A Big Splash

Last summer I heard that Highland had a splash park, being large with child at the time I was very willing to spend time at splash parks. It was hot, I could wade through water if i wanted. J could have lots of fun. I even  scheduled a play date, it was for either August 5th or 6th......who knew I would have a Baby on August 4th! No one, and I totally forgot about the splash park, until last week when my friend Annaca reminded me. So on Friday the boys and I suited up and headed over to Highland. 

I was a little worried, because on the Highland City website they said that the splash park was not open when the temperature was below 75. Well it has been hot this week, right up until yesterday afternoon. When we got the the park there was no water, just a bunch of kids in suits running around and jumping on rocks. J was perfectly willing to jump on rocks. Then about 15 min after we got there water erupted from everywhere!

B enjoyed this little perch (for about 90 seconds)

J enjoyed running around this splash pad, but he would not venture into it when the water was shooting.

The splash park had a large waterfall (just for show it was pretty well blocked off though I did have to stop J from climbing down into it at one point) the water from the waterfall flows under a bridge and through a little lagoon, where J spent most of his time. In the lagoon there are lots of rocks that spurt water. J had a blast AND he didn't make anyone cry! YES!

Baby B, once again, spent most of his time in the igloo. I love that tent, quite possibly the best Ikea purchase I have ever made.

We had so much fun that I decided we would go every Friday, if possible. And next time, we're bringing lunch. Also for next time, I am not going to leave my camera at the splash park. I didn't realize the camera was missing until after we were home and both the boys were napping- basically when I wanted to blog about how much fun we had had. After Ken got home I drove back over there, parked in the same spot, walked the same path, couldn't find our camera.......then for some strange reason I looked up- and there it was hanging from a small branch on the tree closest to our parking spot. I am grateful for honest people! I was so worried, not about the camera but about the pictures that we hadn't moved to the computer yet. Ken took care of that as soon as I got home. So that is the end of our Splash Park adventure, for today that is.

Temple Picnics

The boys and I started something new this week, we are going go to a temple each month and have a picnic. On Wednesday we went to the Draper Utah LDS Temple. As soon as we drove into the parking lot at the temple, J started calling out, "Moroni! Moroni! Mommy there's Moroni!" And I wondered who taught him about the statue of Moroni on top of the Temples. I vaguely remember pointing it out once, but really only once. He has a great memory. The next thing J noticed was the groundskeepers, or more importantly their equipment. He stalked this "Digger" with the ease and skill of a jungle cat. We will see later if he was successful in catching his prey.

 Then there was Baby B, It was pretty sunny and since the Draper Temple is only a couple  years old I knew they wouldn't have much shade there, so we brought our Ikea igloo tent, it was perfect for B. He rolled around and cooed and was generally CUTE. When we have picnics B gets to eat bread, I toss it in the tent and he rolls over to it, it's a pretty fun game.

So, yes, J eventually caught the digger. Truth be told the groundskeepers went in for lunch and they parked the digger about 15 feet from us. J was in heaven. He is sitting on my lap right now and he keeps saying "Me likes dee digger". 

Baby B is on the verge of crawling, he is at the point where he can go in reverse but hasn't figured out how to put himself into drive. I put the tent next to a little tree and B kept backing up and backing up into the a corner of the tent. Eventually I realized that he was actually moving the tent. He had wrapped the tent around the tree, about 5 to 6 inches. He was quite pleased with himself. 

Later that day Baby B did something new- he got into a sitting position all on his own. He has been sitting up on his own for quite a while now, he will sit FOREVER and play, but if he fell over he couldn't get back up. On Tuesday we had some friends over and B rolled himself into the middle of the room, then with great gusto he showed of his new trick, twice, both times he did it a different way. Since then he has been rolling or backing up, wherever he wanted, sitting up, playing for a while, then rolling somewhere else. He is pretty proud of his new ability.....but back to the final Temple picture. I couldn't get both of the boys to look at the camera and smile at the same time. This one was the cutest. I learned for next time not to put the boys in the shade (1 minute in the sun for pictures won't hurt them). 

 All in all we had a wonderful time at the temple. J and I had a pretty nice conversation about the temple and why it is a special place, how it is the house of the Lord and that Mommy and Daddy got married in a Temple and they get to go to the temple sometimes. The Groundskeepers told me that there are lots of people who come up there and eat lunch and look at the Temple, so now I don't feel so funny about picnicking at the Temple. I hope our boys enjoy our new tradition. More pictures of our Temple Picnics will come every month

Favorites

These pictures are from last Sunday.

The baby was just too cute NOT to take a picture. He sure loves his Daddy.

 And J figured out that he could pretty much take care of himself, as long as he had the cooler to push around the kitchen. Yep, too cute to not take a picture, though the cooler was eventually confiscated.

Just your typical Sunday afternoon around here.

Pies!

We had a neighborhood picnic this weekend, and I signed up to bring a pie for the Pie Contest. I didn't just want to make an apple pie, anyone can make an apple pie. I know anyone can because I can, in fact that is the only kind of pie I have ever made. I wanted to make something Fabulous, maybe something with a single crust. So I looked online for a while and found a few recipes I wanted to try. One was a Mock Pecan and the other was a Peanut Butter and Chocolate pie. I couldn't decide which one to make for the picnic, so I made both. Ken had Friday off of work this week, so that he could participate in Youth Conference/Day Camp for the Special Need Mutual, he was going to be home until around 10 AM and he agreed to watch the boys while I made pie crusts....well it turned out that he watched the boys while I made the whole pies. 

I love Pie Crust. LOVE IT!

Never having made a single crust pie before, I was a little uncertain about how to make the crust nice looking- you know, how to crimp the edges and stuff. The Peanut Butter pie needed a pre-baked crust. I made the crust, put it in the pan then cut and crimped the edges. I made 2 mistakes with this crust- first, I cut the crust so that the crimped edges were above the top of the pie dish, second, I didn't crimp very hard. I discovered after it was baked that the crimped edges had come apart and fallen over the side of the pie dish......oops. It wasn't the prettiest pie crust I had ever made, but it did taste good.

Next, I melted some chocolate and stirred in a couple tablespoons of heavy whipping cream, when it was all well combined I spread it into the pie crust and put it in the refrigerator to cool, it needed to be firm before I could pour the peanut butter layer on.

For the Peanut Butter layer, I mixed 1/2 cup peanut butter together with one 5 oz package of instant vanilla pudding powder. Once that was combined I turned on the heat and let it melt and then I mixed in some milk. This next part was the most annoying- I had to stir it constantly over LOW heat until it boiled. IT TOOK FOREVER! .

Then once it boiled I took it off the heat and let it cool for 15 minutes, then I poured it over the chocolate and put the pie back in the fridge to cool completely. This pie tasted good! It also held together really well. I saw one man take a slice, he was using a fork and the piece came out perfectly- then before he got it too his plate he dropped the piece of pie! He caught it with his hand, any other pie would have fallen apart or smashed...this one just kind of giggled and he put it onto his plate and walked away....very nice.

Having learned my lesson from the first pie crust I made two very necessary changes-  I trimmed the crust much shorter and I crimped the edges with much more force. I have decided that this crust is the prettiest pie crust I have ever made.

Now, this is a Mock Pecan pie. This is a pie perfect for those who enjoy the sweet goodness of pecan pie but who don't enjoy or can't eat pecans. I happen to be married to just such a person, and he was excited for the sweet sugary goodness of this pie! I must say it was pretty simple to make Eggs, Brown Sugar, White Sugar, Vanilla and melted butter all beaten together, then fold in some rolled oats and coconut, pour it into the the pie crust and bake it for 30 min. Edges covered, of course.

It was a very good looking pie, it had a crusty top and I had no idea what the inside was like.....it was at this point that I said to myself "What were you thinking?! You made two pies for a pie contest and you have no idea if they are even good!"

Well, they were good, and it turns out that there was no pie contest! The would be judges were also manning the 4 BBQ grills that were cooking the hamburgers and hot dogs for all the picnickers. They greatly underestimated the amount of people who were going to show up for the picnic and or how long it would take to cook all that meat and before they could judge the pies....the pies had pretty much all been eaten. Oh well, maybe next year. I do know this, I made two pretty yummy pies. I am definitely going to try the Mock Pecan again, it was a little runny, I want to figure out how to get it to set properly....because I too like that sugary filling.

Parkin' It

So today has been a weird day. Ken was home in the morning, then at about 10 he left to go to the Special Needs Mutual Youth Conference, he is going to be gone until about 9 tonight. It is beautiful outside and I want to spend lots of time out there. We have been to the big park, that is about a block and a half away from our house, a few times this week. The park is getting really fun because J is very able and willing to play by himself. So today I thought I wanted to try something new. I knew that B would enjoy time in the tent- because I took it to the big park earlier this week- but I wanted some shade too and I am too big for the tent. So I set up my market umbrella..... Look how happy B is!

See that gate- that's my gate. We were close enough to the house (and our wireless) that I was able to take my laptop out there.

And here is another view- see how close we are to the neighborhood playground! We are going to be out here a lot this summer, we are ALL going to enjoy it. J had fun for an hour- then it was nap time. A side effect of playing at the park, J sleeps pretty darn good at nap time AND bedtime. And yes, we are going back to the park after dinner. (hehehehehehe, do you think he will figure out my evil plan?)

There were not a lot of kids at the park today, two 15 month old girls came to play, but they didn't really want to play with J. At one point J denied use of the Baby Swing to one of the little girls,  his brother was going to come swing....so I took B over to the swing so as to not turn J into a liar. So, this is what happened...

"I'm not to sure about this, are you sure this is safe?!?!" 

"I feel a little funny in my tummy! I like it!"

 "Weeeeeeeeeeee!"

 B's has been in a swing like this 3 times now, the first few times he lasted about a minute before he was crying and begging to get out. This time he really liked it. J pushed him for a while and then I took over, he had fun in the swing for at least 10 minutes. I think he might be addicted. J is learning how to swing on the big swings. He still wants to sit in the baby swings (I believe this is the real reason he denied access to the swing to the little girl) but since he weighs 35 pounds, I am not very inclined to help him get in and out of the baby swings. This picture really doesn't show how well he did, in fact he kind of looks like he is in pain, but believe me, he enjoyed the big swing and I believe that he will soon not even ask for me to put him in the baby swing.

So if you're in the neighborhood and want to spend some time at the park, let us know! We will bring out the tent, umbrella and blanket! We will all have a good old time at the park.

Other stuff we've been doing

Last weekend I ran a 5k, the Blood Run and no it was not a race for Vampires, it was a race to support the Utah Hemophilia Foundation. It was near my parents house AND it started at 7 AM, because Ken was busy that morning and because I didn't want to wake the boys up at 5 AM so that I could get them to my Parent's house with time for me to make it to the race early enough to get my # and run the race, I decided to sleep over with the boys at Grandma and Grandpas, It was fun. Before we left Daddy alone at home, we treated him to dinner at Emmett's and Ethel's here in Lehi. 

B is getting to be a big boy, but he seemed so little in the high chair. Happy, but little. 

 I later realized that B was little because he was pretty much laying down in the chair.

 This is rare- this boy seems to have cleaned his plate! I cleaned my plate too, that may or may not have been a good thing- calorie wise.

Some other things we've been doing- B is still enjoying all kinds of foods, here he is with some more sauce-less spaghetti- he really likes noodles.

 And J continues to pick out his own clothes. He is also talking more and more, it is amazing the things this kid says and sings. He has a great memory too, he reminds me of things all the time (so now I have to stop making promises that I don't intend to keep, because he remembers), AND, he has a great imagination too. We have lots of conversations about Fires and Firemen and Fire Trucks and Smoke, Just about everything in our house has been on fire recently- according to J.

I also love the baby down in the bottom of this picture- sometimes that kid busts a gut laughing. I love my boys!

Bring it on Summer!

Show us what you've got! (and PLEASE no more snow....okay?)

So back in early February I learned how to make cute little door wreaths out of coat hangers and strips of fabric. I originally made a heart shaped one for Valentines, then I made a round one with pastel fabric for spring. I wanted to figure out how to make more interesting shapes. I mean, hearts are good but you can only use a heart for a small part of the year. Circles are nice but wouldn't it be fun to have a Shamrock? Or a Star? Well I figured it out- too late for the shamrock but I will definitely make one for next year. Instead of using a hanger I used some bendable plastic coated wire that I found in the Wal-Mart Home Improvement section. 

Here is my Summer Time/ Fourth of July Star! I thought Red, White and Blue in a flag type pattern would be cute. I think I was right!   

I put it on the door around Memorial Day, in the hopes that it would help the weather figure out that it was Memorial Day and the kids would be out of school for summer soon. I think it has helped. 

Yesterday we had a Picnic. That is the kind of thing you do in the Summer, right? I think this may have been our very first family picnic and it was lots of fun. We found a park with a pretty huge play structure and J played while the rest of us ate. I made some oven baked chicken and potato spears. I gave Ken two options, Oven Baked Chicken or Teriyaki Chicken Wraps, Ken thought I had said both options were wraps and he picked Oven Baked Chicken Wraps- it was a very tasty mistake. I cut the chicken into strips, breaded and baked it, then we ate it wrapped in tortilla's with lettuce and tomatoes. It was very good, we will have it again. The potato spears were pretty good too, I cut about 5 potatoes into 8ths, then put them in a bowl with a Tbls of Olive Oil, a 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and some garlic powder, salt and pepper, mixed to coat the potatoes well and I baked them at the same time as the chicken. Yummy and pretty good for a small picnic.  

We were able to get J away from the playground long enough to eat 4 French fries 

 Baby B enjoyed the French fries as well

 In fact, B enjoyed the picnic so much that he gave the experience "Two Fists Up!" It is like two thumbs up, only better!

Ken and I both agreed that we should go on more picnics, I am thinking one a week, at least during the summer. It was lots of fun.