Little Chefs

Once a week, I've been letting the kids pick a recipe from their kid cookbooks to try. This week's was my favorite and the most fun: chocolate covered strawberries and almonds. Paul practically prepared the chocolate all by himself and we all had fun dipping and getting covered in yummy chocolate. I love how Elyse and Luke are licking their fingers in these pics.

The Cheeseburger Festival

Friday we took some family up to the thumb area to a town called Caseville for their annual Cheeseburger festival. We played in Lake Huron and then strolled through town. Just about every booth sold cheeseburgers and it was hard to pick one. Then we walked out to the end of the Caseville pier. Being a very hot day, we stopped at a gas station on the way home and filled up on drinks. It's been a thirsty summer--probably because I'm nursing, but I can't seem to get enough to drink. Guess what Caseville uses as their festival mascot? Yup, a pink flamingo. Go figure. They are on all the light posts and the shacks and people's roofs.

Pi-wah-no

I am sitting her at the computer listening to Elyse practice her piano and it goes something like this: "Da, da, da, da, daaaaaa...SNIFF...da, da...SNIFF...da." We went over sharps for the first time yesterday and today she's watering the ivories with large tears. It's like this every time we start a new concept. She's absolutely convinced it'll be impossible to learn and the next week she seems to play it just fine. We need to relearn notes, though. I've discovered she's relying too much on the suggested fingering. Jarom is ticklish! And he laughs on occasion. Our garden in finally producing. We ate the first cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and zuccini out of it yesterday. And to our surprise we've got about five big pumpkins out there. In all our married years, Matt and I have only been able to grow one green pumpkin, so we're pretty excited.

Luke's Three Year Old Pic

Usually around a kid's birthday, I get them dressed up, take them to a special place, shoot like fifty pictures, and then take them to lunch. Luke missed out on that this year. I'm way too tired and I figure he's young and doesn't know he's missing out on a tradition the other kids like. I came across this one random picture I took of him in our garage this summer and am calling it good enough. And then I got a little crazy with some of the photoshop stuff I just learned. Anyway, here's my Luker(my sister Katie laughs at his nickname, especially when I call him Filthy Lucre) at age three.