Crazy little thing called love Part II, Spring is here!

The funny thing is, I actually hit post before I intended to last time so I figured I would just do another entry. Yippee!

Don't you just love spring? Baseball, rhubarb, fresh gardens? We are having a true spring this year. Not one of those extended winters that goes from 40 degrees to 90 degrees over a weekend, of which I am not a big fan. This year however has been terrific. The Bug has had the top down almost every day except for the rainy days. Carlos has been outside practicing baseball with our neighbor friend, Jackson or Al every day. It is amazing how great he is this year! His throwing and most of all catching has improved tremendously. I am excited to see how he does with his new team. Tomorrow our first practice begins with our team this year. Al is coaching with friends we met last year in baseball. So I am very excited to see my friend, Debbie, 3+ times a week again as we cheer for our guys, big and small.



I made my first Rhubarb Crisp with rhubarb from my garden this year. The rhubarb has grown plentiful since we moved into our home in 1997 and each year I use the recipe my aunt, Kathie, gave me. Below is a picture of the recipe I printed in my greatest hits cookbook. Am I getting lazy by taking pictures of recipes instead of typing them out? No, just experimenting with our new Nikon D90. We are having so much fun learning how to use it. Anyway, it is a delicious recipe and I can't wait to dig in later! Carlos has already had his piece and loved (said while singing the word Loved super high). I think that was his first piece ever. THAT'S my boy!

Aren't we pretty? ;) This is my beautiful mother-in-law Yvonne and I on Easter Sunday with Mimosas in hand. I am wearing one of my favorite scarves. It is pink and white polka dot silk I bought at an antique store in Seattle with my friend, Lara. Remember that really fun day, Lara? I also debuted my new favorite tulle skirt with velvet polka dots, which I purchased during Dana and Marisa's Day of Fun 2010. This is just three days before Yvonne turned 80. Can you believe it? I don't think she looks a day over 50. :)

And this beautiful lady is my Grandma Bohl who celebrated her 89th Birthday this year. We traveled to North Dakota to help her celebrate last weekend and it was really nice to have a little road trip with my family. It was a really long roundtrip, but I realized we didn't listen to any music either direction-we talked and listened to the Twins. It was nice to see aunts, uncles, cousins and my dad again. We shared pizza, swam in the pool and laughed all day. Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Just look at my pride and joy surfing at the Water Park of America. Al and I brought Carlos during his spring break. We went on a Friday night and were able to return on Saturday for a few hours where we took this picture of Carlos surfing on a boogie board. You should have seen him showboating for the crowd who clapped when he was done. He got up onto his knees and actually let go and went with no hands for a second or two. He went on all of the big slides solo and without an ounce of fear. It was a wonderful time.

Below is my Easter Egg Hunter on Easter Sunday in the interior of the tree house designed and built by Alan and Carlos. The treehouse is a beautiful structure. My dad was in town in late October/early November and helped Al design a very important part-the ladder. I am so proud of Alan's work of art, I think he is pretty proud too! Carlos sang with the choir about 1/2 hour after this at church on Easter Sunday-and definitely NOT in the below displayed outfit. :) and he did wonderfully! He found all the plastic eggs hidden by the Easter Bunny that morning (and there were lots and hidden very well ;)

The final picture I wanted to share is what we had for lunch today. It is Booya. If you are not familiar with it let me explain. It is a secret family recipe handed down by Al's father, Ernie, from his family. It is a hearty soup/stew. Rachel Ray would call it a Stoup, but we just call it a slice of heaven. It is really a family event to make it. Everybody does their part chopping vegetables and de-boning chicken, opening cans of corn, lima beans or tomatoes or maybe stirring and finally sitting down to a steaming hot bowl of the finished product. The other important part is that it must be served with oyster crackers. There is truly nothing like it on a cold, damp day-as we had today. Al introduced me to this wonderful tradition when we were first dating. I loved the effort we all put in to the Booya and how it made me feel like a part of his family. We continued the tradition for years and like a torch being handed off, Yvonne gave us her essential tools, the eight or so stainless steel bowls we use to measure the carrots, celery and potatoes we cut up, the electric burner used to cook the booya and the special ladle, which is worthy of its own photo-putting that on my to do list. We make a HUGE volume of booya at a time and freeze it in 1/2 gallon paper milk cartons. It is so easy to pull it out of the freezer and rip the paper carton off and put it in a soup pot to melt and heat it up bubbling and steaming hot. What is wonderful is that Carlos loves it as only an Andert can and requested it this weekend. It was a perfect lunch today warming us from the inside out as we headed out to plant new perennials along the east side of our house. A project that has needed to be done for many years. A perfect family day with just the three of us that was capped by Al and Carlos flying kites while I made rhubarb crisp for dessert and steaks on the grill for dinner. I served a wonderful risotto, which happens to be the next recipe I will share...but

Until then...