an 'anne' quiz

I saw this quiz over at The Sparrow's Nest and was curious to see how I would do. I love Anne of Green Gables. I recently introduced the kids to Anne with Focus on the Family's Anne of Green Gables radio theatre. They loved it and so did I!

How Well Do You Know Anne?

You know Anne very well! Good job :)
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new, super fast, running shoes

Thomas got a new pair of tennis shoes today. Oh man, he can run so much faster now! Those old shoes were really slowing him down I guess. :)

Look at him zooming around the driveway!

By the way, the silly pose with his tongue out and arms like that is his new favorite thing to do whenever the camera is pointed at him. He thinks it looks pretty cool....or he would say 'pretty sweet!'. We got the pictures that he took while he was at summer camp developed today and of course, there he was doing this crazy pose!

nerts!

Last night after dinner we went over to a friend's house and played the card game, Nerts. This game is a blast! (I'll explain how to play it down below.) Thomas caught on pretty quickly and is now totally into this game. We played it a couple of times this morning after breakfast and a few more times after lunch already today. This is fun for me since I grew up playing cards and Scott is totally not a game player at all.

Elle's kind of catching onto the game. She has her little Dora cards and picks out all of the good cards to put out on the piles. Pretty cute! That's Ava under Elle's chair. She likes small spaces for some reason. :)

To play, everyone gets a deck of cards with the jokers removed. After shuffling the deck and passing it to the player to your left you place 13 cards in a pile all face down, except for the top card. The top card gets flipped face side up. This pile of cards is called your Nerts pile. Then you place 4 cards face up in a row next to the Nerts pile. Someone shouts go and then you basically just play solitaire but the twist is that you get to play on everyones aces that get put in the middle. This is when it gets crazy and the cards start flying! The object of the game is to get rid of your nerts pile first and to play as many cards out into the middle as possible. The first person who gets rid of his/her nerts pile shouts NERTS! and the game immediately stops. Everyone else counts how many cards are left in their nerts piles. This number gets subtracted from the number of cards that they played on the aces in the middle of the table during the game. The person with the highest score wins. We usually play first one to 100 points wins it all.

Learning to play cards also means learning to shuffle. He's getting it figured out and can't wait to learn how to do the bridge shuffle. Practice, practice, practice!

getting so big

Such a big girl....learning to eat with a fork!

new jammies for elle

I've had a couple of old, too worn out to use, pillowcases saved for awhile. This morning I turned one of them into a pillowcase nightgown for Elle. I used the instructions here as a reference and just made changes as I went along to make it work for Elle. It should be cozy to sleep in. The fabric is super soft and they will be nice and cool for the summer.

I'd like to try to make this bag with the other pillowcase. Or maybe Ava needs a nightgown too?! Hers could be a dress since she's smaller. Hmmm....I think I need to find a few more cute old pillowcases. :)

By the way, look closely at that smile in the second picture. Elle lost another tooth on the bottom so she now has a total of 6 teeth missing. The two bottom, middle permanent teeth are just starting to come through. Hopefully they grow quick! The other middle tooth on the top is pretty wiggly!

sprinkler fun

It was hot here this afternoon. Hot and windy. I don't remember a Minnesota summer being this windy before. We spent a few hours in town running errands and as soon as we got home and everything was unloaded from the vehicle, Thomas and Elle put on their swimsuits and ran through the sprinklers. Ava didn't join in because she was napping. I'm sure she would've been chasing them around if she had been up!

tommy's favorite picture

a message from ava

Hi Tommy and Elle! This your little sister. Mommy told me that you guys are coming home tomorrow and I can't wait! I've missed you dudes. I've been a good girl and haven't got into all of your stuff while you've been away. I thought about it a couple of times but Mommy always caught me. Today I am going out on the boat with Mommy and Daddy. I plan on taking a nice long nap with the fan blowing on me and the waves rocking me to dreamland. Tell Grandpa and Grandma hi for me and I'll talk to you tomorrow!

yard work and mosquitos

Today I mowed the lawn, pulled lots of weeds along the rocks in the driveway and in my flower gardens, and gave everything a good watering. The mosquitos are terrible here right now! I was brushing them away constantly. Luckily, I usually don't swell up with their bites but little Elle Marie does. When she gets back home it will have to be the rule to put on bug spray before going outside to play, everytime.

I gotta go and get ready for my date tonight. :) Scott is driving home from the cities right now. (He had another quick business trip to Chicago this week.) We are going to meet in town for dinner and my neighbor girl is coming over to watch Ava Mae for us. We haven't been out alone for awhile. I'm looking forward to it!

straw-ba-ba-ba-ba-berries!!

Today is the first day the U-Pick strawberry farm by us is open. I went and picked 3 overflowing icecream buckets full of super sweet, bright red berries this moring. This is definately a highlight of every summer for me. I have half of them cleaned and in the freezer on cookie sheets. I will put them in freezer bags when they are frozen and they will get used throughout the year in smoothies. I also take some of them and add sugar for topping icecream and angel food cake. Several get made into strawberry jam and then we eat them till we can't eat anymore!

Tonight for dinner I am making this salad -

Strawberry-Citrus Chicken Salad

Place these items in a large bowl -
washed green leaf lettuce
sliced strawberries
mandarin oranges, drained of juice
sliced red onion

Sprinkle 2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts with salt and pepper and grill over medium-high heat for 5 to 7 minutes on each side or until done. Let stand for 10 minutes and then cut into 1/2 inch thick slices and place on top of salad greens.

Top with Strawberry-Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Strawberry-Balsamic Vinaigrette
1 1/2 cups strawberry jam
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp chopped rosemary
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Pulse all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Ava likes them! :)

back to my regularly scheduled blogging

This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind! We've been gone vacationing since last Thursday. The kids and I spent a couple of days last week in the cities doing some shopping and visiting the Minnesota Zoo while Scott was traveling for work. Friday evening we picked him up from the airport and then started on our way to visit family in Nebraska. We spent a few days there and yesterday Scott, Ava and I came back home to Minnesota. Thomas and Elle stayed in Nebraska to spend some time with Grandpa and Grandma. They will be home on Sunday....I miss them already!

fairy houses

The kids and I have been working on a list of ideas for them to do when boredom hits this summer. This idea was Rocks in My Dryer's Works For Me Wednesday tip and I thought it was a good one. One of the things on our list was to make fairy houses. Elle really got into this idea. She collected shells while she was swimming last weekend and has been gathering acorn tops. Today while I mowed the lawn she made these little houses for the garden fairies. I'm sure that they love them!

8 more random things about me

When I first started blogging I worked on a list of 100 things about me like you see on so many blogs but could never come up with enough things to finish the list so I gave it up. When I was tagged by Sing For Him to list 8 things about myself I decided to go ahead and do this meme again. Maybe I will do this every now and then as I think of things and gradually get to my 100 things. I always enjoy reading these lists to kinda get to know the woman behind the blog a bit more. I hope you do too! :)

9. I took piano lessons for 9 years and taught lessons my junior and senior years of high school. I have not played since then though. I look forward to having a piano again someday and would love to teach the kids to play. I remember sitting down at the keyboard whenever I was upset or grumpy and playing for half an hour or so and then feeling so much better. Music had a way of changing my perspective and making things right again.

10. When I was growing up I loved the movie Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken. I always thought I would name one of my daughters Sonora like the main character in the movie. Scott wasn't on board with that name though. Elle's name did come from a movie though. A couple of weeks before she was born we watched Legally Blonde and we both really liked the name Elle after seeing that movie. Her name is often misunderstood by people though. They think it is Ellie, Ella, Ellen, or Alice. My grandma even wrote 'Happy Birthday Al' in her first birthday card. Not Al, Grandma, Elle...like the letter. :) It was funny!

11. My favorite sandwich is a BLT with avocado....I guess that would be a BLAT!

12. I like country music.

13. One of my favorite shows is TLC's What Not To Wear. I've noticed since watching this show though that I own more shoes now than I ever have. I used to have about 4 or 5 pairs....seriously. Now I have close to 15 and one of them is a pair of leopard print ballet flats. Maybe I should stop having my TiVo record that show.

14. My favorite book is Not My Will by Francena Arnold. I've read it 4 times and cry every single time. Such a good story.

15. I am so glad that Bermuda shorts are in style.

16. All 3 of my kids were born early without being induced. Thomas and Elle were both 2 weeks early and Ava was 3 weeks early.

For the first '8 things about me' post, click here.

boating fun

I love days like today. This morning after breakfast we all went to work getting our chores done around the house so that we could play this afternoon. And play we did! We went out on the lake at 2:30 this afternoon and came back in at 8:30. The weather was gorgeous! We spent the afternoon laying around on the boat working on our tan :), the kids did some swimming and we ate a few of our favorite snacks. Love the boat snacks!

For dinner we decided to go eat pizza at a restaurant on the lake. Pepperoni pizza for the kids and taco pizza for Scott and I. On the way home the kids said they wanted to swim again so when we got close to home we stopped and let them swim for awhile longer. It was such a fun day together. Here are some, I mean several, pictures from the day.






Scott said the caption for this picture should be 'Not only does Ava clean her plate, she eats it too!' :)

chefs in training

Thomas and Elle made the family breakfast this morning. The menu was Tommy's Scrambled Eggs, Elle's Buttered Toast, and grape juice. This was the 3rd time they've made this and they're getting pretty good at it. All I had to do was supervise and remind them of the steps. They are both working on the kitchen clean up right now!

bathtime fun

Ava loves to take baths. She thinks it is fun to splish and splash in the water and chew on the washcloth.
Washing her hair like Mama does.

Time to dry off and get dressed.
Last but not least, brushing those new little teeth.
Nothing is better than snuggling and smooching a sweet baby right after bathtime. :)

ready to potty train already?!

This afternoon Ava went to the diaper drawer in the bathroom, got one out, brought it over to me and put it in my lap while I was at my computer. I looked at her and asked her if she needed a new diaper on. She said 'es' and nodded her head. Sure enough, she did! We all got a kick out of it! But no, I'm not ready to start potty training my 14 month old yet....unless this keeps happening. :)

works for me wednesday: homemade playdough

The theme for this week's 'Works for Me Wednesday' is to share ideas to help keep your kids from complaining about being bored this summer. My kiddos love to play with playdough...I even think it's fun too! :) Here is my favorite recipe to make it at home. It stays soft for a long time if it is stored correctly.

Mix in a medium-size saucepan:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
2 Tbsp cream of tartar

Combine and add to above:
1 cup water
1 - 2 tsp food coloring
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes. When it forms a ball in the center of the pan, turn out and knead on a lightly floured surface. Store in an airtight container or a plastic bag.

There are lots of great ideas over at Rocks in My Dryer. Go check them out! :)

Update: The kids were by me when I typed up this recipe and were begging me to make it. We made an orange batch and then a yellow batch. Here they are playing with it. Gotta love those tongues sticking out....such concentration!

curls wanted

Today Elle said she wanted curly hair like Ava, so after her bath we put sponge curlers in for fun. She had them in for a couple of hours but then said they got too itchy. When we took them out she had wavy hair. She was pretty happy with it!

yesterday in pictures

Yesterday was a good day. I got everything done that I had hoped to except washing the windows in the front entryway. That is on today's list now.

I love to watch a baby sleeping so peacefully like this. They're just so precious! This is Ava yesterday morning.

Good Morning Elle Marie!

Thomas has been wanting to learn to mow. Yesterday was his first try. He thought it was pretty fun. I look forward to the day when he can take that chore over for me. It will still be awhile though....the hill can be tricky to mow.

Ava and Daddy on the porch.

The Grill Master at work. :) The chicken turned out delish!