Portabellopixie

Raspbarry Jem

In high school, it was all about Victoria's Secret lotion.  Everyone else was into the Sunripened Raspberry, which immediately turned me off on the scent.  I rocked Juicy Pear for years.  When it came time for slathering up, (this was always a community event afterall) the other girls pulled out pink bottles lotion from their backpacks while I pull out green.  They would look at my lotion and say..  "yeah, I have that one at home, but I like the raspberry best."  And everyone would sniff the others lotions and I always, always preferred my pear.  I even put it in my hair after swimming. 

But, we're not in high school anymore are we?  And now I live in Montana and raspberries are the epitome of cool.  Unless you can find huckleberries, or are willing to fork over $50 for them at the farmers market.  Which I have done before, but lets get back on track.

There is a honor system, u-pick raspberry patch about 20 minutes from us and we took our annual trip the other day.  Twas hot...  but we ended up with about 10 cups of berries which I promptly made into jam.

I police this stuff like its gold.  Every jar opened needs to last, because we only have 8 to make it through the year!  When the last one is opened I start getting jittery.

The result?  8 precious jars..

I've made a lot of jam over the last few years and think I've got our families sugar vibe figured out.  A batch of raspberry jam in July, two batches of strawberry jam in August and 2 batches of spiced peach jam in the fall.  I'm actually trying to figure out what we do with all that jam because we don't do pb&j..  (well, its a treat, not a meal..)  But we go through it in a years time.

We're getting into that canning preserving time, what are you guys looking forward to "putting up"?

Before I get to this post, I need to air my mommy brain from yesterday.  It was one of those killer mom days.  The ones that make you question every choice you are making because every member of the family rubs each other the wrong way.  At the end of the day, you fall into bed (hitting your head on the bedpost a'course) and vow to research vasectomies tomorrow.  And then, you decide to write a post for the next day and pull up 100 photos of your family on a sailing trip.  (You might remember the huge tantrum that happened on the boat, but 98% of it is cute smiles and happy faces.)  And this gives you just enough energy to give it a go the next day.

OK, NAUTICAL..

It's all over the place!  Stripes and boats and anchors and waves..  the world has gone overboard (har har) with nautical mayhem.  I usually avoid major trends, not out of rebellion, but just.. I don't know.  When everyone wears purple, I don't want to you know?  Yes, you too?

BUT.. when your friend has a sailboat, you jump on that nautical bandwagon and hit the water!

My little boy is turning into a boy.  Not little anymore, just boy.  He scales walls like spiderman and rides his bike like he's on the X-Games.  I'm honestly a bit scared about what may be coming.  He's only 6.  The other day he turned to me and said.. (and I quote) "mom- Bear Grylls is the man."

This shot below?  Caught unaware:

This one below?  For the ladies.. (HELP!!!)

Dad / Tammy.. if you're reading here, stop.

I am a lake traitor.  All of my Montana lake experiences have been centered around Flathead Lake in Polson, MT where my dad and step-momster lived for a long time.  When people would say "hey, we're going to the lake.." it was always Flathead that I thought of first.  And then people would say they were going to Seeley Lake..  And I would rest well in loving MY lake.

But this sailing/camping trip has changed all and I feel guilty.  Seely Lake is boss.  It is way warmer, has way less swimmers itch (if you don't know what that is, count yourself lucky) and the water is a gorgeous green that I expect from a mountain lake.  Flathead is a cool gray color, which somehow makes the water seem even more cold.  But that Seely Lake green?  It begs you to jump in and swim for a while, so we did.

For opening day of the Olympics.. a future olympian? 

good times.

Carousel for Missoula

Missoula is a great place to live.  It's the kind of place that you don't realize is so wonderful until you live somewhere else and find yourself missing everything about Missoula.  (Except for the long winters.. I don't think I will ever miss those, regardless of where we live.)

One of Missoula's mostest awesomest places to go is the carousel.  I've never been to a prettier carousel.. the one at Disneyland was like limp noodles to Missoula's carousel steak.  In other words, it's good.

This summer both the kids have learned to ride bikes, and we happen to live the perfect distance away from the carousel for a bike ride there.  This particular morning was Saturday, and we rode along the river to the Farmers Market, shared a Rhubarb Lemonade and a bag of cucumbers, and then rode further down the river where some guys were surfing. (I know!!??)  I have an instagram photo of it somewhere.. Anyhow, it's a really great bike ride, you wind through downtown on a trail that overlooks the river and you hit the University, Farmers Market, downtown, Carousel, Dragon Hollow (most awesome playground ever), Childrens Museum..  more, more, more.  We love it.

 

 

 

 

Is this gal not the prettiest horse you've seen? 

When Dustin and I first started dating, he picked me up from work one day (lifeguard at YMCA) for a "surprise."  He took me here and I thought "oh, how sweet."  Then the ride started and I about fell off.  It goes fast!  Mary Poppins would totally approve.

Planning a trip to Utah (provo / orem) area before school starts.  I know a lot of good things to do there, but do any of you locals have awesome secret hidden spots we should hit?

Because it isn't Valentines day.

Earlier this spring, we took the kids and a few of their buddies (babysitting night, perfect activity!) to the park a few blocks from our home.  The street was lined with dandelions.  I know they're a weed, but I'm a lover.  First off, they are lovely floating through the air.  Secondly, they are super fun to play with.  I taught the kids how to make dandelion jewelry.  Just pull the stem into two long pieces and tie it around a finger, wrist or wherever you need a good piece of jewelry that will last 4 seconds.

I found these photos the other day and had to share.  Dustin and I say "I love you" a lot, and often the other person will reply "how come?"  Mr. Romance is usually good at coming up with a clever reply whearas I often end up with a shrug of the shoulders and a..  "I just do.."  Which is really code for "there are too many reasons to list".  But I thought I would take a minute to write it out.  You know, because it isn't Valentines Day or his birthday or any other holiday.  I'm a lucky girl.

Babysitting Night, How we Organize

Hope you guys had a great weekend.  We did, starting with babysitting night, it was our turn to sit.  I thought I would take a few more minutes to chat about how we organize the nights that we take the turn to babysit and how we organize our group.

When it is our turn to watch, we have the kids play for about 2 hours.  Since they are excited to see thier friends, and everyone trickles in at different times, it goes off without a hitch.  There have been weeks that only one family brings their kiddos, so we will venture out to the park or some other easy location.  If two or three families bring thier kids that week though, we find it easiest to just stay at home.  This week, the kids found an array of 'weapons' which I promptly overrode as 'charging equipment' and played "WARRIORS!"  I think it was inspired by everyones recent trips to Brave, which is really a sweet movie.  Ethan was really scared by the bear though, so if you have a youngin that is afraid of "scary creatures" be forewarned.  :)

So they play for a few hours and then wind down for about 30 minutes.  Dustin usually oversees this part while I make a snack and pour everyone a drink in pre-labeled (ideally) cups.  Then we put on a movie and finish up the night.  The movie is ending right around the time parents arrive to pick up kids.  Honestly, it is a piece of cake and super fun.

This particular night, Dustin & I still got to go on a date as the kids were having a late sleepover at Grandma's house.  We went to Spiderman, I squished Dustin's head while he was buying tickets.  True Love.

We have a few "rules" in the group.

Both parents need to be there on the night they are babysitting, there can be too many kids for one person to take care of properly.

You can't opt out of a month, it throws the whole thing off.  If you can only bring your kids to one of the dates, you still take your turn babysitting.  If you look at it right, you're still just trading one night for one night.

Parents need to feed their kids dinner before babysitting.  This allows family to have dinner together, and saves two parents from trying to coordinate dinner for four families worth of children.

Thats pretty much it.  We've been doing it for about 5 years now and love it.  This particular year, two of the girls in babysitting were also in Eliza's class.  Talk about giggle-heads.  I think the teacher grew a little weary of them about the first month into school and separated their seats.  Haha!  I'm just glad they are developing friendships.

xo

S

Date Night - Freebie Fun

I've mentioned it before, but we are part of a date night co-op.  It's pretty awesome, if I do say so.  You find four families with kids around the same age and each family takes one night a month to watch all the children.  Most people's eyes go wide with horror when you tell them they will have 4 families worth of kids one night, but I swear, its no biggie.  

We set up our date night as Friday night, 6-10.  So we always know that Friday nights, 3 nights a month, we have a date time carved out.  The kids look forward to it just as much because they get to play with their pals.  

Last week, we were plain tuckered out and didn't have the gusto to do anything big and fancy (err.. because we ALWAYS go big and fancy, don't you?)  so we hopped on our bikes and went for a ride.  I wore a skirt I've been meaning to show you for a while, and found it might not be the best for bike riding.  Hellothigh.  Anyway, I took my camera and realized I am relying on instagram waaay to much lately because I could hardly remember how to turn the big girl camera on.

So while it is wonderful to have three dates a month, it can add up.  The typical dinner and a movie date can add up to almost $100 depending on where you go and the snacks you get.  If you go out to dinner (average $40-75) and a movie ( $30-40 if you get tickets and snacks) three times a month, you have just added about $250 to your monthly budget.  jaw drop.  So we have started incorporating some cheapie and free dates to the rotation.  And really, this was my favorite we have done in a while.

Dustin lusted after all the cool cars we passed.  

I took him to see this fabulous little alley garden packed full of raspberries, squash and corn.  (In an alley!)  Seeing this little garden led us to talk about our future garden, how we've missed having one this year, but that we have been able to do so much more with the time.

What are some of your favorite dates on the cheap?

Today, deep in summer

This post brought to you by means of blogging from the park on my phone.

We are in the thick of it here, biking, picnicking, campfiring, vacation planning and playing our way through summer. Keeping two kids occupied and happy is a full time job.

We scored a brand new 9 person tent for $20 so we definitely need to break that in soon.

I hope you all are staying safe and cool this summer!