sunshine and rain

This spring has been a bit crazy- good for the garden I guess. Most days are hot, unless it's rainy and some days it's rainy and hot, alternating all day. The kids both had soccer practice in the rain tonight. They loved it. Ivan was quite sure that the lightning would get them, but they took cover before anyone was struck, then went out again for some more wet fun.

Dominique has been having tons of fun excursions with her class- touring DQ and having lunch there, going to a dairy farm, scavenger hunt at the beach with her school "team", next up is a butterfly parade- where they release the butterflies they have been watching grow from caterpillars in their room the last month or so.

This weekend we have soccerfest. Each kid will play 3 games. It'll be lots of fun I'm sure so we're hoping for no rain that day.

I've been loving my new kitchen! Brian removed about half our cupboards and put a smaller section up on the wall. We have way more counter space and I can see out of the encumbering kitchen to the dining area and living room. It's so wonderful. Although the floor space is not any bigger, it FEELS so much more spacious. I hadn't even realized that the little counter space I did have was further encumbered by the overhead cupboards. It's awesome! Also, so proud of myself for getting my oven cleaned FINALLY! I should have done it so long ago. I spent more energy avoiding the process that wasn't all that bad. They now have "no fume" cleaners, so that made my kitchen even nicer. And what kind of fun am I having in the kitchen? I have a new joy called homemade popsicles. Mom got me some popsicles containers some time back and I used them again recently. We really liked the treat, so I got a bunch more containers at the dollarama. I now have 20 and make up a big batch. I love that I know what's in them and it tastes like desert although it's mostly fruit and so yummy. I started with the first recipe I used: fruit, yogurt and orange juice (it's nice with yogurt like a creamsicle). Then I tried lime and strawberry (excellent). Mango, kiwi and yogurt was amazing- I layer them so that it makes different colors and flavors as you eat it. Ivan brought home a recipe for smoothies with the wacky snack program from school and they made it with vegetables too! They mixed fruit with spinach, carrots or kale... So my last batch (yet to taste) is carrots, strawberry, blueberry and banana with some apple juice. I can't wait to try it. We don't drink juice often, so it's a special treat and so nice to have out in the hot sun. I also like it because if fruits are getting overripe, it just makes it taste better! I still have frozen apple puree, so I'm dreaming up apple pie flavored pops as our next adventure. I was also thinking of making a list of our flavors and what we liked best, although I'm a wing it kind of person.

The cousins have moved out to their acreage, so we were helping them pack, then unpack a while back. The kids loved to ride on uncle's quad. It took all 6 of them to take something to the garage, while us moms were in the house setting up the kitchen.