Summer happenings

Ira helped me make some sauerkraut! He went through the whole process with me this time. He will be making it on his own in no time! :)

We are starting to go into the food prep/preserving time of year! First harvests, herbs dried, foods fermented, berried frozen. Soon I'll be getting the canner out!

These beauties are from the community garden!

Getting ready to brew a big batch of lemon balm, ginger, lavender tea. Sweetened with a little honey. I've been making big batches of ice tea to beat the hot weather, so perfect. :)

Some more harvest from the community garden!

A sweet little frog in my garden. Just hanging out.

My squash just didn't do very well this year. Hoping it suddenly starts to rapidly grown. At least there are a few flowers on them. :/

Beets! Beautiful yummy beats. :)

Messages of love in the sand. 

Kayaking!

We took the kids to a local lake and brought the kayak along. 

It's not a two person kayak but there is room to put one kids at a time in front of me since they are still little-ish.

Mini-kayaking lesson. :) Go Ira go!

Banden leaned forward like this the whole time, so funny. Feeling the wind in his face. ;)

This is harder than it looks. Paddling with one in front and two hanging on in back. No wonder my arms were sore when we left!

 

So much fun to share my love of kayaking with my kiddos! Only possible because Ryder came along to watch the others on shore while I paddled around. Even got to go out on my own for a bit. :) Sadly it's the only time I've been able to go out yet this year. Better something than nothing I suppose. It was sweet of Ryder to turn our family day into a kayaking trip, knowing how much I wanted to go but also how much I wanted (and the kids needed) some much needed family time. Hopefully I will be able to make time to go out at least a few more times this year. Looks like Ryder will not be working so much over time for a bit (always subject to change at a moments notice) so maybe I can squeak some me time in for kayaking, alone. :) 

Fourth of July fun!

So a few days before the fourth Leiella informed us all that July 4th was Teresa's birthday. She was all excited about it and because Teresa seems so real to her, and she truly loves this doll I thought I'd go along with it. :) So the morning of the fourth I made the usually birthday pancakes for Teresa, who apparently was turning four. 

Then Leiella and I stopped at a craft store, on our way to the grocery store, and bought Teresa a couple new outfits. :) When we got home Leiella wrapped them up and waited for the perfect time to surprise Teresa with her birthday gift. It was cute.

All dressed up in a new dress! :) Happy 4th birthday Teresa!

In the afternoon we headed to a good friends house to celebrate. The kids had a blast!

We took off before dark to head back home. We didn't want to go to the fireworks show everyone else was going to because we just don't like the crowds. Plus Ryder really doesn't like being on the roads late on holidays because people often have a little too much to drink, don't realize it, and drive. Thanksgiving is suppose to be the worst holiday for that! Booze and turkey makes for tired dangerous drivers. Any ways home we went...

Daisy in the dark.

We are pretty lucky because the neighbors at the end of the street put on an amazing and really big fireworks show. I absolutely hate spending money on fireworks, just feels like blowing money up in the sky, ha ha! So it's nice that the kids can still experience a fun show without dealing with huge crowds or buy them ourselves. :) We started out by siting on the side of the road across from our house.

But I got the idea of sitting in this field with a straight view down our road. We took blankets and drinks and lots of bug spray. ;)  

Beautiful views behind us, fireworks in front of us. Perfect. Don't know why we've never done this in years past!

There were of course a lot of mosquitos, it's just that time of year. Blanket forts come in handy for that. ;)

Having a blast!

Seriously adorable.

Love this crew! No one else I'd rather spend time with on this planet. :)

Silly one eyed photo bomb. 

I love that this kid truly likes the fireworks now. When he was little he would just cling to me in terror! For years. But the last few he's really seemed to enjoy himself. :)

She definitely enjoyed the show. ;) There were some really big fireworks!

Fourth of July snuggles!!!

It was another wonderful holiday spent with the ones I love. We stayed up way late and for once we all actually slept in until about 8 am. Never use to happen, no matter how late we stayed up some little one was going to be awake around 6 am at the latest. It's nice to go into this phase of older little kids. ;)

Nothing like beating the heat at the river.

No better way to beat the heat than a trip down to the river after dinner. No matter what I do my house generally feels like a sauna by evening time. Nothing better than the refreshing breeze off the river and the cool water to wade around in. Sweaty house or cool river in the evening… no contest! These pictures are from a trip down there with some good friends. Ira happened to be at a sleep over and I was missing him something fierce! I kept getting that sinking stomach missing kid feeling, which is never good next to bodies of water. I just don't feel complete when one of my kids is else where and it really sets me on edge! 

But enough of that back to our beautiful river spot!

Cooling off and having some fun. :)

River beauty.

Hot dogs agree, river is best! :)

This man loves to fish!

Awesome river find. :)

Some times the beauty down here is breath taking! This picture hardly does it justice.

I just love this house on the hill. :)

The moon is on the rise!

Eye candy… ;)

Time for some more garden pictures. :)

The garden is flourishing! So far we have harvested strawberries, raspberries, cherries, service berries, salmon berries, chard, kale, peas, calendula, and lavender. And lots of flower bouquets! :) Looking forward to pears, plums, apples, currents, squash, beans, cucumber, beets, and garlic. I have some newly planted gooseberry, elderberry, and jostaberry, but I'm not sure if those will fruit this year. I also have some thimbleberry volunteers that planted themselves. ;) I snagged some purslane from the community garden (they were just weeding it out!) and planted it up front. Hope it grows, it's fun to munch on. Love being able to walk out into my yard and forage.