4-28-11

Spring is so great! Im looking forward to beautiful weather tomorrow so the kids can play outside, and then hopefully LOTS MORE great outside weather so we can get our seedlings out to the great new raised garden beds dave just built, and the chickies out to the coop that NEEDS to get built soon! :)

Easter was a lovely celebration of spring and all the excitement that this new season brings. We went down to the restaurant early to set up for brunch and lily loved trying to peek in our frontyard on the way out to see if the easter bunny had left any eggs. After brunch, Charlies nap time allowed Lily to egg hunt first and then leave a few (and rehide a few) for Charlie, who then got an egg hunt all to himself. I loved it! I couldn't have planned that part better.

The kids found easter baskets full of promise of spring and fun outside activities. A helmet for charlie to ride in my bike's trailer, bubbles for lily. Watermelon and sunflower seeds to plant. Hats and new shoes and all those things we are WAY TOO EXCITED to use!

Happy Spring!

4-22-11

Hey auntie tami.

We miss you.












Come back to me!

4-19-11

18 month ago, we were in a hospital, meeting our son.

there has been lots of laughter and tears and way more than my fair share of sleepless nights

Today, 18 months later, we have a bright, beautiful, happy little buddy (who sleeps through the night guys, he sleeps through the night!)

he is funny and darling and so so smart. He's going to take over the world. :)

4-18-11

Not too much to post but i'm checking in, Hi!

Dave and Parry made a larger and more secure enclosure for the chicks because one of the more ambitious ones "flew the coop" (at only one week old! yikes!) they should be nice and safe in this new run, and soon they'll have a cozy coop to live in outside. We should have eggs in a few months.

Thanks so much Dave and Parry! I am so lucky to have such smart and talented men in my life!

We are growing our garden from seed again this spring, and everything sprouted and is growing fast (despite lily watering a few too many times a day and charlie switching plant labels and decorating with toys and crackers... perils of living in the playroom, i'm afraid!)

tricolor beans, basil, dill

cucumbers, brussels sprouts, tomatoes

we're also growing chives, dill, bell peppers and hot peppers. Yum!

We hated our lack of home grown foods this winter. What food plants can I keep alive inside all winter? Small fruit tree? Tomato plant with a grow light? Any advice?

4-14-11

We have made a commitment as a family and as a restaurant to finding local sustainable ethical sources for the foods we eat and sell. We have had this in the background since we opened the restaurant, but we are making it even more of a priority to know where everything is coming from.

Today we went to Rushing Waters, a trout fishery about an hour from madison.

We arranged to tour the facilities and just make sure the pretty pictures on brochures and websites match what is actually going on.

We were THRILLED to find that it is a clean, fairly modern facility with friendly helpful staff and they allow fishing. OH MY GOSH lily has been begging to go fishing for over a year. I dont know where the idea got planted in her head, but she FLIPPED OUT over this.

She has got great fishing style.

they have pond after pond like the one below FULL of fishies!

so daddy and a very nice man named Dean helped lily put a worm on her hook, cast her line and explained how the little float would wiggle and bob when a fish took the worm.

And BAM! fish!

lily helped get the fish in the net and then fished again. and BAMBAMBAM! 3 fish in like 5-10 minutes! Instant gratification fishing!

beautiful fishy!

Mom and Charlie were there too! :)

4-10-11

remember those spring chicks i mentioned?

here they are! Officially introducing the future egg supply of the Heide Household.

it was 83 degrees this afternoon, and i just couldnt resist letting them out in the grass.

seriously y'all. fluffy baby chicks. I am more excited than the kids.

these little ladies (they are called easter eggers) look like little owlets from the front. it makes me laugh!

they are so fluffy! i'm not looking forward to the next month of them getting their grown up feathers because they are going to be super awkward looking.

4-8-11

I've received some not-so-subtle nudges about getting back to updating this. Everything from "Am I doing something wrong? When I go to Heide update I don't see anything new?" to "yea, you really just gave up on that, huh?"

So here I am.

Sometimes we all need a good kick in the pants to make something a priority, right?

I've been delicately adding to each side of a precariously balanced tightrope walk. When We hired a nanny and i started working more hours in December I stripped everything down to the basics so I could maintain a little sanity.

My mantra has been: My kids are loved and cared for and my home is not falling apart. The rest is just extras.

We've added back the extras as my sanity allows: art projects and baking with lily, organizing a cabinet. Taking on more projects at Liliana's, balanced with attempting a vacation to new Orleans.

And charlie reduced some stress when he started sleeping through the night in his crib (yes, he's 18 months old and this just happened), so I can add some more extras:
Seedlings in the playroom and baby chicks in my garage because it's spring and there are new little bits of new life blooming in all of us. New interests and new hope and new ideas.

So I'm adding blogging back in the mix, maybe my mantle isn't dusted (yes, it's bothering me to think about it while I lay in bed blogging) but you all will know what's up with us.

Our handsome Charlie is growing up so fast now! (the water is intentionally green. We have fun bath colors)


Also, not to blame shift, but I haven't had my nice camera around as much as I should, and it's hard to write a blog post about a photo as unfortunate as the one below.