The Mullet

Last Friday night Ashtyn got a hold of a pair of scissors and decided to play hair dresser. . . what she was left with was a home done mullet. I can't say that I handled it well, as my eyes filled with tears just looking at her. Why would I get so worked up over something that will hopefully eventually grow back? We put in an emergency call to our wonderful hairdresser and she got Ashtyn in Saturday morning to see what could be done to fix her hair. This of course resulted in having to cut more hair which again left me teary eyed. She did a wonderful job with what she had to work with though and ended up with something pretty cute that will make do. The big joke over Ashtyn's mullet was that she was trying to copy her Daddy. No Joshua doesn't have a mullet today, but he did in high school and college. So what do you think do they look alike?

Fishing

Last weekend we were invited to a friend's house. They live on a small lake and we had a great afternoon taking out the paddle boat and enjoying the water and sun. The kids also had their first experience of fishing with hooks (they've practiced before but without hooks). We only let them fish of the small dock so the fish were not big enough to keep. But they were plentiful as even Ashtyn caught 4 fish and the boys caught even more than that. They were very excited and proud of their great ability to catch fish. I do have to mention that the fish were not too smart though. At least once I threw a fish back in after getting the hook out of it's mouth to literally watch it swim over and bite on the next hook over. It never took longer than a minute or two for the kids to hook a fish so I think they got a little spoiled by the experience.

Blueberry Buckle

We've been busy with summer activities this week. Monday we went blueberry picking, then came home and the kids played on the slip and slide and in the sprinklers the rest of the afternoon. Wednesday we had rock delivered to finish some landscaping projects that have been waiting almost 2 years to get done (Joshua decided to put his birthday money to good use!). So then the kids and I shoveled and moved rock the rest of the day before I went out with some lady friends for a girl's night. Thursday Joshua and I took in the new Harry Potter movie-wow, I can't remember the last time I went to a movie that wasn't a kid's movie! We shoveled more rock and in the evening we had friends over to swim. Friday we went to the splash park (we hadn't been before and the kids just had a blast). Add in summer school everyday and the work schedule and we had a busy but good week.
With the fresh blueberries I made a blueberry buckle, the recipe was so yummy I thought that I'd share it. It really requires fresh berries though so hopefully you live in an area where you can get good berries!
Blueberry Buckle (from Alton Brown but with adaptations)
2 C cake flour (if you don't have cake flour, use all purpose flour minus 2 TBSP of flour for each cup and plus 2 TBSP of corn starch for each cup of flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C butter
3/4 C sugar
1 large egg
1/2 C milk
3 C fresh blueberries
Topping:
1/2 C sugar
1/3 C flour (preferably cake flour)
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C butter, chilled and cubed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Spray 9x9 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
In medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Set aside.
In stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Add 1/3 of flour mixture, beat, then 1/3 of the milk, beat, repeat alternating the flour and milk until it is all combined. Gently stir in blueberries and pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.
For the topping combine all ingredients except butter. Then add the butter and work it into the dry ingredients using a fork to combine. Continue until the mixture has a crumb like texture. Sprinkle the mixture on top of the cake. Bake for 35 min or until golden in color. Cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

A Day at the Beach

We are blessed to live approximately 40 minutes away from some beautiful beaches on Lake Michigan. A couple weeks ago a friend and I took our kids to spend a day in the sand. It was so much fun! Thought I'd share a few photos. . .

status updates

Ok, so a bunch of my "little" stories about the kids end up as my status updates on Facebook, so I'll put a few of them in here so they can be remembered as snapshots of our life with the kids.

Colten just came down from having been sent to get his pajamas on, fully dressed in new clothes. When I asked him where his pjs were, he responded that he decided to go ahead and get dressed for tomorrow so he wouldn't have to do that in the morning. . .To continue the saga, when I went up to tuck him in I noticed that his pjs looked strange, only to discover that he had put them over those clean clothes, to once again be more efficient in the morning. . . lol

can't find my clear nail polish, and have a 3 year old who is distraught that I can't apply her toe nail stickers/jewels until I find it!

preparing a Korean feast for Joshua's guy's night tonight! (His choice for his birthday celebration, along with Dr Pepper cake of course)

went to tour the Amish area today and saw all the "horse cars" as Jaden calls them. . . did a great fireworks display in the yard tonight. . .

I never realized what a workout it is to teach the kids to fly kites. . . now I'm exhausted but we had a great time!

listening to Ashtyn practice her Mandarin while watching Ni-Hao Kai Lan. . . too cute!

Ashtyn's new favorite phrase is "you just don't understand me!" said with lots of drama. . . she's only 3, how bad will it be when she's a teenager?

Me talking to Ashtyn "You look beautiful." Colten to Me "That's because she is beautiful!"

is laughing at her husband's use of a drill to saw. . . very creative when he doesn't have the right saw. If you drill enough holes in a board, it's almost like using a saw. 80) He wouldn't let me try using the saw-claimed I wouldn't be able to cut a 1/4 inch, but then when he went to find another drill bit I efficiently finished the job with the hand saw before he returned. lol. . .

Name Calling

I've been enjoying using facebook to reconnect with old friends and keep up with people. I enjoy reading the status updates, and hearing what people are thinking and doing. That said, I do have a couple of "friends" who enjoy using their status updates for name calling of political figures and anyone that supports them. This is really starting to bother me. I've always tried to hold to the disagree with someone's agenda, or stance on issues and not with the person. Now I'm not perfect, I'm sure I've insulted a few politicians in my time. But really, can't we stay humane to each other? Take our current president, I think he is an admirable man, I think he believes in what he supports. But I do completely disagree with his agenda for the country. That doesn't make him a bad person though, or a stupid person. And it does now make those who agree with him bad or stupid either.
When Governor Palin resigned last week I was disappointed. I tend to agree with her quite a bit more than our current administration. I think that she is admirable in standing up for what she passionately believes in and not being willing to play the typical political game. I know quite a few don't agree with her politics, and that's fine. But the personal attacks thrown at her and anyone that would stand with her were just offensive. To their dissappointment, I think that we'll be seeing more of Palin even when she is no longer Governor.
It seems that in political discussions people can't discuss the issues, but instead have to degrade the people. I'm sick of that. So the next time politics comes up and I'm around, please debate the issues with me, not the people, and I'll try to do the same. (and on a side note, I know any of you that actually read my blog are really good about this, I just needed to vent)

Sayings and Happenings. . .

Jaden's current favorite phrase "I hate to break up the party but. . ."

Ashtyn's current favorite phrase "You just don't understand me!" (we are in trouble when she becomes a teenager if she already feels that we don't understand her and displays such drama)

We've been busy with summer activities. It has finally turned to summer weather here so we've been enjoying using the pool several times a day. The pool water was up to 89 degrees yesterday! We are all sporting a little pink after all our time in the sun swimming this weekend. We had a great "quiet" Father's Day just together as a family enjoying the pool and just being together.

The boys just started a second session of swimming lessons, their front and backstrokes are starting to really come along now that they are able to practice at home as well. They all love being in the water. Ashtyn is always asking me to teach her swimming too so that she can catch up with her brothers, hopefully we'll be through with the floaties before the end of the summer. She still hates to have her face in the water so we are trying to work over that fear. I just discovered a "cheaper" movie theater not too fat away (Only $3.50 for a regular adult ticket) so maybe we can even go see a movie as a family soon and check it out.

We've been enjoying tons of strawberries from our garden for several weeks now, but they seem to be winding down. It's amazing how wonderful a freshly picked strawberry tastes, still warm from the sun, I think I've been ruined on store bought strawberries forever. But the peas and beans look like they'll be ready in just another week or two, and our tomatoes are coming along well too. What I'm looking forward to the most though is our black raspberries! They are just about ready for picking and we have a ton of them on our bush this year. The kids and I can't wait! And since I'm on the topic I have to report that our apple tree we planted last fall has over 20 apples on it! I thought it would be years before we saw a single apple so we are anxiously waiting for those to ripen (hopefully the dog doesn't decide to eat them before they are ready to be picked).

ADHD medication side effects and Chiropractic as an alternative