Three Years Already?

Last week we spent the week in Pennsylvania visiting Jon's family. While we were there, Evan turned three. Three years ago he was a tiny baby.... well, if you call 9 lbs 14 oz. tiny.

Now he's three and busy, curious, affectionate, and funny. He's Charlotte's best friend and continues to teach her to be outgoing. He's Jon's partner in mischief.... they have the same cheeky grin when they're planning something funny. Evan is my snuggle buddy and the only person in the house, other then me, that can find things they've misplaced. I'm thankful for that one every day!

Evan loves anything that has wheels so I made him a car cake. I kept it simple since I was going to be baking at my in-laws house and then bringing it to their campground later. I made a kitchen-sink carrot cake since I needed a cake that would stay moist. It was really good and I loved the addition of the diced dried pineapple. I frosted it with buttercream icing that I colored green and sprinkled with green dyed coconut for grass. I made a road with black icing and added matchbox cars and road sign cupcake pics. The signs might have been overkill but I thought they were cute.

He blew out his candle like a pro.

If you ask him now how old he is, he says, "I not 2 anymore.... I turn it into three!". As you can see, Jon's family knows how much he loves cars. The wooden trucks/cars that Aunt Suzanne found are really cool.

Happy Birthday, Evan-ator!

Fruit Popsicles

I've found a homemade popsicle that the kids really love. I've tried just fruit juice in the past but they didn't really love them. This time I pureed fruit mixed with pineapple juice to sweeten it (you don't have to use pineapple... I just use it because I save the juice from any can of pineapple I open). These popsicles turn out like those "whole fruit" popsicles that sell for big bucks in the store.
This version was strawberries, banana, and pineapple juice. I've also made yogurt pops with banana, vanilla yogurt, and whatever other fruit I have around.
Easy, cheap, healthy....

Charlotte's Cotton Tank Top

Cotton yarn was on sale at JoAnne's recently so I got a huge skein and started this tank top. I loved knitting it because it had an incredible amount of stockinette stitch knit in the round which means lots and lots of just plain ol' knit stitch. I knit this without thinking or looking at what I was doing much (on the skirt at least).

The yarn I used is Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Twists (Lava Lamp Twists). It's funny how it looks mostly green from far away but close up the pink stands out.

I'm so glad I knit the skirt an inch longer then the pattern called for because it shrank 2" in length when I washed it. Next time I'll knit it even longer to anticipate shrinkage.

The bodice turned out MUCH larger then I think it was supposed to. I'm not sure what went wrong because all the stitch counts matched up and I followed the directions exactly.

So, instead of ripping out all of that knitting, I grabbed the sewing machine and made the bodice smaller. It's a bit of a bulky fix and it won't win any awards but it took 10 minutes versus a couple of days to fix. It made a pleat in the back of the skirt but it doesn't look too bad. I also shortened the straps.

I think I'll try this pattern again because this style of top is so cute on Charlotte but I'll be reworking the pattern to make the bodice fit.

Wordless Wednesday - Weirdest Shaped Bread Loaf

Never try to squish a lump of dough that's too long into a pan to avoid reshaping it....

A Beautiful Dozen

My mom's hens are laying! Actually they've been laying for a few weeks now. Nothing like prompt blog posts.

They lay a beautiful array of colors ranging from pinkish brown to light olive green.

I love the freckles on that brown egg.

The eggs are delicious and the yolks are a rich orange. They are thriving on their diet of kitchen scraps, bugs, grass, and feed.

Thanks for sharing their wonderful eggs, Mom. We are loving them!

Cherries!

This past Friday, Whole Foods had their sweet cherries on sale for 1.99/lb!! I don't usually shop at Whole Foods because the prices are insanely high but I couldn't pass up this sale. I bought 12 pounds of cherries.

These will be pitted (thankfully I just bought a cherry pitter) and made into jam, frozen whole, and pureed and frozen to use to make cherry applesauce this fall.

I had almost given up on getting cherries this year since the you-pick orchard that I was planning to visit, is an hour away and between the heat and our busy schedule, I hadn't found time to go pick.

I thought I loved cherries.... Evan was eating them as fast as I could pit them yesterday. He has yet to meet a fruit that he doesn't adore.

Who Needs A Dirt Pit?

The kids have a designated area for digging in our backyard. We put down a thick bed of mulch, put pavers around the perimeter..... but this is what I saw when I checked on the kids yesterday afternoon..... Apparently it's much more fun to bring a big bucketful of dirt onto the patio and play in it there instead of in the dirt pit.

Evan's bulldozer's job was to push the dirt to Charlotte's awaiting pick up truck.... Charlotte would then drive the dirt to her "garden"... and the process would start again.

My general rule of thumb is if the kids are playing happily and nicely, ignore the mess.. or in this case the dirt on the patio. And that's just what I did. I went back inside to make dinner and they had fun with that pile of dirt for an hour.... when at that point Jon carried them to the tub after they put most of the dirt back in the dirt pit.

Summertime... it doesn't get much better....

Last Week's Garden

I really should post pictures of the garden as soon as I take them because this time of year the garden changes daily. Here are some pictures of last week. The sugar snap peas were ready for their first harvest.

I got a gallon sized ziploc full of them. I love them raw and I love them cooked... an all around favorite veggie for me. I'll definitely be growing them again next year.

The lettuce is still thriving despite our hot weather. Luckily it's rained a lot lately so the garden is overall pretty happy.

The kholrabi is thriving. I think I'll be harvesting some this weekend.

This is a head of the Ermosa Butterhead lettuce. It's beautiful. I like it's taste though the romaine is my favorite for it's crunch.

I harvested some swiss chard for my mom. She loves greens. I like them sparingly so I only grow a small patch of them.

Sorting through the harvest.

I'll hopefully post some new pictures of the garden today or tomorrow. I need to get out there this morning and do some work... weeding, pulling up bolted broccoli raab, mulching, etc.

Wordless Wednesday - Siblings

Leftover Sock Yarn Made Into Christmas Ornaments

I had a bit of sock yarn leftover from the full sized socks I knitted and decided to start making Christmas ornaments. I'm hoping to have enough of these made by Christmas to give to relatives this Christmas. These socks are so tiny but super fast to knit. You use the same needles and yarn to make regular socks so it's not hard on my fingers to make something that small. I used this pattern and they were a snap to make. Each one takes me about an hour and a half.

I've since made 2 other tiny socks. It's amazing how little yarn you need to make a teeny tiny sock.

After knitting a few tiny socks, I tried my hand at a tiny top-down sweater. I used this pattern. I've never made a full sized top-down sweater so I was pleasantly surprised by how simple it was. I'm definitely going to be knitting a full sized top-down sweater soon.

How cute is that? I think I'll try to find a pattern for an even smaller sweater since this one is a bit big for an ornament but it would fit a Barbie perfectly!

Knitted Socks... 4 Months In The Making

Back in February, I started these socks as part of a knitting Olympics. I finished them a few weeks ago so I don't think I will qualify for any medals. I got a little overwhelmed when I started knitting them and would get stressed out anticipating the next step in the process and I'd put the sock in the bottom of the bag for a week or two. When I finally worked up the courage to knit that next step, it was never has hard as I thought it was going to be. Still I was sure that next step was surely going to be too hard and I'd wait again. So, it took me 4 months to find out that socks are not that hard to knit. Each step is pretty easy once you learn how to do it. I think the first sock took 3 months to knit and the second one only a week or two. Here they are. One is slightly longer then the other and overall they're too long in the instep. There are a few little mistakes but happily they don't really show when I'm wearing them.


They're really comfortable and feel like they were made for my feet.

I used the sock pattern that came with "The Art of Knitting II, DVD". It has a sock knit-a-long that was SO helpful! You watch a step on the video and then the DVD pauses on it's own until you continue on after you've completed that step.

The toe is a bit pointy for me so next time I think I'll decrease a bit faster, making the toe more blunt.

The yarn is a sock weight yarn, "Regia" in the color "Partie". I love the yarn but it does have quite a twist in it making the ribbing look a bit off. The stockinette parts looked fine though.

So, I've now gotten over my irrational fear of knitting socks and I've gotten used to double pointed needles. I loved how knitting socks is so portable. They hardly take up any space in a purse or knitting bag. I think I'd like to always have a sock in progress so I can have something to do while I wait in line or ride in the car.

Now I need to get some Birkenstocks this fall to show off my knitted socks. I wonder if that's why hippies wore them. Were they all sock knitters?

A Little Magic Trick

Now you see it...... Now you don't!

The End Of An Era

Six years ago we bought a crib. I was barely pregnant with Charlotte we couldn't wait to set it up. I decorated her tiny nursery with rubber duckies and painted the walls with glittery bubbles. It was the only room I missed when we moved because I had put so much love into creating it for her.

Then a few years later that crib was moved to Evan's room and I decorated his nursery with bugs... lots and lots of cute, happy bugs.
.
.
.
Here he is.... almost 3 years old standing in his crib for the last time. He looks so big, doesn't he? I guess I never noticed until now.

This morning we took down the crib....

and set up the beautiful, antique bed that was given to me by a friend. It's heavy brass bed that has a beautiful, deep brown patina over much of it. It's a 3/4 bed (in between a twin and a full) but it has a twin mattress on it.

The fact that the mattress is a bit small is a bonus. It makes the perfect step to help him climb into bed.

.

I'm not going to redecorate his room right now. I didn't want to make too many changes for him all at once. Plus, I'm putting off painting over those bugs as long as I can!

He is so excited about his big boy bed.

He and Charlotte played in it for 2 hours this morning.

This is not a baby's bed.

He's growing up and it's so exciting. A small part of me will miss that crib but I'm mostly excited for him. There's so much in this world he can explore now that he's getting older.

.

I just looked in the video monitor and he's fast asleep for his nap. He's sleeping sideways. It only took him 10 minutes to fall asleep. I guess he likes his new bed.

My big boy.....