::summer 2014 - part one::

I didn't get to blog this summer like I really wanted.

No real excuse - just..

Four kids

Full time job

Huge garden

Five goats

Two sheep

Three duck

Five chickens

Three dogs

And on and on.  

But I still wanted to post some of the glory of this magical summer.  

In no particular order...

 

 Tree trimming goat

 Back garden cover crop

Sword and tractor.

All boy.

Copy cat.

 Maybe our burn pile got a little XL.

 Lily golfing with Josh.

 Barn rainbow.

 By Emma.  My favorite picture.  

 Max and Daddy.

Q and Emma

 Q spent the whole summer obsessed with sinks.  

 Frog study.

 Lettuce must be planted in a pattern.

 Date night.

 Hamster that got out and is long gone. 

 Found this shell in our yard.

 4H project done. 

 Spa day.

 Emma with a permit. 

 Best $10 yard sale bike ever. 

 Random mailbox. 

 Baby with beans. 

 Sheep love candy.

::poor Bruno::

 Let's flash back to Bruno a few years ago with a three year old Max sitting on him.  

 

And now with a summer shave job and a 1.5 year old Q.

Same exact facial expression for boy and dog.

  

 God bless him.

 Just for reference here is Max at exactly the same age as the picture of Q above.  

TWINS!

::harvesting cilantro seeds:

We eat an incredible amount of cilantro.  
I try hard to grow enough to meet our needs because store bought cilantro is dull in its flavor.
I am a cilantro snob.
And tomato.
And watermelon.
And broccoli.
And apple.

Ok - I am a big veggie snob.  
Let's get back to cilantro.  We love it.  
This year I had about 32 square feet devoted to staggered cilantro crops.  
Every 2-3 weeks I would plant a new round so that the one going bad could be relieved.
But as the season draws to an end I had a lot of old cilantro that is bolting.  
Big fat seeds are forming.
I bought about 30 seed packs of cilantro last year...
Let harvest that stuff!

I let it get good and old in the garden.
Then I set it on an old screen (one of the handiest tools in gardening) and let it dry for two more weeks.
On a good dry day I took it out side and just started pulling the seeds off.  
They came off easy.  You could just shake the stems and the seeds would fall right off. 

They went into canning jars and I hope they will be ready for next year! 

::the Candy and Canvas Party::

The Candy and Canvas Party went off with out a hitch!

I rented two tables and chairs from a local party rental place.  It was $40 well spent.  

We had to rainbow them up, so we went with some cheap streamers.

Since the weather was terrible we had the party inside.  

We had eight girls so I held myself back with the candy table.

I got Lily's favorite candies but I didn't buy 10 of every type.

At least I showed a little restraint?

I made the petal cake.  It was shockingly easy.  

Pintrest is loaded with tutorials and it really is just as easy as they said it would be.  

I made the Lily sign with markers and a $5 wooden pallet.

I wrapped the water bottles in bright duct tape.  They soaked in the ice bucket the whole night and that tape stuck perfectly.  

$1 premade decorations from the party aisle fit our theme perfectly and were cheap enough to buy a punch.  

Paint chips folded in half got used as place cards.  

 The table was set with suckers and paper for the kids to decorate.

I fed the kids pizza and let them run around wild till the guest of honor arrived.

Here is were I left my usually party pattern.

I like to be very controlling...

I know - you are shocked.

It's true.

But this idea was beyond me.  We wanted to do this Candy and Canvas party but I am not a real artist.  I looked into online kits, but they were pricey once you got all the brushes and they paints.  I was going to do it anyway when I got a suggestions on facebook to like a page.  The page was for a company called Canvas Paintings by Katie.  For what I thought was very reasonable - Katie comes out to your house and leads a group of kids or adults to paint a canvas.  She brings every thing.  Easels, paint, canvas's, brushes, all of it.  I was nervous about trusting such a huge part of the party to someone else, but I went for it.  BEST CHOICE EVER!  She was wonderful.  The girls loved her.  Even my Emma got talked into joining in.  

 

Lily decided she wanted to paint a peacock.  Katie didn't have a peacock listed.  So she painted one up and sent me a picture.  

Lily approved and KAtie brought the example to show the girls.  

RAINBOW!  

Man - was I happy she organized her paints in rainbow order.  

She led them through every step. 

Quinn watched carefully and drank too much orange soda. 

And they took home a real canvas painting that they were so proud of.    

Each little girl did an amazing job.  What great art.  

My little bug was one happy kid.  

She loved her party.  

AND I LOVED having my Emma as the photographer.  

All pictures from the party were taken by Emma.

Isn't she so talented?

I am trying to talk her into a super sweet 16 painting party. 

Invitations for this party can be seen here.