Strawberries!

 Every year we go and pick strawberries, so we piled everyone, Derek's mom, brother, sister and us in the van and went pickin' at Lorences Berry Farm.  Adeline did pretty well on Der's back and Hakan ate his weight in strawberries:)

The night before we had some extremely strong winds in the area that apparently wiped out a lot of the other strawberry grower's fields, so they were sending over their picking teams to this one, so we made sure to pick a lot just in case this is all we would get for the season.

 We went home with 17 pounds of berries.  I hulled and froze most of them already...I have red hands to prove it and I've made two awesomely delicious recipes so far, besides melted chocolate fondue with strawberries and vanilla bean ice cream topped with strawberries, with more to come.

Strawberry Mint Popsicles

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries

1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh mint leaves (I have a mint plant, so this was perfect)

3/4 cup vanilla bean yogurt

3/4 cup half and half

agave syrup for sweetness to taste

Instructions:  Blend all ingredients together and freeze in popsicle molds

Strawberry Buttermilk Muffins

You can find the recipe here.

Summer Date Night Mission 1

This summer, Derek and I are on a mission to eat all the ice cream in the metro...or try as many different shops as we can anyway:)  There are so many around here, we need to take advantage of them.  And then we need to start working out more, ha!

So while Derek's mom was here, we went to a movie, Snowwhite and the Huntsman, such a good movie, I'm sort of a fairytale/fantasy kind of girl. Derek doesn't count movies as a date, because you can't talk...I agree, but I LOVE movies, so sometimes he gives in. 

Then we went to the Pumphouse Creamery for some of the best ice cream we've had.

It's totally natural, fresh and creamy using local ingredients!  We almost always get a pint, because it ends up being the same price as a little cone...even though we don't really need a pint:)  Vanilla with Door County Cherries and Chocolate with Homemade Chocolate Brownie were our ice creams of choice and they did not disappoint.  The vanilla with cherries was our favorite!

Then we got another pint to bring home to his mom and tried Salted Peanut Butter ice cream with chocolate covered caramel, also delicious!  (if you babysit for us, we'll treat you with ice cream;)

Derek was embarrassed of me taking pictures...mainly because we don't have cool phones that take pictures more discretely (I know, old school here) so I had to use an actual camera and look a little foolish, oh well, all in the name of the mission.

They also make their own root beer, so of course we had to try that too!

We have tried a few other ice cream shops before, Izzy's, Grand Ole' Creamery, The Malt Shop, Ring Mountain...but if you have some recommendations, let me know.

Joyful Noise

Using the free tickets Der won for a year from KTIS, we went to the Joyful Noise Family Fest and brought his mom, sister and brother.  Hakan had the BEST day!  There were inflatables galore and he went on all of them:)  There was also non stop artists putting on concerts all day and you could here the music everywhere you went, it was great!

It was hot, a sweaty 98 degrees...so there was a lot of sitting in the shade and drinking water.

The babes slept like rocks that night:)

I Sewed a Skirt!

I made my high-waisted sash skirt using this tutorial.  It was actually easier than I expected and I really love it!  So I made Der take some pictures in our back yard...I dislike getting my picture taken like this, one word, awkward.  It was also super windy and hot, so none of them really turned out great, sorry!

  

  

  

What I'm wearing...

skirt - made by me, white tee - Gap, necklace - Lia Sophia, watch - Fossil, sandals - Target

Six Pocket Purse Tutorial

A friend of mine, Sarah, did a tutorial post of this purse over on her blog that she slightly modified from here, she's kind of a sewing genius and posts some good stuff!  I also have to say that it only took her an hour to make hers, where I may or may not have taken 3...I'll just add that I had two kids running around stealing thread, fabric and pushing the foot pedal randomly, among the normal baby/toddler things.

So here's mine.  I love all the pockets and I'm super excited to put it to use and fill it up:)  I'm thinking about possibly adding a button, we'll see.

Past Week

This is just a little randomness of our last week.

Hakan caught a dragonfly, which he called, "dinosaur bug."  The thing was huge and just let you pick it up, weird, but cool:)

We've gone to the park a lot in this beautiful weather.

Derek plays softball every Thursday night, so if he has early games, we're there cheering him on...or I'm trying to keep tab on my kids that are constantly running away and getting into things, sigh, I at least try to watch him when he's batting anyway.

This was right before hitting his second home run of the night, proud wife here:)

Over this past weekend we rode 30 miles with the kids.  This bike cart is magic, the kids almost always fall asleep which gives Derek and I kind of an impromptu date, awesome!   However, Adeline hates her helmet when you first put it on, but once we're going, she's fine.  A little tip for other parents of little biking babes, it helps to put a little fitted knit baby hat on under the helmet so it doesn't slide over their face.

I'm trying to ride with the kids during the week as well.  I think my goal is between 30-40 miles with them.  So far this week we've gone 15.  

I'm part of The Artisan Group, a celebrity gifting group where you can be put in lottery to give some of your handmade items to a bunch of celebrities and I got chosen to make something for Trista Sutter, THE first bachelorette!!  I decided to make her daughter, Blakesley, an elephant.  I mailed it off last week to California and then once they receive all the gifts for her it will be mailed on June 12 to Trista!  I'm nervous and excited, I hope they love it!  And she actually already asked for my name and address to send a thank you, sweet!

Hakan and Adeline are wearing some adorable screen printed shirts I got from Wren Willow who's having a HUGE 60% sale!  Her stuff is absolutely adorable and the shirts are super high quality.

Like our screen?  The kids have completely destroyed it and Bear was trying to make an escape.  We put a new screen on this past weekend (pretty easy DIY) that is supposedly animal and kid proof, time will tell...

More biking.  Had to get some ice cream after our long ride:)

He had this malt sucked down in like 2 seconds...from working so hard I'm sure;)

I finally got to make something for myself!!  I love creating things for other people,  I just wanted something that I could use, so I made this little quilted pouch out of scraps I had.  It was also the first time I used a zipper.  I LOVE it!  It's perfect for putting in my purse or diaper bag with whatever I need:)  Interested in one?  Just let me know:)

 We had our first CSA pick up last night at the farm and I couldn't be more excited to have all these greens in our fridge.  Lots of lettuce, spinach, cilantro, parsley, radish (don't really like them), sorrel (totally new to us, very sour), bok choy, and arugula.  The only problem is Derek doesn't eat salads...so I have a lot of salads to eat:)  Luckily, Derek's mom, sister and brother are coming this weekend, so they can help me:)

Adeline is getting her 4th one year molar so it's been waking her up and Der and I have been going to bed super late, something we really need to work on, but we're a little sleepy this past week.

Have a great week!