What a wonderful day for a birthday! Yes, today is my 31 birthday, can you believe it? I, myself, cannot. I am now "in my 30's". Oh my goodness, time flies. Well, I couldn't have asked for a better day. I slept in and stayed in my jammies all morning (okay the jammy thing is an everyday occurance:)) got to go shopping and take a very small nap, read one of my favorite books - Twilight - and then I went on a date with my cute hubby. We went to see "Love Happens" the movie and then went to my favorite restaurant, which happens to be Blimpe, for dinner. I ate my favorite sandwich, had my favorite chips, and then ate my favorite frosted sugar cookie* (*see "things I love" on the left side of this blog). What a fun time. After we got home I went to get us all shakes - I got a fresh peach one - to end the day. My cute kids and hubby got me some fun gifts too. Some halloween socks, a magazine, and MAMA MIA the movie. I just love my birthday. Now we're off to watch MAMA MIA. Goodnight!
I am feeling so domestic today and I am excited about it! For the first time ever I canned something. And it worked, YEAH! Peaches and Pears were my fruit of choice, and my mom came and "helped" (meaning she did most of it:), but I was there too putting peaches in jars and filling them with the sugar juice stuff. What a fun thing. I was not at all excited about learning to can things, but it really was fun and so rewarding. At the end you have this finished product that is something that you made that is beautiful and yummy and can't talk back to you and call you "the worst mom ever!!!" It just is there to be admired and devoured. Thanks mom. I love you.
We have a butterfly!!! Meet Sarah the butterfly. The crysillas turned black this morning before church and by the time we got back it was a butterfly with dry wings trying to get out of the bottle. So here we are letting her go. She flew right to Kira's window - we think she was saying goodbye:) - and then she flew off into the sun. What a beautiful sight. Kira is a little sad now because her butterfly is gone, but we have assured her that we will get another one next year. Goodbye Butterfly!
I thought I'd update on Sarah the catepillar. We saw her hang in a "J" shape like the top picture and then she started to make her chrysillas (sp). Now she looks like the bottom picture. What an amazing miracle to watch this process happen. The kids have also loved it and can't wait until it turns black and then into a butterfly.
Today was Kate's first visit to the dentist and she did SO GOOD. She just opened her mouth and let them do their thing ... and.... she didn't have any cavities!! I was so happy, considering that Kira has had more cavities than I can count. I don't know what the difference is because we brush and floss their teeth the same amount and I KNOW that Kate eats more sugar than Kira. Wierd. But anyway, I am so proud of Kate and the good girl that she is. Now if we could just get her potty trained:).
Well, Peach Days are over but we had so much fun at them. We went to the parade yesterday morning and it was SO LONG - as long as the Days of 47 Parade - but the best part was Bryce's cute wave to every float that went by. He just sat there waving and I was eating it up. He also loved the candy and would get out with all of the big kids to pick it up off of the street. What fun. We also had more Peach Cobbler and Perry Ice, but the BEST part of the day was when Bryce got to go on the Merry Go Round. His smile was bigger than his face and every time he would see us as he went around he would just laugh and laugh - of course I didn't have my camera for that - I could just die that I missed that photo op. Oh well, we had so much fun. Thanks Peach Days.
Okay, I now know what put the "Peach" in Peach days here is Brigham. It is the delicious, fabulously famous peach cobbler. Of all the things I could blog about Peach days -- the carosel and other rides, the kids parade, the booths full of fun things to buy, the peaches on every rode side stand, even the perry ice -- my very favorite thing has to be the peach cobbler. It was so rich and tasty that I couldn't even finish the last bite...rich, creamy (because there was vanilla ice cream melted into it), peachy, cakey, with a touch of cinnamon on top...oh the yumminess! Too bad I didn't have my camera to show you my new found love:)
Meet Sarah the catepillar! Can you see her there on the leaf? What a beauty! One of my favorite things to do at the beginning of each school year when I was growing up, was going with my family to find monarch catepillars on the side of a country road and then bringing them home to watch them grow and turn into butterflies. My dad is such a nature person and loved to show us all about the wonder of nature with this experience. Each year we would also take one to school so that our class could watch the wonder of a catepillar change into a butterfly. What a fun tradition to pass on to my own kids. This weekend at the cabin my dad took Kira to go and find catepillars. They found this one and Kira named her Sarah. I am so excited to keep the tradition alive, and so is Kira:)
Well we're back and what a very fun weekend we had. Sleeping over at the cabin with grandpa and grandma, yummy food all weekend long - including grandma Jane's famous chocolate chip cookies, new toys for the kids to play with - barbies for the girls and a little garden set for Bryce (but he liked the barbie hair brushes the best:)), bear noises outside at night and a momma and baby deer walking past the window this morning, hummingbirds, camp fires and roasted marshmallows, movies and pajamas all day, hiking and a beautiful scenic drive to see the red koakanie salmon fish at Strawberry. Thank you to grandma and grandpa for a wonderful Labor Day Weekend! We loved it! (This picture is at Strawberry Res. looking at the fish and Bryce was LOVING walking with Grandma).
YUMMY! Can you smell the deliciousness! (sorry the pic is blurry:) After a LONG LONG week of Dave being gone to work A LOT and us all getting used to bus riding and school going, the kids "made" me make cookies for a fun treat. They were just the thing to start the weekend. We are also getting away and going on vacation this weekend so I'll see you next week.
I was in the house cleaning it up for the ump - teenth time today when I looked outside and found my cute Kira and her friend building this fort. Those were the days weren't they - coming home from school and playing with your friends for hours, not worried about anything except what you will have for an after school snack and who gets the best side of the fort. Enjoying the fresh air and the green grass and just letting your imagination take you away into whatever adventure you can think of. I miss those days when responsibilties were less and relaxing was more...funny thing is, I wouldn't trade those days for what I have now (most days:)) because even though I am always cleaning and picking up toys and never getting any time to myself, I love watching my own kids enjoy this time in their lives when they have no worries and are able to be themselves. It's so fun to watch them learn and grow. I just love them.
I just got home from watching the movie Julie and Julia. What a great idea. I loved the concept behind this movie and, even though it was really long and slow moving in some parts, I thought it was inspirational and I'll tell you why. Here are two women that want to do better, be better, and make something of their lives, and after searching they find something they love and they follow it. That just speaks to me. I don't know about you, but I feel that way every day. I want to find the thing that makes my heart sing and follow it. I think that we can do that in all sorts of ways and for me it is not in cooking, but in creating things. I love to create. So for me, it is finding that thing each day that I can put myself into and make better. What is it for you? What makes you feel alive? I love that we can rediscover ourselves everyday and do the things that help us to become that person that we know we can be. What a great thought to end the day. Goodnight:)
