Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

In order to say THANK YOU to my folks who seriously invested themselves in prettying up our yard, I decided to make a homemade strawberry rhubarb pie.  I have rhubarb in my garden , but this is only it's second year, and from what I understand it needs to mature for 3 years.  I agreed because it wasn't getting red.  After a quick trip to Al's Garden Center, I found out that I have green rhubarb that is mature enough to use.  I guess if I had kept those little white stick things that come with the plants I would have known this information.

Anywho, I cut some rhubarb, picked some strawberries and whipped up this pie and this crust (if you use this recipe, make sure you double it, this is only enough for the bottom crust) this morning.  Delish!

 All of my rhubarb leaves are this big!  It's insane!

1 of 2 rhubarb plants

My strawberry bed!  Once I finally killed all the slugs that attacked it this year, it really grew!!!

Finished product!

Pre-Baby Summer Goodness

Our Summer has been fun!  Too many activities to count!  So here are a few photos:

Piper started sleeping in her big girl bed

 

We went to Enchanted Forest with the Hamilton's

We played at Blue Lake

Piper attempted to be girly, it lasted about 14 seconds

I was almost buried alive in laundry piles weekly!

Washable Sidewalk Paint!

Seriously!  Washable sidewalk paint that takes all of 2.2 minutes to make!  I LOVE this stuff!!

Ok so here is what you do, get ready it's super tough (note sarcasm):

1.  Get out Cornstarch, water, food coloring and some little disposable containers with lids (esp if your kids are younger)

2.  Put 4 tablespoons of cornstarch and 4 tablespoons of water and a squirt or 7 of food coloring in each container.

3.  Mix

4.  I cut a little hole in each lid so their little paint brushes can dip in and out.

5.  Done.  When the paint dries on the sidewalk/deck/lawn furniture/clothing etc it just brushes off, it literally turns into dust!  I just hose the deck off when the kids are done!

So easy, fun and super cheap!!

Dirty Duke and Piper

My awesome cousin Jenny just had a baby, she is awesome!  Her third little boy, his name is Colby.  She bravely brought all 3 of her kiddos over to my mom's house the other day to hang out.  My parents have a corner of their acre that is just for the kids to do whatever they want to do.  On this particular day the older boys (James and Tristan) decided to dig an enormous hole and fill it with water.  Duke fell in and the boys intentionally jumped in.  Colby slept through the excitement and Piper was content to run around pantsless with an ice cream.  I love my family!

Fourth of July; Family & Friends

Fourth of July was a blast as usual at our house! {pun intended}  It started with us getting up at 5:30 am for no apparent reason!  We hung out & had a yummy breakfast, then at 8am we started decorating the bikes for the annual neighborhood parade.  Then like clockwork at 10am we walked to the entrance of the neighborhood, John lead the group of 30+ kids and parents in the Pledge of Allegiance while Tracy held the flag and then we walked around the neighborhood while friends sat on the porch and cheered us all on!  {I say us but I only walked until I got to our house, a total of 250 feet, and then I joined Uncle Larry and Auntie Anna on their porch, gimme a break I am almost 36 weeks pregnant, see images below}

  As the kids came back up the hill after going up and down the streets, the all met up at Stephanie & David's house for ice cream.  About 3pm our friends on our street made their way with their yummy snacks to our house for our annual picnic!  We ate till we couldn't eat anymore, swam, played on the giant water slide {thanks Barb & Nolan}, and ate! Around 9pm we all lined our fireworks up in the street and had a blast!  

Piper was in love with her new glasses

 John, Tristan, Piper and Sami before the parade

John leading the Pledge of Allegiance

Immediately following the parade and ice cream consumption we headed out to get our fire works {Piper entered an ice cream coma after consuming exactly 4 individual ice cream cups}

Our delicious food spread, I made the white cake with the red white and blue inside!

Barb and Nolan's incredibly huge water slide was a big hit {thanks again guys!!}

I feel so blessed to live in a neighborhood that embraces holidays and each other so consistently.

This year, I was so teary watching my husband lead the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.  I was reminded that it was just 9 years ago that he was fighting for this freedom in Iraq.  The Flag has never looked so beautiful.

Nesting and the yard

So we've let our yard go a little.  We have this cute little corner in the front of our yard, but the kids always cut it short on their bikes and run over our plants.  It's become over run with stepables, that just aren't cute anymore.  Our bubbling rock quick bubbling over 2 years ago and is now home to a giant host of wasps.  It was all falling apart.  Enter my mom.  She and her amazing garden genius came over and in a matter of hours had transformed the corner space into a beautiful area that I love to look at now, then she hosed off our back deck (all of the fallen wisteria petals were dried to the deck) and we called Creative Visions and in less than 20 minutes then came out and fixed our pond!  I feel like I can breath again, this of course fueled my nesting fire.

Yay, I love the sound of bubbling water!

Corner yard goodness

Then today, my dad brought over some of their left over barkdust and John transplanted some plants and spread bark like a fool!  After my sandbox building and sand dumping event yesterday my back was pretty sore, so I acted like a highly paid union member and just bossed everyone else around! Our yard looks amazing!  Even Tristan, who only wants to ride his motorcycle out front, wants to be back here!

Along our fence line, the hastas got a refreshing dose of bark dust!

As did the tree area next to the sandbox!

Thanks, mom, dad, uncle Larry, auntie Anna and John for humoring this incredibly crazy pregnant mama!!

Nesting

Have you ever nested?  Oh my, when I nest I really nest.  I mean really.  With Tristan and Piper it was all focused on organizing (and reorganizing) their clothes, rooms and my pantry.  This time around, all I can think about it making our backyard a little more kid friendly so that when Baby gets here, the kids want to be contained in the backyard.  Pinterest doesn't help my nesting obsessions either.  So with that warning in place, the next few blog posts will be about my nesting projects.

This week is the water tub!  I wanted to make a few things with just what we had around the house.  I found this awesome water tub DIY tutorial on Pinterest and well, I built it.  Actually John showed me how to use his saw and nail gun (ummm, FUN).  Then we had an old 55 Liter tub in the garage and I filled it with these amazing water beads that I bought (all of them for $3.47 on amazon.com.  The kids can't get enough of it!  I kind of want to fill the bath tub with them, they feel so fun!

I used some 2x2 cedar boards I had left over from a super failed Christmas gift for my mom

Added the tub

Piper was perfectly content to play in the box (I won't lie, it was fun to keep her so contained)

Then she realized she could get naked (a favorite pastime) and fill it with water, she thought this was amazing.

Over night I soaked all of the beads (this is only part of them, but this small amount made a full 5 quarts of beads)

It's hard to tell in this image but there is at least 10 gallons of beads in there!

 Then we dumped all of the beads in the bin and let the kids go to town, they pretty much think we are the coolest parents ever.  I'll admit, I had to remind myself that we could clean up when they were done (I had to remind myself of this at least 214 times)  But the LOVE it!  

Nesting Project #1 a success!

Chalkboard Table

I thought I posted about this, I may have but heaven help me, I can't find it!  So anyway at the risk of repeating myself:

When we started homeschooling I wanted a bigger table that we could spread out on and then I thought it would be fun to paint it with chalkboard paint so Tris could work out math problems etc without wasting paper.  Enter my adorable husband, who always has a more elaborate {and often times better idea}.  

I was just going to goodwill a table and paint the top of it.  But I found this white tile {horribly ugly} table, and John saw the end result!

So I paid $20 for the table at Salvation Army and $15 for the chairs I found on Craigslist {those I still haven't painted, I might, repeat might, one day}.  Here is how it went:

We eat dinner every night at this table, we write Bible verses, work out math problems, work on spelling words, draw pictures, trace our feet {don't worry, I was it well before I serve company dinner}. This table has been one of the cheapest, best investments I have ever made, there are some great DIY tutorials on chalkboard tables on Pinterest, I honestly don't remember exactly how this project went, so here are a few you can look at, this is a cute kids table, this one is kind of similar to ours, and this one

Life

Here is some random fun from our last couple of months, enjoy!

{Daddy and Piper did some porch sitting}

{Piper and I snuggled a lot}

{Tristan had his eyes checked & dilated, the funny part is {as you can see}, one eye recovered faster than the other!}

{Piper pushed Tristan on the hammock, naked of course}

{We celebrated my parents 42nd anniversary and my dad's 67th birthday!}

'Nough Said

Homeschooling Is A Big Task

{This is in the morning when we do our Studying God's Word Devotional, Tristan insisted that she sit with him in his chair}

If you would have asked me 2 years ago if I would be interested in homeschooling my kids, my answer would have been no.  Tristan went to a private preschool which we LOVED, Little Lambs.  Tristan went for 100 days to a public elementary school, which we loved.  We loved the teachers and the administration, we loved their dedication and focus.  But about 1/2 way through the year the Lord laid it heavy on my heart that he wanted me to bring Tristan home and focus more on teaching Tristan the love that the Lord has for him.  John and I prayed about this.  Honestly I struggled with it, because I wasn't interested in spending that much time a day with my kids and I am NOT a teacher!  But I felt it was really what God was asking us to do and we chose to be obedient.

{Yes, she is naked, she usually is.  More importantly, this is a photo of Tristan doing his morning reading to Piper, who loves listening to him read!}

I am so grateful that we chose to listen to the Lord.  I am getting to know Tristan on a level I didn't know possible, I am watching the light bulb click on as he learns to read and do math.  He is just finishing up his first grade curriculum {we use a combination of Abeka, A Reason for..., and Studying God's Word}, he is reading really well and we get to hang out, go on field trips {Seattle on the Train, Apple Orchards, Beach Day and a hundred other things}, we play outside together every day and we have a ton of play dates with friends from public school and our co-op.

I won't lie, I don't LOVE it every day!  Some days we don't do school because Tris is struggling, or I am too cranky, or we just want to do something else {which we can do because we can double up the next day}!  But most days, I think it is awesome that I have this opportunity!  I saw this on Confessions of a Homeschooling Mom's Blog the other day:

I'm not saying I'll homeschool him forever, but I will until he feels ready to go to public school and at that point John and I will pray for guidance!  For now, I am enjoying this season of life and preparing for it to change dramatically in September when we start doing preschool with Piper and add a 3rd little person to our home!

{Our 2nd Grade Curriculum}

Leading by Example

The other morning, I was reminded of how important all the little things we do in our day are and how the little things are the things that really shape our kids.

John and I were getting ready and the kids were playing in the living room.  John was brushing his teeth and Piper walked in our room, looked at him and walked out.  30 seconds later she walked back in and stood next to John (still brushing his teeth) and began brushing hers.

I realized that in the way I talk to my husband, the way I love my kids, the way I teach school and interact with others is playing a vital role in how my kids do all of these things.  She hadn't brushed her teeth that day, but she adores her daddy and saw him doing it so she did it too.

How important is that!  Everything we do they watch, they mimic, they record in their little minds as ok.  It was a good reminder of how important our role as moms and dads is.

I'm always proud that that I married a man who takes his role of father, husband and Spiritual leader so seriously!  He does a great job of modeling how important it is to lead by example!

On the same note, I saw this on Pinterest the other day and it totally fits:

{Obviously I just borrowed this off of Pinterest as my name is not Crystal and I didn't get married on May 15th, ha ha ha}