Indoors Out

We have not been having very summer-like weather. Those April showers keep making strong appearances every now and then. Last night was no exception. We had a nice hot summer day. It was in the mid-80’s and pleasant. After dinner, the kids slipped into the pool and I slipped into my mowing sneakers. They swam and had fun. I pushed and mowed the front lawn. It needed it. Rainy days followed by sunny, warm days helps the grass grow. It is very green and lush. So this year, we mow between rain drops. We mow when the weather permits. Sometimes it feels like a marathon. Drop what you are doing and get outside to mow.

We are feeling the effects of having too many sticks in the fire this year. We started with the kitchen remodeling project. With a list of things that still need to be done before we can stand back and say FINISHED, we added to the family. Our puppy, Ruddie, joined us. This meant no more restful nights. The Big Guy has to get up and take the whining pup outside when nature calls. Some nights Ruddie does sleep all night long. The last two nights have been good nights. I had to adjust my morning routine. I am still adjusting to it. Now I get up 30 minutes earlier. So at 4:30 a.m. I get out of bed, shower and then pack the Big Guys lunch. He leaves and I am officially on puppy duty. Puppy duty at 5:10 a.m. That just means watching the little guy and making multiple trips outside so we can keep the house pee-free. He has lifted his leg once on my new cabinets. That was not a good morning but he is learning quick and usually goes to the door and whines.

New puppy means we need to build a kennel area for him to stay during the day. All the post holes have been dug, 4x4’s have been set in cement and fencing needs to be purchased and installed. We have so much to do once we get home. We are doing what needs to be done and we work hard every weekend trying to shorten the to-do list I have safely tucked into a drawer for reference. Last night the plug on the island was finished. Excitedly I went for the list to cross one more thing off it and was disappointed to find that I forgot to put that on the list!

Did I mention we have a tent in our family room? Well, with summer here (really?) and the chance of rain always seems to be in the forecast, the kids asked if they could sleep out. On a week night. On a week night? Well, since I have to camp out with them as well, I said not on a weeknight. They must have brainstormed because they asked if they could set the tent up in the family room and sleep out. Yes! Great idea. So while water boiled, I set the tent up and left them.

They were happy running around looking for sleeping bags, pillows, stuffed animals and books. At the rate they we going, they’d need a separate tent for just their “things”. Glad they were not carting all of their necessities outside (because I am usually the one that ends up carting it all back inside). All this occurred on Monday night. Well, one Little Big Guy was over-tired and he could not fall asleep in the tent. It was hot. It was late. I was tired. I told the campers to find their beds and go to sleep.

Second camping attempt was last night. They pulled out their DVD players, watched movies and were good. After brushing their teeth, I tucked them in. Again a late night but they had to watch the end of their movies. After tuck-in kisses, hugs and prayers, I heard them calling me from the deep, dark family room.


They had to say good-night again. Making the most of it and having fun!


It’s a good thing we have a large family room!

What’s going on in your home?

What a weekend!

Where did the weekend go?
Sometimes the weekends seem long. I actually feel like I accomplish many things – household cleaning, laundry, mowing and enjoyable family time! Other times, the weekends seem to be over in a blink of the eye. That alarm goes off and Monday morning is smiling back at you. Uugh! I had a fly by weekend! It was a wonderful weekend. We were visited by a dear friend and her father on Saturday. I managed to get some cleaning done and lots of laundry was washed. Sunday afternoon I spent with high school classmates – friends that I haven’t seen in years. It was fun getting together and chatting. Catching up on life and work and yes, taking about the past. Memory lane. We always say we need to get together more often… maybe we can manage another summer get-together this year? I'll work on it. And yes, I did bake. Saturday morning our new pup was whining so after dragging my body out of bed, him out of his kennel, we went outside. Once inside, he settled down to chew, chew, and chew, so I took advantage of the peacefulness. I baked!

C = Coconut Lemon Loaf

To me, there is nothing prettier than a perfect yellow lemon. Lemons are beautiful - inside and out. Their sour taste may cause one to pucker when eaten raw but do you really eat lemons raw? Their smell can brighten your mood. Cheap aromatherapy! A slice of lemon in hot or cold tea enhances the flavor. You can even clean with lemons. I’m not cleaning now though, I am baking.

This recipe was copied out of a magazine. Although it was black and white, it still showed airy slices of bread with a nice coating of glaze sprinkled with coconut. Yummy! If it looks this tempting in black and white, just imagine what color will do for me?

I made of cup of hot tea, gathered the ingredients and washed the lemon off. I needed zest so I started zesting. Oh the smell of lemons. What a way to start the day! I zested the whole lemon.


Buttermilk and eggs - whisked and set aside.


Then I mixed the wet ingredients - the sugar, melted butter, oil, lemon zest, lemon oil, vanilla extract and milk.

I love the color. It reminds me of the shade I painted the dining room.

The next bowl, contained the combined dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt.

Then I mixed the dry and buttermilk mixtures with the sugar mixture. Once mixed, I measured out the oh so sweet, sticky white coconut to add to the batter.

I'll confess, it was a little more than 1/2 cup but next time, I might add 3/4 cup of this sweet coconut. In it goes!

Batter goes in the pan. Pan goes in the oven. Timer is set.



...and I am left with this:


A pile of dirty dishes but I had plenty of time to wash them before the bread was ready to be pulled from the oven and placed on the cooling rack. this recipe said 45 - 50 minutes baking time. My loaf was still very sticky inside so I baked it longer, probably closer to 1 hour, 5-10 minutes. Just watch it closely.

What a beautiful loaf!
This smelled so good while it baked. WOW! Hard to imagine this looking any better, but trust me, it gets better. Glaze goes on, my daughter sprinkled it with coconut and we were ready to cut and sample!


Does this look delicious?



This recipe has been added to our cookbook! It was very, very good. The flavor was not overpowered by the lemon, the glaze and coconut added sweetness and moisture to the "crust", and it is a perfect compliment to a hot cup of tea with a slice of lemon.

Recipe for Coconut Lemon Loaf:

1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons canola oil or vegetable oil
1 ½ tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup milk
2 large eggs
¾ cup buttermilk
2 ½ cups flour
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup (2 ounces) sweetened flaked coconut

Line a 9x5-inch loaf pan with waxed or parchment paper, or grease and flour it. Heat the oven to 350˚F.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, melted butter, oil, lemon zest, the extracts and milk.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and buttermilk until evenly blended. Set the bowl aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. With a wooden spoon, stir about a third of the flour mixture into the sugar mixture, then alternately add half of the remaining egg mixture and half of the flour mixture, stirring after each addition just enough to blend. Stir in the coconut.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spoon. Bake on the center rack until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and put it on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes, then remove the loaf from the pan and let it cool completely on the rack.

When the loaf is completely cool (about 2 hours), apply the glaze.

Makes 10 servings.

Glaze:
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon melted butter
1/8 teaspoon lemon extract (optional)
¼ cup sweetened flaked coconut

In a small bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, butter and lemon extract. Whisk to blend. The glaze should have the consistency of heavy cream. If needed, add more sugar to thicken or more lemon juice to thin it.
When the bread has cooled, spoon the glaze evenly over the bread and immediately sprinkle the coconut over the top. Makes enough glaze for one large loaf.

Source: Family Fun

Thrown Together

Throwing things together. That is what this weekend has in store for me.

Hey why not? Since the kitchen remodel, that I have yet to bounce back from, life at home has been unorganized. Unsettled. Just not back to where it needs to be. Progress is being made. Little by little. I think that is what is bothering me. I want it done and I want it done now. This weekend! Let's make lots of lines on my to-do list. That's not going to happen though.

My Big Guy plans to get up real early to go into work. He is already tired but he'll go in and then he'll run around all day Saturday mowing, working on the dog kennel, perhaps he'll fit a 20 minute cat nap in there. I'll be babysitting the puppy, housecleaning and trying to get the kids to do something without me participating. They'll protest when I ask them to clean up their rooms or put clothes away so must likely, I'll throw (not literally) them outside. The Little Big Guy hasn't played on the dirt pile lately. Although he was King of the Dirt Pile this morning before we left for the day. Dirty boy = happy boy! Everything washes = Happy mom!

My childhood friend flew in earlier this week and hopefully she'll visit our home for lunch on Saturday. So I'll make some eats for us to enjoy before we give her the tour. I'll throw together a salad, some sort of meal and dessert! It'll have to be chocolate.

Sunday we have a thrown-together invite. Sort of a spur-of-the-moment reunion. For our class, that's the best kind. Classmates flew in from the west coast and the class has been invited to the farm for a get-together. I am looking forward to this. Even though many classmates still live locally, we don't get together as often as we should. We haven't stopped to get off life's busy highway to enjoy each others' company. That is about to change. I hope many of us take the time to stop by, share some stories over a cold drink, laugh alot and take pictures. I am excited. I'll be throwing something together for that also. I can't go empty handed. You gather people. People are going to eat and drink.

So much to do and not enough time to get it all done. I'll see what I can cross of and what gets accomplished. I think I'll be baking some ABC recipes this weekend too. With a puppy in the house, the morning starts off earlier than I'd like so I'll BAKE the most of it!

Who’s buns look better?

That got your attention.

Hey, I’m talking about B and baking! And B is for…no, not bagels… but…Beautiful Burger Buns.

I have never made hamburger buns before. Yes, I have made lots of yeast breads and rolls, but never buns. So I thought it was about time to try my hand at it. These buns are from one of my favorite, ok, confession, MY FAVORITE site. King Arthur Flour. Check out their site and search their blog for beautiful burger buns. The following words introduced the recipe:

The following recipe created quite a stir when it was first posted on our original online community. Baker after baker tried these buns and declared them THE BEST. Soft, vaguely sweet and golden-yellow from the butter and egg, these simple buns are perfect for burgers, but also fine for any kind of sandwich.

Credit for the original version of this recipe goes to "Moomie" (Ellen), one of the original members of our online community, The Baking Circle. Thanks, Moomie, for the joy you've brought to bun-lovers everywhere!

And that is what prompted me to ask: Who’s buns look better?

I’ll admit, I am not a professional here – this love of BAKING is just my hobby. One hobby that I am truly passionate about. Thus this project!

After thinking over an item to bake, remember my initial B item was bagels. But then it hit me. It’s June after all. Summer. I mean, is it not grilling season? Are we not flipping hamburgers and sipping cold drinks? Buns are IT! Sandals, sunshine and beautiful burger buns. I knew there was a logical reason that I decided not to make bagels. I’ll revisit that recipe in the fall. For now, let’s start measuring, mixing, kneading, waiting.. .baking. This is a simple recipe, so get mixing.

This is what the mixed dough looked like:

After the first rise - so light and airy:

After gently deflating the dough - no punching here - I divided the dough.


I knew I should have divided the dough into smaller sections but my Big Guy, when he makes a burger, he makes a burger! I did not roll the dough into perfect balls but I did flatten them and let them rest and rise. They looked big, some of them were huge, but nice.


The project was going great. Notice tense - past! Time to brush the rolls with melted butter and....no, no, no they deflated. I baked them - wait and see what the results are. I wasn't completely disappointed.

They are light, airy and had a wonderful flavor. So next time, because this is a keeper recipe, I won't brush them with melted butter between their rise times and we'll see if the finished result is indeed a bun - with height!


So here is the recipe. I will be baking these again. I'll post the results at that time. On to C...

Beautiful Buns
Dough:
¾ to 1 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
3 ½ cup KA unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast
*For best results (a smooth, slightly soft dough), use the smaller amount of water in the summer (or in a humid environment), the greater amount in winter (or in a dry climate).

Topping: 3 tablespoons melted butter

Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients to make a soft smooth dough.
Cover the dough and let rise for 1 – 2 hours, or until it is nearly doubled in bulk.
Gently deflate (NO punching here) and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball; flatten to about 3-inches across. Place the buns on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, cover, and let rise for about an hour, until noticeably puffy. Brush the buns with about half the melted butter.
Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Bake the buns for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden brown. Remove them from the oven and brush with the remaining melted butter. This will give the buns a satiny, buttery crust.
Cool the buns on a rack.

Yield: 8 large buns

TIP: Brushing buns with melted butter will give them a soft, light golden crust. Brushing with an egg-white wash (1 egg white beaten with ¼ cup water) will give them a shinier, darker crust. For seeded buns, brush with the egg white wash; it’ll make the seeds adhere.

Looking Forward

Tomorrow I am taking the day off from work. It’ll be a good Friday. I’ll let the kids sleep in. I'll make them waffles or pancakes. We'll have a nice morning and I'll take our daughter to school. Then the Little Big Guy and I will go to his appointment. It’s just a follow-up appointment. He has had fluid in his ears and swollen nasal passages since February and all the allergy medicine he is taking, hopefully (fingers crossed) is making a difference on his little system. We dislike putting anything in their little bodies but one must be able to breathe to live. Next month he goes in for allergy testing. I’m not sure that will give us any results to work with but we need to start somewhere.

We’ll stop at the grocery store on our way home for items for our Father’s Day dinner. I asked the Big Guy what he wanted for dinner and before he could answer, the Little Big Guy said “ribs.” The Big Guy agreed.

Once home, I think we’ll spend time outside with Ruddie. We can give him some play time then put him to bed. I plan to paint a second coat on the dining room and hallway walls. Then I can cross that job off the to-do list. Then I’ll clean and hang items back on the wall. I so want to get order back in the house. In my life.

And have I mentioned the washer? About 2 months ago, the darn thing stopped turning off the flow of water. So I had a wet basement floor. Lucky for me, I was home and the “flood” was stopped before it was a wash-out. Since that episode, I have been babysitting the washer. Babysitting is not necessarily a bad thing. I sit on the dryer, knit, read or listen to one of the kids read to me, and manually turn the water on and off as needed. In some ways, I have looked forward to babysitting time. I am making progress on the Big Guys socks (which, shhh – are not going to fit him because the tension of my cast on, even though I used an “elastic-y” cast on, makes it too small to fit over his foot – I am very disappointed but I will NOT rip it all out to start over. I’ve done that too many times with this sock. And to think, I have to knit the second sock?! I know, something else to look forward to.) Tomorrow marks the day that I can stop sitting in the basement as a new washer will be delivered in the afternoon. You know, between 12:00 p.m. and 4:03 p.m. I love the time frames these companies give you. Like I have all this time to just wait around.

I also plan to run over to my mom’s summer camper and open it up. My cousin flew down to Florida and he is driving her back to New York. I want to air her small place out and grab her bedding while there. I’ll wash it, hang it out to dry (weather permitting) and then take it over Saturday morning to make her bed and take care of a few other things. The kids can pick flowers and leave her welcome notes. We did this last year as a surprise and it really welcomed her home. She loved slipping into fresh bedding. It swept her off to dreamland.

So I have a lot to look forward to and a lot to do. Here’s hoping the weather holds out because once I have the walls painted, I need to start that push mower and get walking.

Here’s to a longer weekend.
Here’s to a shorter To-Do list by Sunday evening.
Here’s to seeing my mom soon – I am so excited.
Here’s to a Happy Father’s Day to the love of my life and a wonderful celebration with our family.

Buddies

Do you think they played hard?

Weekend Warriors

We were all feeling like defeated warriors yesterday morning. Tired. We wanted to stay in bed. Roll over and snooze for a few more hours. The night was short for three of us. What a busy weekend!

I managed to prime the dining room and hall way. I felt good when I crossed that project off my list. I also painted the first coat of yellow on the walls. I wanted to paint the second coat this weekend also but time and other activities denied me that satisfaction. Our island is almost finished. We have two pieces to purchase and attach. However, it looks grand! So nice and I just love it. The bar stools look great with the island and the countertop. And they are so comfortable. We are happy with our purchase. The kids have been eating every meal at the bar. I'm hoping this new love will fade and they'll join us once again at the table for dinner.



Not only did I prime and paint, I watched my husband clean up a lot of pee on our new floor. We brought home our new puppy Friday night. Our son wanted to name him Ruddie after a character from the movie, Ice Age, Dawn of the Dinosaur. Ruddie is the newest member of our family. He is eight weeks old and is adorable. He’s a German shorthaired pointer. A bird dog. He’ll be a family dog first and a hunting companion second. He has sharp teeth and big paws. You can hear him gallop across the floor. He is still getting used to the size of his paws as they trip him up often. Run Ruddie, roll Ruddie. Too cute!

Alphabet Baking

Friday I sat at my desk with the pile of recipes scattered around me. While sitting there, I wondered…what possessed me? Why do I want to bake my way through the alphabet? No, that’s not really it. The real question bouncing around my thoughts was why now? The weather is getting hot and humid. Who really wants to be in a hot kitchen in summer weather. But, I said I’d do it so on with the project. And, I'll do what I do in the warmer months, bake early in the day.

So that pile that I was the center of…’twas my goal to organize them, alphabetically of course, type the recipes up and then note ingredients that I would have to buy. I realized earlier in the week that I still have many boxes of kitchen items packed away. The pantry is bear. No shelves. Thus the packed boxes. However, most of the boxes contain glassware that I won’t need. And I do know that I have baking pans packed away. Luck is on my side for a change as I know where one box, rather one large plastic tote is, so I should be all set to bake. If not, I’ll have to run around and check all the boxes that are packed for more baking pans. That would be a project in itself. It could knock me off track.

March was the month that I sat down with boxes and piles of recipes around me. Now, as I review my list, there are some recipes that I look at and I hear myself ask, “Do I want to make this recipe?” Take B for example. I wrote down bagels. I want to make bagels. I’m just not sure I want to make bagels in June. I eat bagels throughout the year but I can see myself making bagels in the fall. So my indecision drove me back to the mass of recipes where I sifted through them once again. I don’t want to bake something with bananas. I like bananas. I have a great recipe for Frosted Banana Bars but the goal here is to make new recipes. Make. Taste. Decide. The fate of each recipe – does it earn a page in our tried-and-approved recipe book or does it get thrown into the recycle container – is based on reviews from four people – my husband, two children and myself.

A sets the baking project on the counter.

A is for Apple – right? I think every grade school book I have ever read always uses apple for A. So I’ll be a follower and not deviate from that. I thought Apple Fritters would be a good recipe to begin with. Perhaps the recipe will surprise you. It is not a complicated recipe. Unless making dough frightens you? Don't let it. I will try any recipe once, just to see how I do so there might be some disappoints along the way but that is how we learn.

So I read through the recipe and was disappointed as I did not have any apple juice in the house. Not even one juice box! So instead of apple juice, I used maple syrup and water. It worked. I was happy with the results.


Don't they look yummy after sautéing? Such a nice golden brown and they smelled delicious!

Oh - I have to admit, I halved the recipe - just in case the final results were not edible.

I used granny smith apples. I like to use them for pies. I know some people think they are too tart but they are my preferred apple. You could also use Braeburn or pink lady apples if you really don’t like granny smith apples. It’s all personal preference.

I mixed up a half-recipe for the dough. It worked well as I let it rise while I peeled, cut and chopped the apple up. Then got busy sautéing them. That took about seven to eight minutes but then you have to let the apples cool.

Failing to have taken a picture of the beautifully risne dough, I'll skip to fillig the dough. The recipe said to divide the dough into 24 parts (my case, 12) and roll the parts into 3-inch circles. That would take too much time so I rolled the dough out (it rolled out so nicely on our granite countertop!)and cut it into squares. Then I spooned the filling on the dough in the center since you wrap the dough around the filling and pinch the seams to seal.


Here are the fritters once they are filled, wrapped and seamed.

And here are the risen fritters. I found that the rising time was considerably less than the recipe stated so watch the dough.

Oven time after the fritters sit and rise. Now my fritters did not bake for twenty minutes. I pulled them out after fourteen minutes as they were golden brown at that time.

Looking good?

Oh the goo! Honestly, I wanted to eat this one right then - hot or not. But since I told our daughter she had to wait, I too, had to wait.


After removing them from the pan to cool, I mixed up the glaze. Again, I used maple syrup and a little water to bring it to a glaze consistency. I also used a little nutmeg instead of cinnamon.


So as I ate the last one this morning, I wanted to show you what the fritters hold.


We had family visit yesterday and they tried the fritters and gave positive reviews.

The voting results from the family: 3 keepers - 1 throw out (however, he ate the fritter he said he did not like, so I changed the vote to 4 keepers.) This recipe has officially been added to our collection.

For a quicker version, I would roll the dough out into a rectangle, spread the apple mixture over the top, roll up lengthwise and slice. These could be baked like cinnamon rolls and then glazed.

Apple Fritters

Filling:
1 tablespoon butter
3 cups peeled and diced Granny Smith apples (about 1 pound)
½ cup apple juice (I used 1/8 cup maple syrup and 1/8 cup water)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Dough:
2 packages dry yeast (about 4 ½ teaspoons)
1 cup warm 1% low-fat milk (100˚ - 110˚F)
5 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
Cooking spray

Glaze:
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon apple juice
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

To prepare the filling:
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add apple, sauté for 3 minutes. Add ½ cup apple juice, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer for 3 minutes or until liquid is almost absorbed. Remove from heat and cool.

To prepare dough:
Dissolve yeast in warm milk in a large bowl. Let stand 5 minutes or until foamy. Add 3 ½ cups flour, 2/3 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons melted butter, salt and eggs to the yeast mixture, stirring until smooth. Add 1 cup flour; stir until a soft dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes); add enough of remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel tacky).

Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, 1 ½ hours or until doubled in size.
** It is here that I call for my son – he loves punching down the dough!
Punch dough down. Cover and let rest 5 minutes. Divide dough into 24 equal portions. Working with 1 portion at a time (cover remaining dough to keep from drying out), roll each portion into a 3-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Spoon about 2 teaspoons apple filling into center of dough; gather dough over filling to form a ball, pinching seam to seal. Place seam side down, in a muffin cup coated with cooking spray. Repeat procedure with remaining dough portions and filling. Cover and let rise 40 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 400˚F.

Uncover dough; bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from ban, cool on wire rack.

Prepare glaze by mixing all ingredients together. Drizzle over rolls.

Yield: 2 dozen (serving size = 1 roll)

[Calories 191; Fat 3.4 g; Protein 3.9 g; Carb 36.4 g; Fiber 1.3 g; Chol 25 mg; Iron 1.4 mg; Sodium 136 mg; calcium 21 mg ] Source: Cooking Light

Weather

Our weather has been terrible lately. We complained about our long, cold, cold winter. Then the April showers came and stayed. They did not leave until the end of May. Our yard is still drying out.
Have we planted the garden? We planted some plants. We have lost some plants. The seeds I planted must have washed away or rotted.

Then I remember, and I am thankful, we only had rain. Lots of rain, but just rain all the same. We still have our house. We haven’t lost anything. For that I am thankful. So since some nice weather, warmer and dry, has moved in, I plan to work in that garden of ours. I have lots to rake since it was too wet to work in after it was tilled. I have a big job ahead of me. However, I am smiling because our weather has improved and we are all enjoying it.

Earlier this week, we actually jumped into the middle of summer (we’re hoping those two days were not summer) when the temperatures soared into the high 80’s and the humidity rose with the temperature. Hot and sticky. You move – you sweat type of weather. I agree, yuk!

However, there are some of us that know how to make the most of hot, sticky weather.

Mmmmmm, Would you trust this girl?

Looks like fun, doesn't it? And fun is what they had after we filled balloons and they walked away with their buckets.

Let the games begin...


I laughed so hard watching them run around, throw balloons, gripe when the balloon did not pop when it hit their target but popped on the ground. We filled a lot of balloons that day. Oh the fun we have!





Score!