Svea's Garden Corner

 Welcome to gardening with Svea!

 We are proud of our garden this year.
So far, it hasn't turned out to be a disaster - probably because I just planted a couple things in it less than a week ago.

As for perennials, though, our raspberry bushes are amazing.
Finally, after 3 years, our two little humble raspberry plants have exploded into dozens, and those raspberry bushes are loaded with little buds that promise to be raspberries - hopefully, soon.

And we have a couple of strawberry plants that came up too!  Glory be.

 Last year, we had nothing.  The raspberry plants came up, and we did enjoy the raspberries - all six of them.  In our neighborhood and in another neighborhod close by, no one had berries.  Last summer was so dry, and hot, and useless for gardens.  This year, we have had eight hundred inches of snow over the winter and pretty much constant rain for weeks.  And we are about to reap the benefits.

And thanks to Svea's dedicated watering, I'm sure we'll have a bumper crop!

You should make smoothie pops too.

So I read this blog post and wanted to make smoothie pops.

Usually I'm not so easily swayed but in five seconds my heart had already been won to want to buy this product.

 After snooping around on Amazon, I found this set of ten squeezy pops, the most you can buy in one set.  I did not want just four or five, as most sets had.  Because we have three kids . . . 4 or 5 divided by 3 = no fun.

They are soft silicone with a removable cap.  In bright fun colors.

 We used what we had on hand to make our smoothie pops:

Chocolate almond milk.
Orange juice.
Pureed strawberries and blueberries.
Vanilla yogurt.
Whipping cream.

Not all at the same time, though.

 Svea made an almond milk/whipping cream/strawberry smoothie.  You don't need a lot of each ingredient - we just used a spoonful of cream, a splash of milk and a couple spoonfuls of strawberries.

We made quick work of strawberries in my teeny tiny food processor. 
And then we tossed in some blueberries for Elin.

 Elin made whipping cream/yogurt/mixed berries smoothie.

 And there it is.

And with a smile, Elin demonstrates putting on the cap.

It didn't close all the way.
What can I say.  We're new at this smoothie pop thing.

I also made a couple of cream/yogurt/orange juice ones because I was in a creamsicle mood.
And then one that was just the chocolate almond milk.
I stood them upright to freeze.

We had to wait all night long.
After swimming lessons this morning, Elin and Svea got to taste their creations.  We ran hot water over the pops to loosen them.

They were so busy eating, they didn't have time to share their thoughts.

I would recommend to wash these things right away after using so stuff doesn't dry and stick to the inside.

I am happy have these things and do not regret my impulse buy.  We don't usually buy ice cream or popsicles from the store, so this is a nice healthy treat that is fun to make at home.

{I was not paid by Amazon or Cosmos to review this product, but if they want to throw any royalties from sales or, even better, extra squeezy pops my way, then they should feel free to do so.}

Cousins came to visit!



Recently my sister, niece and nephew came to visit us!

Our house was far from quiet with so many little people in it.

 



 One rainy day we took them to the craft store that has a café in it.
Sitting in the high chairs was the thing to do.
Linnea and Viggo.

Linnea and Elin.

Kevin and Viggo.

Svea and . . . some weirdo.

Fun yummy treat making!

Wow.  It got really quiet when all the good stuff came out.

 Linnea with her creations!
This was Svea's idea:  dipping nilla wafers in melted chocolate and then sprinkles.  It made all the little people happy.

 

You should know that Kevin does answer to the name Sharp Cheddar.

 



 Early morning Lego-building.

Hours were spent on new playset.

 . . . not quite sure what is happening here?

 

A rainy day trip to Cabela's.

 



Crazy nights playing Quirkle with Aunt Meme!

Maren and I lost every game, every night.  Viggo's brains must be out of this world to have beaten us geniuses, um, four times in a row?  As you can see in this photo, Viggo was not even trying.  He was just being silly and trash-talking us.  Note that in this photo, Maren is thinking very hard, as was I.  And yet with our combined brain power, we still lost.  Repeatedly.

. . . the end.

Father's day

Today Nate is up at the lake, enjoying the last day of a fishing retreat with Viggo and Svea, and getting Svea ready to come home.  And because Nate and the Svea won't be home until dinner, and Viggo is staying up at the lake with Grandma and Grandpa Zeke this week, we decided to observe Father's Day next Sunday.

I wish Nate could be relaxing on the couch today with a cute little somebody asleep on him, but today he is packing up and spending hours in the car on the way home.

But I just want to say that Nate is an amazing dad.  He is loving, kind, and teaches our kids so much.  Nate works so hard for us, and is so giving of his time to our children.  And that is a thumbnail sketch of the incredible dad Nate is.  This is kind of a condensed version of why we love this man that God has blessed our family with!

Happy Father's Day, Nate!  {Just wait until next weekend!}

Parade day!

 Our local Christian radio station - which is awesome, by the way - invited us to walk in our city's parade with them.  Fun fun fun!!

 Svea was excited to hand out suckers - which she did with gusto.

 And in front of us were the Shriners!  How fun was that!

 Viggo handed out pounds and pounds of bubble gum.

Elin wore her best tutu.

We walked and handed out stuff - Nate and Elin gave out tattoos with the station number, and I walked with Svea.  It was so much fun to see Svea attempt to give every single child a sucker; she didn't want to leave anyone out.  As an added bonus we saw friends along the way, so I am just saying they probably got an extra sucker or two hand-delivered by Svea.  Yes.  There was definitely favoritism. 

 Then all of the sudden it was all over.  This is what the end of a parade looks like.

And then . . . then we had to walk back to our car, all the way back to the police station.  The streets were deserted and it was hard to believe that 20 minutes earlier they had been packed with people.

Without all the noise and hubbub our walk back kind of felt like it stretched on forever, but we made it.

I had a cute walking buddy and we chit-chatted about the parade the entire way back.  We realized that none of our kids got any of the bubble gum or dum-dums that they had been handing out, and everyone was okay with that.  Sometimes it's just way more fun to be the giver (:

It was a fun way to start the summer!  Thanks, Spirit 92.9!