Strawberries!

One of my absolute favortie things about this time of year is that strawberries are in season. Not only are they cheaper, but they taste really yummy. Last week I think I bought about 15 pounds of strawberries, if not more. I made 4 batches of strawberry freezer jam, froze some to make smoothies with, and snacked on them.


My favorite thing of all is making a homemade angel food cake served with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. If you have never had a homemade angel food cake before, you are missing out. They are a hundred times better than the ones you get at the bakeries in the grocery stores. I hope you are all enjoying strawberry season as much as I am. If anyone else has any yummy recipes using strawberries, let me know.

I just use the recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook, here is a link to the online recipe.

If only....

If I could only convince Clarissa in 5, 10, or 15 years that dishes are as much fun as she thinks they are now. I don't love doing dishes, especially since we don't have a dishwasher, but it does make it more fun when Clarissa helps me, although it takes longer. She washes, rinses, puts the dishes in the rack, pulls them out, rewashes, splashes water everywhere, and tries to climb up on the dishes, (I think she was trying to turn off the water). The only sad part is when all the dishes are clean, Clarissa cried when we were all done. It's fun to have some nice mommy/daughter time and still get some chores down, I'm glad that she is starting to help around the house.

St. Louis Zoo

We had a great time at the Zoo. Because it rained earlier in the day, there weren't too many people there and the weather was quite nice. The St. Louis Zoo is free and we didn't even have to pay for parking.

We got pretty close to a lot of animals.

This Peacock was blocking the pathway for about 5 minutes before we got brave enough to just walk into it and assume it would move.

Who knew you could get so close to the primates!!

Clarissa's favorite animal, the "tutle".

As a bonus, see if you can find the "bonus" in this video of the penguins.

The St. Louis Arch

We rode to the top of the St. Louis Arch. Even though it was raining, we still got some good pictures, and had a fun time looking out over St. Louis.

Clarissa loved looking out of the windows.

Waiting to get in the pod to ride back down to the bottom of the arch.

If you couldn't tell by this picture, Clarissa loved the ride.

Oh Yeah!!!

Well, after some good rest and relaxation, we feel ready to return to real life. Look forward to a few posts about our trip to St. Louis.

Quinn Passed Prelims

Quinn passed prelims. I am very excited to have this step over with, which I'm sure Quinn is even more excited about. We will blog more later, but we are currently on a family vacation, so no access to pictures. So far the highlight of the trip for Clarissa has been the use of an umbrella!

The Celebratory Dinner at Olive Garden.

Prelims

Today Quinn has his prelims. He has been preparing for the last few months so I think he has prepared really well, but of course he is still really nervous. Clarissa and I want to wish him good luck and let him know how much we love him. Quinn is working so hard in graduate school and I know it isn't fun all of the time, it's a ton of work, and he is pretty stressed out most of the time. But I know he is doing it because he loves me and Clarissa. He is working very hard to get a good education so he can get a good job to support our family. I am especially grateful since I am able to stay home and raise our children without having to work. I know some days he wishes we could just move to Montana and he would get a random job, and he could get away from all the stress in his life. Unfortunately that's not the best solution, although some days it sure would be the easiest, but wouldn't be a long term solution. I'm glad that at least so far we are sticking around, I guess we'll just have to see how today goes, but I know he will do great!

Quinn was trying to study, and of course Clarissa wanted to play on his computer. So he let her sit on his shoulders and I handed her a brush and some barretts to keep her occupied.

It's the sign of a good dad when he will let his daughter put barrett's in his hair. At least he go a little studying done.

Since Clarissa loves Quinn's computer so much we have tried distracting her with his old lap top that doesn't work anymore. She will play with it for a few minutes now, although she does catch on rather quickly that it doesn't light up like Daddy's, but it is cute to watch her type.

Lately Clarissa has started making funny faces, and we finally got a picture.

GOOD LUCK QUINN!

WE LOVE YOU TONS, YOU WILL DO AWESOME!!!!!!!

Like Mother Like Daughter

When I was a little girl I loved playing in this box of books underneath my parent's desk while my mom would type on the typewriter.



Clarissa's favorite place to play while I work on the computer is in our closet right next to the computer. She loves running in there and poking her head out at me, and pulling out water bottles from our water storage. One day she took her baby and blanket in there and played for about 15 minutes. I could hear her giggling and talking.

I guess kids just love finding small places that only they can fit into.

The Moving Walkway

One of Clarissa's favorite parts of our trip to Utah was the moving walkway in the airport. She loved standing on it and going across.
Even more, she loved playing on the outside of it. We were trying to waste some time before our flight out to Utah, so we went for a walk. We didn't make it very far, she spotted the edge of the walkway, and thought it was a fun bench, as well as a nice place to lay down. We spent a good 15 minutes there, finally it was time to board the airplane

Trip to Utah

Clarissa and I had a wonderful time in Utah visiting family, although we are glad to be back home and see Quinn.

Clarissa with Grandpa and Lenny the Leprechaun. The Leprechaun sings a song, so Clarissa had a lot of fun pushing the button, listening to the song and dancing.

A couple of pictures with Clarissa and some cousins.

Clarissa in a chicken costume, she loved to just wear it around the house.