{this moment}

A moment from this week that I want to pause, savor, and remember...

{this moment}

a moment from this week I would like to pause and savor. XO

{this moment}

Our Birthday Big Girl!

Leili turned 3 this week! She got to party for 2 days since Dan got home after she went to bed on her birthday. We are so thankful for our beautiful birthday girl! Our lives would be so boring without her!!
Day1!
 

 

 

 

Day 2!!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This & That!

Things have been quiet here, sorry. But I have kept a list of a few things that I wanted to share with you all! Hooray!



:: Bird & Little Bird Family Read Aloud Book Along!

Such a fun idea! Families reading the same book aloud and then of course her SUPER cute "extras" to go with each book! Just shoot her an email saying your family would like to participate. This Thursday she is announcing the first book. We love to read aloud and are always looking for new titles! Currently we are on book #5 of the Nancy Drew series! My grandma bought be them when I was young and boy are the kids enjoying them!

:: Ben & Birdy's Recipe for DILL PICKLE POPCORN!

Ok so a little story for you all, first you must know I am a dill pickle fanatic fan. ;) Back in high school I got to go to Edmonton Canada for EFY and also got to stay with an awesome family, while there I discovered dill pickle potato chips! Seriously! If I had a contact in Canada or lived close enough to the border I would totally be eating these right now. Anyway a friend from college who happens to be Canadian but who now lives in the States (but no where near me) was flaunting her dill pickle popcorn spice! Seriously I am thinking I should move to Canada just for the dill pickle love! So I have been wanting some to say the least. Which lead to some googling and then this recipe. It was pretty good! But I'm still hoping to get my hands on the good stuff...

:: SARDINES!

I know! Seriously Danna? My Daddy was always a sardine guy and it always grossing me out! Well last summer when my boys stayed the week with my Dad he and Jake ate quite a bit of sardines and saltines from what I have gathered. I know they are so good for you, and I know they are sustainable and one of the cleaner fish, but... Well I buy them for the kids because they are so good for them and really its and easy peasy snack! Recently a friend shared her sardines with me, Bar Harbor Maine sardines. And... they were totally good! Of course they are a little expensive, so I buy some of those and some of the Trader Joe's ones the kids don't mind. ;)

A Baby Sardine

A baby sardine

Saw her first submarine:

She was scared and watched

through a peephole.

"Oh come, come, come,"

Said the sardine's mum,

"It's only a tin full of people."

:: Cloud Dough!

Oh yes, the mess! We really enjoy making and playing with play dough but today a friend shared this recipe and the ease sounds great! I haven't tried it yet but we are SO making this!!

4 cups flour

1/2 cup baby oil

THAT'S IT!!

Stay Tuned for more!

{this moment}

A moment from this week that I want to pause, savor, and remember.

{this moment}

Dandilions!

Spring has sprung and so have the dandilions all over town!! There are fequently dandilion flowers in my hair or sunhat, the girls love to pick them. But they also know that the greens are editable and yummy to boot! So the kids have cleaned out our yard a couples times and then last night they brought in a very large harvest and exictedly told me, "Tim let us pull all the dandilions out of his yard! He doesn't WANT them!!!" He He our neighbors most likely are now completly convinsed that we are loony! But this morning we enjoyed them in our dandilion & kale hash! We have also enjoyed a few green smoothies with them too! Now if only we had those lovely wild ramps we could find in our yard in CT. Yummmm!

Anything good foraged in your yard this spring?

395!

The kids and I went on a wonderful trip since Dan was gone for his own long trip! We got to drive through some beautiful country and enjoy peace and quiet!! The 395 through the Mammoth and Mono areas is just geographically beautiful!It is such a volcanically scarred area it is amazing!!

Mono Lake was on our list, it is a beautifully strange lake! It is 2X salter than the Great Salt Lake! They also have a really nice visitors center that is pretty new, with a huge piece of obsidian out front (I would have brought it home but it would not fit. Obsidian is my favorite stone!) There will be a post with more Mono Lake photos on our schooling blog!

 

We pulled off at Fossil Falls (south of Independence CA. & north of Manzanar), I visited here back in high school and knew the kids would love it!! It is a volcanic play ground!

 

 

 

 

It is a prehistoric riverbed, when the lava poured into it and the water cooled it quickly it created all of these tubes and caves. Then over time as the water swirled stones and such holes were bored into the basalt too!

 

 Here in the background of this photo is the Hot Creek hot spring (north of the Mammoth turn off same road as the Mammoth airport). In high school I got to soak in it but about 3 years ago it turned into a seathing geyser and so they have fenced off the creek and spring area. :( We hiked down and felt the water but were sad to not go in. But the brilliant blue water was beautiful!! 

{this moment}

We are back just last night from our walkabout! More pictures to come! And what is up with blogger changing while I was gone!!! This will take me a minute to figure all out!!

Happy Friday!

For Dan on Easter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once Upon A Time...

...we took a little road trip! We piled in and had snacks galore (two hours worth)! Dad treated us to a falafel, hummus, olives kind of dinner! And the kids were ready to permanently move into our hotel "house"!
All just to be here. With other LLL leaders. Can you feel the warmth in the room? An evening ice cream social with dancing and cape making, and then a day and a lovely potluck lunch with these amazing ladies and their families. New friends made and lamps filled.

And then we headed home...

And then we tried to put on our chains, yes chains!

Guess what... they did not fit. Do you know how expensive chains are on the side of the road in the must chain up area? Yea, painful.

So we headed out at 20 mph, very bumpy.

Oh yea we were crossing the Sierra Nevadas... Donner Pass... kind of looks like Narnia.

5 hours latter we made it over the "The Hill".

We slid, we slided, we held our bladders, and we burned ALOT of gas!

But it was worth it.

And every one wants to go again next year!! We'll just stay another night!!