Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

Wow, Evan is 5 years old!!! Our munchkin is growing up!  Ev is so eager to learn and is constantly asking questions (it's a bit exhausting sometimes to be honest).  He loves going to preschool and does not understand why it doesn't continue through the summer months.  He has one more year of preschool this coming year before kindergarten.  Evan learned how to ride his 2 wheeler just a couple weeks ago.  He also made it to the top of a climbing tower at Ella Bailey Park this summer!  Take that 8-12 yr old recommended age sign!  He loves exploring and playing at parks and in the sandbox.  He loves his brothers and is even a good example to them most of the time :-)  

The boys get very excited for their birthdays and the cake to come!  Evan decide he wanted a Pirate Birthday... so a Pirate Party he got!

 

A sweet summer solstice

B's Aunt and Uncle host a yearly summer solstice party every year!  It was a blast!  The kids had a great time!  We even stayed late for the grand finale- a fire dancer :-)

Here are the tasty desserts I brought!

 

Chocolate Raspberry Tartlets

 Fruit Tart

Sorry, no recipe for this.  It's one I throw together.  It has a graham cracker crust, and a cheese cake like filling topped with whatever fruit is in season.  I was running out of time so I didn't get too fancy with the design on the top this time, but you can really dress this up and make it pretty!

Combo of my leftover ingrediets, mixing left over crust and left over filling to make little chocolate tartlets.

 Mini Lemon Cream Pies

Key Lime Cuplets

Strawberry Picking Weekend Tradition

I'm all about starting family traditions and continuing old ones.  For strawberry picking weekend we are continuing a tradition Brett grew up with- eating strawberry shortcake for dinner :-)  Not the healthiest...but delish!  We also included strawberries in everything we made that weekend, from strawberries on salad to strawberry pancakes.  I also finally made some strawberry jam.  Even after giving several jars away, our freezer is stocked with strawberry jam!  I will say I have some adjusting to do next year on the recipe...I reduced the sugar way back, which sweetness and taste wise turned out perfect....but I added too much gelling stuff...so it was a bit jello like in texture...  I did add lemon which was pretty tasty.  We also used rhubarb in one batch- maybe that one won't be as jello like...I don't think I added as much gel schtuff...  We'll see. 

Strawberry Picking, mmmmm....

The first weekend of June was strawberry picking time here in Seattle.  This is the first time we've ever tried to do a u-pick since having kids...  We didn't have the highest of expectations...figuring one of us would end up picking and the other (me) would wrangle the munchkins.  But that's okay- I wanted strawberries!!!  Delicious, local, fresh abundant strawberries!!!  I got just that!    Oh, turns out the kids were awesome!!!!  They picked, they ate, they played in the field!  No big issues at all!  I was even able to pick some (much slower rate, but that's okay though!).  We got there first thing in the morning, it was pleasantly cool, picked more than enough and finished by 9 am!  Our extra bonus, Aunt Lori came with us!!!  

Tips that helped us for U-Pick with our 1-4 yr olds: 

- Fill their bellies before hand

- Protect their skin: sunscreen and hats if they'll keep them on

- Bring buckets they are excited to carry and fill

- Let them eat the berries...you're not going to be able to stop them, so why fight it? 

- Bring a small towel, just in case someone sits in berries, you need it to wipe off excess dirt, etc.

- Bring a camera, what's better than a one year old with strawberry juice dripping down their little chins, squatting in search of more delicious berries...a wandering 3 year old bring you flowers he's picked for you or a 4 year old basking in the beautiful day!

- Give them jobs!  They love to help and 'work.'

- Talk about all the things you can do with your bounty

- Keep the rules simple: stay close, don't step on the plants or berries, don't eat the dirt (that's for Oliver...)

Here are the pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we finished so early, we thought we'd go check out Snoqualmie Falls!  Beautiful!!!  

I'll post the results of this fabulous strawberry picking in my next post!