A new recipe!

What's better than nice friendly neighbors?  Nice, friendly neighbors with a garden!  :)

Our neighbors kindly shared some of their pea's with me this past weekend.  I mentioned in conversation that I loved a good pea salad.  Well, the neighbor also loves a good pea salad so he told me to make one and share it with him.  Eekkk!  I had never actually MADE a pea salad, but that's a thing of the past now. I found a recipe online that sounded tasty so I gave it a whirl..  2 thumbs up!  Now go make some!

Picnic Pea Salad

Ingredients:
16 oz package frozen petite peas OR  2 cups of fresh garden pea's!
1 cup of cheddar cheese cut in cubes.
1 tablespoon crumbled bacon pieces.
1/3 cup finely chopped celery
1 green onion, finely minced.
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon sugar

Place drained peas in a large bowl. Cut cheese into 1/4-inch cubes and add to peas.  Mix in bacon bits, celery, and onion.  In a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise, milk and sugar to make a dressing. then to peas and stir. Chill until ready to serve.
This recipe makes a very small batch 2-4 people.  Next time I make it I will be doubling or tripling it because it's that good!

c.R.a.Z.y.

c.R.a.Z.y. That one word pretty much sums up our schedule these past few weeks..and the weeks to come! I love that Boston is involved in summer activities, but I dislike that they are all crammed into a 6 week period!  Here are some hilites of our last 2 weeks!

Boston and I had Bible School the 11th-14th. I love VBS as much as he does!  It was always one of my favorite things about summer breaks as a kid. 

Snack time with his crew.

 The kids performing for the parents on the last night.  Boston always loves to groove to the music.

On Friday, June 15th, we made our first trip to Wild Water West with my friend Stacy & her daughter Norah.  The weather was nice but the water was freezing cold! Brigs is still not a fan of the pool, so hoping the water warms up we can work on that! 

My snacker.  He got to eat his brothers left over cheese!

All that sitting around, eating nacho's, must have been tiring.  He was out like a light before we got out of the parking lot!

On Fathers Day we went to church and then had a grill out with my dad and Lisa.  It was so nice to have Derek home all day! He's been extremely busy at work.  The boys love riding in Grandpa's jeep.  Notice how careful Boston is of his brother.  He holds him in tight! 

Boston missed 2 baseball games last week because of VBS, so his games this week were the last games of the season.  He did great and made us proud!  Derek was busy with work and missed both of his games, so that bummed B out.  He got to play catcher for the first time.  He was pretty excited!

 Boston getting his trophy from his coach.

Aside from all the evening activities, I am also babysitting 2-3 days a week!  I usually have 2 families each day, so 4-6 kids including my own.  I am covering for a daycare providers maternity leave, so have 3 families part time until mid July and then another family who I just took on permanently.    My boys love having friends here to play with!

Boston got the game Battleship for his birthday and for a few days in a row this is all he wanted to do!  

I have wanted a bike seat or bike trailer for awhile now, so when I saw a used one posted on an online garage sale I snatched it up! It's in excellent condition and will be perfect for our strolls around the neighborhood.  It's so nice that Boston is able to ride his bike without trainging wheels.  It makes riding bike with him much more enjoyable and faster paced :)  Brigs didn't care for the helmet right away, but once we started moving he never made a peep!

   That sums up the last few weeks!  Boston starts swimming lessons & basketball camp on Monday!  Let the c.R.a.Z.i.N.e.S.s continue :)

Brigs-15 Months!

Brigham is learning new things each day!   Just in the last week he has started to say a few more words that I can understand.  Of course he only says them when he wants too and not on command.  He knows the signs for 'more' and 'all done' and we are working at please and thank you.   

He's still a little squirt and eats like a bird!  He is a snacker & loves milk.  His favorite things to eat are grapes & bananas (all fruit actually!) crackers (any kind), waffles, froot loops and toast or bread with jelly or cheese & turkey.  He hates mac n cheese and spaghetti, so I had ruled out all noodle-y things..but he loves macaroni salads.  He is just so hard to figure out!

He can point to his ears, eyes, nose, toes, belly button & hair and loves the 'No More Monkey's Jumping On The Bed' song. He taps at his head when you say 'bumped his head' and then when you get to 'Mama called the doctor and the doctor said..' he will scowl and point his finger and say 'no-no-no'.  :)  If you say 'it's hot' to his food, he blows on it!

He can go down the stairs all by himself now, so I no longer have to have a baby gate up on a daily basis.  He manages to sit on his butt, spin around to his tummy and slide down the steps .  The boys go downstairs to our make-shift toy room to play together unsupervised for a bit, which gives me a chance to fold laundry or blog :)  Boston is such a big helper and is always watching after Brigham if I need to get things done.

I am leary of even blogging this, but for my own journaling purposes I don't want to leave it out..  I recently switched Brigham's car seat forward facing.  You are encouraged to leave them rear facing until age 2 now, but it was just getting harder to get him in backwards the bigger he got.  He loves it, and it makes the car rides more peaceful!  Brigham's usual bedtime is around 7 o 8.  Lately our evenings have been full of activities so he has been up a bit later than normal.  He sleeps sound until 6:30-8 AM.  I am trying to wean Brigs off of his morning nap.  The little stinker loves to sleep a good 2 hours or more in the morning, but will sometimes sleep through lunch and then fight his afternoon nap when the little kids I babysit are resting.  So for my sanity, I am hoping we can get by with just an afternoon nap soon. 

Here is my handsome little dude at breakfast this morning!

'More nana mommy!'

 The one thing that keeps him quiet & sitting still :)

Boston's 6th Birthday Weekend-Sunday

We were exhausted on Saturday evening!  Even Derek and I were in our cabin and sleeping by 10:15!  Sunday morning we were up around 7 and started getting a few things together to pack up and head home, but first we all went for all you can eat pancake & sausage breakfast!

It was his official birthday! 

 They gave Boston 6 pancakes!

We got home about 9:30 am.  I was pooped!  It took a few hours to get unpacked and to get the oodles of dirty clothes and blankets in the wash, but when it was done, it felt so good to sit!  After Brigs took a nap, we headed to Target so Boston could exchange a few super hero's he already had, and spend some of his birthday money!  Derek golfed in the Billion Golf Tourney so he was gone most of the day.  At 5 o'clock Jason & Shana came over to watch Brigham while Grandma Peggy and I surprised Boston with one last Birthday treat!!  I didn't tell him what we were doing until we pulled up the depot and saw the train!  We rode the BNSF train from Sioux Falls to Island, MN!  It was a 3 hour ride, with a lot of neat scenery to watch!    

 Waiting for the train to take off!

 They served drinks and snacks, but most importantly...coffee!  It was freezing on the train!

 Grandma bought Boston a conductor hat and train whistle!

 Choo Choo!

What a fun filled birthday weekend!  Birthday's are my favorite thing to celebrate! 

Boston's 6th Birthday Weekend-Saturday

Boston camped out in Grandpa Ron & Grandma Lisa's cabin on Friday night.  Lisa's nieces children spent the weekend camping with them.  I think they all had a little too much energy for the old farts though.. they were up quite late gigging and up way too early, anxious to start the day!  Brigham slept well during the night and even got his morning and afternoon nap!  He is such a busy body, so nap time was very relaxing for mom and dad!

The weather was beautiful again, so we started the day off quite early at the pool!

Derek and I make a good team at the pool. He takes the kids in the water.. I take pictures!   

 Boston loves the water and does a great job swimming! 

 Brigs was just starting to get used to his floaty and then a kid jumped in right next to him and soaked him!

 Much happier away from the water!

 Boston's eyes were so red from the pool!

 Boston & the Yogi Bear characters!

 Paisley, Lacey, Holdyn & Boston

 Yogi stopped by our campsite during the birthday party with family and delivered balloons!

 Yogi helped us all sing Happy Birthday!

 The Birthday Boy!

 Our family.

Let the gift opening begin!

 He was so excited about having new shoes for basketball camp!

 I love this picture!  Boston is thanking both of his great-grandpa's for his gifts.

 Boston with Grandma Marty & Grandpa Bud

 You would think after a 90 degree day of swimming, jumping, and a birthday party, that these kids would be ready for bed... NOPE!  We were still playing at the playground with Grace, Wes & Sully at 9 PM!

Boston's 6th Birthday Weekend-Friday!

We checked into Yogi Bear Campground at 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon.  It was Boston's request several months ago that we go camping to celebrate his birthday. We had so much fun renting a cabin last year at Yogi Bear, so we were all looking forward to it!

Boston had 7 of his friends come to the campground on Friday afternoon from 3-5 for a birthday party!  They all had a lot of fun swimming & jumping on the pillow!  The weather was beautiful!

Britton, Lincoln, Jude, Boston & Jackson.  These are his friends from pre-k and church!

 The boys having a jumping contest!  On your marks, get set...

 Go!

 It looks like Boston was going for a belly flop!

 One of Boston's best birthday surprises were his old neighbor friends coming to his party! 

I didn't tell him they were coming so he was super excited! 

Boston, Luke, Ryan & Evan. 

 We let Brigs get a good nap at home before Derek brought him to the campground.  He looked so cute in his swimming outfit!

 Extremely smiley when he wasn't near the water!

 Time for snack!

 Opening Gifts

Luke, Ryan, Boston & Evan 

 Boston & Jude

 Jackson & Boston

 Britton & Boston

 Checking out his new Super Hero diving toys!

 Lincoln & Boston

 The gang!  Jude, Boston, Ryan, Britton, Evan, Lincoln, Jackson & Luke

 They had the entire jumping pillow to themselves! 

Boston had so much fun celebrating his birthday with his friends.  He misses them now that school is out, and especially misses the Richardson boys since we've moved. 

Thank you to everyone who helped him celebrate!

After his friends left, Boston swam some more..and more and more..  He keeps his eyes open under the water so his eyes were bright red by the end of the night and looked SO sore!  Brigham didn't love the water so much so we kept him entertained with my sunglasses!