Spring! Yes.

Oh my gosh. I am so happy spring is here! We have been pretty darn busy with social activities, family birthdays, and oh yes.. my gardening ish. 

For Easter we had over Kirk's parents and sis Angela, and my parents and sis Shawna. Always a fun group if I do say so myself. I had made a sweet + savory casserole (thank you very much Pinterest) a couple side dishes, and had my mama bring over her traditional potato dish and fruit salad.. I am obsessed with both. Kirk's mom brought all the goods for a mimosa bar.. because mimosa bars are the best.

 Kirk and I decorated eggs the night before, making one for everyone using their nickname for their table settting.

If it wasn't obvious enough.. Hulk is for Kirk's dad, Bryan and Furby is for Kirk's mom Lynn.

Mimosa bar. Love that Lynn had made labels for each juice. Such a little cutie.

 My savory casserole. Bacon, hash browns, chives, cheese, and eggs. Yes. Amazing.

Asparagus tart: puff pastry, goat cheese, prosciutto, and asparagus.

Carrot cake for dessert. I think in this picture it is hard to tell, but this is literally one of the ugliest cakes I have ever made. The recipe I use is fairly large, and I just wanted to make a 6" cake so I  halved the recipe but somehow was totally spacing out and added the full amount of oil. So it was so so soft (not terribly a bad thing) but there was no way I would have been able to cleanly cut through the cake and properly fill it. So I had to just pipe the cream cheese frosting around it. Kind of funny. Kind of.

After everyone had left, Kirk and I went on a neighborhood walk and discovered my first tulip had bloomed! In October I had planted oodles of bulbs so I was pretty darn excited when the first one decided to bloom for us.

I'm realizing this is a bit blurry (darn Instagram). but still, I love.

NOW today.. 4/16.. this is what looking down our driveway looks likes:

Yes. I am obsessed. And proud. When fall rolls around I will definitely be finishing the second half of the driveway so it is like a mini tulip festival over here!

Speaking of gardening.. In March I had started my first round of seeds for some vegetables for the summer.. since we are headed out for vaca manana and my little seedlings desperately needed to be transplanted I asked Kirk and John if they could build me a garden bed. Luckily they are the best and amazing and built a beautiful cedar one for me!

Today I planted what was necessary. Isn't it pretty!? I am thinking we will be needing a second bed though.. hopefully the boys will help me again because God knows using a power saw just isn't for me.

On Sunday we got together with Kirk's family to celebrate his birthday and his dad's. We hosted dessert, Bryan requested a "lemon meringue with strawberry ice cream". I wanted to jazz it up a bit, and since I had been doing TONS of testing for Crafted and had lots of treats around, a ice cream sundae bar made the most sense. The final dessert was meyer lemon ice cream with topping choices of - brown butter graham crumbles, salted pretzel crumble, pie crust crumbs, meringue, strawberry vanilla preserves, and just added some extra treats like cocoa nib brownies and salted pretzel mallows for good measure. 

See.. Heinrich's love ice cream sundae bars. 

OH and my 6 week old baby nephew Crew was there. Isn't he cute!!?

Oo.. oo.. I can't forget! Earlier this month my darling friend Ruthann and I threw a surprise birthday party for Kirk and her husband, Brandon. I was able to get some pictures of them printed on sugar. Presh.

Lastly, for the typical Crafted update.. things are going well! We finally have ALL.. yes ALL of our permitting done. Anyone else in the industry knows that it is quite the process and takes a very long time, and you are kind of just sitting waiting.. and waiting... So I am quite pleased that it is all done! I am sending out a couple applications tomorrow for farmers markets, so send some good vibes my way please :) The treat above is my take on Snicker's. More info to come soon on that exciting little line.

Okay everyone, that's all I have for you now, but soon I will have more. We leave for MAUI tomorrow!! Aloha!