Born in the 1900's

The other day Leah and I were up sewing a pillow for fun and I was letting her do the sewing machine with me, and she said, "Mom, I can't believe you were born in the 1980's! that's so long ago.  I wish I was born then because now I would be a grown up."
I told her it was better that she was born in the 2000's so that way she would be able to see a bunch more cool stuff in the future when she grows up and I won't.  Then she said, "Yeah, I'll be like:  This is a totally awesome camera-- too bad Mom's dead."

BWaAAAAA HAHAA!

Adventures in Bread Baking

Leah and I had a good time making "LDS Welfare Recipe- Wheat Bread"  I am so glad we made the cinnamon roll dough (earlier in the week with my friends, Emily and Leah's piano teacher Susan, seasoned bread baker)  so i  learned that it should be soft.  Otherwise, I'm sure I would have put way more flour in it (as I had in the past with a roll recipe I make for thanksgiving), so I'm glad it didn't turn out heavy at all.  

I had set the timer for 40 min instead of the 45 on the recipe so I could check it early, however before the beeper beeped I started to smell something burning! I jumped up and saw some slightly well done bread and so I quickly pulled it out of the oven and dumped it out on the cooling racks.  The 2 loaves in my tin pans were more well done than the one in my stoneware pan.  However, after they cooled for a bit Matt cut the top off one loaf and we cut it up and luckily it was just fine.  phew!  We each ate a few pieces, I like how the texture was soft and home made bread always tastes better than store bought.

I had extra dough so I just put it on the cookie sheet like Susan suggested, let it rise again, and put it in the oven.  This time being sure to only set the time for 10 min, and then I kept setting the timer for 5 min after that, I wasn't going to burn this one!:)  I don't remember how long I was checking it and resetting the timer for 5 more minutes, when I realized it wasn't baking-- I had turned the oven off! Who knows how this loaf is on the inside, but I turned the oven on and got the loaf to a nice golden brown and took it out.   

I think next time I make bread I should do it in the morning/daytime, and I might avoid the blunders of last night:-)

Leah was in bed when the bread was done baking last night.  So I told her she could have some for breakfast.

I made her a piece with some butter on it, and she came downstairs all excited to try it.  she had 2 bites and said, "It tastes just like the bread we usually get."  HA!  I suppose she thought homemade wheat bread would turn out white:-)  I personally thought it turned out great.  and I wanted to make a good wheat bread so that we could have it for our sandwiches throughout the week and maybe put some in the freezer.  so, for Leah we might make a white bread recipe next time.  I think that cup of brown sugar made it a pretty tasty wheat bread though, and I will definitely be making the recipe again.  I agree, it's surprising what a good thing can come from just a few basic ingredients.

So here begins my adventures in breadmaking:-)  

(I had to cut the ends off so the loaves would fit in the bags.)

Hang Man

Drew and I were playing hang man on the chalk board today, and he came up with all his own words.  It was pretty easy for me to guess, since he can't really read yet, but it was so fun.

His first word had 4 letters-- it was Drew.  the 2nd word had 3 letters-- Mom.  His third word he did had 23 letters!-- it was the alphabet (and he had to add a few more spaces after we filled up 23 to get the xyz).
Hi last word was really tricky,  it was 4 letters....  see it you can guess it.

_ _ _ _

_ _ i _

_ _ in

_rin

hmmm... I was stumped, I didn't have a clue what word he had thought of.....


then this is what he put as the answer:
Lrin,

"it's "Lauren" mom, geez, I can't believe you didn't get it!!"

LOL!!!

Leah's a 2nd Grader

She was very excited.  Here we are waiting for the bus.

Good luck this year Leah!

Staycation

We started our Stay=cation on Wednesday and with a little church history.   The John Johnson farm in Hiram, Ohio.  Here we are on the original front porch steps.  The prophet Joseph Smith and his family stayed here for about a year with the Johnson's.  

 This was also the place where he was dragged out of bed and tarred and feathered.  He also received a few sections of the Doctrine and Covenants here, as well as was working on translating the bible. 

In front of some of the Johnson  land.  Later this was used as a church farm.  They grew strawberries and something else, can't remember:-).

Afterward we had lunch at the Amish restaurant.

Leah was a little under the weather, so we took it easy the next day and went to Huntington Beach, 

Lake Erie.

Lando ba dando

It was a red flag day, which meant the waves were too high so no swimming, only wading.

Friday we went out to Cedar Point, our first time there.

 Leah was tall enough to ride some of the big roller coasters, and was pretty brave.  We ended up taking her on the magnum, which we didn't know what we were going on until after we got off.  She also rode with us on the wooden roller coaster.  

On Saturday the 'rents watched the kids while M and I went down to the Columbus Temple.

On Monday we took the rents up to Little Italy to Mama Presti's Bakery and  played on the playground. 

That afternoon we had the rocket launch.

Tuesday we took the kids to the zoo.

Rode the train.

Thanks for coming Grandma and Grandpa!  We enjoyed having you:-)

Summer S'mores!

Another Family Home Evening:  need I say more?

Drew Turns 5!!!

What fun we have had this week!  I can't believe Drew is really 5 years old! His special day started with pancakes in bed:-)

(plz ignore the blue painters tape and miscellanea-ha!)

Drew chose a Batman cake this year, (which I was able to make thanks to my great friend Diane for letting me borrow her cake pan.)  It was a hit with all the little boys.

We had a great time at his party.  I was soo afraid it was going to rain, and it even said rain in the forecast up until the day of the party, and then it DIDN'T RAIN.  I was so happy since we were having a water party outside.  The kids had fun getting wet,  doing relays, playing with the water balloons and pulling the strings on the pinata. 

After the party was over, I took my kids on a walk around the neighborhood, and Drew told me "This was the best day ever."

 It's stuff like that, that makes this mom job all worth it.  

Happy Birthday to you D-R-E-W.