Maisie & Max

My friend Susan, who let us stay at the house, met up with us one afternoon with her son Max. 

Maisie and Max hit it off. 

Duke joined in a little here and there. 

But it was Maisie and Max who spent the whole afternoon and evening busy busy busy.

They dug, ran, splashed, drew in the sand, sat, dug some more, hauled water, gathered sea grass...and spent a long time crafting this magnificent blob. 

At one point Susan starting throwing the football with Duke. His facial expressions are just perfect. 

It was lovely to see Susan and Max, and we have plans to see each other again. It's fun to have our lives intertwine once again. 

crafting in may

Duke crafted his own hair one afternoon.

Caleb found a recipe for oo-bleck in a book he was reading, so we all made some one day. The kids enjoyed messing around with the semi-solid/semi-liquid gunk.

 

Mommy crafted Aunt Shawny's wedding cake!

And we found the simplest recipe for a most delicious ice cream! Puree an orange honeydew with a smidge of sugar. Whip a carton of cream, gently mix the puree and cream and put in the ice cream maker. SO GOOD. We made it more than once! 

The littles and I also made play-dough. They've played with it all summer long! 

I crafted this beautiful mess...

...and added this beautiful mess...

...which became THIS delicious mess—our spring tradition!

The duke got creative with his dinner one night!

And I pulled out all the remaining greens from the garden. We sure did have a whole lot of good greens from the garden this spring. Not sure this is really crafting at all at this point, but oh well!

april color and beauty

With all the radishes from the garden...

...this became one of Braden and my favorite snacks—crisp crackers, smear of butter, thinly sliced radishes and a sprinkle of salt. 

Front porch pots filled with pretty flowers

Spinach and sun dried tomatoes sautéed in garlic and red wine - yum!

Miniature bok choy

Loads of fresh spinach! 

A few batches of pizzelle

Oregano spreading in the garden

We had a beautiful luna moth visit us for several days.

Wildflowers

Marinating cherries and mint

Flowers from the duke

Fresh veggie platters

A bright blue front door!

Roses from the front yard

My bday

For my birthday, Mom made at my request lemon curd pavlova. We topped it with wild blackberries picked from around the pond. 

Maddie finally gave her snowflake presentation to the family...a bit late, whoops!

And Aunt Xenia passed on a family heirloom to me. Uncle Ali's aunt's ring from Germany. I want to take it to an antique jeweler to see what more I can learn about it. It's clearly old.

fun with friends

I had a few of my CC friends over for a fancy schmancy dinner one night in May, kind of a celebration of school being done. We started with Rosemary-Blueberry Mocktails...which were actually really delicious.

I had lots of fun preparing dinner, and we had a fun night of conversation and laughs. 

Katie moved the week after, so it was nice to be able to enjoy some time together before she left.