Great Father's Day(s)

What was meant to be a few-hour dinner and game night turned out to be a 48-hour party!

Our Father's Day Plans:  Go to my parents after church on Sunday to share a Father's Day together, and come home late that night!

Our Actual Father's Day: 

1. Went to my parents after church on Sunday.
2. Grilled Fillet Mignon on the Grill (thanks Dad!)
3. Made Rolls, Corn on the Cob, Roasted Potatoes, Asparagus, and Fruit Salad to go with it. (YUM!)
4. Jumped on the Trampoline for hours.
5. Stayed up REALLY late playing fun games together, WITH Blueberry Apple Crisp for dessert
6. Sleeping over, vowing to go home early the next day.
7. Staying all day, going to the children's museum, and coming back that night to play MORE games.
8. Sleeping over, vowing to go home early the next day.
9. Going to the beach early in the morning, and staying until noon.
10. Finally leaving on Tuesday at 5 PM.

We had SUCH great family bonding time that I wouldn't trade it for the world.

However, our brand new goldfish didn't seem to fare so well in our absence.  Perhaps this is why I'm not ready for pets in our family.

Sorry goldfish.

Nutrition made easy

Proof that Carrie's nutrition presentation last night did NOT go to waste:

Welcome to the new food pyramid.

1/4 of your plate should be grains (preferably whole)

1/4 of your plate should be protein

and the other 1/2 of your plate should be fruits and vegetables.

With a cup of dairy at every meal.

And now, welcome to tonight's dinner.

1/4 of the plate whole wheat rolls

1/4 of the plate baked parmesan chicken

1/2 of the plate fruits and vegies

(grapes, fresh pineapple, fresh green beans, and mashed potatoes laced with cauliflower)

and the milk to chase it down.

I'd say we deserved the chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Thanks, Carrie!

The meeting was awesome!

How to Make Creamy Ice Cream with just one ingredient

Yes sir, you heard it right.

Creamy, Delicious. Smooth and Rich.

Soft-serve ice cream with just one ingredient.

No sugar added.

No added dairy.

No artificial anything.

Just yummy pureness.

The ingredient:

Banana!

I know I lost some of you right there who are turned off by our Monkey-like tendencies,

...Heidi...Rebecca...who else?

Here's the how to:

Peel some over ripe bananas.

Cut into slices.

Put on a plate and freeze.

Whiz them up in a blender, scraping the sides as you go.

 

My kids LOVE this, and I am so happy to give it to them over any of the other sugared-up ice cream in the freezer (because, let's be honest, I just like to save that for myself!)

I was surprised at this bit of kitchen wizardry; I assumed that a blended banana would be flaky or icy. But no — it makes creamy, rich ice cream.  Be sure they're really ripe, though, to avoid that green aftertaste. And yum -- experiment with adding in another ingredient or two, like a tablespoon of peanut butter and another of honey, or some chocolate chips or hot cocoa mix. Delicious!

Have you ever tried frozen-banana ice cream? Try it! It's an easy way to stay cool and use up over-ripe bananas at the same time.

Other summer treats that we love:

• Frozen Gogurts (yogurt in a tube).  Stick the box in the freezer when you get home.  Done.
• Frozen Yogurt.  Stick a popsicle stick through the top of a yogurt cup (lid still on) and freeze.  Remove the container when frozen solid, and you've got a frozen yogurt pop.
• Frozen Pudding Pop.  Same as the yogurt, but with a pudding cup.
• Frozen Banana.  Just stick a popsicle stick in it, freeze, you're done.  Oh, not yet...dip in melted chocolate.  Ok, now you're done.
• Frozen Smoothie Pops.  Poor your extra fruit smoothies into popsicle molds.

What other treats do you do?

Meeting an Apsotle of the Lord

Elder L. Tom Perry, one of the 12 apostles in our day, came to visit our stake at the beginning of June.  The boys were excited to meet him, and Carter's proud that he got to shake his hand...twice.

When he snuck back in line, Elder Perry laughed and said, "I already met you, and I'm happy to meet you again!"

It was cool for the boys to see the guy we watch on TV at General Conference time.  The guys that we learn about and show pictures of as the Lord's chosen servants.  I felt a little light bulb go off for Carter that, "Wow, he's real."

I didn't get a picture of my kids meeting Elder Perry, but I did snap this of one of our church friends.

I appreciated his talk, and it was a wonderful treat to hear from him for 45 minutes instead of the typical 15 we get at General Conference.  He had us all laughing, including the kids, though when Steve asked Carter what he talked about (because yes, he was back in Puerto Rico) his response was,  "I don't know, it was kind of confusing...but he had a cow!"  Yes, he told the story about him wanting a pet so badly growing up, and his parents finally agreed, so as to teach the kids work and responsibility.  Dad came home with a Cow...."I hated that cow," was Elder Perry's remark!  It was really funny.  He taught us the principal and value of work, how our kids will have to work harder than we've had to, that in these economic times, our children will be taxed even more than we are now, and we may not be able to financially provide for them as our parents have to us.  They need to learn the skills, values, and ethics in order to afford what is ahead.

Lemons into Lemonade...or something like that...

Last night I sponsored an ice-cream and movie night all by myself.  Topped with Chocolate Pudding and chocolate chips.  Made for some good memories.  Memories, of course, that were fresh in mind this morning when I opened the fridge and found this:

 

In my defense, at least the pudding got back in the fridge!

Thinking all was lost, I thought I had to throw all that melted ice cream away and reached for the milk in the back for our breakfast.  And then...

 YUM!  Breakfast Milkshakes instead of smoothies.  A GREAT use of melted French Vanilla ice cream.  And oh so tasty!

Our visit to the ER

Two weeks ago, we helped a friend and went to the ER to pick up her kid while she dropped off her mom.  My kids were fascinated with the Pediatric ER waiting room and wanted to play.  "Maybe another time," was my only cop out reply.

Really, Another time?  Am I really going to let my kids come back and play in the ER waiting room?

I didn't think so...until...

2 days later we were at Old Navy, and Carter tripped on a rack, hittin his head on the corner of a shelf.  OUCH!  I was SO lucky to be shopping with a friend that day...I grabbed Carter, ran to the front of the store to try to stop the bleeding and Marianne just automatically took over with my other kids.  Off we left to the ER, while Addison and Alana hopped in her van and stayed at her house (one of their favorite places, anyways).

 He had a 3 inch gash that needed 3 staples.  Brave guy!  I must admit, I feel like a bubble of invincibility has been popped for me, though, as a finally experienced that not all falls can be healed with a kiss and a hug.

And of course, every trip to the hospital deserves a treat, so we stopped by the candy store for him to pick out a few things.  He sweetly picked things that he knew his sibling will like (and then actually DID follow through and share). Of course in  retrospect, a picture in the store would have been better than by the car.

So wouldn't you know, I was true to my word and we went back to the Ped ER so that he could play.  It's a good spin.

PS.  Lest you be confused by all the smiles -- these pics were all taken 10 days after the accident, when we went to get the staples removed.  That first visit was NOT a picture day.

One of my favorite things:  Though the circumstances weren't so hot, it was nice to be just with Carter these few times.  I told him so as we were walking in the second time.  It went like this:

Me: You know, Carter, this is fun just being with you.  It's like being on a date, just the two of us.
Carter:  Yeah!  Maybe we can do it more often...but how about next time we don't come back to the hospital.

Steve's Trip with the Youth

Our weekend

This past Saturday I

 went to the Wilton Tent Sale and

brought home all this loot for 50% off everything,

while the boys

 got the royal treatment from Grandma and Aunt Michaela on their date to the mall,

All the while Steve was

on a road trip with the youth of our church to Independence, MO.

(This is the Kansas City Temple, opening in 9 months)

Sure, our family was running in all different directions this weekend, but at least I wasn't doing all the driving.

Now I'm going to go use those cool silcon mufifn tins with silly feet at the bottom that I got at the Wilton Sale.

The downside to having identical kids

Two years may separate my boys, but they sometimes can pass as twins.  Cute as they are, even I can't always tell Carter and Addison apart, especially in the wee hours of sleepy morning when one of them stumbles in my room for a cuddle, a drink, or a sleep-walking tour.

Last night, Carter came in around 3 AM, sick, crying with a fever and a sore throat.  After a while of consoling him, I got him a drink of milk and sent him back to bed.  An hour later, I was woken up again.  I opened my sleepy eyes just enough to check who it was.  Seeing it was Carter, I asked him if he wanted more milk and handed him what remained in his cup.

After a few good swallows, the sleepy kid who earlier needed to be carried back to bed gave a jolly "THANK YOU!"  and bounded back to his bed.

 That's when I knew:  that wasn't Carter.  So sweet Addison, having finished up Carter's germy glass of milk, now has a case of the Carter-bug.  Thanks a lot, Mom.

Our Lunch Menu

Chocolate Decadence cake with Neopolitan Ice Cream.

Yes, we spoiled ourselves.

I couldn't help it -- it was just sitting there and HAD to be eaten or we'd throw it away.

And just when I was wondering what we would have for dessert:

Enter friend Ashley, ringing the doorbell with a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

Problem Solved.

Welcome summer!

An 8.8 mile bike ride?

With a 5 year old?

Without training wheels?

On a near 100-degree day?

Really?

 YES!

An 8.8 mile bike ride!

(thanks mapmyrun.com)

With my 5 year old who isn't using training wheels anymore!

And, may we also note that I was pulling the trailer, 

two kids, 

and a load of library books...

That's a credit of nearly 75 lbs.

Where's MY Wha-what?

The ride also included 7 bridges, 

3 parks, 

2 1/2 lakes, 

a library, 

1 mall, 

and innumerable drinking fountains.

And at the end:  1 sleeping kid, and the rest of us wishing we were home by now.

What can I say?  I had to do SOMETHING to break up the monotony of sprinklers and swimming pools all day.

(and he chose the route)

A refreshing idea

A Green Idea:  Recycling our pool water to give the plants a drink

A Bright Idea:  Do this BEFORE changing the kids into PJs, or you're in for another clothing change.

Thanks to my sister, Heidi, we now keep a container by our sink, too, where we pour our water we otherwise would have poured down the drain (sippy cups, mismeasured, water from rinsing, etc.)  When the flowers need a drink, we've got it all ready.