I Did It!

I'm not a chef.  My SIL is.  I'm not.  I enjoy cooking.  By following a recipe.  I'm very good at following recipes.  And planning menus (as long as I have time and it's not the night before grocery shopping.  I'm not a good last minute planner).  Except since we've started doing Bountiful Baskets.  'Cause you never know what you're going to get, so it's really hard to plan around.  But it's a super deal and we are trying yummy new foods (artichoke, anyone?  On a quick tangent here, my kiddos, aged 4 and 2, pretty much ate an entire artichoke themselves tonight at dinner.  I had 4 leaves [is that what you call them?] and DH had 3.  The rest was devoured by the kiddos).  And not so yummy foods (jicama.  'Nuff said).  Anywho, this past Saturday I volunteered and was in charge of divying out the "extras".  I mentioned to the Volunteer Site Coordinator that I had almost ordered the tortillas (some crazy number of them, flour and corn, different sizes) but hadn't and asked her if she liked them.  She said they were very good and offered to let me try one.  So I said sure.  And she gave me an entire bag of burrito size flour tortillas.  What a nice lady!  However, they weren't in my menu, and I'd already done my shopping.  They needed to be used, so I looked online for burrito recipes.  I didn't have all the ingredients for any of the recipes that I found.  So, I MADE UP MY OWN RECIPE!!!  I've never done that before.  I'm calling them, Mama's Own Burritos.  They turned out yummy and DH was impressed when I told him I'd made it up myself.

These aren't my burritos.  They are some of our gorgeous tulips.  I just couldn't do two posts in a row without a picture!

Just a Funny

"N" and "A" and I were in the girls room while DH was giving "J" her bath.  We started playing peek-a-book with ourselves in the girls' mirror.  "A" really got into, peeking through his fingers at himself, then saying, "peek-a-boo!" and laughing a big belly laugh!  Have you played "Peek-a-boo" with yourself lately?

The Yard

I know these are really poor pictures.  But one of my camera lens' is broken - the one that would take this picture clearly.  And my other lens is a telephoto, so I'd have to be a block away to get a picture, and then houses would be in the way, so you still wouldn't be able to see it.

IT'S OUR FENCE!!!!  And a wall in our carport.  We love it!  The kiddos can go outside (and come in and go out and come in and go out and come in and go out...) anytime they want (when it's good weather).  They don't have to wait for my work to be done.  "A" can't play in the street.  "N" can't ride her bike on the sidewalk (in truth, she's very good and careful), but she has a patio to ride on anytime (except that she has wasp-phobia.  And they've begun to show themselves.  She's seen them around her bike a couple of times and now is afraid of her bike because there might be a wasp near it).

This is our orchard - 3 apple trees, 2 cherry trees, 1 plum tree, 1 apricot, and 1 pear tree.  We're going to get another pear tree.  Can't you just taste the fruit?  Visit us in 3-5 years.  Then you'll be able to taste it!

Here They Are!

Except for A's.  I'm not sure where it went.  It's green.

 J's is on the left.  It's significantly larger than N's.  (A's is in between these two sizes.)  The bigger they are, the easier it is to turn them into...

Eggs!

Easter

I crocheted peeps for the kiddos.  They are so cute (the peeps.  And the kiddos).  I forgot to take a picture.  But I will take one.  Because they make me happy.  And I'm happy to know that there are fun things to crochet!  This one project taught me at least 5 new stitches/ways to stitch.  Wow!  So instead of peeps, you can see my flowers. 

Feeding the Birds

We drove to a park today in order to feed ducks.  The first park's pond was being re-done, so there were no ducks.  The second park had ducks, but even more gulls and geese and pigeons.  We fed them all!  2 bags of bread (thank you, Hostess Outlet!).  Actually, one bag had been planned for French Toast next week, but when the bird's bag was gone, the kidlets were far from finished.  So, I sacrificed my French Toast.  One of the kidlets threw this amazing piece.  The goose didn't even know about it.

 But I'm pretty sure the gull did.  I can just imagine him back there, plotting on the best way to get the bread without getting pecked by the goose.  

Okay, not really, but it would make for a fun story.

*for the sake of honesty, I didn't take either of these pictures.  DH did.  

A Wonderment

 I wonder why I let, and even encourage, my children to pick these little critters up, and why I scream and kill spiders?  Aren't they both bugs?  And am I not a thousand times bigger than a spider?

We were outside today, and N* pointed out a spider crawling on the patio, which was quickly killed.  Not 5 minutes later, this cute roly-poly came crawling along, in nearly the same location as the spider, and we oohed and aahed over him.  I even called A* over to join us!  N* is still a little nervous around bugs - and I can only blame myself.  I am not a bug lover.  But roly-polies?  Ladybugs?  No problem.  A* had a fun time with the "ball bug", until the little guy started walking on A*'s hand.  The bug was quickly dropped.  And then retrieved.  And then dropped and then retrieved....  

A Fence

It's not in yet.  But we're getting one. They'll be here in about 2 weeks (the people who are going to put it in for us).  HALLELUJAH!!!  A has a habit of thinking the road is a playground.  N thinks that the sidewalk is the best place to learn how to ride a bike.  Who'd've thunk, 10 years ago, that I could be so excited for a fence?!?


Now, do you wanna see some pictures I took today?  They're of SNOW.  Because it snowed ALL DAY.  In APRIL.  On Friday, I was pretty sure Spring was here to stay.  I was QUITE wrong.  But the snow made for some fun photography.

The snow also renewed my desire for a macro lens.  {sigh}

Our New...

VACUUM!!!  Our old vacuum just wasn't cutting it anymore.   After 5 moves, it probably deserves a break.  And J needs to have a clean floor (we all do, but the rest of us are old enough not to put every little thing we see into our mouths).  Our new vacuum?  WOW! It picks up EVERYTHING!  It's a breeze to push (it almost pushes itself!).  We won't be stepping on pine needles (left over from our Christmas tree and hidden in the carpet.  And I have vacuumed since Christmas, many times) anymore!  Besides which, I love the color!  N really wanted the purple vacuum.  A just wanted to leave the store (too much noise).  Until we found the toy table, and then he didn't want to leave the store.

Sunflower Seeds

 I started a spring sensory bin for my kiddos.  I used sunflower seeds for the filler and had a TON left.  So, not wanting to it to go to waste, I bought a bird feeder last Saturday.  We immediately hung it up and the kiddos watched for birds.  I explained to them that it would take a while for the birds to know that we have food for them.  Today, they came!  I don't know what kind they are, but the male (?) has a touch of red on his head and chest.  The female (?) is all brown.  At one point, there were 4 of them in our tree!  Hooray for sunflower seeds!