For my Friend Sarah

It is that time of year when squash abounds. We were talking at lunch the other day about how you can only eat so much Zucchini bread. So for dinner the other night I tried baked Zucchini with mozzarella cheese. Except I used yellow squash instead of zucchini because that is what I had a lot of from the garden this week. I cut them thin, then dipped them in egg then in a mixture of bread crumbs (mine were gluten-free), Mrs. Dash, grated mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. I sprayed a cookie sheet with Pam before I put them on it. Then I baked them for about 10 minutes at 350.

First Day

We finally made it to the first day of kindergarten! Here is my big kid, in line to enter the world of learning. He was so excited our biggest problem was making it to 12:40. He wanted lunch at 9 because I told him he could go to school after lunch. It was a great day, for both of us. As I have mentioned,that lovely lady in pink at the head of the line was my Young Women's leader when I was 12 so I had no apprehension turning my baby over to her. Now we are off to the second day.Yeah!

Grandma's Tea Party

One one of the last days of Summer last week my sister brought her girls up to spend the weekend at Grandma's and we were invited for a tea party. My mom is queen of the tea parties. First you had to get dressed up in Grandma's best finery.

That is a giant yellow rose cupcake, or a very small rose cake-depending on how you want to look at it. Lots of tiny treats!

A great time was had by all!

Girl's Lunch Recipes

I hosted lunch for my girlfriend yesterday. Tried some new recipes from Melskitchencafe. Love her. Had to post them here so I don't forget them. And they turned out pretty good and some of the gang wanted them. This was a Vegetarian Lasagna, I chose it because I could use loads of veggies from my garden in it. I was using a spicy marinara sauce by Barilla but decided it might be too spicy so I finished with just a regular marinara sauce (both from a jar). Oh, and I didn't put it on a cookie sheet to bake like she recommended and now my oven is a mess so do that.

Blueberry fool. Still don't know why it was called that but personally it was my favorite part of the meal.

The food was okay, but I was so happy to be back with my girls after a whole Summer of not getting together that we could have eaten cold cereal and I would have been happy!

Raingutter Regatta

Matthew had the Rain gutter Regatta in Scouts last week. Which he won! His dad is so good at this stuff I almost feel bad. Almost, not quite. For the record William does make Matthew do the work, he just has great engineering ideas. This is why I helped put the guy through college and get that mechanical engineering degree. So my kids would have an edge at stuff like this! See that kid over Matthew's left shoulder? That was his competition.

Yep, blew them away. It was really fun!

In case you wondered we recommend the catamaran design.

Back to School 2011

Well they made it! They all survived! The first day was great. Everyone loved their teachers. More importantly I survived sending my first-born to Junior High. My anxiety outweighed my horror at being this old. She didn't get lost, forget where her locker was/combination, found friends to eat lunch with and no one was mean. Let's hope it continues! She is absolutely in her element and seems in love with the whole junior high experience. And I am so glad!

Josh got to met his teacher today. I must be doing something right because of all the amazing blessings I could come up with, having Josh get Mrs. Graham is more than I could imagine. She is also Wendy Graham who lived in my neighborhood growing up and was one of my very favorite leaders in Young Women. So instead of being anxious about his first school experience I was not worried in the least. Wendy is wonderful, and so he is going to have a great kindergarten year!

Thank heaven Matthew got just the teacher he wanted with best friend so I had nothing to worry about with him!

Welcome New School Year, we are ready for you!

It's Over!

Oh, lovely Summer! We are going to miss you! This was my final view of my beloved umbrella at Cherry Hill.

This is how we spend our time out of the water.

One of my favorite things at Cherry Hill is how the kids do things together. Two brothers going down Cardiac Canyon.

Big brother helping the little one with his tube on the way up.

Big sister helping little brother down the Dragon slide.

Now it is all over and I sad. It was such a great Summer full of sun, fun, lazy days, late bedtimes, food that was less than great for us and great memories. BUT on the upside let's welcome the return of schedules, planned menus, bedtimes, a clean house and my Wednesday lunches!

Park City Summer 2011

Another thing we must do every Summer is go to the Park City Art's Festival. Attending this was our second date a long, long time ago. Now we take the kids and usually make a long weekend of it. I loved these glass balls, I wanted a whole basket to take home.

These sculptures were there last year and my kids were happy to see them back. They are bright and colorful and they move!

Love Park City!

I would LOVE to have one of these gorgeous kinetic sculptures in my yard but even if they were free I would need a bigger yard, that would have to go with a much bigger house and I am happy were I am so I guess no sculpture. They were amazing and hypnotizing to watch though.

Some people with us got a little hot an tired. Luckily there was a curb near these wooden instruments. It was a great little get-away. We all came home inspired!

The Help

Today was the day I have been waiting for. I got to go to the movie The Help. One of my favorite books last year, I have been excited but nervous that they might ruin it. They didn't. It was great! The casting was perfect. Skeeter wasn't quite the way I pictured her, I think she was better. The maids Minnie and Abelienne were perfect. Perhaps best of all was Hilly, the villain. Who knew Ron Howard (aka Opie)'s daughter could be so evil? She was, she was perfectly awful. Made me grateful for my kind, lovely friends. But let's talk about the clothes. Loved them! I did mention to Brittany I felt like I should dress up to attend this movie. Sort of like the Harry Potter fans do. I still feel bad I didn't at least amp up my hairspray use and add a headband. Seriously, it was the kind of movie I love. Set in another time period which is always fun but wonderfully thoughtful. There were times I was embarrassed to be a white person, even though the events portrayed happened before I was even born. It also made me proud to be a human being, especially a woman. The maids who tell the stories are so courageous and also share a certain sisterhood. Beautiful movie, based on a wonderful book!

Helen's Pool 2011

Every Summer there are certain things we must do. Visiting my Mom's friend Helen's pool with cousins. Last Friday we made it. There is nothing better than having a pool to yourself. The kids were into coming up with crazy dives. Matthew is set for battle when he comes up out of the water!

Crazy Libby!

And Crazy Brittany!

Abby looks like she can walk on water in this one!

We don't know why but Josh likes to do trick on the handrails of every pool we go to.

Two cute cousins in pink goggles! It was a fun day!

Puppy Palooza!

Today was a very unusual, but great day! Grandma and Grandpa got a new puppy. The people who had breed/ raised the new puppy brought him to their house all the way from Idaho. Since they had another new litter of puppies they brought them too and we got to go play with them. Puppy Palooza! Isn't this the most fun picture of my kids with their grandparents plus puppies?

Josh is a huge lover of puppies so he was in heaven!

This is the man who didn't really want a new dog. I think he is won over don't you? He is holding the new puppy. He is seven months old so not as tiny as the other puppies visiting.

This is Elliot, isn't he cute? I sure hope he isn't too sad tonight now that his former people and friends have gone home.

This is one of his adorable friends. Could you just eat this cute face?

We had such fun with these little guys!

We played until they were worn out! This one was Brittany's favorite.

In a perfect world she would have taken this little guy home! Luckily we get to keep Elliot! He is going to be soooo loved!

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

It has been awhile since I have found a book I enjoyed as much as this In fact it reminds me of The Help. Like The Help it is also set in the South, in the 60's. It is the story of Cee Cee, a twelve year old girl who escapes her life with an absentee father and mentally ill mother by reading, my favorite mode of escape too. After a tragic accident, Cee Cee is rescued by her aunt Tootie and introduced to an whole new world. Maybe it is that world and the strong women in it that remind me of The Help. I thoroughly enjoyed the character, the moment of conflict and the resolution. I miss it now that I have finished it, always the sign of a good book. My sister has my copy and is using it for her book club. When I get it back it will be making the rounds of my lunch group, cause I can't wait to have someone to discuss this one with!

Oh my goodness! Look at that first comment! The author left me a comment! I have chills, now I wish I had enumerated even more things I loved about this book because there were really so many!

Best Stay-cation Ever!

These are our fabulous friends the Bowers. They provided us with an amazing vacation last week that was only 30 minutes away. It is one of those perfect situations were all four of us are good friends. Bryon and I grew up together and he was the big brother I didn't have. He and William were buddies all through high school. Earlier this year our friends the Bowers called and invited us to stay with them at the family condo up at Pineview. Last week was the week we had waited for. It was especially exciting because the Bowers live in Wisconsin and we usually only get to see them for dinner. A rare picture of me on the blog! Amy and I screamed and laughed so hard I was exhausted when we were were done. Amy and my family were friends growing up and we became really great friends as we dated William and Bryon who were friends and then we went to BYU together.

Matthew and Adri decided they didn't like being splashed in the face so they wore their goggles.

Josh was a little cautious but still liked the tube.

Amanda, Matthew, Brittany and Adri holding on for dear life.

Brittany even tried wake-boarding. She got up a little farther but my camera wasn't fast enough.

Look at that happy face! The whole trip would have been worth it just to see William having this much fun. He and Bryon have been friends a long time and it was fun to see them horsing around giving each other a hard time. And try to knock each other off the tube.

Tube surfing!

The two Joshuas! This little guys was so cute I wanted to eat him with a spoon!

We promised not to tell but Matthew really had a great time with tomboy Adri. They are geared up here for water battle. We had such a great time! Thank you Bowers!

Little Joshy Dancing

Need a pick me up? Watch these 18 seconds. I promise it will make you smile. I was going through some old files and found this video clip. About three years ago I had the most adorable baby who had the strangest crawl ever. If you played music he would get going on our bamboo floor like he would never stop. I am so sad those days are over. But glad I found the video!