Tie Dye Party

Jake, Jackson, Ava and Meg enjoying the tie dye party.

Henry, Ava and Meg swinging and eating popsicles. What a life.

Henry, Ava and Meg swinging on the swingset.

Meg and Ava eating their popsicles. Thanks to Abby for taking these cute photos at our second annual tie dye party. We have a playdate where you can come and dye your shirts red, white and blue. It was around 80 degrees, but we had it under a shade tree by the playset.

I couldn't believe how everything just worked out - there was enough dye for all of the shirts (bought out the Wal-mart supply), our day was beautiful and we had almost 40 people there!

After working out the kinks, I think next year's party will be pretty seamless. We talked about doing three stations, including putting rubberbands on shirts, dying shirts (2 buckets each of red and blue) and a washing and drying station. Hopefully putting this on the blog will be my reminder.

I love the fourth of July. It's one of my favorite holidays. There's beautiful sunny weather and lots of parades and fireworks. This year we had a crab and shrimp boil. That will be replayed next year! It was so good!

Two new books I want to buy

These two books are on my list to purchase soon. I read "How to Pick a Peach" by Russ Parsons, LA Times food editor, last month. In it is an amazing recipe for potato gratin with turnips. Since I like zuchinni better, I used zuchinni with pecorino romano on the top. And salt. Lots of salt since potatoes and zuchinni need lots of seasoning.

And "Rustic Fruit Dessserts" by Cory Schreiber and and Julie Richardson is pure food heaven during summer when blackberries, blackraspberries and raspberries are in season. "Desserts" looks amazing with its lush photos of cobblers and buckles. And why are they called buckles anyway?

I am so hungry now.

A camping we will go..

We went camping Monday and Tuesday with the girls and some of our friends from church in Hocking Hills. Last year, I was a little wary about camping with the girls at six months and 2 years. But, I should have been wary about this year. Camping with a 1.5 year old is like playing Russian Roulette. And this year we hit the roulette.

We got to our campsite about 4 pm after a great hike at Old Man's Cave. Then we got to see everyone, put our tent up and eat some of Grandma Yoder's amazing rice krispie treats.

Although it was 90 degrees-plus, the weather and area was beautiful-- lush, green and at least 10 butterflies floating around. I think that area is one of the most beautiful places in Ohio.

Ava loved going on hikes with her little friends, Logan, Georgia and Jackson and Sophia loved finding and drinking all of the empty water bottles. Sophia also did great on our hikes in the Coffey's backpacker thingy (don't know the name).

Sophia was sleeping great Monday night until 2 am when she couldn't find her pacy. It really got her going. We think she might also have had a night terror because she was inconsolable. So Brandon watched her in the car so we wouldn't wake everyone else up. And he slept in the car and she slept in her car seat. What a great dad. I told him he would have lots of points on the scoreboard after that night.

We had such a great time hiking at Old Man's Cave and Conkles Hollow, eating in the open air and sitting around the campfire talking. Ava wants to go back and said she liked hiking and camping in the tent.

After our long night up with Sophia, we have been pretty tired. Resting up because Momma and Poppa Shmidt are coming on Saturday. Can't wait!

Building cathedrals on Earth

I came upon this video looking for a Beth Moore video. While I don't always feel like the invisible woman, sometimes I do wonder if I am doing enough for my kids, I mean who doesn't.

So, I really was encouraged by this great video. It's about how the cathedrals were built over more than a century by many unknown skilled workers and how our lives are for building into others when no one sees it, only God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YU0aNAHXP0&feature=related

Another day, another crepe.

Fresh raspberry crepes

Well, yesterday was pretty eventful. Sophia, our little daredevil, got hurt. She is doing okay today and was hungry so I made stir-fry, one of her favorite dishes.

I found these cool chinese noodles at Whole Foods (under two dollars) that I use along with chicken, bok choy, grated carrots, fresh ginger, and scallions to make a stir fry the girls. They really like to eat at Pei Wei and Ava loves Kai Lan, a character on Nicktoons and how she eats chinese food. They get to string the noodles into their little mouths never knowing how good it is for them.

Then, after watching Giada today make raspberry crepes, I thought, "I have to try that...today!" So, I made them with our fresh raspberry jam I made from the raspberries at Jacquemin Farms. They were sweet, tart and oh so rich with the fresh cream.

Turns out they made everyone really happy. I mean Ava thought they were the coolest, Sophia was grunting for more and Brandon ate two.

Crepes are pretty simple if you just let them sit for one minute on the first side and 30 seconds on the second side to cook the egg in the batter. Also, I my blender broke so I used my food processor.

I made fresh whipped cream for the topping, but not the vanilla sugar.