Berry Adventure

Hello again blog world. How I’ve missed you! It’s been sometime since my last post and I wish I could say it was for a better reason other than a very nasty cold/flu bug made it’s way slowly through our entire family for the month of June. Not a great way to start the summer at all.

Blueberry picking. Blueberry picking is a great way to start the summer. The season was almost over so we decided to make the trip up north just outside of Houston for some blueberry picking. It’s my favorite fruit to pick. It takes the kids a long time to fill up their buckets and Austin is perfectly happy to walk around and test the fruit of each tree to be sure they are the best.

This year we had to become one with the tree and really get in there. (Pay no attention to the scraggly haircuts, we’re going for the Bieber look , just kidding).

It was about one million degrees that day. Okay, I’m exaggerating but it was hot enough that we were all very sweaty when our work was done. This is what Austin and Evan thought of the heat,

“not cool Mom, not cool!”

So it’s necessary after a hard hour of picking blueberries to do this,

Watermelon snow cones make everything better. Poor little Evan was so sweaty and holding him was making him even hotter. The snow cone was doing its job to cool me off, I though it would work wonders for him as well. So I gave him his first red dye saturated, sugar loaded, artificial flavored bite of watermelon snow cone. Bad mom, bad mom! And this is what he thought,

“Don’t do that again Mom. Ever.”

I love our adventures together!

Happy Half Birthday Evan!

I don’t know why these posts are so difficult for me.

Maybe it’s because my 9 year old looked at me the other day and said “Mom, I’m a big boy. Let me do it”. And just yesterday he was this little right?

Maybe it’s because my 6 year old looked at the 9 year old and said “You’re almost 20, because you’re already 9”. Is it really going to happen that fast?

Stop growing! I say.

Speaking of growth, look at this chub. It’s his half birthday today.  Six months, gone in the blink of an eye. Sigh.

Evan is a lot of fun right now. He laughs big laughs and smiles big smiles and squeals big squeals. His brother Austin can make him laugh like no one else. Probably because he’s full of crazy antics! He just found his voice and can babble up a storm. I think he’s developed 3 new rolls on each arm since my last post . The more to kiss! He’s cut two new teeth on his bottom gums. That didn’t make him very happy.

He is confirmation of our need for a bulk warehouse membership. We started baby food this month and he LOVES it. So far, he eats oat bran cereal, avocados, sweet potatoes, bananas, pears and brown rice cereal. I was trying to think of which is his favorite, but lets be real. This boy loves to eat anything. His big brother Nathan loves to help feed him, but thinks Evan is a really messy eater.

We have reached that dreaded stage where falling asleep in public no longer exists. He needs his bed for naptime. I say dreaded only because we loose some our flexibility. But I comfort myself remembering that its only a short season. I’m going to enjoy each phase of him being little because I know it will be gone all to soon.

It’s completely fitting that his favorite song is “You are my Sunshine”. You are my sunshine, my little sunshine. You make me happy, when the skies are grey. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take, my sunshine away”.

It’s Our Last Day of School

We’re having a little party over here. Doing a little dance.

It’s our last day of school this year!

We’ve successfully completed kindergarten and the third grade. The boys and I were remembering all the wonderful new things we learned this year in American history, geography, math, grammar, reading and so much more. Praise God! It is by His grace alone that we’ve accomplished all that we do. Where He calls, He certainly equips.

In honor of our last day, we made a little homemade celebration. A special treat for all our hard work.

 

Be jealous. No don’t be jealous, I’m going to share the recipe with you and their super easy.

Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Mix up your favorite recipe or box of chocolate (in my opinion, dark chocolate is the way to go) cake. After you’ve mixed and divided the batter into cupcake tins, insert one unwrapped miniature Reese’s cup into the batter.

I spread a little batter over the top of the Reese’s before I baked them so that the chocolate wouldn’t be burned in the oven.

Bake as directed. Let the cupcakes cool and whip up some peanut butter buttercream. I used a box of powdered sugar, 1 stick of butter at room temperature, 1/4 cup of creamy peanut butter, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1/4 cup of milk.

Spread frosting as desired and top with a miniature Reese’s. Voila.

If you think these are over the top, you’re right! So have a glass of milk ready to wash it down. But I can’t think of any better way to celebrate than with chocolate and peanut butter!