Summer's Bounty

I love summer fruit! Riley stops by the Produce Junction on his way home from work sometimes and the fruit is so good right now! He got strawberries, mangos, grapes, blackberries, oranges, pineapple, apples. And they have pears, nectarines, watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi, raspberries, on and on...delicious.

Elli's Baptism

This last Saturday was Elli's baptism. We waited until June so that Riley's mom could be here for it. The program was short and small with good friends and good food. Elli did so well, even though the water was COLD!We were lucky to find the dress the day before.

It was a really nice day and everything went pretty smooth. We are so proud of Elli!

Things are Growing!

This is the spinach that Riley planted. Mine is still coming up too.Here is the cantaloupe I think. It's even bigger now!

Our Garden Project

We finally planted some seeds in the lovely garden box Riley made (by himself, NO instructions, with his bare hands). We had to have somewhere to put our sweet compost! We decided to try little squares and each kid picked what they wanted in their square.

Elli picked spinach and a cantaloupe I think. Adam chose peppers and a watermelon, and Amy planted some spaghetti squash.
I helped Elli plant the spinach until Riley came along and showed us how. I've never gardened before so I just started poking holes. Riley made nice little raised rows and it looked much better. He has gardened. Elli's are growing anyways.
All done and excited to watch what happens! Hope we can keep the rabbits away! I loves me spinach!
There are no pictures of the other kids that didn't look like they needed to go to the bathroom.

8 Year Old Elli

Elli turned 8 this month and she got to decide if she wanted a party or a gift from Mom and Dad. She wanted a gift, then switched to a party too late, so she got the gift anyways. Instead of a big party, she invited her favorite friend, Laurel, over for a sleep over. We took them to Pizza Hut and Country Side Ice Cream. On her real birthday, she got an Ipod and picked her favorite dinner and cake. She asked for Chicken Curry for dinner and Lemon Bars for her cake. She loves her new hat from Grandma and all the $ she got from Grandpa and Grandma and is constantly listening to her playlists on her Ipod. She'll get baptized in June and is so excited to go to Activity Days on Wednesdays!

New Things at Our House

GEESE!

Kathy sent us a package this week for Elli's and my birthday coming up. She said I could open the "pink" package inside the box now. I love opening pink packages! I could not believe it when I saw these! I knew she had found them last year and I politely said, "Oh, those are very nice," when secretly I coveted them for myself. He he. I don't know how you could part with them, Kathy, but boy oh boy I sure do love them! I will be so good to them. (thank you)SILLY BANDZ!

Not sure what it's like where you live, but Silly Bandz are crazy popular over in our town. I tried for a couple weeks to find them at the stores, but they were always sold out. Finally I ordered them online and finally they came. I must say I like them better than Bakugon and Pokemon. I think they are cute.
SNUGGIES!

Amy and I were shopping at Target and saw these on clearance for under $4! I grabbed 2. A kid one and an adult one. I wish I had one during the winter. I used to laugh at them, but not anymore. You can read, type, and....
eat while you wear one! What more could you ask for? You really need one, too.

New York City 2010!

It's that time of year again! My North Carolina Girls and I took another trip to NYC! We did a couple of the same things and lots of new things! Heather's long time friend, Laura, also joined us and we all had a fabulous time. Here are some highlights. There is so much that I left out, like the Donald Trump spotting, the Dakota house where John Lenon lived, and the beautiful flowers by Rockefeller Center. Lenette said it best when she said, "It's not about what we do, just being with friends and having fun is what's fun!" (something like that anyways) Enjoy the pictures!

Thursday Night

The tradition stands that after the temple session, we head over to Serendipity for a LARGE frozen hot chocolate. Last year I was too cold to get it frozen, but this year I was fine. I split mine with Laura, then finished off Lenette's leftovers. I think I'll get my own next year!

It was just so much fun to be there again. Too, too fun.

Friday Morning

We had to catch the ferry at 9:00 to go to the Statue of Liberty. That meant waking up early so 5 ladies could get ready. Heather was a trooper and was the first one up everyday. That made her "MAD". Ha Ha. Anyways, the statue was better than I thought. Ellis Island was after the statue and was so interesting. We walked thru the very building and halls that the immigrants were inspected in and shuffled thru. I wish I had done more research and knew some of the names of my ancestors to check if they were ever there.

This took most of the morning and then we had to get going. We had a reservation!

Friday Afternoon

Lenette made reservations for us at this place, Lady Mendl's. We had Tea at 3:00. It was the most favorite part of the trip for me. I loved the building and the decor and the quiet, fanciful atmosphere.
We were served 5 courses of small quiche and sandwiches and scones and cake and got surprisingly full! The endless refills of tea probably didn't help. I liked to pretend we were in England. Maybe I'll throw my own tea party.
We each had our favorite flavors and some of us bought a package or two, for a small fee. Wink, wink on the small fee!
The night was topped off with the Lion King. As awesome and elaborate as the costumes were, we all nodded off several times. We just had such a fun day and it was almost like a bedtime story that we were all familiar with. Somehow we mustered the strength to go out to eat afterwards and ended up in a very gay restaurant. Yummy food, late night, silly times. Heather said she was drunk on food.

Saturday in New York

Here's Heather taking pictures. I can't believe I didn't take more pictures of this day. We slept in a little from our late night previous and got breakfast at Europa Cafe. Then we walked around, shopped a little and had lunch at a Brazilian Steakhouse. Luckily the rain stayed away and after meeting with Heather's friend, Justin, we walked thru part of Central Park. A really cool part of the park where a scene from Serendipity was filmed, actually. After using the bathrooms at The Plaza, we went back to the hotel, split our cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery and went out again looking for Garrett's Popcorn. Later back at the hotel we watched the movie, Serendipity. Couldn't have gotten any better.

Heading Out

Sunday was a travel day. We stopped at a couple bakeries on the way out of the city looking for "black and white" cookies. As we were driving around, Heather spotted this corner restaurant. Look familiar?

Easter Clothes

The kids got these clothes for Easter last Sunday, but were fashioned with them for the first time this Sunday. I've never been a real fancy, lacy, pouffy dress kind of person. I wish I had Elli's dress for me.

Setting Up The Trampoline

For weeks the kids have begged to set up the trampoline. Rainy weather and cold temperatures have pushed back the big event, but it looks like Spring is here to stay. Even Sandy got booted outside. Easter weekend was the perfect time with lots of sun and the kids' break from school. Everyone had to help get it ready.

Check Out My New Blog!!!

I just started putting up some of my favorite recipes on a new blog! I'll put more on it as I make dinner and my family likes it. Maybe it will give you some ideas, who knows?

brookcancook.blogspot.com (also on the side bar, too)

Easter Egg Hunt

The Family Meetup Group had a really fun Easter Egg Hunt this year. I'm so glad they had one. The organizers of the group, Brian and Jenae, hosted it at their house and it was perfect! They have chickens roaming the yard and goats and a rabbit and a dog. It all felt so Springy! The kids are on the deck watching the little kids go first.
Next was the big kid hunt. Adam was the oldest and sadly it is probably his last year. The eggs were hidden in much harder places and they were so excited to get out and find the Golden Egg for a prize.

Race for Pediatric Cancer

We found out about a fun race through our Family Meetup Group and decided to try it out. The kids ran in the Fun Run that was 1/2 mile long. We had to shut down excuse after excuse the morning of the race because the kids were not excited about running, but I think they each really had fun. There were lots of other kids and goodie bags and snacks afterwards. Hopefully they will want to do more!
Riley sat this one out and got to take pictures of us instead. I ran it with our good friends, the Willardsons. Here are Christina and me after the 8K race. We did so well and had so much fun that we signed up for another race next month. She let me train with her a couple times and she is fast and serious! Her husband, Darin, is hilarious and almost made me pee my pants before the race started. I'm still laughing at how he stretched!

So Much Time and So Little to Do

For some reason, I have a lot of free time this month. My calendar is delightfully sparse, but we are not bored! One quiet morning, Amy was playing around with her hair and decided she wanted bangs. I warned her and warned her that they take forever to grow out and her little cowlick might not work, but she insisted we proceed. I think she looks totally different. She likes them and we are all getting used to them. And I made her turn off the computer and play a game with me this morning. Can't wait for Spring so we can set up the trampoline and go outside!

Dr. Seuss and Crazy Hat Day

It was Dr. Seuss's birthday this week, so the schools had crazy sock day and crazy hat day and wear green day, for green eggs and ham. Adam came up with this crazy cone hat one morning. I thought it would fall apart on the bus, but even after school it was still holding strong. Amy and Elli shared the straw hat. They go to different schools and had different days.

Pine Wood Derby

This was Adam's first Pine Wood Derby with the Scouts. He worked on his car for weeks, sanding and painting it. It was also the 100th birthday of the Scouts, so they had a nice taco dinner, too. Here are all the cars after being weighed in. One of his leaders, Bro. Willardson, helped him glue weights on the bottom in the back so it would be faster. He got it to weigh exactly 5 ounces, which is the maximum limit. He was sure he would win!
He won 3rd place and was happy with that since it was his very first time. He is so stinking competitive, I was hoping he wouldn't cry when he didn't win 1st place, and he didn't. He is already planning his car for next year though.