Celebrating Gracie's 11th Birthday

Little miss ended up celebrating her Birthday the entire week of her special day. Not a bad way to celebrate...

We have a once-monthly family dinner with my extended family & it just happened to fall on Gracie's Birthday this year, so we had to have cake & presents :)

Grandma Raber has a special gift for knowing & remembering the special interests of her grandchildren & buys gifts accordingly. 

Grace loves puttering around in the kitchen, helping me bake pastries & helping to cook the family meals. Ever since she watched the American Girl movie "Grace" (who also loves to bake) I haven't been able to keep her out of the kitchen :)

She is now the proud owner of  2 cookbooks of her very own. Grandma also made the sweet little apron shes wearing.

...more goodies

Earlier in the week, she had 2 of her cousins over for a Tea Party Luncheon, complete with dainty tea cups & Mama's wedding china.

Her gifts from Mama & Daddy...she was thrilled :)

Every day, I thank God for giving me a little pink in my life. Someone to do all the girly things with. Your adventurous spirit inspires me. Your willingness to help, in all areas, blesses me.

Your sensitivity to other's needs, challenges me to be more sensitive...

I'm so proud of the young lady you are becoming.

I love you, sweet girl <3

Summer-time Happenings

Hello there!

It's been pretty quiet here lately. It's summer-time & most of our time has been spent outside. Swimming, camping, sleepovers & wading in the creek with cousins & the neighborhood children...

This will also go down as the summer that I took little to no photos :(

3 weeks till school starts & there are no digital memories of summer 2016...

I need to change that very soon!

Today, the children & I spent most of our morning in the garden, & all afternoon in the kitchen.

We picked the 1st of the tomatoes...adding these tiny tomatoes to your sauces, creates a thick, rich sauce base...I washed these, put them in a freezer bag & threw them in the freezer till I have more ripe tomatoes to add to them.

Then we washed & peeled the cucumbers, put them in jars & pickled them. This is the children's favorite recipe for pickles. They eat them like they're candy.

Banana Pickles

Peel & slice in quarters, length-wise.

Pack tightly into quart or pint jars.

In a large saucepan, combine:

6 cup organic cane sugar

2 cup water

2 cup vinegar

2 T. turmeric

2 T. salt

2 T. mustard seed...

Bring to a boil then pour pickling juice over cucumbers & cold pack in a water bath for 10 minutes after it comes to a boiling point....

Then there were sweet banana peppers to clean, slice & preserve...

Sweet Banana Peppers

Slice peppers into thin rings & put into jars...

In a medium sauce pan, bring remaining ingredients to a boil & pour pickling juice over the pepper rings in the jar.

3 cup white vinegar

2 cup water

2 T. sea salt

2 T. organic cane sugar

1 garlic clove (per jar)

Cold pack in a water bath for 10 minutes after it comes to a boil.

These sweet banana peppers stay crisp, unlike some other recipes I've tried.

We love using them on tacos, sloppy nachos, chili, pizza & so much more!

Thats all for today :) ...Happy Monday!

Fairy Garden dreams

We can't hardly keep our hands out of the dirt lately! The days keep getting warmer & we can't wait to fill our pots with colorful flowers.

Gracie & I have been making 2 trips a week, to the greenhouse the last few weeks. Sometimes it's just to look at all the flowers & see how they've grown...Other times we come home with a trunk full of flowers :)

 Gracie has been asking to make a Fairy Garden for the past few years, so we've been watching for tiny Garden trinkets at Garage sales & local Thrift stores.

This past week we found the final piece we'd been looking for, A Fairy house!

We were shopping a local Thrift store & found one for only a 1.00!

We headed to the greenhouse again today, in search of  tiny plants....

We found 3 that worked perfectly. Gracie picked the one with tiny blue flowers...

...We kept it small this year, simply cause it was our first year making one. 

As we find more trinkets to add, we'll expand the garden as well.

There are multitudes of stores that carry a vast variety of Fairy Garden trinkets, but they tend to be pricey, & with 4 curious boys in my life, I decided it's probably better to find used items at a fraction of the cost. If they get broken, it's no big loss :) 

Gracie finally has her own tiny Fairy Garden. Shes been unbelievably patient as we've searched for  treasures to add to it!

Happy Gardening!

St. Patrick's Day Fun & Facts

 We incorporated some St.Patrick's Day fun  into our school day, today...

While the children worked on their morning studies, I was in the kitchen, baking up some of the greenest cupcakes ever!

All the kiddos with their green cupcakes, wearing their green shirts...or skivvies ;)

The 5 year old remembered a certain incident awhile back, when Mama made Pink velvet cupcakes & exclaimed,"We're gonna poop GREEN this week!...I know... Leprechaun poop!"

While they enjoyed their cupcakes, I read a few, fun tidbits of  why we celebrate St. Patrick's Day....Some of which was new to me as well.

feb

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2013

-St. Patrick’s Day is the feast day of the patron saint of Ireland, named St. Patrick. Patrick wasn’t born Irish. He was brought to Ireland as a slave after he was kidnapped.  He escaped back to Britain to be with his family. While there, a voice told him to go back to Ireland.  He was ordained as a priest and spent the rest of his life working to bring Christianity to Ireland.
-St. Patrick’s Day is the national holiday of Ireland and we celebrate it each year on March 17 because this is the day he is rumored to have died.
-People search for four leaf clovers which are very rare.  Finding one is supposed to be very lucky. A shamrock is actually a three leaf, clover like plant.
-Legend has it that St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).
-The color of St. Patrick’s Day is green.  Ireland is known for it’s green shades of grass and the shamrock is green as well.
-Traditionally people eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day.
-Some people claim that St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. However, science has proven that there never were any snakes in Ireland because of the cold climate. It is thought that the word snakes in this legend actually represent driving out the pagan ways when he introduced Christianity.
-Irish legend says that there is a small Irish fairy called the leprechaun.  He wears pointed shoes, a hat, and a leather apron.  According to the legend, he’s very unfriendly and lives alone in the forest guarding his pots of gold.  The story says that if you find a leprechaun, he will have to tell you where is gold is hidden. If you look away for even one second, the leprechaun will disappear along with all his gold.

      

...& there you have your Thursday, St. Patrick's Day, History lesson...

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Valentine crafts

Fridays are fun days...For the kids anyway...

They have music, then we run errands etc.

Today I needed to get a few groceries to make my dessert for "mission's Sunday" at church. so we hit Wally world, then decided to stop at JoAnn Fabrics for a few crafty things for today's Art projects.

Groceries & a fabric/craft store is no small feat with 5 kiddos in tow, but they did great, with the promise of some fun activities when we got home :)

The ones who wanted to, made heart garlands to hang in their bedrooms...

The boy was in his element...

festive chalk art for Valentines

& a little Love for the mantle...

...& some pillow Love :)

I found the pistachio green polka dot on sale for 30% off @ a 3/4 yrd. + a .49 piece of felt, I have a great pillow for the grand total of  4.00!

I don't usually decorate for Valentines Day, other than our little family, dinner celebration, but I needed a craft project for the kiddos today & it worked out great :) 

Dreaming of a white Christmas...

Christmas is ever-changing at our house, each year is a different theme...

I don't go crazy with decorations. With young children, it's just not practical, but it's always enough to get us excited for Christmas & the traditions we've started with our little family...

This year the theme is more rustic, out-doorsy.

I even managed to persuade husband to drill tiny holes in some of his smaller deer antlers, to use as tree ornaments :)

It's become a tradition to get a few new ornaments each year, for the tree. Sometimes the children choose them, other times I need a few more to go with the theme for that year....

The Wreath was a DIY that I've been wanting to make for a few years now & finally got it done this year. Here is the tutorial I used to make it http://www.momadvice.com/post/how-to-make-a-yarn-pom-pom-wreath

When you're 4 & watching Tom & Jerry & you just don't want to move  for mom to take a photo...

...Rudolf got bedazzled as well :)

I usually trim some pine for decorating as well, but it wasn't important enough to me this morning, to bundle up & gather pine for the blog :)

This year we'll be having Husband's extended family here for Christmas, by then I'll have the pine trimmed & adorned & I'll blog about some of the traditions we've started with our little family...until then...Merry Christmas! from our Family to yours!

In my Kitchen today: Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

My blogging is sporadic at best, but sometimes the mood just isn't there.

I spent the day in my kitchen again today, & when I come across a delicious recipe, I always like to share. Today I tried a Banana Chocolate chip cupcake recipe & it was phenomenal!

I'm pretty sure you can't eat just one .

I tweaked the original recipe to my liking  & doubled it cause our kiddos have healthy appetites & one batch would last about 2 days!

I rarely have over-ripe bananas to use for baking, cause the children gobble them up so quick, but last night we were blessed with about 10 bunches of over-ripe bananas! I used some for baking today & peeled the rest & stored them in freezer bags in the freezer for later.

Banana Chocolate Chip cupcakes

• 4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup sour milk
• 4 over-ripe bananas or 2 cup mashed
• 4 cup unbleached all purpose white flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 pkg dark chocolate, mini chocolate chips

Cream coconut sugar, butter & bananas. Add eggs & sour milk(set aside).

In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder & chocolate chips.

Slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture.

Fill cupcake papers 2/3-3/4 full.

Bake at 350' till done.

Yields: 45 cupcakes

* For the sour milk, add 1 TBS vinegar to the milk & give it a stir. In about a minute, you have sour milk.

* The original recipe called for maple icing, but these cupcakes are super sweet & no additional icing is needed.

Enjoy!