Three Years!

Avery is three years old today. Can you believe it? In some ways, I'm amazed she's already three. In other ways, it feels like she's been three for a while. She's growing up so fast! We've had a great day so far with lots of fun things to do and great gifts from family. Thanks everyone for making this a great day so far for her. This morning we had some girls over for a princess party. She had a blast dressing up and playing games with her friends. I'll get some pictures up soon. Tonight we're going to go out to eat and then go play games at Chuck E. Cheese!

I love my little girl. She's sure fun to have around!

I've always wanted to make one of these so when my friend Whitney asked if I wanted in on her vinyl lettering order I jumped at the chance. I think it turned out cute! Plus it motivated me to rearrange all the wall hangings in my house.

Up in My Grill

It has been hot this week so we decided to finally get a grill so we can start cooking outdoors. I've been really wanting this Weber Q100 for a while and wouldn't you know, we got it for a steal at Kohl's! It has been super awesome. This grill came with great reviews and, although smaller than a traditional gas grill, it can probably handle 6-8 burgers on it at once, which isn't too shabby. Plus we can take it anywhere. So far we've made Brats and Burgers, Salmon and Tilapia, and Chicken/Veggie Kabobs (above). It's been great! I'll also be making BBQ chicken, grilled corn on the cob, grilled pizza, and whatever else I can come up with. What else do you make on your BBQ?

Pie #2- Peach Pie

I know that National Peach Pie day isn't until August 24th but Peach Pie was Merrick's second pie request for my 1 pie a month for 6 months. I wish I had waited to do this one until the peaches were in season because the peaches I got were although fresh, not the best. At least I took some pictures this time.

A good tip I learned in the process: The easiest way to peel your peaches is to cut a small X in the skin on the bottom of the peach. Then stick 2-3 in a pot of boiling water for 30-60 seconds until the skin starts curling up. Take them out, put in a bowl of ice water, and then the peels just come right off. However, if your peaches aren't ripe this won't work!

I won't give you my recipe this time because I just grabbed a general peach pie recipe that you can get out of any standard cookbook. Mine used 2 T of dry quick cooking tapioca as the secret ingredient.

Yay for pies!

Pretty Pretty

It's been a while since I tried to get some good pictures of my kids so I dressed them up and took them in the backyard to see what I could get. Here are some fun ones.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

Cost:

2 lb strawberries: $1.98 (Aldi's)

4 lb sugar: $0.88 (Pick n Save)

2 boxes pectin: $3.58

Jars: $0 - For the past month I've been washing out various sauce jars after I used them.

Total Cost: $6.44

Approximately 90 oz jam= $0.07 per oz

Total prep time: 45 minutes

I used the freezer jam recipe in the pectin box. It was very simple.

I think that's pretty good price-wise. Not to mention it's way yummier than storebought. It will last up to a year in the freezer. Merrick requested crepes for dinner tonight so we can put jam on top. Yummy!

You've Been Gilmored.

I have been waiting for this day for two years. The final season (7) of Gilmore Girls is finally airing as reruns every day on ABC Family. I've been watching the show loop through seasons 1-6 for the past few years and I always get my hopes up that they will start season 7 when season 6 finishes, only to be disappointed to start over with season 1 episode 1. So today imagine my excitement when I checked my DVR and found season 7 episode 1!! I have all the other seasons practically memorized so now I can finally rewatch all these.

This show is great. If you've never seen it before, it's not too late! Just wait a few weeks and you can watch all the seasons every weekday on ABC Family. Oh and by the way, I am a Logan fan.

...I know, I should have bought the DVDs. It's more exciting this way!

Swimsuit Models

We had a strange heat wave come through on Monday morning and so we decided it was finally warm enough to blow up the kiddie pool. Good thing we did it then, because it cooled off a lot that afternoon and has been kind of chilly ever since.

It was fun for the kids for a little while so I went inside and cleaned the kitchen for a few minutes and then I look out my screen door and see that Avery has been dumping cupfulls of water in the dirt next to the house and Camryn is sitting in the wet dirt! Her swimsuit is totally muddy and yucky. The pool then became the bath to wash it all off and then we had to dump the muddy water out and that was the end of our pool experiment.

Good thing I took pictures right when they got in!

The House at Riverton: A Review

I just finished reading this book by Kate Morton, The House at Riverton. I stumbled upon this book from a Barnes and Noble online recommendation for her recently published second novel, The Forgotten Garden, but I decided to read her first novel first. I really enjoyed this book! It is about an old woman, Grace, in 1999 recounting a story that shaped her life, when she was a housemaid at Riverton in England beginning when she was 14 years old, in 1914. Full of secrets and intrigue, the story paints the contrasting worlds that comes about because of the first world war. Beginning with the tradition and respectibility of an aristocratic family at the beginning of the 20th century and ending with jazz, society, and bohemian ideals of the Roaring 20's.

I kept thinking about whether or not I should recommend this book to others. But then I couldn't put it down long enough to decide so, in the end I decided that I really enjoyed this book. The author is very talented and it was a welcome respite from all the YA fiction and all the series books I've read lately. Her new second novel is definitely on my reading list for later this year.

Who wants a slice?

This bread is not only DELICIOUS but it's SO easy and SO quick. And I made it! Only four ingredients (water, yeast, kosher salt, and unbleached all purpose flour) and it comes out with the crunchiest crust and super soft and moist inside. If you don't check this book out from the library, you're crazy!

And by the way, I don't have a baking stone (yet) so I just made it on a baking sheet and it turned out just fine, so don't feel like you need to buy anything in order to make this bread.

I took the one less traveled by...

This is the trail I got to walk on yesterday on the way to playgroup. Pretty amazing!! It's called the Bugline Trail and I can get on it about 2 blocks from my house. It goes behind main street so I can walk on this road instead of along sidewalks next to traffic. I couldn't help but take a picture.