going for a ride

Could they be any cuter!?!

blackberries

Our first crop of the year has been blackberries and the kids have had blackberry-stained fingers, toes, and mouths!

I was able to make three desserts with this year's crop and I think there might be a few stragglers left over for snackin'! 

I made two blackberry "cobblets" and the yummiest lemon blackberry cheesecake!

Mine looked exactly like this! Here's the link to the recipe. 

And good ol' Martha passed this recipe on to me. Here it is! 

last day of 3 year old preschool

We have fallen in love with PEP preschool! I was a tough crowd to win over in the beginning but we know Addie is safe when we drop her off, we know she has a great time and that she is learning all sorts of important lessons while at preschool. We also love the friends we have made at PEP. I say "we" because Liam and I, and even Kevin have made friends too! We look forward to 4 year old preschool next year!

My two handsome boys waiting for sister to make her appearance.

She was so thrilled when she finally spotted us! 

Here's one of the songs they performed! You have to watch, it's too cute!

Here's Addie with three of her four teachers. Miss Karin, Miss Renee, and Miss Cindy.

Addie with her friend Layla!

Afterwards, my friend Molly and I took the kids to Mr. Pickles and the "Dragon Park." Quentin is in the same class as Addie and that's his big sis, McKenna. 

the celebrated jumping frog of calaveras county

The short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was written by Mark Twain in 1865. He was writing about one of the longest standing events in the state of California, which we got to experience a couple of weekends ago! (I didn't know any of that, until tonight when I googled it.) Kevin and I had been before kids and thought it would be fun to someday come back with kids. So we did just that and had a good day of frogs, corndogs, greasy french fries, the smell of cow and horse manure, rides, carnies and of course some good people watchin'!

a little recital preview

Addie's very first dance recital is coming up at the end of June!!! The tickets are bought and we are so excited! The girls have gotten their costumes and seem to be getting the dance down pretty well! Here's a preview...

Our sweet girl thrilled to get her costume!

Addie with two other sweet girls, the Hulbert sisters! It was actually Paige's 3rd birthday that night! Happy Birthday Paigers!

All lined up in their costumes!

mother's day in oregon

We spent a very quick weekend up in Oregon for Mother's Day. It went by way too fast. Here's some pictures with the people we love...

This was an attempt at a picture of all of us (minus Dale) out for a great brunch! When we told Dale we were going to come up, he made all the arrangements for the brunch! Such a thoughtful guy...thank you Dale!

Gramma Jody also came down! It all worked out so great to be able to see both of our moms on Mother's Day! 

We even got to see Auntie Jan at the tail end of our visit!

muffins with me

I got to have muffins with my sweet girl the last morning of preschool before Mother's Day. She also made me the adorable frame and cute cowgirl picture you see below !

phoenix ranch

One of my homeschooling families told me about a local sheep-shearing event and open house at a ranch in Vacaville. The Phoenix Ranch rehabilitates animals and offers educational opportunities, which I thought was pretty cool! So we decided to venture out to their open house!

Right at the entrance we were greeted by this pot-bellied pig. 

We explained to Addie the sheep was just getting a haircut. 

Addie was eager to ride the horse.  

Our little urban cowgirl!

Poor Liam hardly gets any pictures when he's in the pack, so I gave Kevin the camera and had him take a picture of us with the birds. 

Then we were just calmly observing these birds, when one of them made THE loudest squak! Liam just about jumped out of the pack! I think the rest of us jumped too. We were hysterical afterwards. 

These chicks were for sale and it got us thinking... in fact, when we got home we looked up the city ordinance for having chickens but it doesn't look good. Bummer.

They have matching hair! Hee! Hee!