Watchin' Unkin Play Softball

Aaron was playing in a church softball league this year. We went to watch a couple of his games. The first the won, actually! So, here are a few pictures There is only one of Ben and he is not happy, he had to sit quietly in a chair because of that darn knee. And to add insult to injury just down the hill from where we sat was a playground, and a little girl came over and invited him to play. Poor Boog.

 This was funny, She had decided to play restaurant Rachel had given her a pad and pen and she was taking our orders! Then she would walk behind the near by pole and cook it and bring it out! Awesome!

The Day of Kettle Corn

Each summer along Highway 70 running from Huntington, Tn and Jackson, Tn is the world's longest yard sale. Yup, yard sale.  Aaron and Rachel's good friend bought a Kettle Corn get up. He is 65, retired, and puttering around West Tenn making and selling Kettle Corn. Awesome. We love Brother Arnold! On this particular Saturday he was at the Hwy 70 Yard Sale. It was a gorgeous day so we decided to drive up and visit him. Aaron and Rachel on their bike and us in the car.

 The vendor across from the Kettle Corn stand had matchbox cars in front. Ben kept begging to go over. Since we had been cooped up in the house with the knee all week I let him and Sis walk over.
(side note, that baby girl has a honky tonk badonka donk!)

 It was good that we got there when we did. Bro. Arnold we worn out and there was a HUGE rush of folks! We ended up being there for 5 hours straight cooking and selling Kettle Corn!

 The kids eating pudding snacks.

 Matt manning the kettle.

Her Peteness being cute!

The Pete

Yup, this is Pete. Short for Stinky Pete. This is what she was diong most of the time I was making Mixes. She is sooo funny!

From Scratch, and fun with Mixes

We love muffins. We just do. I can buy a dozen of those Mrs White packages and we just BLOW through them. But the kids and I just have to have our muffin fix! One morning I got desparate and decided to try making some from sctratch because I was out of mix. They were not bad, not bad at all.

Inspired by this, and by a friend at a RS class I decided to make some premade homemade mixes. I made Granola, Corn Muffins, and Muffin Mixes.  I have really liked them! We ate all the granola in the first 2 weeks and most of the muffin mix. We have slowed down alot since the hot weather, but I am going to be restocking these soon for when the weather cools.

Bagels Round 2

I finished them! No blood! And they were delicious. not pretty, but really yummy!

The Garden First week of June

 First summer squash.

 First sautee

 Butternuts coming along nicely

So pretty! this is how it looked the week we got home!

Knee Saga: Week 1 Activities

So, after the first 2 days, watching movies got really old. But I needed to try and keep Ben as still as possible. Do you have any idea how HARD it is to keep a 4 year old Boy still, in the summer? Well, it is difficult!! So, I got creative.

First we got out the Discovery Channel Projector and watched EVERY disc we own! And even some new ones I had squirreled away for an "occasion", this qualified!

 Then we moved to puzzles and small gadgets to keep small hands busy. This was a cool wood block thing Daddy brought home the night before.

 Then we moved on to the computer game. This game is one of our Favorite things to do! It has been since Ben was just over a year old too!

 Then since we could not kneel to drive cars on our favorite blanket (the cars leave tracks aka roads) so we spread it on the couch so he could drive them there!

 Then we got literally creative and pulled out the craft stuff. Gluing pompoms to papers is Huge fun! and a good way to learn shapes I might add!

 Of course Pete was along for all of this. She was a trooper with Mommy a little over stressed!

 Then we moved on to stickers. Daddy had brought home some new Dino and kitty stickers the night before!

 Okay, So let me explain the bean.  It was Thursday. I needed to spend a few minutes at the computer paying bills. All of the a fore mentioned activities were in ONE morning!!! So, I got desperate. I found a bag of Bean Soup Mix in my pantry. It has been there since God was a boy, I think. I opened it and put it down for them to glue and make pictures. There were lots of shapes and colors.  I had no more than sat down at the computer when I hear Ben yelling for me. When I get out there I find Clara had shoved this bean up her nose!! YES!! Up her NOSE!! (just for interests sake, Matt was sitting in the same room with them but was on his computer working from home. note to self: daddy cannot watch the kids while working from home!) any who.... I was determined not to make a second trip to the ER in week. So, I held her down and pulled it out with those tweezers! Good Times!!

 By the end of the week this is what it was looking like.

Zucchini Begins!

First fried zucchini of the summer. I learned a lot. They look so much better now than these did, and taste WONDERFUL. Matt and I have taken to just eating them as the main part of the meal and having some sides with them. The kids will eat them but they don't LOVE them.

This is just the first of MANY new zucchini recipes I learned this summer. We had a plethora of zucchini. Did I mention that already?

First attempt at bagels and the Knee Saga

The Monday after we returned from Texas I decided to try my hand at making bagels. We had soo many delicious bagels and smear while were were at the Parker's and the kids were begging for more. Since I make out sandwich bread and pizza crusts, I thought why not bagels?

 And it was going GREAT!! These beauties are just waiting to be boiled!! Then this happened...

WARNING!! GRAPHIC PICTURE OF BEN'S KNEE INJURY BELOW!!!

 He came running into the kitchen and showed me this. I Facetimed mom because Matt was at work and wanted a second opinion if it was ER worthy. She agreed that it was and we took off. This picture was actually taken at the hospital while we were waiting. We are really blessed to have friends that are family. I called Aaron because I didn't know if Matt would be able to leave work to help with Clara. Aaron and Rachel and Brandon were all at the er entrance to meet us! and Aaron had made sure Matt knew how important it was to come (some times I don't really tell him cause I don't want to seem like a woos) Anyway Ben was glad to see his uncles his auntie and his Daddy when we got to the hospital! Aaron and Rachel took Clara home for us and put her to bed, again. Which was a really good think because we ended up being there for 7 HOURS!! yup, NEVER go to the ER on a Monday night if you can in any way avoid it!

Ben was a champ! after sitting in the waiting room for 6 hours we finally got back and the PA decided it did need stitches and they put some numbing gel on it.

 Well, that gel only managed to numb half the wound. He wanted to go home so bad that he chose to let the PA put the stitches in with out it numb rather than wait for more meds. He called out a little but was SOOOO brave!! He had a total of 12 stitches.

 The sweet nurses were soo impressed by his bravery and good behavior they went up to the peds ward and got him this Little General Dog to take home. He loved it immediately!

 This is what it looked like to go home.

 and this  is how it looked the next day.

 This is what was left of my bagel attempt.

 These three were boiled, just not baked. So sad.... Sigh

 This is the bed corner that started it all. Yup he was running around his room with sissy when they were supposed to be sleeping. He fell and caught his knee in that little open gap. GROSS!! and yes that is blood on the carpet!

This is what the next couple of days looked like.  I should mention here that this is only the BEGINNING of the Knee Saga..... It has been a long summer!

Garden Saga part ?

When we got home from Texas the Garden had taken off! This was just a small foreshadowing of what was to come! We have had an abundance from the garden! We are getting ready to put in the fall set!