastries. It was lovely, and while we walked about, they had beautiful bouquets in Mason jars, & I had to have one! So I came home, pulled out one of my Mason jars, and started to walk the perimeter of my house. I feel like I came up with a good combo, don’t you? I wanted to put a yellow tiger lilly in there too, but held back. My husband came home later and brought me some white roses too. I love it!

Varner’s Greenhouse

I know when you think greenhouse it conjures up images like this…

Or like this one…

But.. how about this?

Maybe this in a tropical area, but in Indiana?

Fresh Pineapple anyone? I wish this would grow in my backyard!

I have saved the best for last, however. This is the reason I go to Varners…

 

These beauties are my beautiful girl’s favorite. They are so pretty!

We have Asparagus!

Last year I planted asparagus, & the package says two to four years till harvest. So imagine my surprise when I was seeing little thin sprigs already year one.

So on Thursday, when I came home from work, I saw this, plus a couple more like it. WooHoo!

On Friday when coming home from work, I had all of these! I know it isn’t a lot, but I have them in a jar of water, awaiting a few more. I think I should have them within a few more days, which really makes me happy.

Getting my hands dirty

Bet you’d never guess what I been doing all weekend?!

I know I mentioned that I might not be doing a garden this year because of Europe… but I’m crazy like that I guess.

My thinking is that if I promise someone my harvest for that three weeks, they will come water for that time. What do you think? Even enough trade?

Daydreaming the Day Away

When I was a little girl, I had it in my head that it would just be amazing if I had a window seat. I am not sure what triggered this want/need in my young self, but it was merely a wish. When I was nine-ish we moved to an older home that had windows that nearly touched the floors, and my room was upstairs, facing the street. When it was nearing, but not quite summer, we changed our clocks so it was still dusk at bedtime. I would sit in front of those windows and watch the older kids play in the street for another half hour or so. This was as close as I came to stargazing from my totally awesome but not real window seat.

Fast forward about 20 plus –ish years…my older daughter was upstairs for quite the while the other day, I called up “what ya doin punkin?” She replied “Oh just lookin out the window.” A big smile passed my lips. Then she said “Did you know there was a bird in my tree?”

You see this is what she gets to look out her window to see.. her bed just ends at the window. A flood of memories raced to me as I took this picture on her faux-window seat.

Cinnamons

I got my Food Network magazine last Wednesday, and when my oldest caught a glimpse of the cover it was on!

“Mommy, please can you make those cinnamon rolls for breakfast?”

Without a thought in my my head I made the biggest mistake a mother can make while having a convo with her children…

“Maybe this weekend honey”

oops! I will blame it on my 1200 calorie diet I’ve been trying to keep up for 2 months now. My brain hasn’t had enough nutrition lately!

Fast forward to Friday evening, when I came home from work. I mixed and mixed, and turned and buttered and wrapped. In the fridge till morning!

This is the point where it was starting to pay off for me. The house smelled delish, and my family was super happy as I pulled it out of the oven.

I snapped one last picture for you, and threw my “not-gonna-be-fat-in-Europe-diet” out the window. I was super pumped at this point: iced coffee & cinnamon rolls.

First bite was eh… yes all that work and eh. If I was going to put all that time in, I really should have stuck with the Cinnabon knockoff that is splashed all over the internet.

It does make for pretty pictures though, right?!

Artwalk (part 2)

As promised, here is the other half of the artwalk. These are from all the other grades, so will not include any art works from my munchkin.

I realize there are a lot of pictures here, so you can’t really see the detail, but every. single. one. is holding a child. So sweet! Reminded me of why exactly I was there.

I guess I should be embarrassed that I do not know who she is?! The kids works of art were amazing though!

This was Alisa’s favorite one however. Isn’t it pretty? The middle was tissue paper. I was thinking this would be a nice craft for her & her sister on a rainy afternoon.

This was the one that I wanted to attempt. I would have never thought to try to recreate my version, but I absolutely love these! So bright & colorful to brighten up a space.

Picasso! I was pleasantly surprised at how very awesome these 4th graders did on these!

Here is another project I was thinking would be loads of fun for our family. I had to get all of them in, so here is another picture of them…

What do you think? I love the third one over from the left, top row… reminds me of Paris for some reason????

This one was my husbands favorite. I pointed out the Notre Dame one, but he said it was actually the entire collection together that he liked. I concur.

Art Walk (part 1)

You know when I posted about t.v. turnoff week, and I told you that the part I was most excited for was Artwalk? I took loads of pictures to share with you, in fact enough that I am dividing it into two posts.

As we walked in there was a table with programs, just like an art gallery. As I said before, we tapped all walls with colored paper, so that it gave that professional look. ;)

We started off in the Kindergarten hall, and the first display was this. Most, but not all, displays had three main components: the kids artwork (of course), a “artists poster” that they were aim-ish for, & an art piece from one of the school districts art teachers, which tied it all together. Forgive me, but I do not know the artist of these pieces, nor did I get what was going on till half way through.

Here is my lil punkin’s art piece for this one. Love, cupcakes, rainbows, & chocolates. YUM

This was the cave that the art teacher made for this display. Is it not the cutest thing?

This artwalk was made up of things projects that the kids had done ahead of time, though out the year. This project I went to help with, when they did it. It was called “cave art”, the idea was to replicate a ‘cave wall drawing’. We used a paper bag and crumbled it all up so that we could re-flatten it to give it the effect. Then we used only the colors that they would have had access to. It was lots of fun.

Here is my babies version of ‘cave art’. Don’t you love the bear? So cute!

Last but not least, in the Kindergarten hall, my munchkin’s version of her “Rainbow Fish”. I was super proud of this one because it was not her usual pink, pink. & more pink!

All the other grades in the next post. Other grades are just some of my favorite displays. I have some Monet & Picasso for you!

Garden of 2013 has begun

Here it is the end-ish of April and it is snowy/rain mix outside my windows, so I am focusing on the positive!

Here are the pictures I took of my garden this weekend. It is now in bloom, although I pray it’s not all getting frost bit as I type :/

   

    

    

            

    

Who needs T.V. when you have PTO?

WOW guys! This week went by so flippin fast. I don’t want to down play either of the tragic events this week, but our household had a great week!

Here’s how: NO TV WEEK

Our PTO planned something every single night for us. We were unable to go on Monday, but it was family game night. Tuesday we had Dinner with the stars: the local astronomical society came and spoke to us about space. We made comets with paper plates, and my daughters favorite.. The Dry Ice Comets! Wednesday we had our Art walk: post to come, & a play from the 4th and 5th graders, called the ‘granny awards’. Then Thursday we had a cookie and create event. Our art teachers came to help the kids paint their very own canvas! That was my oldest favorite by far.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I was very concerned at this idea of my girls not having the boob tube to calm them down…. Or mommy should say make them stop fighting. What I quickly realized however is there was more laughter and less yelling. No one was trying to ‘out loud the television’ for a change. Background noise just adds to the chaos in ones home. So lesson learned, time to get that thing turned off! This shouldn’t be hard to do, the sun will be coming out to play soon (I hope).

My Dream Garden

I normally do not like to use pictures that are not mine, or that I can not give photo credits to, but I am in LOVE with this garden!

Would anyone out there like to dig my backyard for me? I can’t believe how amazing the detail is on this garden! I think I have a section that I could recreate something similar, but how do I keep those darn bunnies away from something like this?! I also have been contemplating how much I want to do in my garden this year. If I am going to Europe for three weeks, how much attention is a garden going to get? hmmmm…