Mother's Day 2007

We just had the best week-end ever!....well...they are all the best week-end ever if it involves having family around me :-). We didn't go anywhere this year. I have been really tired from the incessant coughing all night that keeps me from getting enough sleep and Amanda is still recuperating from her hives and side-effects of the steroids they gave her...so it was low-keyed....but such fun!

Little Mr. Daxton had his first experience of getting to get really dirty....in the sand box! Thank goodness we keep it covered....since his first reaction was to EAT the sand...lol! He also had his first experience on a swing and slide down at the park....which I didn't get pictures of....he didn't like the swing or slide much and we weren't sure how he was going to take to the sand box.....but as you can see....he LOVED it!

Last year we went to Lake Arcadia and while we were exploring, my son-in-law, David found a mulberry tree and was telling us now he and his brother used to eat the berries off of one when they were kids. When we got back to the house we discovered that I HAVE a mulberry tree....well....sort of....it is actually in a vacant lot behind my house and hangs over my back fence. I knew the thing was back there obviously, but it never crossed my mind that you could eat the silly things that litter my yard every year...lol! Anyway, it is loaded down with the berries this year. Everyone was out there picking them and munching away on them so I decided to see if I could find any recipes for the silly things. Amazingly enough I found a ton of recipes on the internet!!! Some really yummy sounding stuff, too! Well....that gave us inspiration and we picked and picked and picked!!

We got a couple of huge zip-lock freezer bags full and froze them and there are a bunch more that should ripen in the next couple of days. I don't know that we would have gone to that much effort if we hadn't done this:

Oh my goodness........BEST berry pie I have EVER eaten.....honestly! None of us expected it to be that good. It was yummy, yummy! Now I can't wait to try some of the other recipes I found...one for chicken with chipolte/mulberry salsa in particular!! And maybe some preserves/jam? Haven't done that in years but these crazy little berries have me itching to do it again!

Ok...am getting frustrated....quick apology to the readers of this blog.....I have issues when I go to post the pics.....the spacing always turns out funky and weird....and when I try to move stuff around too much, blogger eats the pics I just posted....so sorry for the wierd arrangements!

Now on the some "cheesy" stuff.... I know I'm a dork....but I am so addicted to American Idol...lol! We missed the first season but have been soooo addicted since! We plan our evenings around the airings, tape them in case we have to be gone, etc. Anyway, I'm really "into" it and always have my favs, etc. I guess there are worse things I could be addicted to :-)!! Well, I had just mentioned in passing a good while back that it might be kind of cool to get cd's for the finalists....who knows...they might be collector's items someday...lol! Made the little comment and never thought about it again.......and LOOK what I got for Mother's Day...lol! Amanda had already given me the skein of Yarn Pirate and they went in with DH and got me these! How cool is that?!!! The only ones they couldn't find are Fantasia's, Rueben's and Bo Bice's! Too awesome, huh....my family rocks!

I know I sound like a broken record sometimes......but I could just spend hours and hours watching children and the wonder on their little faces when they are experiencing something new. It's just so awe inspiring to me and a reminder that we could all see the "wonder" if we just take the time and not take the simple things for granted.