Posts filed under ‘Activities’
Homemade Pickle Relish
While we were camping this past spring, I got the opportunity to try some homemade pickle relish. It was amazing. Up until this point I wasn’t a relish kind of girl, apparently it was due to the fact that I’d never had the homemade kind.
When a friend of mine, also known as the “mayor or cucumber city,” had yet another bumper crop of cukes this year, I decided to have a go at canning homemade relish.
I was really impressed with how my relish turned out. The relish has great flavor and the canning process went well too. Some of the lids were not all depressed after the water bath, but after cooling they no longer popped.
I will be at Iron Barley’s Tomato Fest on August 22 selling my wares and canned goods. I hope to see some of you there!
Tomato Fest
I just wanted to let you all know that I will be participating in Tomato Fest this year at Iron Barley. It will be held on August 22nd from 1 to 7.
I will be selling some canned goods and my other wares. I hope to see you all there!
Don’t forget its for charity!
“That Mom”
I always thought I would be “that mom.” You know the one who does a daily craft with the kids and lets them help me cook at every opportunity.
However, daily chores, laundry, errands and my own crafting keep me from doing that very often.
Well the other day I decided to put chores, laundry, tv and my own crafting aside and became that mom…if only for a few hours!
I brought out all the the crafting supplies that had to do with hearts and valentines and let them get to work.
There was glitter and glue and paint everywhere, but they had a ball!
We strung into garland all the hearts they decorated.
We also baked some fresh bread. They loved getting their hands in there and kneading the dough.
Here it is during its second rising.
Fresh out of the oven, honey wheat bread.
I bet you wish you had “smell-o-vision.”
I served it with homemade corn chowder.
Snow Day
We had our first snow day of the year last week.
The kids were so excited. They actually got up earlier that day than they did on Christmas!
The day started off with chocolate chip pancakes then a viewing of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. That has become the new “go to” movie in our house. The kids also like to watch old reruns of Pee Wee’s playhouse on You Tube…Thanks to Ricardo’s new Blu Ray player we can do all of those things from the comfort of our couch.
We hit the slopes in the backyard by 9 am. They aren’t super steep, but good enough for the 2 younger timid kids. Luckily or unluckily, because it was 10 degrees outside, the kids lasted over an hour. It takes a long time to get 3 kids, plus myself ready to go play in the snow. It seems like old times when they were 2 1/2, 1, and a newborn!
We came in and enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies that I had made earlier.
Piper Ann spent the rest of the morning at the neighbor’s house while the boys ran around the house playing with another neighbor.
After lunch the boys hit the slopes again with a neighbor while I worked out, showered and put laundry away.
I heard Oliver crying outside. I assumed he had had enough of the cold, but met him at the back door. I was greeted with bloody faced 3 year old. Apparently he didn’t get the “bow out when you get close to a tree while sledding” memo, and smacked a tree head first.
He definitely did a number on himself. Luckily it didn’t scare him too much. He went back out after Ricardo got home.
Nathan had the next day off too because of the bitter cold, but Piper Ann had preschool. Thankfully Ricardo drove her, so I didn’t have to face negative temps!
Cascarones
Hope you all had a great Easter!
We ate our way through the day!
Ricardo’s cousin sent us 4 dozen cascarones for the kids. Aren’t they beautiful?
Here’s a little bit of the confetti on the back deck from one of the dozens. We took the other 3 dozen to a friends house!
The Gardens
Last week we made our first visit to the Missouri Botanical Gardens this year.
All the Spring bulbs were beautiful.
What a weekend!
I need a weekend to recover from the weekend. You know like you need a vacation to recover from a vacation!
Friday it poured all day and we were supposed to go to the baseball game. I thought for sure we would pass since the tickets were free anyway. Nope, we trucked down to Busch Stadium armed with ponchos. We stayed at J Bucks until the rain stopped and then went into the game. The kids had a blast! They were promised a couple of treats, so when Nathan saw the cotton candy man he raised his hand and waved him over. It was pretty funny to watch your 5 year old flag down a vendor! I did have to deny the kids the $6.50 hot chocolate. It would have cut into my $7.25/beer budget! We did stop at the grocery store and got donuts and hot chocolate fixins for breakfast the next day. THey were up until at least 11, but woke up bright and early at 6:30. I wasn’t surprised.
On Saturday Ricardo got up at 5 to go for a bike ride. He got 2 miles from home and got a flat tire. He had to walk back. So, he decided to hook up the mountain bike and go to Castlewood. He got there at 6:20 and it didn’t open until 7, so he came home and took the dog for a 30 minute walk.
So basically he woke up at 5 to take the dog for a walk. Poor guy!
I took Piper Ann to dance class at 9. Ricardo picked her up and I headed to work. I was there until after 5. I ran home really quick, we threw the kids in the car and headed out to a birthday party. My dad was in town to visit my brother, so he met us there (he knows the family). We got home around 10, so it was day number 2 of staying up late. Of course, they woke up at their usual time!
Sunday I went with my dad to visit my brother. We stopped at Lowe’s on the way home to get a couple plants and some mulch. When we got home I put down some mulch and then suggested we walk to lunch. After lunch we hugged my dad goodbye and headed back out to Home Depot for more mulch and then down to the city for another birthday party! This meant no naps of course. We got home around 7 bathed the kids and put them down around 8.
Yesterday they slept a little later, but Nathan had school so we had to scramble to get there on time. While he was there, Piper Ann, Oliver and I headed to Walmart to get a couple staples and some more plants for my deck planters. As I was doing some planting, they were playing in the sand box that hasn’t had the lid on in weeks and full of water. They were having the time of their lives, so I let them.
That afternoon I filled a couple buckets of water, so they could fill their watering cans without having the hose on constantly. Within 20 minutes they were soaked from head to toe, but once again were having a great time.
After a quick game of Guitar Hero with Ricardo, they were off to bed (not without a 2nd bath for the day).
This morning the sleep deprivation caught up with them. Oliver slept until 7:45, Nathan until 8 and Piper Ann until 8:20. She insisted on sleeping in undies (eventhough I just bought a brand new package of pull ups and took them out of the bag) and woke up dry!! Hopefully it won’t be too detrimental to Oliver for wearing princess pull ups!
Sorry to be so wordy, I’m sure this is all completely fascinating to you.
E-coupon
A fun family outing for us is bowling, so I decided to sign up for emails from Brunswick. I just got a coupon for $1.49 per person per game and one for $34.99 for 2 hours of bowling for 6 people plus free shoe rental and a pitcher of Coke. The shoe rental is where they get you! Plus if you go before noon the entire place is smoke free (at least our is).
For those of you who need it, they also offer free lessons. Like I said before, my Wii skills aren’t translating well to the real lanes.
Save the Date
March 20 would have been the 80th birthday of Mr. Rogers. In order to honor him on this day, we’re all supposed to wear sweaters. Conveniently enough we probably won’t have put them away yet.
Check this out
3inunder3 