Early Easter

Mike has to go to both San Francisco and Paris so he decided to get it all done in one big trip. He is leaving on Wednesday and will be gone on Easter. So, we decided to celebrate Easter with his mom, dad and brother last Sunday. As always dinner was fantastic! We had ham steaks on the grill, cheesy potatoes, asparagus and Kathy got me a super yummy piece of salmon and made dill sauce for it. OH... I CAN'T forget the Easter bread, cream puffs and spinach dip!

Mia and I dyed eggs on Monday. Mike worked late and Gabriel didn't want to help, he said "I just wants to play with my train". I had read about tie-dying with kool-aid so I figured it might work with eggs... And it did.

I was having a hard time deciding if I should do easter baskets when Mike was home or wait until Easter, but then it ended up that I am going to meet Mike in Detroit on his way from San Francisco to Paris on Saturday and go with him for a couple of days. (More on that when I get back!) Now that I won't be home on Easter we just HAD to give the kids baskets early (if you don't know, I am HORRIBLE at waiting to give people gifts I have for them), bummer!!

Last week Hasbro had a lot of great coupons in the paper and Target had quite a few of the games on sale. So for Easter they got... Chutes and Ladders, Sorry (that our dogs had eaten about 2 years ago and we still used the chewed up pieces) and Connect 4, some Play-Doh, M&M's and super cute cupcake suckers I found at Prime Cuts made by "Oh Susannah" Specialty Cupcakes.

I think Mia got to her chick before I took a picture... the beak and wings look a little... eaten.

Another Business Trip

Mike takes A LOT of business trips (as I am sure by now you know). San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Copenhagen, Paris... the list goes on. People keep telling me I should go with him. So I did! To Grand Rapids, MI (Insert the "I crack myself up" laugh here)!!

Mike had a meeting with a client in Grand Rapids this afternoon and was not going to be home till just about time to put Gabriel to bed. So we decided to tag along. With Mia being on spring break this week (and spending all week at her dad's house) it worked out perfectly because I didn't have to be home at a set time for her. Gabriel and I met Mike at his office and I drove us up to GR (That worked out great for Mike because he could be on the computer THE WHOLE WAY. Please refer to my "love to hate" post here). After dropping Mike off at his meeting we went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. Gabriel had a blast playing with everything. After the museum we decided to go to Target to waste some time and so when Mike called us to come pick him up we would be close. We walked in to the store, grabbed a coffee & chocolate milk and Mike called (I think he has a call out to all Target stores so when I go in he knows!). After grabbing dinner at Smoky Bones we headed home (with Mike driving this time)!

A Sneak Peep

I am sure that you have heard... we are getting chickens. They will arrive at the local feed store on April 19th and I am getting so excited!!!

It was hard to pick what kinds of chickens to order. We knew some of the traits we wanted... Good at foraging (so they can run around the yard and find food), A docile temperament (so they don't attack the kids playing in the yard), Cold hardy (we don't want any frozen chickens) and a breed that is both good egg and meat bird. Yes, the boys are going to be eaten (Sorry Tiffany they aren't going to be sent to a chicken farm to live happily ever after).

After seeing what was available at the feed store we narrowed it down to three breeds. Australorp, Buff Orpington and Barred Rock (or Plymouth Rock). Here are some pictures of what our little babies will grow up to look like.

Australorp Hen

(this is the best picture I could find to put on here)

Buff Orpington

Barred Rock

We went to Tractor Supply today to get everything we needed to get ready for the babies to arrive. I couldn't help but set up their house when we got home. Gabriel helped me make a little baby chicken house and now he keeps asking where the babies are. (Maybe I should have waited a couple of weeks to set up the brooder.)

And I couldn't help but get the peeps to test out the brooder for me.

It's Here...

Garden Time!!! And I have a few pictures to prove it.

Look at all that spinach!!

I started to thin the spinach and pulled the weeds on the other side to plant radishes

Our first spinach harvest of the season. I wilted it and added cream, pepper and nutmeg!

Here is the real proof of garden season... dirty jeans.

Updates are coming... no, really.

I think Mike has been gone more than home this month! Me trying to do that photo class thing with him so busy at work when he IS home and out of town more than not I haven't had a lot of time to take pictures of him. I am hoping to spend a lot of time with him for my BIRTHDAY WEEK (That is coming soon!!!) and getting the rest of the pictures taken and blogged about then.

Now I am wondering... Hold on... I have to look at a calendar and do some math.

Yup I was right, as of today he has been home 10 days in March and out of town 14. BUT out of that 10 days 6 of them were "crazy office days" (that's what I call it when they have any of their out of town Commerce Guys at the office) and that means working late and sometimes having a house guest or two. Don't get me wrong, I love entertaining and having people stay at our house, it is just not good quality Mike time.

14: wedding band/jewelry

As maybe you can tell by my post about vinegar... I would rather be given food than jewelry so for this assignment I chose to work with Mike's wedding band (while he worked with his computer). I got to practice my tight crops, good exposure and interesting camera angles. The "good exposure" didn't work out too well, we have really bad lighting for taking pictures in.

13: routines

Only 5 days behind... Ohhh well, this way I will have "regular" blog posts well into March.

Day 13's assignment was routines. Capturing your loved one going through their daily routine. Of course the day that I get to this assignment would not be a typical day. Mia has no school so the "getting ready for school" routine was out. BUT we can always count on Mike and his morning tea.