4th of July

For the second year (our second in this house), we hosted a Lee family fireworks party.  In the top five coolest things about living here would be that the fireworks are shot off from the dam between the lake we live on and the larger lake.  It's about 100 yards from our backyard.  It's one of the only private (authorized) fireworks displays in our area.  We feel so lucky and we love that others want to enjoy it with us. 



By this point, I had lost my sweater to baby spit up, but the rest of them look cute :)

When I was growing up in Aledo and for several years after, we always sat on the 3 tee at Oakview Country Club with the Lee family.  From the time my parents put in a pool, this always followed an all day swimming party.  I have memories of swimming days at Aunt JoJo's pool and homemade ice cream made by Larry and/or Jim, but they are just general summer memories to me and I'm not sure it was specific to the 4th.  Before we moved here, Aledo decided to move the fireworks from the hillside at the high school football field to the fairgrounds creating an opening to offer for the Lees to join us here.  Maybe this party will get bigger, but this was a good start.


The original "little sister", Coley, and the new "little sister", Kate

 In 2010, we had a homemade ice cream bar, but this year I wanted to try some other things too.  So our menu some new things...


  

caramel corn, chocolate covered strawberries, salsa, but we kep the vanilla ice cream.

I had fun decorating the mantle for the 4th this year too.  One of the framed photos is a free printable found here.  I made my flag with paint color samples, stars cut on my Cricut and Modge Podge.

Here's the link for the scalloped garland tutorial.  I used pinking shears on my circles.



Doesn't he look happy to be having his picture taken!

 It was a great 4th!  Separate posts about the rest of the 4th weekend and Deane's fireworks experience to follow.

Lots fit in this day!

Today was full of fun at home.

This morning I realized there were toys of Deane's that I had not really introduced Kate to yet.  I realize I'm not very inventive when recognizing my children's milestones and what new things they might be ready for.  I think this is partly my personality and partly because Deane does the same thing over and over.  So, I introduced Kate to his sing and stage and this is a little video of her playing with it (please excuse my singing and sideways video):



After baby sister went down for her morning nap, I put up the inflatable pool for Deane.  He had a great time playing in it, the sprinkler and watering the yard while I enjoyed a little down time in the sun.  It was very hot so we only stayed out for about an hour.

This evening we had another surprise as Kate started crawling!  Fortunately we have a little video of the event.



Father's Day Weekend

So, Thursday isn't technically the weekend, but Daddy and Deane were both just so tired that they ended up getting this rare and precious nap in.

 Saturday night we attended the reception (between naps, etc. the wedding didn't work out) for Chris's best friend Brandon's younger sister, Krystal's wedding.  It was great to see Brandon, Kristin and family.  We didn't get to spend a lot of time together, but stayed until 8:30/9PM.  Here's a photo of Brandon holding Kate and Chris holding Savannah.

It's just so fun to get the whole family dressed up.

This year we celebrated Father's Day by going to Church at St. Maria Goretti, followed by a trip to Lowe's.  It was supposed to be Home Depot, but we opted to go to Lowe's because of the traffic on the I-74 bridge.  Boy is Chris glad he had that thought.  As we approached the store, I mentioned that he should look at the riding lawnmowers (since he has been push mowing our half acre for a couple months and hating it).  It just so happened there were some deals available so....45 minutes later Chris had delivery of his new rider scheduled. 
We grabbed Steak N Shake and returned home just in time for Dad, Chris, and Andy to golf at Fyre Lake.  We had dinner (ribs that I grilled!) and Carrot Cake made by my mom and enjoyed each other for the early evening.  I used some free printables to decorate with.

Awesome Kids

I'm so lucky!

Today is one of those days where it's important to remember that regardless of how the word labels me or my children, they are unbelievably awesome!

All day appointments today...expecting a PPD-NOS diagnosis for Deane in the next couple weeks. 

I have been thinking about all of the things I should focus on with my free time (a joke in itself) to make money, etc.  I now officially have a new priority.

A New Tradition: Sunday Family Dinner

I decided last week to begin hosting my family for Sunday dinner.  The idea was to create a tradition for my own little family and hopefully encourage my parents and siblings to have a family oriented time each week spent together and with the kids.  So, today was the first.  Andy, Mom, and Dad came over.  This was a good experience since Grandpa Frye had a stroke on Thursday night and has been in Peoria since then.  We don't know what is coming for him, but we're all dedicated to the common prayer for his full recovery.

Today's Menu:
Pork Roast with a Walnut-Parmesan Crust

Verdict: For me, this is a 10.  I would say to be generous with the ingredients creating the sauce as I ended up being a little light.  I used 2.5 lbs and it was barely enough for the 5 of us.

Roasted Garlic Lemon Broccoli

Verdict: This was good, not shocking.  Dad liked this a lot.  I would give it an 8.5.

Feta Foldovers
Verdict: These were strong in flavor.  They were Mom's favorite.  I would give them a 9/9.5.

Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe (not sure how, but I don't have a link for this - sorry!)
Ingredients:
• 4 large russet potatoes, about a pound each
• Olive oil
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp butter, softened
Cheddar and bacon version
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 4 strips bacon
• onion powder
Blue cheese version
• 1 cup crumbled blue cheese 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Poke potato in several places with the tines of a fork so that when the potatoes are cooking they don't explode. Rub the potatoes all over with a little olive oil. Place directly on the middle or top rack of the oven. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through. They should give a little when pressed.
If short on time you can bake the potatoes in the microwave, 10 minutes on high heat for 2 potatoes, 15 minutes for 4 potatoes. The skins of microwave baked potatoes aren't nearly as crispy, so you may want to rub a little olive oil on them and finish them in a conventional oven at 400°F for 10 minutes.
2 If you are including bacon as one of your mix-ins, while the potatoes are cooking, cook the bacon strips in a frying pan on medium low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, or until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Let cool. Crumble.
3 Allow the potatoes to cool to touch. Slice the top third lengthwise off the potato. Use a spoon to scoop out the insides, forming a potato "canoe", leaving about 1/4 inch of potato on the skin.
Alternatively you can slice the potatoes in half, lengthwise. In this case you may want to bake an extra potato so that you will have more potato filling to mound into the potato boats.
4 Place the scooped out potato insides, sour cream, milk, cream, and butter into a large bowl. Mash with a potato masher. If you want a creamy texture, beat with an electric beater until desired consistency. Note, do not over-beat potatoes, they can turn glue-y.
5 Mix in the extras with the potatoes. Reserve some of the extras to sprinkle on the tops of the potatoes. Spoon fillings into the potato shells. Sprinkle with extra toppings.
6 Heat oven to 350°F. Place potatoes on a roasting pan and bake 15 to 20 minutes until heated through.
Serves 4 to 6.
Verdict: I have tried the bleu cheese version and now the cheddar and bacon version.  We prefer the bleu cheese version.  They were both very good.  I would give them an 8.5/8.

Choco-Scotch Marble Cake

Verdicts: I would give this an 8.  It was moist and different than anything I've had.

So, this whole meal was really a good turnout.  I'm very happy with the first effort.  We finished the afternoon with a game of sets & runs.

Carrot Cake

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and combined with other suggestions and working with what I had:

Ingredients

Cake

• 4 eggs

• 3/4 cups vegetable oil & ½ cup applesauce

• 1 cup white sugar & 1 cup brown sugar

• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 3 cups grated carrots

• 1/4 cup chopped pecans

• 8 oz. crushed pineapple no juice

• ¼ tsp nutmeg

Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.

2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, both sugars and 3 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake.

Verdict: This was fantastic!  I give it a 10.

Delicious Dinner

This is the best pork chop recipe I've ever had. 

Parmesan Sage Pork

Verdict: This was a 10.  Following the recipe exactly as it's written is important.
 
Parmesan-Carrot Risotto .
Verdict: I would call this an 8.  Good use for carrots.