Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Rainbow Silk, Dandelion Pizza, & Stella's First Bike Trip

We had a definite rainbow theme going on for Stella's First Birthday. She loves her some color, that's for sure!
The only thing is is that I have a hard time taking her picture because she never stops moving! As a result, all of my pictures are blurry. I'm sure there is a setting I could set on my camera, but lately I really only have time for "point-and-click."
Stella is precariously standing on a folding cot that Kyle thought would be cool to sleep on...I'm actually amazed because he slept on that for two nights straight. Stella loves to climb. Enough said.
She also loves to wear necklaces...yet another dangerous thing for a baby, but she's oh so happy when I put it around her neck. The one pictured here has been pitched because she managed to pry the fake blue jewels off. Now she sports a wooden heart necklace. I don't remember Reeve or Kyle ever wanting to wear a necklace, and believe me I'm not encouraging her...she just comes up with this stuff on her own! She also has an opinion about what she wants to wear...same thing...I never remember Reeve or Kyle caring about what they were going to wear...they still don't. I know I don't, so where does she get it?
Anyway, here she comes to get the camera...
Look at those moves! Stella definitely has her groove on...

Ahhh...here she was still for a moment playing her favorite game of "peek-a-boo"
A friend of mine said she was frying up some Dandelion Fritters. Well I didn't have the patience to fry me up some DandelionCakes, but I did really want to eat some Dandelions, sooooo the kids picked about 20-30 Dandelion flowers and some garlic chives and I cleaned 'em and put them on pizza!
Dandelion Pizza...bettcha never had that before
The kids LOVED it...I loved it...Tommy loved it, and yes even Stella had a little and loved it. Don't spray your dandelions! Just eat 'em :). We've also been eating loads of nettles...anything that calls for spinach I now substitute with stinging nettles...YUM!
We try to use our human-powered (no gas) reel mower whenever possible, but man that takes a lot of time and we have way too much yard. Enter Reeve...
My new lawn mower guy! Love him!
Last, but not least...Pictures from Stella's first bike ride. We went on the Elroy~Sparta bike trail with our homeschool cooperative group. We left from Kendall and had 26 riders (including Stella). It was a beautiful day!
Stella checkin' out Tommy's bike and the Burley
The mission of the ride was to get to the first tunnel...it was about 3 miles from the Kendall depot. Stella did great in the Burley right up until that point.

We should have just taken her out and held her, but once we got in the dark tunnel (1/4 mile long) we really felt like we had to keep going...so we didn't stop the flow of traffic. Of course it didn't help that the kids were all having a blast and making spooky, boisterous, noises throughout the long tunnel.
Once we made it through to the other side we took her out and cuddled with her. Then she rode in the Ergo on my back. Oh where would we be without our Ergo? We rode another mile to a campground picnic area and had lunch. Stella rode on my bike on the return trip.
She had had it with the Burley. She was very happy and content and fell into a deep sleep moments before we got to the tunnel. The spooky noises didn't even stir her.
Kyle was a trail blazer and didn't hang around us slower riders, but we did manage to get a picture of Reeve when he took a water break.