summer fun

oh my word, the days are just flying by.

it's not that we are even that busy, but i guess being a family of six is just that... busy when you aren't even trying!

it's been hot here. not as crazy hot as it was two weeks ago, but hot enough that the only thing i want to do is take the kids to the pool and swim! and that's just what we do most days. ben has been working hard to learn how to swim without floaties this summer.

my little fishies...









we still try to fit in treat tuesdays, watercolor wednesdays, and craft thursdays. sometimes they don't happen on the right day, and obviously i don;t always blog about it, but we are still spending time together doing things that are meaningful and important to the kids.

last tuesday we made peach cobbler using peaches from a friend's tree. i think i want a peach tree. my neighbors have one and the peaches right off the tree... amazing! so delicious. now they have nectarines that look just about ripe and i'm crossing my fingers that some of the branches grow about an inch more so they are on our side of the fence. i love nectarines even more than peaches!


peaches cut with skin removed


i love that my kids enjoy helping out in the kitchen


he's the only kid that didn't get kicked out of the kitchen though!


bubbling peaches in a pot


 prepping the baking dish


spreading the dough over the top


happy helper


fresh from the oven


served with a scoop of vanilla coconut bliss


ready to dig in!

this recipe and many other tasty gluten free treats and recipes can be found at gluten free goddess.

Gluten-Free Peach Cobbler Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease an 8x8-inch baking dish or two large/four small individual gratin dishes.

Ingredients:

About 4 cups of sliced ripe peaches (peeled)
2 tablespoons organic light brown sugar or use raw agave nectar
2 teaspoons tapioca starch

Begin with the peaches:

Pour the sliced peaches into a pot and stir in the light brown sugar and tapioca starch till coated. Heat over medium heat until the peaches start to bubble a little around the edges. Turn the heat to low and cook for eight to ten minutes. This gives the peaches a head start in the baking department.

Meanwhile whisk together:

1 cup sorghum flour (also known as jowar flour) or brown rice flour
1/2 cup almond meal (also known as almond flour)
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 teaspoon bourbon vanilla extract


Beat in:

6 tablespoons of light olive oil or melted vegan butter spread
1 egg replacer (I used Ener-G Egg Replacer)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups unsweetened So Delicious Coconut Milk, or hemp, almond, or rice milk

The biscuit dough will come together quickly- don't beat it to death. Just till smooth. It should be a wee bit sticky (not too wet and not too dry) like a biscuit dough/batter.

Instructions:

Spoon the hot peaches into the prepared baking dish.

Plop spoonfuls of the biscuit dough on top of the peaches.

Sprinkle with a little dusting of organic cane sugar.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until the juices are bubbling, and the biscuit topping is golden brown and baked through. Cool for five to ten minutes before serving.

Serve warm.

Makes four servings.

Read more: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2010/08/gluten-free-peach-cobbler.html#ixzz2Z9lGAdMR

 the topping tasted like a muffin. it really puffed up and took over. we ran out of peaches way before we ran out of topping. most of us liked this best warm with ice cream. i would love to try the peach crisp she has posted, too.

see, i need a peach tree. :)

monkey in the middle

with three boys, there is usually someone on the outs.

the other day i heard from another room, "put it the pee corner!" this was followed by two different devious giggles.

in case you are not a parent of boys, are fortunate enough to not be the designated bathroom cleaner of the house, or your boys have good aim... a pee corner is the area in the bathroom that is next to the toilet and backs up to a corner... it is the result of boys who are careless and have poor aim. enough said?

when i questioned the two boys, who were at this point beside themselves with laughter, they said they were putting the third brother's toy in the pee corner. just because.

not even an hour later one of the gigglers is screaming at the other two brothers, because he wants to play and they are not including him. meanwhile they are laughing and having a great time, just the two of them.

day in and day out, the monkey in the middle is changing, but it's still there.

that is why i take pictures like these...









... to remember that conflict builds character and problem solving skills... and it's all worth it :)

the road called parenthood

sometimes you can be chugging along down the road of parenthood when BAM! suddenly you collide head first into reality. it's funny to think that something that has been there all along could be so surprising. maybe that's what we call "denial?!"

we recently received taylor's inter-district transfer request to attend ACMS. i'd type the whole thing out, but remember, i'm in denial. :) i'll give you a hint... the MS stands for middle school. *gasp!*

of course i've dreaded known that taylor would be going to ms next year, but i haven't thought that much about it. honesty though, it freaks me out just a bit. okay, a lot. i asked taylor's teacher to retain him, but he said no. bummer.

then today i was filling in important dates on the calendar when i see that coming up at the end of february is the family life preview night for 5th grade parents. OH.MY.WORD. my son is not old enough for that discussion!! please say it's not so. here we go again. *fingers in my ears* denial, denial, denial.

on the road of parenthood, i feel myself chugging along, slowly approaching a bridge. i have no idea what's on the other side. clearly i'm terrified. but i find comfort in knowing that many a mom and dad have crossed this bridge before ... and survived.

is this what i felt like 10 years ago, tucking my newborn baby into his car seat for the very first time, carefully loading him into our car and then pulling out of the hospital parking lot... onto the road of parenthood for the first time ever?

i don't think so. babies are cute. middle schoolers, not so much! ha!

so all you veteran mamas and papas out there... do you have any pearls of wisdom to share? what got you through this "exciting" (ha ha) time? what should i do? what should i definitely not do? my stomach is doing flip flops here, people!!

as a side note, can i just say that i'm incredibly relieved that i teach first grade and not fifth!! hello, the grossest things we deal with are nose picking (and eating... ewww!) and potty talk. thank goodness!!!


here's tay building a volcano for a school project

16 months... the sweet and the stinky of it

it has been a monumental week so far.

on monday natalie told me "i love you" and gave me a hug--without prompting! awwww, how sweet is that?!

then on tuesday she walked up to me and said "stinky" indicating that SHE was stinky, not me. what a smart girl!

i am loving this stage. 16 months old and absorbing every single thing that goes on around her. sometimes she just sits and watches. other times she is up and exploring. she is always learning. it is fun to observe her take it all in, process new knowledge, and then do something with it.

i'm finding that i'm missing the baby stage less and less and enjoying the now more and more.

i love my sweet and sometimes stinky girl!

happy thursday everyone!!

baking bonanza 2011

i've had thanksgiving on the brain since friday, when i was finally allowed to think about something other than school.

i'm looking forward to so many things. here are a few...

-baking
-mashed potatoes
-chocolate pecan pie
-the start of the christmas season

it's such a fun and happy time of year. don't you agree?

today started with a trip to raley's. i hadn't been in raley's for a while. i was back and forth all over the store. again and again and again. bleh.

i had ben, zach, and nattie cakes with me. i told them i was going to starbucks after raley's and if they behaved i would get them something. that's a win-win situation. peppermint mocha frappuccino to celebrate a successful shopping trip or to cheer me up after an awful one!

when we got out of the car we gathered in a circle, put our hands together, and cheered "we will listen, we will help, we will be sweet!" have you seen anyone rally their team in the grocery store parking lot before? ha!

the trip was mostly successful (minus the zig-zagging). ben jumped the little checkered squares down each aisle, completely oblivious to all other shoppers. it's like a cruel joke from grocery store designers. "let's see how many moms we can drive insane with a checker floor pattern." muhahaha.

however, i was happy to see only friendly faces in raley's today. lots of smiles and patient shoppers. unlike the rude shoppers i encountered in target yesterday, but i won't go there. oops, too late!

so after our starbucks treats, we headed home where i baked all day afternoon long.

i wanted to get an earlier start, but i tend to procrastinate. even though i was looking forward to baking, it can be a challenge to work around rowdy boys and a sleepy girl's nap schedule. but i finally got the ball rolling around 12:30 and i just pulled the final pie out of the oven. my favorite--chocolate pecan. it tastes like sticky sweet chocolatey candy bar goodness. oh my!

my chocolate pecan pie never looks pretty. in fact, it always bubbles over or the crust cracks... somehow the sticky goodness always gets under the crust, so cutting into it and serving pretty slices is impossible. but whatever, because it tastes amazing!

right now the boys are playing outside. in the dark. i remember how much fun that was when i was growing up. they are having the best time and i am enjoying having the windows open and listening to their laughter and smelling the pie aroma in my warm house. nattie is cruising around, alternating between throwing toys around and watching the wiggles. oh yeah, we have another wiggle fan in the house! i broke out a video the other day and the girl is mesmerized when i put them on.

i am so thankful for this break and time with my kids. they were driving me a little bonkers about two hours ago, but now they are asking if they can have a camp-out together. love that. and them! maybe sometimes all you need is some pie to sweeten your perspective?


apple pie with crumb topping. found the recipe on allrecipes.com. it had 4.5 stars and a lot of reviews. i doubled the crumb topping. wouldn't you?


libby's famous pumpkin pie. recipe is on the back of libby's canned pumpkin. i had to drive to my mom's and get a can of evaporated milk from her neighbor and our friend lynn. when i opened my can of evaporated milk, it was orange! gross.


my fave--chocolate pecan. zachary asked if there were beans on the top. then he asked if they were bugs. ha!!

i have one more pie to bake tomorrow and then baking bonanza 2011 will be over. phew!

lookie, lookie

a new header! it's going to be out of season soon, but that's okay.

have you used the program picnik to edit your photos? i love it. i use the free features and am wondering if it's worth the $ for the premium membership. do you know? definitely a want vs. need. the only thing i feel like i am missing is more collage options. making collages is fun. and for me it's easier than scrapbooking.

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today taylor had a doctor's appointment. that kid cracks me up. i was talking to the doctor for a few minutes while taylor was out in the hall. when we opened the door he was sprawled out all over the floor, making himself quite comfortable. ha!

we went to target after the appointment and it was so nice to hang out with just him. he was obsessed with using the price scanners and wanted only to look at harry potter books, but it was still fun. there were no tantrums or threats or shrill noises or trips to the bathroom... it was really, really nice! i should have taken a picture. instead i'll have to post a picture of something random.


taylor as captain underpants, halloween 2007


riding the buffalo in old sac

hope you had a happy monday! 4 more days until fall break... woo!

halloween

i know this is a bit late for a halloween post. i just took down halloween decorations today, too. i guess it's just been like that around here lately. remember that cold/flu i mentioned last week? i kindly passed it along to everyone in my family. with six people under one roof, you know that takes a while to run its course. joe and nat are at the peak of stuffiness right now. 

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so halloween... it started off with a call from preschool saying ben wasn't quite himself--he was asking to lay down during play time.
uh oh.

i went over to him as soon as i could, which was about 20-30 minutes later. he had just thrown up.
boo.

i called joe to come and get him, since i didn't want to expose nana or natalie to those yucky germs.

joe stayed with ben all day at our house while nana took care of natalie, taylor, and zachary at her house. (it also happened to be parent-teacher conference week, so we had a minimum day.)

after my conferences were over i picked up a pizza and headed home. i dropped the pizza off for joe to put in the oven and went and picked up the big boys and natalie at my mom's house.

we ate pizza and right around this time, ben started to perk up. halloween excitement was definitely in the air.
hooray!



joe took all three boys trick or treating. yep, even sick ben got to visit a few houses. then he came home and helped me and nat answer the door and hand out treats. he made it very clear that nothing was scary to him. my big brave ben.



when the big boys came back, they had lots of fun stories to share. so did ben and i. halloween was a lot of fun. somehow, even with a sick kid, it was the most stress-free halloween we've had yet.

here are some pictures of our tricksters.

































zach was dash from the incredibles, not to be confused with mr. incredible.
many people thought taylor was tron, but he is a non-scary-light-up-guy. (he wanted to be a pistol that shoots tic tacs.)
ben was going to be black spider man (not venom), but on halloween night he decided to be a cowboy.
our tiniest trickster was a flower. as you can see, getting a photo of her was not an easy task!


happy halloween... two weeks late!