stuff and stunts

Here's a little recap of our week:

Sela had tennis camp all week long at UW. She enjoyed carpooling with the Banks and Messmers. Lots of "slug bug" type games going on in the car with Hunter and Jack. At one point on the way home, I stopped and moved Hunter to the side seat because he was in the middle getting it from both sides the whole way home! They all had a lot of fun and Sela earned the "most improved camper" award. She has been really eager to play with me so we all went out last night and she really DID improve a lot, in one week. Very exciting.

Sela, Nina, Emma and Sophia finished their first "Summer Fun" neighborhood newspaper and delivered it to the neighbors. The content is so darling and includes animal models, a craft, an interview, information about a talent show and a history of the kids on Maple Springs Farm (Sela, Nina, Rollin, & Evan) and Fat Beagle Farm (Emma & Sophia). It's 7 pages long.

We had the Norrises, Hamptons, and Gudmundsons over for a bbq and campfire on Monday. We rarely saw the kids but heard lots of squeals all over the yard. I was excited to make a french style potato salad with fennel, potatoes, and herbs all fresh from the garden. I used bits and pieces of an Herb Farm recipe and a Barefoot Contessa one. So rewarding! 4 babies in attendance made for a bouncy evening for the parents.

A few of the kiddoes

Zig, Tom and Sarah

And it can't be a new week without a new stunt by Rollin.

Evan is getting louder with his shrieking in public places. Not so fun. Thank goodness for Rachel.

We worked on a framing project for the girls artwork. I actually got all of the pictures framed and we are starting to work on their room. I found them some new, bright comforters and we have been playing around with configurations for the artwork. I'm pretty excited to see it all hung! That's where Zig comes in.

The girls and I hit he Bellevue Arts Show this weekend. We had the traditional NW fare of blackened salmon salad and those yummy warm Fisher Scones with raspberry jam. I know there's some not so stellar ingredients in their scones, but gosh once a year they taste good. We looked at all the incredible art, this show is top notch,  and then somehow ended up at the Nordstrom sale. I really wanted to look for a pair of nude heels, but go figure, we spent all of our time in the kids section and then had to run home to get Nina to a birthday party. New shoes for the girls, none for mom. It's not the first time.

berry + dark chocolate muffins

I love this recipe because the muffins are only slightly sweet. These taste like muffins should taste, which in my opinion, is not like cupcakes. I use strawberries, raspberries or a mixture. And I use more berries than the recipe calls for. We often sprinkle little bits of dark chocolate and berries on the tops and if we're really getting fancy (pretty much all the time), a little bit of turbinado (raw cane sugar) to make them have a bit of a crunch. Sugar sprinkling is a coveted job around here. Rollin did the honors this morning.

raspberry & chocolate

strawberry & chocolate

Muffins à la Framboise, Eclats de Fève de Cacao

- 4 Tbsp (75 g) butter
- 2 C (230 g) all-purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
- 1/2 C (100 g) sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1/2 C (125 ml) plain yogurt
- 1/2 C (125 ml) buttermilk / fermented milk / kefir
- 1 C raspberries (or more!)
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate pieces

Yield : 12 muffins

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and grease (or line with paper cups or leave alone if they are silicon) a set of muffin tins.

Melt the butter in the microwave or in a small saucepan, and set aside to cool. In a small bowl, combine the cacao nibs and brown sugar. Set aside.

In a medium mixing-bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt) and stir to mix. In another medium bowl, whisk together wet ingredients (butter, egg, yogurt and buttermilk). Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients, and stir with a spatula until just combined. Do not overmix. The mixture will be lumpy, that's okay. Fold in the berries and dark chocolate bits.

Spoon the batter into the prepared tins and into the oven to bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until risen and golden. Turn out on a rack to cool, and wait for 10-15 minutes before removing from the tins. Serve warm or completely cooled.

take that uncle ryan and uncle martin :)

And this next one is where he first learned the back flip. Apparently time-outs aren't the most effective punishment for Rollin. He's in his room training for the circus. Warning...a couple of these flips are flops, and a little painful to watch!

a full heart

I've had a great few weeks with my kids. Summer is beautiful, the weather is mild, schedules are light, and I'm feeling so fortunate and blessed each day for the little people in my life. I, of course, feel blessed every day to have these sweet children, but when we get to slow down, hang out, and just BE together, my heart feels so very full. In fact, today, for a brief moment when Rollin was telling me how much he loved me, how he would never move away when he "grows big", and how if I ever died he was coming too, I wanted to weep. He is just so full of life, enthusiasm, passion, and tenderness. I just looked at him with his crooked little smile and big bright eyes and tried to imagine for a moment what life might have in store for him. The road ahead will surely be an adventure. And how I pray for his health and happiness. I went to that place I try not to ever go, you know, thinking about life without him, and I just couldn't imagine it. Could not imagine. I love him with all of my heart, and he loves me too and tells me at least a dozen times a day. This kind of love helps me realize what incredible love our Heavenly Father must have for each of his children. Each day with my children is a precious gift  which I often feel undeserving of, but thankful nonetheless.

Richmond Beach

Last Saturday morning our neighbors called to see if we wanted to head to the beach for the lowest tide of the year and check out some of the marine life. With about 20 minutes to prepare, somehow we got ready and we were off to Richmond Beach with the Medds. The crowd was small and there were several naturalists on hand to help us identify what we were seeing. We were so glad we made the trip because the kids were in heaven. They were able to touch seastars, sea cucumber, crabs, and many other beautiful, interesting little creatures. Hooray for spur of the moment outings!

Bird Hunt

Every once in awhile the kids love a new idea or activity so we had a little bird hunt last Saturday. Rollin had the most difficult time because you have to be a wee bit quiet to have the most success, but the girls took it very seriously and found each bird. I love the great ideas in the book I Love Dirt. So many simple ways to keep children engaged, curious and learning about the natural world around them. And we do love dirt around here!

Bird Hunt
___ A brown bird
___ A colorful bird
___ A large bird
___ A tiny bird
___ A flying bird
___ A bird on the ground
___ A bird’s nest
___ A bird in a tree or bush
___ A bird with long tail feathers
___ A bird’s track on the ground
___ A bird that is singing or chattering
___ A feather
___ A bird with spots or stripes (above the eyes, along the chest or along the wings
___ A bird hunting for food or eating

Evergreen Mom's Group, 10 years later!

I met each of these lovely women about ten years ago in a class we all took after we had our first babies. We try and reconnect once a year and Colleen, who has moved several times, is often the catalyst that brings us all together with her visits back to the area. Everyone in the group has two children except Colleen and I. Colleen, first on the left, has 5 boys. I snagged this photo from her blog after our reunion dinner on Thursday night:) Thanks, Colleen!

2001

10 month old babies (give or take)

All of us in Dec 2005. And I'm pregnant with Rollin.

Sometime in 2003 I think.

                         

There were many a pumpkin patch outings in the first few years...until siblings came and then we gave up!

Lots of park days filled our first summers together.

And lots of uncomfortable Halloween costumes

                          

Endless photo-ops 

 

Kristina, Tricia and I each have 2 girls. Here are Kristina's girls, Isabella and Annalise.

The originals plus their little sisters

Colleen's firstborn, Zach, and Sela

Seems like just yesterday we started on this motherhood adventure!

summer in full swing

I looked at the calendar last night and almost had a panic attach. Only 6 more weeks of summer. How could that possibly be? My heart sank to the floor.





At the end of the school year, I had all sorts of ideas and summer plans...hikes and "museum days," day trips, etc. I had all my little guide books out and dog-eared...best hikes with kids, best outings in Seattle, the local parent magazines, etc.  But I never set those things in motion for one reason or another. I think the main reason being I was so totally done with any sort of schedule. I couldn't bring myself to have to do a particular activity, even if I came up with the idea in the first place.

The other reason we are rather homebound is my kids are very protective of their summer. Like me, they want to savor it and often ask me how many more weeks left, and then frown. They just want to be home. They do not want to get in the car; they have rarely asked for playdates and have actually declined a few times when asked by others.

Fruits and veggies are starting to come off in the garden...the berries alone kept me homebound for a week. In the evenings when it cools down, we all have fun going out to the garden together and picking rasberries or strawberries. Zig devises all sorts of contests to get the kids going. There is no waiting when the berries are ripe so everything else must be put on the back burner. I froze a ton and canned about 30 jars of jam so far. I am cooking a lot and just having fun being with my children. As I was thinking about all the other stuff that is out there we could be doing (and in the northwest in the summertime, that is A LOT!)  I realized that this is a precious moment in time and I should embrace it. We moved to this place primarily so our kids could have this sort of lifestyle. The kids want to be home, they want to play together, and they are happy. Sadly, they won't be content making fairy houses and climbing trees forever. They are getting dirty, being creative, having downtime, and reading like crazy trying to earn various library awards and such.  We are doing a few things outside of our backyard, but any outings we take are spur of the moment. We keep our schedules open and if things come up that work, then wonderful. Somehow the kids can be persuaded to hop into the car for Thenos Cantaloupe Ice cream! But not much else.




I've been most impressed at what the kids actually come up with on their own, and their ability to create gives me the freedom to step back and let them lead. I don't always need to provide an activity or direction. So much good has come out of the occasional boredom. Some of the things they've been up to are farm stands (of course!), a village of fairy houses, bird watching/listening, playing with their animals, creating a farm/neighborhood newspaper to pass around to the neighbors, berry picking and eating, playing on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath, a big art show, the biggest hopscotch you've ever seen, campfires, homes in the trees, and all manner of pretending. I see them zooming around the yard all day on their bikes. I have no idea what they are doing several hours a day and I love that too.

As a family, we've been mountain biking twice in the past couple weeks and it's awesome now that we can  ALL go. Evan bounces around in the Burley and everyone else can ride well. There are some wide trails near our house so we don't even have to load the bikes. We took the older kids to St. Edwards to ride there one day and left Evan with Rachel, our babysitter for the summer. It was so fun to see Rollin ride over roots and rocks and fly down the hills. He is crazy and just as good of a rider as I am.

The only organized sport we are doing is tennis. All the kids are taking lessons most of the summer. The courts are four minutes away and while one has a lesson, the rest of us play on the outdoor court. Everyone is improving and enjoying it more and more. Sela is on a team and is going to a University of Washington camp next week. I'm excited for her. Nina is about to be moved up to the class Sela was put in when she was 8. She's improved tremendously this year and is quick as a jack rabbit. One day when I was inside watching Rollin's lesson, Sela tried to work with Nina and they were hitting back and forth when I came back. Sela was so excited and Nina was BEAMING!





Evan just waddles around the court kicking balls and chasing the "pink ball."



May the next 6 weeks pass by oh so slowly. I love the lazy days of summer!

Old-Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake

For the past 8 years, we've headed to the strawberry patches each spring to pick (and eat) those incredible sun-ripened berries. There is nothing like a fresh, perfectly-ripe strawberry. One of the things I first loved about springtime in Washington was the abundance of berries! We get them all...strawberries in June, followed by raspberries (both golden and red) and blueberries in July, and blackberries in August. The kids also pick wild salmon berries along the trails when we are mountain biking or hiking.


This year, instead of traveling to a strawberry farm, we simply had to cross the yard to our garden to harvest pounds and pounds of luscious, juicy strawberries! I won't lie, it's been heaven!



















With an unusually warm winter and cooler than average spring, the rest of the garden and fruit trees are seriously confused and floundering a bit. But the berries exploded. We've canned nearly 30 jars of jam and have almost filled the freezer full of gallon sized bags of frozen strawberries. We can pick and pick and pick and still not finish. We have the ever-bearing strawberries which produce all summer, so this certainly won't be the last strawberry recipe I share, but it might be the best!

I found this recipe in the Edible Seattle Magazine May/June issue. I love that magazine! The instructions are quite detailed, and you could make the biscuits, whip the cream, slice the berries and assemble and it would be fine, but after reading the article which devoted an entire page discussing the way to turn an ordinary shortcake into a memorable one, I decided to follow the recipe exactly and slice, macerate, and smash the berries. The author pointed out that you need lots of juices to make the best shortcake, and after trying it this way, I totally agree. These were heavenly. I made them for breakfast for the kids and their friends who had spent the night. They all licked their bowls clean, surprise surprise.

Jon Rowley's Super Sumptious Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake with Drop Biscuits


Biscuits
2 cups all purpose flour (I'm sure you could use whole wheat pastry or spelt)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces (one stick) butter, chilled
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons cream

Preheat over to 400 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.

Put all the dry ingredients together in a food processor. Pulse. Chop a stick of butter into small cubes. Add them to the flour and pulse till the mixture resembles rough meal. Add the milk and pulse until the dough starts to pull away from the bowl. DO NOT OVERMIX!

Spoon the dough in six equal portions onto the baking sheet. Brush the tops lightly with cream. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.


Berries
3 pints of ripe strawberries (they need to be juicy!)
1-4 tablespoons of sugar

Hull and slice 1/3 of the strawberries into large, irregular chunks. Cut any small berries in half vertically. Add a tablespoon or two of sugar and let the berries macerate for an hour.

10-15 minutes before you're ready to eat the shortcakes, tear 1/3 of the berries. Hold a small handful of berries in one hand, place your other hand on top and gently apply pressure while twisting over a bowl, this motion pulls the fruit apart into soft pieces without crushing their structure. Add a small amoutn of sugar to taste.
Slice and add the remaining 1/3 of your fresh berries. Combine all berries and add sugar to taste. Reserve some smaller whole berries to garnish.

Whipped Cream
2 cups heavy cream, chilled
2 tablespoons sugar or to taste

Using electric mixture or wire wisk, whip the cream and sugar until it forms soft, but slightly firm peaks.

Assembly
Slice a biscuit in half. Place bottom half on a plate. Top with a moderate pile of berries, a little extra juice and a big spoonful of whipping cream. Cover with the top half of the biscuit, anothe rlayer of berries and c ream in slightly smaller quantities than the first layer. For the final touch, drizzle a tablespoon of juice over the top and garnish with a small, whole strawberry.



Mmmm, mmmm, good! A big mosquito bite on the cheek and strawberry shortcake in the mouth, that's about as summer as it gets!

circle of life: by sela

It all started when I had just got back from San Juan Island.

We had just bought some fireworks on the way home so that we could use them when we got back. When we started shooting them off I noticed there was was a hole bunch of commotion everywhere and all I could see through the dark night was fire works and all I could hear was BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
coming from every direction in the neighborhood. I smiled and thought maybe I should go check on my little animals to make sure they were all O.K. with all the noises. So first I ran to the chicken coop to see my bunny and the chickens.When I got there I noticed that all of the animals in the chicken coop were fine.And everything was much quieter in the there than it was outside. So finally when my family and I were done shooting off fireworks I ran inside to go see my guinea pig. Right when I reached her room I was struck, I felt like I had been hit by a bomb on the forth of July. There was Phoebe laying down dead in her cage. I touched her and burst out with tears. I felt like waterfalls were flowing out my eyes. I ran as fast as I could to my moms room telling her the story and soon everyone in my house had heard the news. My sister and I looked like you had dumped buckets of water on top of us.

Later that night I couldn't go to sleep so I started to read a book but nothing worked. A few minutes later my dad came in and told me "it comes in every animals life, its nobodies fault, its the circle of life." But I knew in my head it was not fair. She did not live long enough and why did she have to leave now? That night I cried myself to sleep.

The next morning I woke up and hoped it was all a dream but it was not. I knew because of the sad look on my mom's face. Then I got out my water color box and wrote a note to Phoebe. The we all starting painting and drawing and listening to piano music. Still no one talked. We had at least 20 paintings of different things painting makes me feel peaceful when we stopped. Even my mom did one.



















My sister wrote one too.

That morning was sad and lonesome no one said a word for a long time, like hours.Soon when it was time to go and bury Phoebe we walked out into our yard and found a nice spot to bury her. My mom turned around and noticed that some of the chickens were watching the funeral and so was my large dog.


We all took turns reading are notes and tossing them in with Phoebe.
























It was one of the saddest moments of my life.






The day went by slowly then my mom said we should go and get another bunny so we hopped in the car on our way to the pet store. When we got their we ran over to the bunny and guinea pig section and we were expecting to get one other bunny we had seen before but then we noticed that that one was very skittish so we held a few more. Then we found the one. We payed for him and picked up the box which the bunny was in we looked at him and thought he was white with blacks pots and sort of looked like an Oreo so we named him Oreo. My sister and I had fun playing with him that day but we will never forget Phoebe.