Saturday Snapshots: Sprinklers

More mud pie fun = more strip-down and clean off in the sprinker fun, right?

Farm Fresh Organic Produce

Today I was telling my sister about the incredible CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)organic produce deliveries that we've been getting since last summer, and I decided that I love it enough to share the info with all of you too. If you live in Northern or Central California, you have to check out Farm Fresh To You (if you don't live in the area, you can find a great list of CSA farms and organizations in your area HERE).

FFTY's produce is all certified organic, and they have TWENTY different boxes of produce to choose from each week (all fruit, all veggies, mixed, no-prep produce, etc. in several sizes). The best part...they deliver it to my house! Every Friday they post the list of box contents on their website, and I can decide if I want a box the following week or not. It's super easy to log on, choose my box or choose to reschedule my next delivery for another week. You can even set it up so that they will automatically deliver a specified size box every 1-4 weeks per your schedule. Love it!

This week we went with the "Mostly Fruit" box - YUM!



Seriously, it was too pretty not to set it all up and take some pictures of it all!



The bananas and a couple of the apples were already ours, but otherwise everything else came in the box today - lettuce, celery, broccoli, whole carrots, strawberries, mangoes, apples, peaches, apricots, lemons, oranges, and grapefruit...even a cantaloupe! All organic and all delicious!

Their prices are pretty comparable to grocery store organic produce prices, sometimes even a little bit lower...plus, they include that awesomely free front porch delivery and way-better-than-from-the-supermarket taste! (This box pictured above is the "regular" size @ $31)

While I was thinking about posting this, I started reading the weekly FFTY newsletter that comes with the box (filled with yummy recipes for this week's produce and fun stories from the farm), and lo and behold there's a coupon code for new customers on the bottom (cause you know how excited I get about a deal!)! If you mention my name (Heidi Kundin) and code #6164 you get $5 off your first delivery, and I get a discount too - double win! So what are you waiting for?

Donut Muffins

Yesterday the boys made "Muffins That Taste Like Donuts" from The Best Mom on the Block's blog. I don't know that they really tasted like donuts per se, although, the directions do note that for an old-fashioned-cake-donut-like texture you shouldn't overmix - which is easier said than done with two eager helpers dying to stir the batter to death! They sure were yummy though - not too sweet and perfect with a cup of breakfast tea :)

1 3/4 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon (we upped ours to 1/2 tsp. on accident, and it tasted just fine!) :)
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 c. milk
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:
1. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg until combined.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the oil, egg, milk and vanilla.
3. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, mixing only until incorporated.
4. Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake at 350˚F for 15-20 minutes.
5. Dip cooled muffins into melted butter then sugar and cinnamon, or sprinkle on powdered sugar (Note: we actually sprinkled a bit of cinnamon sugar on top before baking and then added some powdered sugar to the top when they were done baking). Next time I might try them with a glaze over the top to see if I can make them taste even more donut-like.



They were so tasty, that even Scooby Doo wanted in on the action! I swear, I turn my back for two seconds around here and someone is always into something! ;)

(compliments of Sawyer)

Gettin' Crafty

May seems to have been a bipolar weather month here - one day it's 88 degrees and we're at the pool, and the next day it's back to 64 degrees and raining...then repeat the cycle over and over again every day and a half. So, we've been taking advantage of being stuck indoors again by doing what we do best - arts, crafts and making stuff!

I found an unused 11x14 picture frame that was taking up space in my office, and I turned it into this handy dandy menu planner! The glass works perfectly with a dry erase marker so that I can plan out two weeks of meals at a time - perfect for making grocery lists (and so that Mitch doesn't eat Taco Bell for lunch on taco night) ;)

Last time Mitch went to So Cal, he came back with a small set of alphabet letters for stamping metal that he snagged from his grandpa's garage (aka a treasure trove of incredibly old tools and miscellaneous "things"). After being inspired by all kinds of metal stamped jewelry that I've been seeing on the internet lately, I dug out the metal stamps, a hammer, a washer and a black Sharpie marker to make this cute little necklace. Not bad for a first try!

(and yes, I just wanted to show off my massive pregnant chest...yikes!) LOL

I thought the mantle could use a little more color, so I gave the clock a bright new coat of red spray paint and created the "K" fabric frame to balance it out a little bit. Now, if only I could convince Mitch that the wall behind the mantle would look SO much better in a darker shade of taupe so that the fireplace moulding and the accessories would really pop!

The frame came from the dollar store, and the K and the white eyelet background are just fabric scraps that I had laying around in my craft room. I guess this time around I'm doing less "nesting" in terms of organizing and more redecorating this place while I still have a few minutes to do it!

Halfway, Baby!

Today I went in for my 20-week-ish ultrasound, and it was so nice to be able to see our baby boy again! Everything looks good, and all the measurements put my due date somewhere between 9/24 and 10/1, so my doctor will probably stick with my original due date of 9/26, and then we'll talk about early induction if I start dialating/effacing very much in the weeks ahead of time...since we all know that the very last thing I want is to accidentally deliver another early baby at home! One time was quite enough, thank you!

This was the only profile shot we could get because he was moving around so much and in such a strange position today...it looks kind of funky because he's sucking on his hand! I could actually see his mouth and cheeks moving as he was sucking on it - too funny!

He's still 100% boy :)

Here's the mandatory creepy-alien-face shot...these always freak me out. He kind of looks like a creepy bunny rabbit in this picture, if you ask me! I think that's due to his fist-in-front-of-face again, but I might be wrong.

That thing in the middle between the two + signs is his foot...if you know how to read ultrasound numbers, you're reading it correctly...his foot is already 3.8 cm long! Looks like another big footed Kundin boy, just like Daddy and his brothers!

Now, if only we could choose a name for this little guy, I'd be all set! Don't ask (and don't hold your breath!)...it's never going to happen!

Karate Chop

Mitch took the boys to the Nor Cal Kids Festival yesterday while I was enjoying a nice Girls Day Out with my sisters and my cousins. The boys participated in a short karate class demonstration, and then they got to break some boards. Sawyer was hooked, and we've signed him up to start karate next month!

"Mud Bath"

The other day the boys & I painted some of our old terra cotta pots, opened up a new bag of potting soil and finally planted some of the plants that we won at Sawyer's school auction a couple weekends ago. Sawyer chose the mixed lettuces for his pot, and Sutton opted for the herbs. I figured that we already have herbs and lettuce in our big raised garden beds, so it doesn't matter if these do well or get stunted by growing in small containers...as long as the boys have their OWN mini garden to attend to, all is well and right in their little world.


They are insanely proud of their plants, and Sutton couldn't wait to give his herbs their first watering.

LITTLE DID WE KNOW...


Sawyer was busy on the other side of the yard taking care of some watering of his own - filling up our remaining (and still currently empty, thank goodness!) raised bed with a lake of hose water.

Sawyer suggested that they put on their swim trunks since there was a lot of water, and since boys will be boys, I couldn't bring myself to refuse their request of making mud pies out of the sloppy mess. It was MY fault, after all, for breaking out the dirt and the plants in the first place. It all started out so innocently...

BUT I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER...

Boys will be boys, right? Nothing goes hand-in-hand with boyness as much as dirtiness!

Pretty soon it morphed into mud body painting...

Which quickly turned into a major mud fight...which translated to Mommy cleaning mud out of deep inside of their ears for DAYS!

Time for a little clean-up!

I SO wish I could claim that this actually worked and made for some easier clean up for me, but honestly, the sprinkler only took off the first miniscule layer of muck and grime. We had to follow this up with a marathon bathtime and a scrubbing that probably took off the top layer of their skin in addition to the funk...hey, it WAS a 50/50 compost and manure blend they were playing in - ICK!

Naturally, they've been begging to take a "mud bath" every day now ♥

Hamburger Farm Tour

If you've ever wondered what Bishop's Pumpkin Farm does on the off-season, well, we've got the answer - they're busy giving tours of their "Hamburger Farm" (don't worry, they don't go into detail as to where the actual hamburger meat comes from!)! We spent this morning there with Sawyer's class, and it was both fun and educational for us all. Too bad that today is a work day for Mitch, so he wasn't able to join us...hence the gazillion pictures so he can re-live the experience with the boys on the computer later :)


First we hopped on the train to take us to the back side of the farm


We met our tour guide, and she showed us the bee hives and explained the important jobs that the bees do to fertilize the plants and make honey.


Then she showed us the wheat plants...

...and we got to grind our own wheat flour from the wheat berries. We talked about how the baker uses the flour to make our hamburger buns.

Next we picked some onions and talked about how onions are natural antibiotics as well as being tasty burger toppings.

Sutton smelled the fresh dill, "It smells like pickles!"

We got to see four different types of lettuces growing in the field.

We got up close and personal with the cows grazing in their pens...

...and then we got to "milk" some fake cows for practice.

Sutton was a bit concerned that there was water coming out of the "udders" instead of milk, but he was a champion cow milker!

Next we hit up the potato fields to dig up our own potatoes

Sutton managed to find the teeniest little potato out there! Everyone else had huge ones, but he loved his little tiny spud! :)

Our guide showed us how to use this machine to turn the potatoes into raw french fries, and then we put the potato pieces into a compost pile and talked about how and why we compost things.

Then it was time for lunch - hamburgers, of course!

After lunch we had free reign of the farm, so we hit up a few of the photo spots and then headed to the petting zoo area for awhile.

Sawyer & Maren with a baby goat

Sutton was especially fond of this guy, "the one with only one horn."

Sawyer was having a great time brushing and grooming all of the animals.

On our way out we got to meet some baby pigs...these guys may look pretty big for babies, but their Mama is about the size of my sofa!