Baby Bunnies!!!

We now have SEVEN baby bunnies hopping around the backyard (apparently an old Golden Retriever and two kids aren't a threat). Right before vacation, we saw a Mama Bunny making a nest under the swing set. When we came home and peeked in the nest, there was a bundle of squeaking warm fuzzies. It was hard to tell what they were. And then today, right after dinner, something happened to catch my eye out the backdoor. There they were. Jumping all around, but still very near the nest. I just hope that the SEVEN soon-to-be adult bunnies find another yard to live in.

Food for Hibernation

Well, the small chest freezer is starting to fill up. Since I'm raising two fruit bats, I decided that I would pick and freeze any and every available fruit and veggie, while it's in season. During the winter, I can easily spend $60 a week on produce alone. But....the kids are healthy eaters, so I should just stop my bitching, right? It's crazy. My eye starts twitching every time the weather turns cold and I need to food shop.

So, every week, I load the kids into the car and we drive on out to the orchard. I always have these romantic visions of happy, frolicking children, who are polite, cheerful, agreeable, and pleasant the entire time. Apparently, my dream veered off into a cannabis patch because that's never happened. I always time it wrong. So, my fault entirely. It's either too hot, too close to dinner, too close to nap, too buggy, too the wrong shoes, and on and on.
but....isn't it nice to have a strawberry/rhubarb pie in January? I made 3 this summer, and Blake ate one - the whole thing - while watching a movie in bed one night. Of course, his stomach was a mess for a few days, but that didn't stop him from reminding me to bring home the leftover pie from book club a week later.

I loaded up cookie sheets with strawberries for freezing. It was Nina's job to put the frozen berries into ziplock bags a couple of days later. Cha-ching - saving myself $15, I said. Feeling all cocky, I forgot to calculate the cost of picking berries, gas to get there, 2 whoopie pies at the farm stand.....ummmm....but they taste so much better than the store bought ones.

Aren't these just the prettiest things? Asher started hyperventilating when he saw them. He plunked in blueberry-eating body down as close as he could get and just started shoveling them in. They should have weighed him before we started because that boy can pack them away. Nina was also grazing the entire time, but she was more selective. All she wanted was an ice cream cone and a bottle of water. The entire time. I think I heard this request 548 times in the half hour that we were there. I finally caved - mainly to get her to shut up. It was really hot, though.

I finally had to put Asher in his stroller because Nina and I would fill up the container, move on to the next bush, only to turn around and find the berries all gone. Asher would be looking innocent, and signing "more", while pointing at the empty container. (All in all, I think it's a good idea to teach young toddlers sign language because it cuts down on their frustration until they can full articulate their needs....however, it's pretty much the same as asking for water and ice cream 548 times).

So far, this is what I've got in that bad boy downstairs:

a ba-zillion packs of strawberries

rhubarb

blueberrries (although, I need more of these)

asparagus

sweet cherries

Body Zone Ice Show

Nina just finished a week of ice skating camp at the Body Zone. She started to cry this morning because she thought it was for the whole summer, not just a week. It's good to know that she loves it so much. There were about 30 kids. Nina and her friend, Katie, were two of the youngest, but since they've both been skating for 2 years, they were the most experienced. They have all sorts of fancy tricks, and they look even more impressive next to a bunch of 11 year olds that can't stand in skates. This boosts Nina's ego incredibly and makes her both cocky and hard to live with for the remainder of the day....that is until she gets together with the 7 year olds, and they blow her away.
Goofing around.

A pretty good spiral. She spent many, many weeks flat on her face before she was able to balance enough to glide across the ice.

Going into her waltz jump. I've been reading my digital camera handbook. I need to practice shooting in the arena more because the light bouncing off the ice and glass enclosures makes the pictures not as clear. Asher...well, he would have none of that. I had to hold him in one arm, and manipulate the camera with the other. I'll take what I can and practice another time.

The Big Boy Haircut

It had to be done. The poor boy had a mullet, and it wasn't cool. I kept waiting for it to curl, like Nina's did, but it really didn't. Nina and I took him to Kids Cuts. He sat in the truck seat, all by himself and got his first haircut - all while holding the cell phone he found in the play area. He already looks so much bigger.

Who knew she was that funny

"Ummm...Nina....what are you doing"

"Well, Mommy....I'm puttin' the Pea in Po-ta-to." said with a head bob and a giggle.

Art on the Avenue

Well, it's over. My first show is done, and boy-oh-boy was it a success. I was honestly quite surprised. The day was beautiful, I sold a ton, and I passed out even more business cards. Here I am with a little pineapple hat.

Here's the tent - in the blazing sun. I got a nice tan.

Some dresses and baby blocks. Blake (aka - Mr. Free Labor) is in the background.

A satisfied customer. Little Eli Esterbrook in his brand new pineapple hat. You know, that hat was such a bitch to make that I swore I wouldn't make another one....but, it is awfully cute, so now I'm rethinking the idea.

My boy

A few recent pictures of the trouble-maker.

Clam hair from Blake's clam basket dinner. Mmmmm......right before the basket got thrown - he's warming up his arm.
Boy on a beach. I like the shadow of Blake taking the picture. Evening.
Typical Asher. Having a fit. It was time to leave the beach. He does this limp-baby thing where he lifts his arms up and it's almost impossible to hang on to him. It makes Daddy cry too.

Secret Rendezvous

Caught red-handed in the bathroom this morning. That Nina makes me smile.

Allergy-free Coconut Cupcakes

Knitted cupcakes for the craft show. I won't be upset if these don't sell because I want them for my dining room table, and since I never make anything for myself, it might not happen again. Aren't they just the cutest things? Of course, the cake stand that I found at TJ Maxx ups the cuteness factor significantly.

Father's Day

Father's Day strawberry picking. Sweet on all accounts.

Kite Flying

June 11, 2008. 8:21 pm. North Cape May, NJ. Nina and her kite.

A little whine with that dress, Miss??

All I wanted was 15 minutes of her time. All I needed were pictures of two dresses to put up on the etsy site. All I asked was that she stop whining - at all costs - so I could just get the painful, excruciating experience over with. In the end, I got the shots I needed, but they could have been better. Take what I can get, I guess, because we're leaving the shore in a few days, and then I'd have to think of another location to photograph in. The hankie dress. I LOVE this new dress. I still have to fiddle with the button closures, so it might not make in this year's line, but I have a feeling it will sell really well once I get the glitched figured out.
She was done taking pictures....until I told her that if she kept doing that, a crab would bite her bottom. She got up. Quick.
The crabbing dress. I only have 3 of these, so it was important that I got them up on the site, so they would move.

Photo session was over, so I let her chase the sea rats. I guess I'll have to find another model because she really does hate doing the pictures. Pretty soon, someone will ask me who the pissed off little girl is in all my pictures. I guess she can cross that career off her list.

It's also good for me to look at these pictures because she still looks so little. She's been a bucketful of moodiness lately, and I'm forgetting that she's still five. Keep your patience, Rebecca because the time goes by so fast.

Cape May

After what seems like days of packing and driving (it was really only 3 hours), we finally arrived at the beach house. It's a great location....only 2 houses away from the beach, on off-season. We are literally seconds away from the water, and can see the ocean from our front porch. It makes lugging the massive amount of sand toys so much easier, and potty breaks are not the panicked emergencies that they've been in previous years. Riley, the geriatric golden retriever is settled in to sleeping his normal 22 hours a day. We took him down to the beach on the first day, and he has no interest in going back. Sad what age does.
Nina collected moon jellyfish this evening, or as I call them, sea snot. Those things are vile. Yesterday we had fun throwing horseshoe crabs back into the water, only to watch more and more of them come in with the tide. I tell you, I never really had much of an interest in swimming in the ocean, and this just nails the case shut. Because if all these creatures are coming in on their own, I certainly don't need to acquaint myself with anything else deeper in. No spank-you.
Asher has learned an important lesson - don't eat sand - but he still needs to test his theory at least once a day. It still doesn't taste good. And I didn't get my act together to get him some sun gear, so he's wearing last year's hat and t-shirt - size 6 months. Oops. I stretched them out as much as I could, and it actually works out because he can't pull the hat off so easily.
Blake and Nina have been searching for "diamonds" on the beach....or more appropriately, Nina sits under the sun shade and instructs Blake to bring her back some jewels....and the stupid man does it - for HOURS.
It's all super-nice to be here on the off-season because it means that we are quite often the only ones on the beach. Not that we're snobby, but the peace and quiet are nice.
We also learned something with Asher - the boy likes water. We get one warning of a chubby hand held in the air with a "mama" attached to it, and if we happen to miss his request for hand holding, then he shrugs his shoulders and heads full-steam into the water. It's as if he's saying, "Well, I'm not going to wait forever". I had thought that the kids would play together in the sand, but neither one of them has any interest in that. Blake and I each get a kid to chase, and we count the minutes until bedtime.

Procrast-a-what??

We're leaving for the beach tomorrow. Have I packed anything? Um, no. In fact, last week I decided that I was NOT going to be the one packing for 3 people, and a dog, while Blake only packs for himself. Well, that theory was just that - a theory. So, I'll pack tomorrow morning because what's the point at 11 pm at night??

I also have a ton of new pictures to post, but the darn card reader is acting up, so it will have to wait.

And while it seems that I have endless tasks to accomplish, I am doing nothing more that wasting time on the internet and eating these really gross healthy cupcakes that I made for Nina (I think they're gross, she likes them, so essentially, the plan worked because I should not be eating them anyway). I remember this cartoon (or was it a commercial?) a few years back where a person was sitting at a computer, and a pop-up appeared that said, "You have now reached the end of the internet". That's me tonight.

I'm still not ready for my show in two weeks, but I cannot look at another lilliputian dress today. "Little girls, little girls, every where I look". I am most creative really late at night, which is a contradiction because I am SO not a nightowl. So, I get all these great ideas, sketch them out, think about material, cost, construction, labelling, and yet, very rarely get around to making the actual item. I literally have dozens of sketchbooks with discarded frocks. And I do my best "fixing" plans in the shower. ie - I just made a dress for Nina from a picture that I saw in a really overpriced catalog, but the button closure was wonky (or more appropriately, the elastic loop snapped as she wasn't jumping on the couch..."I don't know how it happened, Mommy, but I wasn't jumping on the couch" Mmmmmm). Ten minutes in the hot steam, and viola!!! it's fixed. I would attach a picture, but it's on the card that can't be read right now.

Anywhooooo....I'm hoping that we have wifi at the beach, so I can get the blog up to date, but it might not happen. We'll see.

"Mommy? Does "we'll see" mean that it might happen or does maybe mean that".

"Well, Nina.......It's in the secret Mommy code of language book that you're not allowed to see for at least another 25 years. I'd stick with the how-to-push-all-of-your-Mother's-buttons manual for the time being."

Sun and sand here we come........