Art and other stuff

First, I'll capture your attention with the smoke rising from my BBQ to meet this amazingly blue sky!

Then we can look at my kids' great art (I'm their Mama, but still...").  They made me birthday cards:

The girl with the orange hair is Gregorie's drawing.  She is three.  The close up does not do it justice (the photo is blurry).  It's a great drawing.  She also did the top picture.  She wrote her name, "CAEFIeO".  Well, she's three.  Alex did the girl with the yellow hair (love the eyelashes!) and the second from the bottom.  She also wrote her name.  And mine.  Well, she's left-handed.  I love the cakes with the glowing candles they both made me!

I think they are wonderful and creative artists!  They can also be great helpers!  Here is Alex helping with the dishes last night (the gratin pan, to be precise!):

I wanted to share this with my fellow coffee lovers. It looked so beautiful when I photographed it -- maybe I was just high on the smell!  Freshly roasted and ground coffee being brewed in a muslin sock:

Fresh basil smells good too!

And a parting shot of girls playing, well, dressin, dollies:

Food, again!

Let's start with play food!  The girls' favorite boys came over today and the girls led them down to the playhouse and "fed" them.  Wyatt grabbed "a beer" and then they all cleaned up.

Earlier, I made some lettuce wraps for lunch:  romaine from the farmer's market, fresh herbs from the garden, left over roasted chicken, a little grated ginger root, a splash of tamari, and a drizzle of sesame oil!  Light, crispy, and yummy!

For dinner I made a potato gratin - totally made up recipe!  First I put some homemade yogurt in the bottom of a baking dish and added some dried herbs.

Next I sliced some fingerling potatoes thinly:

I added some crushed red pepper and topped it all with grated rosemary asagio cheese.

The result was good, but not GREAT!  I'll work on this and get back to you all.

A final note, Gregorie sure does love her orange juice!  She dragged the 25-pound bag in herself!

What starts with P?

Pumpkins, peas, and peppers:

Potatoes:

Pomegranate:

Pout:

Parsley:

Pears and peaches:

Purpose:

Playing:

Peanuts:

Privet:

Petunias:

Petting:

Pleased:

Pondering:

Peace:

This random life

Today has been a long, busy day.  I am tired and sore and have been cranky with my girls and my Gregg this evening.  Now the house is quiet and they are all asleep and I can step back and appreciate how much I love them and our random life.  These photos (mostly taken by Alex -- of course not those in which she appears!) capture the beauty, the busy, the bounty we have.

Today was "playhouse clean up day" and the girls really put in the effort!  I was proud of them!

And then there is just this:

ETA: Given that recent BHG article suggesting that we nurse our children in the bathroom at upscale restaurants, I am tempted to delete the photo that features that magazine. I won't only because it is a photo taken by Alex and I like the "art" of it. But know, dear readers, I was deeply offended by that article!