blowing bubbles

there a many reasons i love this photo below. mostly, because it looks like she's sewing a button. she is pretty crafty and clever, but sewing a button she has not done. here she is picking out something else to wear. yes, we are full blown into changing outfits throughout the day. usually it's a pick from her closet. which is not child-friendly. the bar is high. but most of all, i have not weeded out her too small clothes, and she always ends up picking something in the 6-12 month range. yep, i'm lazy like that with clothes. but i must tackle this project because it's driving me a little nutty.


this is kind of a random, all-over-the-place-post. but all these photos were within a couple hours. so i guess you could say it's 'an afternoon in the life of this family.'

apparently it takes two people to measure how tall mama is. love the measuring gloves. i was really happy i had the camera in my hand when they did the measuring.

swinging baby.


and finally what i meant this post to be about: our orange smoothie. this is definitely our drink of the summer. we make it about every other day. and it's good, really good. i found it one day searching the net and wrote it down for future (can't remember where). i'm so glad i did, because i surely would have forgotten about it. this is how it is made, simply:

in a blender:
about 10 ice cubes
1/2 of a large frozen OJ container
1 c. whole milk
1/2 - 1 c. water
about 1 t. vanilla extract

* the original recipe called for 1/4 c. sugar, but if you use whole milk i don't think you need it.
** you can play around with the measurements, it's a very forgiving recipe. i rarely measure.

it must be slurped up with a straw. and blowing bubbles, without letting them get out of the glass, is mandatory.

a white coat

andy has a new article of clothing .....


yesterday was the official 'white coat ceremony' at UoL and the welcome for class of 2013.
below he is the one on the far left on stage (we need a zoom lens, arggg).


as of friday, he is officially unemployed and now a full-time student. this week are orientations and trainings for the medical students, and parties. but you know he's waaaay too old for that ;). classes start next monday.

kinda cute in his white coat, don't ya think?

random things

tea party:


ohio river falls, discovering a 'cave':


ohio river falls, painting fossils:


bath time for baby:

after nap:


happy weekend!

our road trip

hotel stops in tennessee and north carolina. mapping our route to grammy's, swimming, eating, jumping on the beds, repeat.


how many memories do i have of this bathroom? and now to see my oldest making his own. so sweet.

and other memories that now my kiddos are making. feeding the birds daily with bread and water.

picking figs. you are very lucky if you get to grammy's while figs are just ripe.


and i leave you with this ....


it was a good trip, but we're glad to be back. the wall is out. now for the finishing work. the kitty's are eager to have full usage of the house again and so are we. but it'll be worth it, as always. thank you daddy!

dreaming of squash something

so we're off to tennessee and south carolina tomorrow for 6 days. if lucky, me and the kids will return home to a small portion of our house missing. this is a good thing. yes, andy will be releasing some pent up energy knocking out our living room wall opening up our main living space more. i can hardly stand it. me and the kids have been cleaning out the living room and play room for a couple days. and i have been repeating in my head the mantra "when we come home our house will be a big, dusty wreck." this is just to prepare myself and not surprise myself, but most of all to not say "honey, it's a big mess!"

anyway, aside from that excitement i have lost a good portion of our vegetable garden to ..... squash vine borers! my squash plants and one pumpkin plant we're growing along just fine until a couple weeks ago they slowly started to wilt and stop producing fruit. so my plan of zucchini this, squash that, and everything in between is a dream in the past. i swear everywhere i look and read there's talk of the abundance of squash, a recipe for squash this, a recipe for zucchini that. and it depresses me that to make all this goodness i'll have to now count on the grocery or my small CSA share to make it.

but what is more heart-breaking is the pumpkin plant. growing pumpkin was Kai's idea. i had found a variety called ka-kai. how sweet is that. so i have more seeds and again next year we will try to battle the squash vine borers!

been a while

yep, it has. sorry to disappoint you but there are no pictures today. just a quick list of some highlights from the past couple weeks. we've had computer problems lately, and the computer that i download pictures on got a little wet recently. so important letters like e and r don't work right now.

what we've been up to:

* adopted two little kittens last week - sophie and ali. Kai named them. at first he said digger man. i would have gone with it, but i suggested he think about it since it'll be a name they will have forever, like his. when he thought about the names, he said two of his friends at school were sophie and ali and they get along good so maybe the kittens will too. clever boy. and so far he's right.

* no, we do not own two cats and a dog now. Lexi returned home to the farm we bought her from. she was just too much dog for us. she wanted to run all the time, and bark at our neighbors. i couldn't keep up. i believe she loved us all and was happy here, but she will be much happier in a place where she has complete freedom. who wouldn't, right?

* the poopy-head, 4 yr talk continues to esculate. i'm pretty sure i've been called coo coo head, poopy head, stupid etc. more than mama.

* andy gave his notice at work last week, it went smooth. so 3 weeks until school starts.

* today we went to Deam Lake in indiana .... beautiful! i can't believe it was the first time since we've lived here. the kids had a blast and by the end of our time were very comfortable in the water. i'm going to try to commit to going every week for the rest of the summer.

* the weather here has been very pleasant for july. this weekend it's suppose to be in the mid 70's. yippie!!

* we continue to harvest some food from our garden. i wish it were bigger, but that could be overwhelming. the tomatoes are finally turning pink/red. waiting eagerly for the beans.

* our yard is slowly turning into a village: a teepee, two tree forts. i'm kinda liking it.

* saw the movie My Sister's Keeper last week and i only recommend it if you are in the mood for sad. all around sad.
but, i did see The Hangover a few weeks ago, hilarious and strongly recommend. Don't be fooled by the cheesy title, it was done very well.

*what Kai's been into: playing with friends, playing with trucks/trains, etc., playing with friends, playing with friends, gum (argh), reading, doing tricks on his bike, playing with friends, telling zaiah what she can't do and what she's too little to do, making sure he has the biggest of everything, holding sophie. what Zaiah's been into: having tea parties, getting naked, putting on dresses, eating anything with sugar, finally liking yogurt, asking "why?", hopping, putting her dolls to sleeep, trying to catch the kittens, and of course her binky.

sorry for the blunt, boring post. hoping to be back on soon with photos. happy weekend

harvesting

last week we had our first harvest from our vegetable garden (besides herbs): broccoli! pure thrill. there is something about harvesting, other than herbs and tomatoes, that is completely satisfying. Kai was beside himself. Since our first harvest last week, we've also harvested squash, potatoes and carrots. Remember my hope for the kids liking potatoes since we're growing our own? not happening. kai tried them and said he still does not like potatoes. zaiah didn't even let them touch her lips. potatoes pulled up from the ground and cooked right up and eaten immediately .... pretty much heaven. it'll be difficult to eat a store bought potato again.

if i had the know-how and time, i'd turn our entire yard into a vegetable garden. it is making me happy.



(above photo by Kai)