She's My Cherry Pie

I stole an idea from my old-friend, Keight, (not that she's old, but we were inseparable from grades 3-7 which was awhile ago) and she stole the idea from popular blogger, NieNie. In short, it's celebrating moments in life with your family and helping create traditions for them. I've been thinking about how I can do this for awhile now but life hasn't exactly been settled enough to really get there. But this month I did two things to (hopefully) make our home a more festive and memorable place.

1. We are celebrating the Olympics in style!! Both Matt and I love the Olympics so I decided to give it a bit more umph this time. We pulled out a map and are keeping track of the medals; we made torches; and we will be making a few more things along the way. We watch every night with our American flags and talk about it constantly. In a perfect world, we will either be at the 2012 Olympics or host a big, Olympics party for the opening ceremony with our friends: the food will have a British touch and the kids can make Olympic related crafts.

2. We celebrated George Washington's birthday!! Well, kinda. I made a cherry pie (because he mythically chopped down a cherry tree). Why didn't I post the recipe and a stunning picture?? Well, because it consisted of rolling out a pre-made pie crust, opening two cans of pie filling, dumping said filling in the pie crust, topping with the second pre-made pie crust, and baking. How un-domestic is that?? Martha would be soooo ashamed... but life is just crazy sometimes and short-cuts are ok. The best part is that Matt absolutely loves the pie. He says it's the best pie he's ever eaten. Apparently, my homemade pies from last summer were all in vain :)

I love that we did these things this month. They are simple, stress-free ways to make everyday life a little more fun and enjoyable. And once we have a full family, it's a great way to include kids on what's going on in the world.

My goal is to do 2-3 of these a month. For March I'm thinking St. Patrick's Day (wear green, make Irish stew and soda bread, play some Irish music, etc), the start of spring (I'm thinking of planting our flowers on this day and making a big, fresh salad with grilled meat), and Gerdy's first birthday.