Monday's with Mommy: Farm Edition

Monday morning started off nice and slow for us this week, with extended pajama time, a leisurely breakfast, and several cups of coffee. I sat at our dining room table with my coffee and laptop perusing my summer-to-do-list (yes I have one), while Sydney sorted and resorted her blueberries and cheerios, feigning innocence as she occasionally dropped one on the floor with a mock look of surprise followed by a yell for the dog and a not-so-concealed grin as he gobbled up her "accident". I tried to ignore the shenanigans going on beside me and focused on picking some fun summer thing to do off my list for the day. Finally I settled on the U-Pick farm! We missed out on blueberry season, but the website said that the red raspberries were ready, so we packed up and headed out to the farm!

Sadly, there was not one raspberry to be found. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

So I suppose you could call our trip a bust, but I refuse to accept that. Besides, how can it be a bust when there are llamas, ponies, and tire swings to be enjoyed?!

 

Not what we expected, but definitely not a bust. (Of course now I'm going to have to make a trip to the grocery store or farmers market, because I can't get the idea of delicious red raspberries out of my head.)

Other than a quick trip to the store, we were homebodies the rest of the day.

I made THIS awesome corn and bean salad. It works great as a side dish or a salsa type dip. A few tweaks to the recipe: I used cilantro, because we love it, added two juiced limes instead of one, and I used a smoked chipotle Tabasco sauce, because it's what we had on hand. So, so, good!

We pulled lots of beets from the garden. I think I am going to try and make beet chips. I know, I know, what a great way to take a healthy food, and make it unhealthy...but there is a local restaurant that serves beet chips and Jon and I love them! (Though I'm not sure how good my homemade version will be.)

Sydney now has her very own leaptop! She loves this thing! It plays music, teaches her letters, and even has pretend emails and blog entries! :) Oh, and she get's a huge kick out of the fact that it knows her name, she cracks up every time it comes up.

Can you believe it's almost August? Summer is flying by. Still time to check more things off my summer-to-do-list though!

MCP Project 52 (a.k.a. slaker post)

I have been a huge slacker.

I haven't posted my MCP Project 52 pictures in months!

The thing is, I've kind of just been submitting photos that I happen to have taken throughout the week, that fit the theme, rather than actually taking the time to think creatively and take photos specifically for it. Lazy, I know. So, that means most of these pictures have already shown up on my blog, but since this blog space is kind of my way of holding myself accountable (even if no one reads this post!), I feel like I need to play catchup.

So here's what I have (or in some cases, have not) been submitting over the past weeks:

Week 20 - Window Light:
Um...yeah, so I never got around to submitting anything for this week, but I've got an oldie that I took back when I first got my camera!

Week 21 - A need for speed:
Watching airplanes in our backyard.

Week 22 - Reflection:
One of Sydney's friends, Maddison, playing at a local outdoor water park.

Week 23 - Enchantment:
Double slacker...no submission this week, but since I can't leave the week empty :), here's one I took but never posted. Peonies from my front garden. I LOVE peonies, you might even say I'm enchanted by them. :)

Week 24 - Make it Tasty:
Bacon makes everything tasty!

Week 25 - Crave:
Sydney's first ice cream cone!

Week 26 - Hidden Object:
A hidden object from my nephew's photo shoot...a sneeze! It snuck out just as I was snapping the photo! A bit of a stretch with the theme, but this picture makes me smile. :)

Week 27 - Nature's Finest:
Sun-kissed.

Week 28 - Sweet Relief:
CocoMero, a great place to stop in and cool off on a hot summer day!

Week 29 - Get In Close:
Lovin' on my baby girl.

So there you have it. The last couple of months of MCP Project 52. All caught up!

Whew. I feel better. :)

Random Bits

Sydney spent last weekend with her aunt and uncle while Jon and I had a little camping getaway. We were a bit worried about the heat going in, but the weather ended up being great! It was the perfect weekend trip!

We spent most of the day Saturday on a 15 mile kayak trip. (sorry no pictures. Didn't take my camera for obvious reasons!) We started out in the morning and it took us just under 6 hours to finish. I did great up until about the 10 mile mark, then I hit a wall and started to feel sore and tired. I would totally do it again though! So much fun!

I loved our getaway, but I was stoked to come home and see this little girl!

It sounds like she had a lot of fun while we were away! Thanks again Heather and Matt!

The rest of the week has been pretty low key. I've been swamped at work and we are in the middle of an office move, so I didn't take this past Monday off. Other than a few bike rides and backyard jaunts, we've mainly been keeping indoors and trying to stay cool! Our heat wave is still going strong, heat indexes in the hundreds again today! Yowza!

(My camera doesn't like the extreme heat and humidity either. Lots of lens fog!)

Oh, and guess who decided they liked raw broccoli the other day?

I think she basically liked that she pulled it right out of my garden and I was letting her eat it. (Unlike the weeds she usually tries to pull and eat.)

Beans and tomatoes are starting to be ready for picking!

I tried giving her broccoli again last night and she basically used it as a utensil for eating french dressing. Eh. Oh well!

We made up for the healthy broccoli tonight by savoring some steak-n-shake, milkshakes. Yum. This weather is the perfect excuse for indulging!

Our holiday weekend in pictures.

Just wanted to share a few pictures from our Fourth of July weekend with you. Sorry these are so late! Our Fourth was pretty laid back this year. We spent a lot of time with family, rode four-wheelers (Sydney's first time!), played with fireworks, and of course ate lots of fabulous food!

Breakfast of Champions

Game faces. Notice I could not be bothered to set down my beer.

Watermelon!

What a mess! Who's child is this!

Hmmm.....

Wait for it...

...Bam! Busted!

Sydney giving me the stink eye.

My family is crazy.

Seriously. Who's raising this child?

One more try...

Look out! Behind you!

That's all for now. I'm enjoying the day with Syd, so I'm off to go sit outside and stick my feet in the kiddy pool! Happy Monday!