totally been slacking again

I have super busy with the end of the school year. This is the end of week 1 out of school and am looking forward to a fun filled jam packed summer full of park play dates and maybe some mommy ones too. Here is a picture of the end of year gift I made for Morgan's teacher and my friend. My anal retentive side cringes from the imperfection of the quilt but it was made with love.

Since I have a whole summer ahead of me I should really work on the faerie quilt I started 3 years ago.

Aurora has turned into quite a little artist. She is really looking forward to camp at the co-op this summer since it is Alumni Art Camp. Not only does she gets to see her friends from the co-op but she gets a week of art projects. Her elementary school has a program where you can purchase stuff made from the kids artwork so I got a quilt square and will make her a quilt with her art from her school years. Future wedding present maybe?

The girls have been doing ballet. They both love it. They had a performance at the end of the session. I was really surprised how well they did because when I would spy through the window during class it always looked like they were completely lost. I plan on putting Aurora in a more formal program next school year.

Well that is all the rambling for now. Here is hoping it isn't another couple of months before I post again.

Basket full of yumminess

Today was another pick up for Bountiful Baskets. Once again I was really happy with my purchase. The organic basket is only $25 and I got

3 squash
a bag of green beans
head of romaine lettuce
Swiss chard
head of broccoli
4 zucchini
1 package of grape tomatoes
7 gala apples
3 grapefruit
8 pears
and 1 package of divine smelling strawberries


I also got the Italian add on for another $6

1 eggplant
2 yellow onions
1 red onion
1 zucchini
1 garlic bulb
Italian parsley
1 package of mushrooms
a bag of fresh herbs that I am not 100% sure what they are. I think Rosemary, basil, and something.


Showing up in the mornings if always fun, even though it is a little early for my taste on a Saturday morning. You never know exactly what you will be getting until you are there. This week there wasn't anything too new and exotic which is always kinda fun because it makes me really think about how to use the produce. This week it was just some of my favorite produce. We already have finished off the strawberries and they tasted as good as they looked.

Easter eggs revisted

Thanks to Cecilia's recipe for dying with natural made dyes I was able to salvage the oh so ugly eggs.

Dying gone wrong

I was so excited to get my produce that would help dye the eggs. With Aurora's red dye problems the last 3 years have been ongoing experiments with getting our eggs dyed. This year is yet another failed experiment. At least this year I started with all white eggs.


Purple

Green


Orange


I forgot to get a picture of the Blue and in my stupid editing I just erased the pink/red and the yellow. Teach me to erase the photos before I am done.
These are suppose to be purple



These are suppose to be red and green



And these are suppose to be yellow, orange, and blue


The yellow turned out pretty good but the orange, red, and purple all just kinda look brown. And the blue are a really ugly color grey. I am hoping that by some scientific miracle that tomorrow morning when I go check on them in the fridge they will be the right colors. Maybe next year we will just do plastic colored eggs.

Dinner

Well it has been awhile since I have blogged. Okay, a really really long while. I was inspired today.

This morning I went and picked up my first basket of fruits and veggies from bountiful baskets.
These are all my goodies from the organic basket:
A bag of romaine lettuce
2 eggplants
a leek
2 bunches of dill
3 tomatoes
a whole bunch of potatoes (I did spell check and both came up spelling right so which one is it not toes at the end?)
2 squash
a bunch of asparagus
4 oranges
6 kiwi
a bag of 3 lb gala apples
and the cutest little pineapple ever.

This is my Mexican pack that I also got.
a bag of some kind of red dried chili's
5 jalapenos
4 avocados
2 squash
a bunch of little limes
a yellow onion
a bunch of green onion
a garlic bulb
and last but not least a whole lot of cilantro

So I am looking at my spoils thinking what yummy stuff do I get to cook for dinner. The asparagus was a given. MMMMMM it was yummy. I also had a whole chicken I really needed to cook so my little Mexican pack got me inspired. Here is my before.

I used the vita-mix and pureed the orange and then just started adding other stuff(I got the agave from the cupboard) and then poured in on the chicken and cooked it in the oven. We have a new dish, a cast iron roasting dish, and I think all future chicken must be cooked in this thing. The chicken was a hit because for the first time in a really really really long time I got a complement not a complaint at dinner.

Aurora goes to 1st grade

Today Aurora started the 1st grade. It was rather uneventful dropping her off. I wanted pictures of course but she was more interested in playing with her friends. It really helped that she knew most of the kids from doing the bodies camp this summer and knew her teacher today from the preschool. At pick up she did not want to leave, she was too busy playing still. Tonight we got to do spelling homework and some vocabulary.

The Lovold Family goes to the beach

This was Morgan's first trip to the beach. I am not a huge fan of the beaches in California. I think it has to do with hearing about beach closures after the rain every year growing up in Orange County. The day started out with the intention of going bowling but Morgan fell asleep right after we left the condo so we decided to drive to Balboa Island so we could ride the ferry. Morgan woke up as we were going across the little bay and the girls were very excited by all the boats and water so we decided we would find a beach to stop at.

We headed up PCH from Newport Beach in search of "Morgan's Beach" or so she told us the whole time in the car. The first stop was a Huntington State beach. They wanted $10 for us to park the car so we kept on driving. Then the Huntington City Beach...they wanted more. We finally found some meter parking and Morgan informed us she didn't like this beach because it was too big. Since it was a dog park and she has issues with dogs we drove a little more. We found meter parking on the street pretty close to the pier so we stopped and got out. Again the beach was too big but after all that drama we were done searching for good parking and unfortunately for Morgan no matter where we stopped it was going to wind up being "too big". She was wary of the water area for a while but eventually warmed up to the whole thing enough to get to where the sand was still a little wet. Aurora was running into the water and running away from the coming waves having a great time. They hunted for seashells and dug in the sand. I am still not a fan of the beach but it was a fun day.