Domestic joy

Ever wonder what a preteen smirk looks like?
Now you know.

Mackenzie (please ignore the I've been running through the sprinkler hair) has been learning how to wash dishes and load a dishwasher correctly. Let's just say it doesn't make me her favorite person! Ah, the joys of parenting.

Party Filled Weekend!

I don't think we could stuff this weekend with any more activity.

First off (and most importantly) I am hosting a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Ashley, and my yet to be born nephew, Cash! The gifts have been wrapped, the diaper wreath made. We are ready to celebrate! I can't wait to see my brother's reaction to all the baby stuff invading his household. He kinda sorta doesn't like clutter. Ha! Babies and clutter go together like PB&J.

Also on the agenda is attending my husband's 20 year high school reunion. Blah. I am not a fan of these things. We attended the same high school, but graduated 2 years apart and ran in very different circles. My husband loved his high school years - they are his "glory days", and he can't wait to catch up with 200 of his "close friends". My high school experience was fun, but I walked away with 3-4 really great friends, whom I still talk to on a regular basis today. Not sure I need to spend $150 and a sweaty night at a local bar to get caught up with them. I think we should put the $150 and babysitter time into planning a girls weekend instead! Anyway, it will be tolerable fun and will, at the very least, be a night out with no kids.

We are also celebrating my dad's 60th birthday this weekend. He truly is the best dad and has been through some pretty big life changes recently in the job and health department. We are so thankful that God has provided for him. When I was little, the most important thing he taught me was that God is always in control and has a plan for your life. The biggest thing he taught me this week? That God is always in control and has a plan for my life. My dad is the most faithful man I know. We are excited to celebrate with my parents this weekend!

I'm sure I will have pictures of this weekend that will be forthcoming. Did I mention I am taking an online photography course? It is by ashleyannphotography.com and I have already learned so much! It makes me want to pick up my camera all the time now.

Hope your weekend is as fun filled as ours!

Back to school...almost.

12 days and counting...Good thing, I think we've all gone a little stir crazy around here!First week of August - it's the calm before the storm. It has taken me a few years to figure this out, but school responsibilities don't actually start on the first day of school. It really starts about 3 weeks before hand with the shopping for supplies, clothes, and shoes. There is also equipment shopping for any extra curricular activies - soccer balls, new piano books, etc. The selection of backpacks and lunch boxes is an extremely important choice of balance between fashion and function.

In addition to all the shopping, your calendar will be filled with various functions that require not only the presence of your children, but mostly you and your pocketbook. There are the open houses, teacher meet & greets, parent orientations. There will always be a t-shirt for sale, so bring cash. There will always be tons of paperwork, so be ready with your important info. It's best to go ahead and memorize the doctor's phone number and physical address as well as the policy numbers of your health insurance. Seriously, it's no joke. The amount of paperwork I will complete in the next 2 weeks probably killed a small forest. Well, at least a grove of trees. :)

We have been hanging kind of low this week, watching our carefree summer days slip by. We made the rounds to the library, the cheap movies, our church's play center, all while trying to avoid 115 degree heat.

We had the opportunity to let the kids visit my parents in St. Louis for the upcoming week. It will be great for them to have some last minute fun before school. So while my husband and I are spending 4 out of 5 days next week at a school related activity, the enrolled school children will be living it up at the grandparents. Don't worry. We are ready to meet the teachers. And we won't leave home without the cash this year.

The cooking extravaganza has continued this week. It's been a week of experimenting - I made a goal to make no meal that I have made before. So here's what's been on the menu: (and yes, they are almost all PW recipes)

bowtie lasagna - this was tasty, everyone liked it and it would be an easy soccer night meal

I made these PW Marlboro Man sandwiches and they just didn't impress me. Or even the hubby. I think they would be great with high quality beef, like a sirloin, but the cube steak just isn't my favorite type of beef.

This watermelon granita is my favorite thing this week. You take an entire watermelon, cut it into chunks, add some lime juice and a little sugar. Put in a blender or food processor then freeze for one hour. Scrape the mixture to shave the ice in one hour increments for 3-4 hours and you're done! So easy. I've been eating it all week and my kids love it too.

Gazpacho = delicious. This is dinner tonight with a little grilled chicken.

In the meantime, my oldest girl has been at camp all week, and judging from the few pics I have received via facebook, she's having a grand ol' time hanging out by the snack shak. Avery and I had a girls day where we got pedicures, went to lunch, and bought all of her school supplies. I think she enjoyed the pedicure the most!

We spent last weekend at Lake Ouachita with my brother and his wife. We always have such a great time with them. My brother is great with my girls and loves to take them tubing. Of course I forgot my camera, so these are the only pics I took from the entire weekend.

We finished up the weekend with my nephew's birthday party. My sister-in-law is so talented. His cake was amazing!

Hope your week has been filled with yummy food and good times too!

I love the laid back routines of summer. Even though it is steaming hot outside, I find myself cooking more in the summer just because I have more time. It's much more fun to cook when everyone is not rushing home at 6:45 looking at you to hurry up already, give them food!

I found the how sweet it is website a few months ago and recently tried out a few recipes. My entire family is a huge fan of her cashew chicken

and the crunchy honey chicken.

Yeah for new chicken dishes! Last weekend I made crazy feta. I know it sounds a little weird, but it definitely grows on you. Of all people, Nathan loved it and couldn't get enough. Today we made these fruit pizzas:

Oh my, these were so yummy! I love that the crust is made with whole wheat flour too. Of course I took no pictures of my own, so you will just have to make them yourself!

Farewell Harry

It's no secret I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I started reading the HP series around 2003 when some of the early books made their way to paperback. I was surprised at how quickly I breezed through the books, finding them full of extraordinary detail and tales of adventure and friendship. I think I read books 1-4 in one summer. Then I had to wait for book 5. As soon as it came out, I remember rushing to buy a copy before heading to the lake with Marty's family. I was pregnant with Avery, on the lake in a boat and while everyone else was skiing, I had my head buried in that book the entire time. Then came book 6, and finally book 7. I bought that book on a Saturday and asked Marty to watch the girls all day for me. I read it in one day. Along the way, I have seen all of the movies. Sometimes at the theater, sometimes on DVD. They are cute, and fun to watch, but nowhere as magical as JK Rowling's Harry.

I have always been thrilled that Mackenzie is such a great reader, and I had secretly hoped she would love Harry too. She asked to read the books 3 summers ago, when she was 7. That first summer, I let her read books 1 and 2. She loved them and begged me to let her read further, but I made her wait. I knew the older books needed more maturity. The summer she was 8, she read books 3, 4, and 5. Last summer she was finally allowed to read books 6 and 7. Harry has become a part of our summer landscape and we would have it no other way! We re-read the books together, we watch the movies together, we listen to podcasts, we have our own discussions about things like Jo's foreshadowing and storytelling styles. Nerdy? yes. Has it been extremely fun having something to bond over every summer? you bet.

When Mackenzie turned 10, I allowed her to see her first HP film in the theater last fall. Since it was during the school week, we could not go to the midnight movie, but it was our first opportunity to watch one of the films together in the theater. She has been geared up all summer long for the release of the final movie. We bought our tickets well in advance and set out for the theater with some caffeine for me and a Harry t-shirt for her. She loved seeing all of the fans dressed up in glasses and cloaks. The movie experience was great with the entire audience clapping and cheering Harry on. We laughed. We cried. And for 2 days we have talked about our favorite parts and lines of the film. It has been so fun to share this journey with my little reader!

a little getaway

Yesterday was my hubby's 39th birthday. 39!! How in the world did we get so old? We still feel like we are 23. Well, kinda like 23. We celebrated his birthday this weekend in his favorite manner - a quick getaway with no kids. Thanks to my sister, who kept the girls, and his mom, who kept Nathan, we took a road trip to Branson. Now Branson is not usually our favorite place, but we had the best time this weekend. We took our time driving some unusal backroads (I wish I had taken a pic of the one lane, wooden bridge we found our selves driving over) and ate at some really fun places. We spent some time exploring Big Cedar Lodge. It's huge, beautiful, and has so much to do. We are definitely planning to bring the kids back for a few days. Seriously, they have fishing, the lake (and toys for the lake), smores by the campfire every night, horseback riding, cooking classes, night time movies at the pool, lazy river, etc. Our kids would love it. Just maybe not when it's 110 degrees outside.

We had a champagne brunch there on Sunday morning and it was such a fun meal. Where else can you have such an amazing view while eating rack of lamb and crab legs for breakfast? It was the perfect place for no kids.

After brunch we went to Dogwood Canyon for the day. I'm not sure how we have lived in the area this long and never really heard about this place. It is a beautiful nature center filled with waterfalls, springs, and trout. They offer biking, walking, and hiking trails, along with horseback riding, ATV tours, private jeep excursions, a 2 hour tram tour and trout fishing. We did the adventure package which included the biking, tram and trout fishing for $40 each. Turned out to be a pretty reasonable deal since we were there for 6 hours. It's hard to describe this place without seeing it, but my favorite was the bike ride. You ride over covered bridges and can stop along the way at all of the waterfalls and springs you want to look at. I only had my phone camera with me, so these pics aren't the best, but they are better than nothing.

The best part of the tram ride was riding through the pasture to feed the elk and bison that are free roaming. They were beautiful and so close!

We truly had the best time. It was good to get away from the kids and just have fun with each other for a day!