family photos

so we had a friend take some pictures for us and they turned out fabulous--and i'm not just saying that because my family is so cute! here are some of my favorites!


i love this one! it's nice to have an updated family photo--if you'll remember the last one was taken before we moved out to buffalo!



my girls are so super cute--really can you argue?!



i love this one because it is cute and it shows off our interests.

do i need to say anything?

my little girl is not so little any more! she is becoming a beautiful young woman!

one of their better moments!

i absolutely love this one!

i love you justin!

my little sweetie!

justin and his girl!

riley's favorite mode of transportation!

one of my favorites!

we chose this spot for pictures because it is one of our favorite parks in the buffalo area. glenn park in williamsville has a gorgeous waterfall, the river is wonderful and they have a farmer's market every saturday during the summer. the park is on the site of an old mill. we love this park and thought it represents what our family loves about western new york!

thanks carolyn!

i give up!

The one time i try to upload images to update my blog the image uploader is down!

oh well--i can still wish my sweet daughter a happy birthday!

i love you valen--and as soon as i can i will post your pictures!

rain, rain, go away!

When too much rain makes you desperate!

Friday Fun

This is what Justin and Valen do together if you leave them alone, unsupervised and with several packages of sculpy clay.

two posts in one day! unheard of!

last weekend uncle luke came to visit from washington and he wanted to go to niagara falls. since we have been to the falls several times and have tons of pictures of us in front of the falls--and since none of the pictures of us with uncle luke turned out very good--i thought i would post some fun pictures of us at the falls, just not in front of the falls.



riley found a great hill to roll down and spent quite a bit of time doing so. she had grass and weeds and all sorts of stuff in her hair and grass stains on her NEW pants when she was done, but she had a great time!


i think they had more fun doing this than looking at the falls, AGAIN!


a picture to prove that black squirrels do cross the boarder! here we thought all this time that black squirrels live only in canada.



GOAT FARM

for the past several weeks we have been getting fresh goats milk from a local farm and making cheese out of it. we decided that we wanted to meet the goats that produce the milk for our cheese and our friends graciously took us along for the trip. riley had a great time looking at all of the animals. she wasn't so sure about touching them or getting to close to anything other than the cat, but she had a fun time anyway.


one of the more fun things was watching the little baby goats eat!

For those of you who have no faith in my blogging abilities!

so i told myself at the beginning of the year that i would be awesome at blogging. . . well you can see how well that has turned out. i wanted to blog every day, then it became every other day, then i settled for once a week, now it's looking like it might be once a month. but then i tell myself the only reason that i started blogging was so that those family and friends who are thousands of miles away can see pictures of our girls, so i don't feel too bad because i just took these pictures.

first day of "summer"
the weather was so beautiful the other day and we couldn't resist pulling out the swimming pool.


i love this picture because riley looks like she is in a juice box commercial!


cuteness with chocolate chip cookie on her face.


riley and miles having a great time!



the joys a hose brings!


i'm really hoping that we have more nice days and that we actually have a summer this year!

Chouinard Family Fun

So we have a lot of fun events as of late. I was having trouble with the camera, so it has taken me a while to post these, but here they are:




Kazoo Museum in Eden.
We went to the Kazoo Museum in Eden, NY with the play group last week. The museum itself was small, but Riley enjoyed looking at all of the different types of kazoos. She also really liked the gift shop, and being with her friends.


Here she is making her own kazoo.



It was difficult to take pictures and help Riley make her kazoo.




Here is the finished product. Riley was an expert by the end of the day.

It was a fun trip. I would suggest catching it when the corn festival comes in the fall.

Dyeing Easter Eggs:

We aren't huge into eating hard boiled eggs, so we only dye a dozen eggs each year--in fact we haven't eaten any since Easter--so they dyeing process is quick. If you blink you miss it, but we had fun. This and carving pumpkins are one of Justin's favorite things to do.

Justin gets just as involved as the kids and always thinks out and plans his egg--the girls get the majority of the eggs--very carefully.

I'm sure that here Valen is telling Riley what to do. Riley is pretty stubborn, so I'm not sure if she did what she was told to do.

We all had fun and turned out some really great looking eggs!



The Chouinard's Attempt to Plant a Garden:

We decided that we were finally going to attempt to plant a garden. Because we live in student housing we can't actually use the ground to plant a garden. And because we are cheap it has taken us several years of dumpster diving to get enough planters to make gardening worth it. We'll see if it works!

Riley loves digging in the dirt, and the fact that she got a new Dora shovel and permission to do so made it all the more sweet!

Valen wasn't as sure that this was her thing. She had fun planting her flowers, but then lost interest. I'm not sure gardening is her thing.

Justin was quite excited to finally get to do this. I just hope it works. We both come from ranching families, but neither of us know how to do the outdoor garden thing.


Easter Egg Hunt:

After planting our seeds, we had an Easter egg hunt outside for the girls. Our "backyard"--which is really a shared backyard with all of our neighbors--is fairly big, so we had a lot of room to work with, which is good because we had a lot of eggs!

I keep telling myself that Valen is too old to do this sort of thing, but I think she had more fun than Riley did!

Riley was crazy! She would run one direction, find a few eggs, and run clear across the yard to get a few more, and then switch back the other direction. I don't think she got very many eggs, but she sure got a lot of exercise!


Easter Morning:

The girl's made out pretty good this year--three movies a piece!

Valen has been a bit obsessed with Star Wars lately and I found a sticker book. She was a little excited.

Valenism

Tonight at dinner Valen tells me she wants to be an oceanologist.

"That's an oceanographer."

"No mom, I don't want to take pictures, I want to study the ocean!"

WHAT!?!

I found my first grey hair this morning. . .

Valen's First Meal

For one of her Faith in God requirements Valen had to help plan, prepare and serve a nutritious meal. She was very excited and enjoyed the planning process. She was only a little frustrated when I kept modifying things for her--such as telling her that she needed a whole grain pasta because white pasta doesn't count as nutritious. I bought all of the groceries and she helped make the meal. She spent the afternoon in the kitchen with Justin making dinner. On the menu was an organic whole grain pasta with organic locally bottled sauce; steamed organic broccoli--without cheese sauce; organic fruit kabobs and organic multi-grain bread. The meal was followed by a Family Home Evening lesson on following the Word of Wisdom. We talked about what foods are good for our bodies; what foods are a sometimes food and what things do not belong in our bodies at all. For dessert we had: brownies, ice cream, fudge topping and whipped cream--none of it low-fat or organic, because, like Valen says, "Sometimes my body needs sugar Mom."



Way to go Valen!

Film Performance

It was my privilege last night to attend one of Justin's film performances. I usually don't get to go because of babysitting issues--they usually start late at night and go into the wee hours of the morning--but last night it started and ended at a time that was manageable. He was one of two film/video performances. He performed one piece--"Valen in the grove"--and presented another--"The Sound of Crickets." It was really neat to see him perform in front of an audience and receive positive feedback. I'm amazed at how far he has come creatively and how much talent he has. I love the field that he has chosen and the direction that he is taking with it. I decided last night that if his career involves nothing but smaller performances and film festivals I would be completely happy. I don't need red carpet premiers to enjoy what he does for a living.

*Total bonus! He got paid for his performance! He is now a professional artist!

Check out the link to the event:
http://www.justbuffalo.org/index.php?task=view&id=60&show=493

You remind me of the babe. . .

the girls and i are in portland, oregon for the next few weeks and one of the first things we did was go to a theater, for free--thank you uncle dannon--and watch labyrinth! i have waited 25 years for this and it was well worth the wait! it was awesome! riley thought it was fun, but scary in some parts. valen liked it, but i think she got a little bored--she was crawling around on the floor at one point. for all of you out there that have the opportunity to, i highly recommend the experience!

Magic Number

Valen is learning multiplication in math, and this week are the three factors. Need I say more?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxmKRyLdBho

Multi-Mushroom Stroganoff

So we had this for dinner last night and I was greatly impressed. I love stroganoff, but without using meat we haven't a recipe that tastes good, until this one! It is definitely worth a try!

~3 T olive oil
~1 pound mushrooms (such as porcini, shiitakes or oysters) sliced
~3 scallions, sliced
~2 garlic cloves, crushed
~2 T dry sherry or vermouth
~salt and ground pepper
~1 1/4 C sour cream or creme fraiche
~1 T fresh marjoram or thyme leaves chopped
~fresh parsley, chopped

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the mushrooms gently, stirring them occasionally until they are softened and just cooked.
2. Add the scallions, garlic and sherry or vermouth and cook for a minute more. Season well.
3. Stir in the sour cream or creme fraiche and heat to just below boiling. Stir in the marjoram or thyme, then scatter the parsley on top. Serve with rice, pasta or boiled new potatoes.

I highly recommend using the mushrooms it suggests. I couldn't find any porcini, but found the others. They are meaty mushrooms and help add a lot of flavor to the dish. ENJOY!

Birthday Surprise

for some crazy reason i got it in my head that it would be fun to celebrate the "milestone" birthday's for my siblings and their spouses. we've done fun little things like sending 35 of something each month for a year; or begging people to donate money for 30 DVDs; and other such things. well, it's my turn to turn 30. since i am the organizer of all of these events, i didn't expect much from my siblings this year. . .but oh how wrong i've been. for the past ten months they have been taking turns sending me 3 or 4 letters--as in from the alphabet--that i am supposed to put together and figure out what it is they are getting me for my birthday. some of them have been fairly straight forward like letters cut from a magazine or construction paper, or stickers. some were sent to me on postcards. others in plain or creative emails. one was even sent on a university of wyoming student government hand towel--i'll tell the story behind that one later. but the one today is the one that prompted me to post this. i got a box of tea:


the scarlet letter--which i've been wanting to read:


this coloring book:

and a note saying i should be able to figure out the letters based on the objects! when i showed them to justin he just laughed--he's in on the surprise. i'm having a fun time with it all, but am really frustrated at the same time! how am i supposed to figure this out?! justin told me he would help, but not until i get all of the clues. i love my siblings, but they are driving me crazy! i can't wait until april so i can get this figured out--and it better be good!

on the bright side, i can now take a hot bath, have tea and read a good book!

Niagara Aquarium

All of us had the day off so we thought we would go somewhere fun, but close to home. We have never been to the Niagara Aquarium, and we had a coupon and wanted to do some other fun things in that area, so we went.


More than the sharks themselves--which we saw during feeding time--Riley enjoyed playing in the shark cage. She kept getting "caught" between the bars and asking one of us to "save" her.


Justin hates these kind of pictures, but the girls love them, so he obliges. We spent quite a bit of time in this part of the museum looking around, eating and waiting for the sea lion show--which rocked! This is also where Riley found her new friend. Her and this little girl spent quite a bit of time running around, chasing each other, screaming and yelling. Riley was really sad when we had to leave her friend to have lunch.



I'm not sure how this one happened!

This is us attempting a picture, but SQUIRREL!

We had a great time at the aquarium. Our favorite part was the sea lion show. The girls also enjoyed the stuffed animals they got--thank goodness for left over Christmas money. Justin was a little taken aback at how much they cost, and was a little shocked that I was letting the girls spend so much money on them, until he found out that it was their money, he felt better after that. Valen got a penguin and Riley ended up with a seal--she named it squirt after the sea lion we saw at the show.

After leaving the aquarium we headed over to the outlet malls for some fun and shopping, but not fun shopping. I am of the opinion that if you don't have to pay full price for something, you shouldn't. So our entire trip today was based on coupons. We had a buy one get one free coupon for the aquarium and whenever we use those they always take the child's price off, which upsets me. So, I had Justin purchase the adult tickets, to ensure that we got the second adult ticket free, then I purchased the children's tickets--Riley was free and we got a dollar off Valen's ticket using our AAA card!

We had a great time at the mall with our coupons. We had coupons for a free scoop of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, a free Auntie Anne's pretzel and a free cookie from Subway. What a great snack and what a great way to load our kids up on sugar! Then we did a little shopping--all great bargains of coarse--and came home. It was a great--and inexpensive--day!

oh, so funny!

Justin has a couple of websites that he spends--or as i call it wastes--a lot of time. Every once in a while he comes across one that is particularly funny:



sorry if you can't see it, but squint, it's worth it!




this one is just too good!