Food Storage Fare: Lemony-Lime Summer Storage Sugary Sorbet!

Well kids, it's time for the second installment of "Food Storage Fare" with David & Natalie. And with the heat index topping 100 for the past couple of weeks, we thought that we would feature a cool summer treat we are dubbing: "Lemony-Lime Summer Storage Sugary Sorbet"

The first step is peeling the zest from a lemon and then combining the lemon peel with 1 1/2 C water and 1 1/4 C sugar (food storage sugar preferred). Bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally, to dissolve the sugar.

Remove from heat and stir in 1/8 C fresh mint (chopped).

Then cover to steep until the flavor is strong (about 30 minutes).

Cut 3 lemons and 3 limes in half and juice them in order to get 1/2 C fresh lemon-lime juice.

Strain into a medium bowl and stir in the 1/2 C lemon-lime juice.

Finally, refrigerate until cold, pour into an ice cream maker, and freeze as directed. If you saved the lemon or lime shells, you can freeze them as well to use as serving "bowls". Enjoy!

And So It Begins . . . Just a Lot Sooner Than I Imagined

The whole point of parenting is to raise your children to be better than you, right? Smarter, kinder, stronger . . . . Progress. So, you hope that one day your children exceed you in every way; and I am prepared for that day. I am hoping for that day. And with Finley, I know that day will come. But, I got a stiff shot in the arm yesterday, and realized "that day" has already arrived.

Natalie entrusted me with Finley the other evening as she enjoyed a much-deserved "Girls' Night Out." Now, I must say that some artistic license is being taken using the term "Night". The crowd that Natalie "rolls" with doesn't quite close out any bars. In fact, most "Girls' Night Out" begin and end with the sun still shining down on us.

In any case, with Natalie gone, dinner duty falls to me. No problem. Finley is recovering from a stomach bug, so I just keep it simple and heat up some rice and vegetables leftover from last night's dinner. I have Finley's food ready and on the table in a flash. But, he won't eat. He just keeps repeating "FinE Zebra". Hmmmmmmmmm??? Since, I'm pretty sure that serving zebra is against the law in North Carolina, I go into translation mode. Oh, "Finely's cereal bar". I repeat this back to Finley, and he confirms that he would like a cereal bar. No problem. I get a cereal bar. But Finley just looks at it and then at me, and repeats (more slowly this time): "FinE Zuppo". Oh, "Finley's hippo"! Finley has a hippo friend who comes to dinner quite often. After about 5-6 rounds, resulting in milk, apple sauce, crackers, etc. being brought to the table and promptly rejected by Finley, it finally dawns on me. Finley is saying . . . "Finley say prayer!"

Needless to say, I felt a bit humbled (and grateful that we both have Natalie in our lives) by my little man remembering (and reminding me) that we needed to say a prayer before we started eating. And so it begins . . .

Hi Ho, Hi Ho. . .

Soccer Camp Diaries

In addition to being a stay at home mom, my full time job, I also help run my father's team camps that are held in Greensboro. My primary role is to recruit teams to attend camp, register them, and oversee the admin stuff leading up to camp. I have never posted anything about my part time job before, so I figured it was time. And maybe this will be a little therapeutic after a long week of camp.

This year for camp we held only one session of our team camp, as opposed to the normal two. This was because my dad's team took a little trip to Germany for the World Cup, and also because the economy is what it is and the past few years numbers have been down. I am proud to say that we did increase the number of teams attending from 20 teams in 2010 (over 2 sessions of camp) to 23 teams this year (for just 1 session), one team shy of selling out! It always feels good to increase business and feel like you are earning your pay. Plus with holding only one session of camps with all 23 teams, our profit margin was larger.

Yay camps!

But even with the exciting progress we have made, there are always things that make me question why I am back in this crazy camp business. Some things, and some people will never change. And there are always those pain in the butt coaches who complain the WHOLE WEEK LONG about any and everything, and then tell me at check out they had a fabulous time at camp. Really? You did? Cause you would have never guessed based on all the whining you did. It seems like an oxymoron to have a high maintenance soccer coach, but they are out there! So even though after a long day when I feel like pulling my hair out...I realize that all the work is still worth the effort and the sacrifices I make.

Now if this wasn't a family business I might be singing another tune...but for now...

 Hi Ho! Hi Ho!

It's home from work we go!

(whistles)

Hi ho, hi ho, hi ho, hi ho.

A Fun Fourth with Friends

This year we start our 4th of July celebrations a little early with our friends.

We were invited to an amazing outdoor water extravaganza hosted by the Aagards.

We started the morning off with a red, white, and blue parade. Some of the participants went all out with their decorations.

Finley was looking very serious as we were about to start our procession.

We ended up having quite the parade with so many children in it. One of the highlights for me, other than Finley, was the twins pushing these lawn mowers. So cute.

This reminds me of our weekly walking group.

Next it was time for some fun water games!

Shelley came up with some very creative and fun water festivities.

We did a parachute game with water balloons aka firecrackers.

Finley really got into this game and had so much fun shaking the blanket to make the balloons pop up and down.

The yard was also filled with slip and slides, water slides, kiddie pools, water tables, and splash pads.

The kids were in heaven! So many ways to stay cool on a hot day.

There were some relay races involving balancing a water balloon on top of plungers.

Finley carried his all the way down, but when he arrived at the spot to turn around, he promptly dumped the balloon onto the ground to make it pop and splash. I think he thought that was what he was suppose to do. After all, most of the other kids dropped theirs around that point too. Ha ha ha.

He was pretty proud of himself regardless!

 

Another fun, but challenging game was trying to pop these 'sharks' in the kiddie pool. Most could only get theirs popped by taking them outside of the pool. There is more than one way to kill a shark!

The hoses were on almost all morning for the slides and Finley kept dousing other kids with the water. At least his bud Brycen enjoyed the cool shower.

Next it was time for some water pinatas! A balloon was tied to the swing set and the kids were suppose to hit it with a bat and break the balloons. Let me tell you...this was much harder than it looked. Every single child swung and hit and couldn't break the balloon! It took some very strong adult males to make the balloon finally pop. It was almost indestructible!

Then the children lined up on the fence to make silhouettes as Miss Shelley sprayed them down with the mister. It was so cool looking to see their little outlines on the fence. Finley was a little nervous, so he wouldn't let go of David's hand while being misted. You know, just in case Shelley decided to go all out and turn the hose to the jet sprayer.

After all the water activities we had a fun pot luck picnic. The Sherwoods made these amazing frozen bananas. Totally 'Chopped' worthy and so delicious.

Lydia went to town on her mama's red, white, and blue cupcakes.

Finley gorged himself on blueberries, strawberries, and grapes. It was quite the patriotic feast!

And just when you think things are winding down...more water balloons are brought out for a final battle!
Kids were going after each other, children going for their parents, spouse versus spouse, and neighbor versus neighbor! David and I were content to hide behind babies to protect ourselves from the massacre.

We were fighting for freedom right?

It was so funny and then Erika got a hold of the hose. She showed no mercy to those who had attacked her. It was particularly funny when out of nowhere Finley got a bucket of water and dumped it on Ben Hunter. Not sure what he did to deserve it...but it was pretty comical.

Thank you so much to the Aagards for throwing such a fun filled and wet 4th of July celebration! It got our Holiday weekend kicked off great. And every day Finley keeps asking to go back to Rachelle's house. The bar has been set pretty high - next time he goes over to their house he will expect more of the same fun filled activities! No pressure Shelley!