...that my 3 month old is already this big?! He is such a big boy, sitting big sister's chair... and she was so thrilled that he was "borrowing" it. Madelynn is such a great big sister. :)
time we were there, so it was definitely a due visit. We left Olympia around 1pm on Friday after picking up cousin Seth from the bus station, and made it to Bellingham around 5:30 after a few pit stops and detours--travelling with little ones is a little more time consuming! On Saturday Karl had a show in Seattle and took Annie along with him, while Seth and Todd hung out at the tattoo shop, which left me and MadMax on our own in Bellingham while we waited for my good friend Bobbi to get off work. I decided it would be best for me to drive around to find something to entertain Madelynn, since a bored toddler is a mischeif maker! We found this beautiful park on the w
ater and when I turned around to point out the boats, Madelynn was fast asleep! So Max and I and Madee sat in the quiet, breezy van napping before going to meet Bobbi. It was a nice change in pace from the rest of our fun-filled weekend. On our way home on Sunday, we stopped by Leslie's house for a BBQ, which was another very due visit. Madelynn had a blast playing with the cousins--she was beyond thrilled to see Hunter!! She has missed him a lot ever since they moved up north. We had a great time
and are looking forward to doing it again! But for now, I wore myself out and will be taking it easy to try and make up for the lack of rest...
I made these tonight, and they were delicious! Just cut some jalapenos in half and empty out the seeds (leave a few in, if you want them to be HOT!) spoon some cream cheese or drained yogurt cheese into the halves, dip into beaten eggs and then dredge through seasoned bread crumbs. Bake them at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!! Next time I make them I will probably mix some grated goat gouda into the cream cheese mixture... YUM! Speaking of goat cheese, does anyone have experience making their own? That may very well be my next culinary adventure...
Maximus may be a complete clone of Karl, but I did that.
sort of a mix between cream cheese and sour cream, and quite scrumptious spread on my whole wheat sourdough toast this morning--I now have whey! This excites me because I had just read about how to prepare lacto-fermented 
vegetables in my new book, The Maker's Diet. So now, I have on my counter a beautiful jar of shredded carrot and fresh ginger, and in two or three days I will be able to enjoy my ginger spiced carrots, probably with some fish. Next I'm going to try sauerkraut!
So, as I said yesterday, I made yogurt in my crockpot!! I have read countless blogs where proud people such as myself were so surprised that it actually worked--and even more surprised that it was actually enjoyed by their families. And so I decided to also type up my testimony and post it on my blog. Yogurt in a crockpot, though thinner than yogurt of the store-bought varieties, is delicious! We ate it as dessert last night with blended peaches and honey stirred in, and today we tried it topped with strawberry goodness. I am so happy to have discovered that I could do this, not that it saves tons of money (I never spent that much on yogurt to begin with), but I have read that it is much healthier than store-bought yogurt. The reason for this is that commercially produced yogurt apparently isn't allowed to ferment for very long anymore (probably because the faster they make it, the more they can produce), and so it isn't able to develop as many good cultures as homemade yogurt, which you can allow to ferment for anywhere from 8-24hrs. I'm definitely going to do this again, and next time I'll probably double the batch and try to make some "cheese" as well.
which we still have yet to taste. As proud of myself as I am for making it, I'm kind of scared to taste it and I definitely wasn't about to taste it while it was still warm. Karl had the idea of pureeing some frozen peaches and honey to mix in, so the yogurt will be our dessert. Yay!! After breakfast Madee found the baskets the Easter bunny brought to our house for her and Max. She went to go check on her bunny and there were gifts on top of the cage waiting
for her!! We have yet to determine whether or not our bunny is, in fact, the Easter Bunny. Madee got a cowgirl hat and a doctor kit (random, I know) in her basket and Maximus got a gloworm (his official first toy!). We spent the afternoon at my mom's house where Madelynn got to hunt for eggs with Sam, John, and cousin Jackson. We somehow managed to have the eggs hidden AND hunted for between rain showers (sort of). The kids stayed dry long enough to come in and eat (an awesome Easter dinner--thanks Mom!!) with out wreaking too much havoc on Mom's light-colored carpet, before going back out to fly kites in the rain, which proved to be quite the 
adventure, and I'm pretty sure turned out to be the highlight of Madelynn's day. She and her daddy were ablet to get Elmo WAY up there, and boy did he fly far when she let go of him altogether!! Karl had to venture a few driveways down to find the kite.
After all the egg-hunting-kite-flying-dinner-eating madness, Kendal and Jessie stopped by with little Carson. Madelynn was so funny about "baby Carson"... she was pretty sure he wanted her to carry him around and hold him, but he's not a whole lot smaller than she is these days, and quite frankly he wasn't so sure about her and her nurturing instincts.
Here is what we ended up with. Sure, its not much to look at now, but in a few days we'll have a tiny "green house" filled with about a zillion tomato plants. In fact, I may have gone a little overboard with the tomatoes, but I'm hoping to have enough to can some marinara and salsa. We also started some hot mystery peppers (who knew all the seeds look exactly the same?!) and some bell peppers.
It's astonishing how much Madelynn has grown up in one year. Last year, she was only one and a half, and wasn't exactly able to hunt for Easter eggs even if the weather had cooperated with us. This year on the other hand (I know it's not Easter yet, we had a practice) she was not only able to really hunt for the eggs, she even told me what colors they were and we counted the loot together when she was done. It was great fun. She was the only one hunting, since cousin Jack couldn't make it, but I think she did well enough to stand up to the competition in the real hunt next weekend. :)
