672 worms later...

cousins came over and we baked some fun patriotic cherry pies from scratch.

by "from scratch" i mean, we literally climbed the cherry tree,

picked the cherries

(got all the worms out of the cherries...eww.)

and made the pie crust.

I don't know how much more "from scratch" you can get

unless you raised your own chickens and used their eggs.

(which some of my friends do...ok, now i feel like a cheater using store-bought eggs ;)

this entire process took about 4 hours, which is entirely way too long for baking a pie

but entirely not enough time to visit with my cute nieces!

my girls each made their own little baby pie, they loved rolling out the dough and cutting out the stars!

I think this picture says it all...

we didn't get a chance to do our hair, but we made pies and that was way more fun!
hope have a fun, memory-making kind of day :)
linking up with jeannett for instafriday!

love fresh raspberries

OK, this belongs on fail blog or lame book or something like that...
it actually came from my very own facebook feed
from my very own ummm... someone related to me...
be sure to read the 1st comment...

who knew loving raspberries could raise up such hellish fury?
this is what i think about sometimes as i pick raspberries...
i feel bad for the guy whose wife calls him a disgusting fat puke
(yes, that was his wife that said that *forehead slap*)

but back to the subject at hand:
raspberries!

aren't they the best??!!
once, when i was about 10, i was walking home from school and i walked past a bush with beautiful red ripe raspberries and somewhere deep in my subconscious "must have raspberry bush when i grow up" became part of my bucket list.

i love picking raspberries off of our bush that started out small and now takes over a 50 square foot area.   Picking raspberries is like a treasure hunt.  A sunny, delicious treasure hunt.  It makes me feel like a kid again :)

i love to put my fresh raspberries on top of a yummy brownie with a scoop of ice cream.
and if that makes me a disgusting fat puke i'm okay with it.
have a beautiful, delicious, non-disgusting day mmmmkay?

Red, White & Chambray

we had to go to this pretty place to "help" daddy with some scenery photos for a painting he's working on.
as soon as we got there, i had one kid dancing around about to pee her pants, another kid peeing on a rock, and another child peeing in her pants (nope, i'm not naming names...but she's kinda little and her name rhymes with bofeeya) all in all, a grand time.
we're off to a parade today then maybe we'll head back up the canyon for some more family togetherness, that is, if the parents don't go crazy first!

chambray rompers: old navy, ross

chambray shirt: old navy

red shirt: downeast

tan shorts: thrifted

red sandals: kohls 

linking up with Lindsey for what i wore wednesday

have an awesome, safe, dry panties type of 4th of July, mmmkay?

mani monday- let's just use every single color we own!

my 3 little girls love to get their nails painted
and the last time we did it was ummm, february i think
(let the mom guilt begin...)
so, we broke out our old, mostly goopy polish & went to town.
next time i won't wait so long, considering how happy they were painting their nails

sofia opted for rainbow nails...or "wainbow" nails as she calls it :)

swede wanted red white and blue for the 4th, she painted these all by herself
too bad 99% of the paint will be goners by the time the 4th rolls around

ingrid also painted hers by herself.
she's the "put as many colors on top of one another and see how thick you can make the polish" type of girl.

i tried a colorful, geometric look on mine using tape to make straight lines.
it kinda matches my new blogger banner :)
it's a miracle they turned out as well as they did considering how old and goopy our nail polish is!
I'm linking up with Heather and Heather for ManiMonday!



have a really awesome day, mmkay?

Hawaii week one

I saw this video on youtube about the 50 states & their stereotypes..Hawaii...
"if you lived here you'd be lazy, too"
you know it.
we're still feelin the island laziness
and hence, blogging doesn't feel too important.
but, it's July now..so I better just buck-up
and try not to be so laaaazy....

We took over 4000 pictures on our trip...
these are a select few from the first week
yes, this is just week ONE.

arrival

our first evening there

where we stayed

i *love* this driveway.

1st day at the beach

Hiking on the a'a trail to get to Makalawena...only have to walk to those trees in the distance..with 3 kids in water shoes carrying all their gear....

grandma and grandpa came with us to Hawaii! it was awesome to have a babysitter!!

makalawena beach, it's like heaven on earth

eating at Killer Tacos after a long day of hiking and swimming at Makalawena Beach

Ingrid celebrated her 6th birthday in HI

of course, all she wanted was giraffes!

hot tubbin!

chillin in the hammock

kealakekua bay, where the dolphins like to play.
i look like i'm about 12 years old right here...i think it's the ears..
also, i didn't get any sleep the night before, and had barfed a bit earlier. more on that later...

biggest tree I've ever seen...me and the 3 kids standing there...and we couldn't fit the whole tree in the frame.

That's 6 foot tall Jeremy up in the tree. that's one big ass tree.

chillin along Ali'i drive in Kona...I had the worst sunburn that first week!  When I see this picture I think..."damn, my back hurt SOOOO BAD!!"  My back hurt so bad I took lortab...5 lortabs in one12 hour period, walked through walmart like a stoned person trying to find pain-relieving spray, then barfed up a bagel on the side of the road...good times!

Beach 69

Swede snorkling

bum crack

the "weeds" off to the side of the road...

this is intense work making these sandcastles, ya know?!

There's no way i'm leaving the beach right now! you're the worst parents ever!

wailaia beach (aka beach 69) was so fun, we went there three times...plus, you could swim not very far and be at a gay nude beach. bonus!

seeing these pics makes me wanna hop a flight straight back to Hawaii asap!
it makes me wanna see ippy get his own show on the food network.
it makes me wanna start looking at real estate on the big island...
aloha!