Gidget goes wild

The POOL is OPEN!!!

Annie has been waiting all winter long for the pool to open back up and for swimming fun to begin.  To start off the summer right she spent 5 hours on Monday swimming in ice cold water, with blue lips and chattering teeth.   We finally had to force her out and drag her home. She then past out on the sofa before she even ate dinner.  Thankfully she ate a huge lunch. 

My little Gidget she meets Moondoggie and trades in her snorkel and flippers for a surf board.

Elsie just napped and hung out in the stroller.  She does not like the icy cold water, and the sun is not going to be her friend.

The terrible tumble

Annie had her first real fall this weekend.  It seems strange that at four and a half she's just now had her first real fall, with real injuries.  She broke her two front teeth, scraped her nose and bit her lip.  I was so not prepared for this.  I guess I assumed she'd just never get hurt.  How awesome would that be?  Thanks to the Holiday weekend we had wait until today to go see a dentist about her teeth.  So glad I took her in.  She had cracked her tooth all the way to the nerve.  After a long day of driving to dentists, talking to dentists on the phone, calling the insurance broker, the insurance company and the dentists financial office my fully charge cell phone died before 1pm today, and my head was spinning with post tumble stress syndrome.  I had no idea that dental insurance does not cover accidents, or that if you don't file the accident with the health insurance within 72 hours of the accident they don't cover it either.  I hate phones, health insurance and financial offices, but I still love our dentist (who was nice enough to call and see how Annie was Sunday morning).

Uh oh...

You can call me a bad mom, but at this point it won't matter because Elsie is rolling over despite my best efforts.  I did everything I could to prevent this tragedy of a milestone.  Limiting tummy time, buckling her into anything and everything instead of putting her on the floor, but no it didn't work.  She rolls over and she gets her knees under her like she's about to crawl away.  Please Lord, don't let me have another early crawling/walking kid.  I need to set her down and know she will stay put, my sanity depends upon it.

A day at Gigi's

 My brother is getting married if a few weeks in our mom's back yard.  The girls have been getting really excited as the house gets ready.  We put up a trellis in her back yard for the where the ceremony is to take place.  The girls spent an entire day playing under the trellis.  Singing, dancing, and in the end playing wedding.  I am so grateful that they get to spend time together at Gigi's.  My mothers house has nearly no toys, yet it is their favorite place to play? It makes me wonder why I bother buying toys at all.  All they need is to be outside and all is well.

A day with the girls

Friday Annie had two of her cousins over for the day.  It was a jam packed day of craziness.

 Ruby and Annie worked on painting a bird house from Tex's dad.

 While Poppy painted a can?  Yeah, it was a kinda strange, but she really wanted to, and if I've learned anything about Poppy it's, "just it's go with it."

 The girls made pizza dough.  They played with the dough so long it was like a rubber band by the time I stopped them.

After running around and playing house outside they finally settled down to read a story.  They made a little spot at the stairs. I guess  should make a seat cushion for over there.

What I learned from my day?  Girls are exhausting, and it's a miracle my sister is still breathing and still has all her hair.

Pie post

So the pie season has officially started at our house.  Every Spring the first pie of the year is Strawberry Rhubarb, and every spring I swear it's my favorite pie, until peach season starts and I fall in love with Blueberry Peach pie. I have made pies for as long as I can remember.  My mother used to have the most amazing cook book with the best pie recipes in it.  I say used to because years back I borrowed it and never returned it.  (Sorry mom, I promise I'll bring you a slice of pie in the morning to make up for my thievery).  It is old and tattered with the binding broken away.   The cover is long lost, but I still remember the sadly outdated picnic scene with fresh bread and a pie laid out under an apple tree. 

If this makes it through the night, it will be a miracle.

whole wheat bread, again

 I have been on a mission to make whole wheat bread that doesn't suck, that my kids will love and my husband won't complain about.  I finally caved and got a new cook book all about whole wheat bread.  This is one of the three I bought a few weeks ago.  It doesn't suck.  The book that is.  You'll have to read the rest to find out about the bread.

This Morning while Elsie sucked her thumb, Annie and I got started on the bread.  The book I'm using is actually the second book by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  I have the first book they came out with about bread and use it all the time, so I'm familiar with the process. 

Put all you dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.

 And all your wet ingredaints in another bowl 

(I use a small pitcher, because it's easier to pour into my mixer).

 Finally, you combine the two, until just mixed.

It gets really sticky.

Let it rise, and then use it right away or refrigerate it for later.  

I stuck it in the fridge till I got home from work.

When I came back from work I got the bread dough out.

I put the dough in a greased bread pan and let sit on the counter for 90 minutes while I did laundry and other yucky household chores.  (I'm comparing how it bakes in a ceramic pan vs. the non stick.  The book calls for non-stick, but I am not so keen on the chemical leaching of non-stick into my kids food). 

Bake for 40 min. @350

The bread smells awesome, and tastes great.

Both pans worked great, so Mom, you can have your bread pan back. (note: if you use ceramic or another non-non-stick pan, let it cool almost completely before removing from pan. The moisture released as the bread cools helps it release from the pan). 

 So thank you Jeff and Zoe for yet another awesome cookbook.

Annie loves the bread,  but of course Texas complained that it was to heavy.  Curse you, commercial bread companies and your chemically leavened foam bread.

I also made this today while baking the sandwich bread.  Super easy to assemble for a great lunch or snack.  Potato and pea stuffed flatbread.  It's in the book.
Best part of these books, no kneading the dough, at all.