Raspberries

We love fresh berries or any fruit for that matter but fresh berries and cream are tops.  Unfortunately we are unable to harvest our own.  Nature has fought the entire way with poor weather and deer.  We've finally got all the berry plants fenced and are now trying to coax the little plants to grow and thrive.  Lucky for us we know people who know people with raspberry plants that over produce and are free for the taking.  Yesterday we went and picked and picked and picked.  Doug laughed when he saw the amount of bowls I was taking, but as it turned out we didn't have enough.  The berries and big and sweet and abundant.  In less than two hours we had our bowls full and I think we got over 7 gallons maybe in the range of 10.  That's a lot of berries for the short amount of time we were picking.

Evan's contributions

Our total bounty of fruit

Now what to do with all these raspberries.  We love them fresh, but there is way too many to eat them all.  I'm freezing some, but I only have so much freezer space.  I could make jelly, but we have enough of that in many varieties to last a very long time.  I've also been blessed with zucchini and had planned on trying a new recipe for blueberry zucchini bread.  Aha!  Instead of frozen blueberries I used fresh raspberries (next time I will use frozen).  The result was delicious and Doug says it may be his favorite.  I tend to agree with him.  I've been looking for a good zucchini bread recipe and I think I've found it.  The original was found at mybakingaddiction.com

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1 cup shredded zucchini

3/4 cup wheat flour

3/4 cup white flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup frozen blueberries (or I used raspberries)

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Lightly grease and flour a loaf pan (for sweet breads I like to use sugar instead of flour).  Beat together the eggs, sugars, oil, and vanilla.  Fold in the zucchini.  Beat in the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Gently stir in the berries.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 55-60 mins or until knife inserted in middle comes out clean.  Cool 20 min then turn out on rack to complete cooling.  Or if you're like us you'll eat it warm as soon as you take it out of the pan.

Linked to eatathomecooks.com

July 5th

On monday the 5th of July we went to my grandparent's house to celebrate.  There was a fish pond, treasure hunt and other games for all to participate in.

Evan got this dinosaur/monster hat at the fish pond

Lexie trying to catch that big fish

Peter had the right idea

Little cutie

Swinging kids

Chris trying his hand at fishing

Ben with his water bottle from the fish pond

Lots of fun for the weekend, but I'm glad it is over.

July 4th

The fourth of July this year landed on a sunday so we had no big parties this day but we did still do some celebrating.  We all tried to wear some red, white and blue.

Here's my sassy girl

Little Firecracker with BIG sparks

Ready for church

Because we were able to get family up here that are away we waited until today to have Peter's blessing.

We also celebrated Evan's 5th birthday while the family was here.  Don't ask me why he wanted a "W" cake.

He loved all his presents, but I had to show this shot to point out the bag.  This gift bag has made it's rounds in the family.  Doug saw it last year and bought it to wrap a gift for Evan in.  We then used it for wrapping for my sister Brin, she used it for Paige and now Paige has once again used it for Evan.

July 3rd

Fourth of July weekend was crazy here so we had to start the celebrations early.  We had lots of family visiting for the weekend and it was great to see everyone.

We started with a celebration breakfast at church.  Yummy pancakes!

Then it was off to Grandma's and Grandpa's for party fun.  We had a parade where the kids all dressed up as a profession.  As you can see we were firefighters.

Then there were carnival type games for everyone kids and adults if they chose.  At each game you won tickets and then traded them in for prizes. 

Lexie is trying the bean bag throw

Ben is trying the dart throw

Chris is taking target practice

And Evan went fishing

After we ate came pool time.  Can I just say Brrrrr?  The weather was perfect for being outside but the wind made it a little chilly to be in the pool.  But kids are crazy and went in anyway.

Alien Chris with his goggles on.  He was so proud of getting those.

The kiddie pool

Evan was too cold in the big pool so he wanted out to get in the kiddie pool

Lexie wanted to help Uncle Jeff Miskin swing.  She really did push him

That about topped of that day, but we had more days ahead.

Camping?

Doug has been gone the last four days camping with the scouts.  That has meant more than normal amounts of mommy/children time.  Last night in commemoration of daddy coming home today we had a mini campout of our own.  Of course we kept to the safety and comfort of inside our home, but the kids had fun pulling out their sleeping bags and spreading out all over the house.

Lexie "camping"

Benjamin "camping"

Christopher "camping"

Evan "camping"

Shhhh...Don't tell my husband, but since he's been gone I've been sleeping with another man at night and he doesn't take up half the bed.

Fun in the sun

Summer has finally arrived and while I may complain a little about the heat I am forever thankful that I live in the Inland Northwest and not the Mid West or East Coast.  Their temps have been cookin' hot and adding the humidity you have unpleasant weather.  Having said that here are some ransom shots of us enjoying the pool and the sun.

Helping Daddy

Last night Peter saw daddy doing finances and wanted to help.  By being his cute self he got daddy to hold him and then the helping began.  I'm sure Peter passed on his fiscal knowledge and caught any mistakes made.  What a good boy we have.

Summer Bowling

One of our friends introduced us to a free bowling program for the kids and I'm glad she did.  I went online signed up the kids for free bowling and then added Doug and me for only $25.  We can go to town every day if we want and bowl two games.  All we pay is shoe rental.  Very good deal if you ask me. We have lots of fun when we go.  The boys enjoy it and so does Lex though the balls are too heavy for her.  She was cute to watch.  Peter slept through it all thank goodness.

Lexie trying to get her ball

Chris taking a turn

Evan trying to get the ball down the lane.  The balls were a little heavy for him to but he managed all by himself.

Just a cutie

Our bowling scores in the third frame.  As you can see I stink at bowling.  Ben beat me for crying out loud.

Primary Party

We had a primary party last month and the kids had a blast.  I wasn't really excited to take them I admit because the timing was just not right with my schedule, but take them I did and I'm glad I did.  The kids had a blast and were about the only ones there.  There were lots of little fair type games that the kids did and received prizes.  Benjamin was stuck with Lexie most of the time because I was with Peter.  He didn't seem to mind though.  My first born is getting to be so big and responsible.

Ben and Lex drawing with chalk

 

Evan with his prize squirt tube

Christopher playing bingo

Lex drawing a picture