Picnic in the Park

My mom took the week of off work.  Minus regular days off for major holidays, its the only 5-7 days she takes off for the entire year.  And, of course, we swoop down on her house like hawks to mice because who doesn't want to spend all their free time messing up grandmas house....when she's there.

Our assignment for the week though was to help clean out the basement.  You see, my mother has been trying for, oh, at least a year to clean out all the paper and junk in the basement so that mine and my sisters old bedrooms are functional.  Both of us girls still have tons of junk in our old bedrooms and it needed a good clean sweep.

On Thursday, since it rained all day (yeah, blessed rain!) it was a perfect day to sit on the floor and look at old junk - certificates and awards, pictures, and goofy cards that I made for my sister and that she made for me.  My brother of course was our slave labor, carrying heavy boxes of recyclables upstairs...and complaining that we were throwing away all of his memories.

We didn't throw them all away.  We saved one small folder of stuff that truly qualified as "memories".  The dancing flower however, that my grandma gifted me for Christmas over 20 years ago headed for the trash.  It was not, in fact, my brother's memory but my own.

The project was no where near complete when we all headed for home on Thursday afternoon, but we had plans to resume the cleaning on Friday morning.  But, with a few quick phone calls yesterday morning it was determined that my mom was done with the basement project and we needed to do something fun.

And something fun we did.

Picnic in the park.

Feed the geese and ducks in the park.

Wyatt fall in the nasty dirty water in the park pond.

Molly screaming because she was happy or sad or excited or grumpy.

Elliott being the big kid and being in charge.

Jack being cute and sleepy.

Haley supervising the kiddos feeding ducks.

Mom and Annie being grossed out by floating bread in the stinky water and sitting far, far away.

Buy random dollar bin toys and candy from the toys store.

Molly eat the paper and the starburst on the way home because we weren't paying attention.

Overall, it was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon in the middle of the summer.

Swimming

The 4th was busy but a good day.

We started my laundry room project, but of course ran out of time and didn't get it finished.  Saturday, then.

The bulk of our holiday was spent at my grandpas, swimming.  Well, all my boys swam, I sat and sweated on the side of the pool.  In the end, I was not brave enough to shove all my fat and big belly into a swim suit in front of 40 something of my family members.

My boys however, they are fish.  Absolute fish.  Thanks to their dad swimming with them, cousin Natalie giving Wyatt a private lesson and a whole lot of cousins to mess around with.

In the end, it was a great day that ended just as we, as parents had hoped, with two boys sound asleep in the car on the way home.

Happy 4th of July

The 4th is by no means my favorite holiday.

(see here as an example)

But.

BUT...

This year, our dad is home and not in Australia.

This year, I have a little twitchy kicking and entertaining me all day, and making me so sweaty I'll brave the swimming pool, extra fat and all.

This year, I'm going to get started and hopefully finish my laundry room project I've been trying to start since January.

This year, we're going swimming, eating hamburgers and potato chips and cupcakes and homemade root beer until we pop - hopefully without the Chick puking.

And this year, the boys are going with their dad this morning to pick out their own fireworks.

Fireworks.

We've been married 9.5 years and never purchased fireworks. Maybe I should go along with the camera to document the adventure.

Cousin Camp

Long story short.  Ross Grandpa Tupper passed away in North Dakota a couple of weeks ago.  He was 95 years old, led a great life, and was honored by his family.  Ross made the trip up north to pay his respects but the boys and I stayed home.  This fat, swollen mama wasn't prepared mentally or physically to do a whirlwind adventure in 48 hours.  And flying the four of us, renting a car, traveling in that car for hours and hours....it just wasn't going to work.  I wanted to be there for Ross and felt terrible for staying home, but I guess those are some of the sacrifices you have to make.

Anyway, Ross' brothers whole family went to the funeral and his parents brought my nephew Isaac home with them.  They are on their way back to Arizona to drip him off with his family as I write this, but we've had some grand adventures while Isaac was here.  He's only a little squirt, 3.5 years old, and was with Grandma and Grandpa for almost 12 days.  That's a long time and we did our best to fill that time with fun.

The three musketeers ran through the sprinklers and chased soccer balls.  Grandma Connie and I took them to the zoo where we saw the amazing polar bear in action and chowed down on churros and diet cokes and stood in front of the misting fans until our faces were sparkly with water..  The boys ate lots of kids meals, built lots of trains, and ran around like wild men.  

Isaac came to t-ball and Uncle Ross tried to teach him (albeit unsuccessfully) to swing a bat and hit a pitch.  He did okay hitting off the tee, but I'm not sure anyone has ever pitched a ball to him before.  He did however do alright fielding and throwing.  Why is it that boys all know how to throw?

But then, our adventures took a downturn.  After a pretty traumatic attempt at getting Isaac home after a family dinner at our house, and a crazy rough night at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Isaac was taken to the emergency room in the morning and was told that he'd have to get his appendix taken out.  A whirlwind of phone calls, the decision of his parents to stay in Arizona, and transport to another hospital later, that cute little boy had his appendix out, was discharged early from the hosptial and grandma and grandpa have been taking good care of him since, with a movie and some drawing at our house as part of his recuperation.  Which has been pretty speedy and miraculous.  He's lucky that Grandma and Grandpa caught it so early.

Isaac will be back to Utah in August an the boys cannot wait.  They will both be in school and our summer will be "over" by the time he gets back, but we'll still have the evenings to play and be wild....which is just what little boys need to do with their cousins.

Home made mints

I had a little bit of time last week (you know, when one kid goes to a friends to play and the other takes the last nap of his life) to sit at the computer and look around on Pinterest for some inspiration.  Food inspiration, that is.  After all, tis the season of the summer BBQ and family party and I needed something new to bring to the table.

And I found these.  Homemade peppermint patties.  Sort of.  They were fun and easy to make and I should have made a double batch.

Chocolate Mints

1 pound (1 bag) powdered sugar

4 oz cream cheese, soft

1 tsp mint extract (and a little more to put in the chocolate)

6-8 oz chocolate chips

1.  Add sugar to the cream cheese.  Beat until completely incorporated.

2.  Add the mint extract

3. Using a teaspoon to measure, roll the dough into teaspoon sized balls and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

4.  Create a small bowl/indentation using the back of the teaspoon into each ball.

5.  Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

6.  Melt chocolate chips, add mint extract and blend well.  Place chocolate chips into a zip lock bag, cut off the tip of the bag and pipe the chocolate onto each mint.

7. Let the chocolate set, cover and refrigerate 4-6 hours (or over night).

Keep the mints in the fridge.  I bet they will be good for at least a week, if they last more than a few hours.