Fun on the Fourth

Happy 4th of July! We spent most of today doing much needed yard work around our church. With any luck we worked off enough calories to allow a splurge tonight at our friends BBQ. We can hardly wait to walk downtown Grand Haven and see the fireworks... of course watching the hill they light the fireworks from catch on fire is pretty darn entertaining also. {oh, my}

We will be taking these darling little American Flag Cheesecake Bars with us too... I simply can't wait to enjoy one! I would share the recipe (it came out of this months All You Magazine) but since each little square holds 32g of fat {I am not kidding} I cannot, in good conscience, do that to you.

Have a safe and happy fourth!

Iron Chef: Kid Chef Lillian

Now talk about fun, Heidi at Sacred and Profane has proclaimed this months Iron Chef Challenge to be: Kid Chefs! As Heidi said "I'm looking for kid's that cook a meal - easy or hard, as long as THEY do it. There's no pride in doing your kids science project for them, is there? No. Shame, shame, shame."

I asked my darling trio if they were interested and then ducked as they mobbed the computer to search for kid friendly recipes. To make it fair I am going to post three seperate times when each child makes their selected recipe.

Today our chef is - Lillian!

Mini Pizza Cups
Ingredients:
• 1 tube (11.3 ounces) refrigerated dinner rolls
• 1 can (8 ounces) pizza sauce
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/3 cup finely chopped green pepper
• 2 ounces sliced turkey pepperoni, chopped
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Separate dough into eight rolls; cut each into quarters. Press dough onto the bottom and up the sides of miniature muffin cups coated with cooking spray

Spoon pizza sauce into each cup

Sprinkle with onion, green pepper, pepperoni

and cheese

Bake at 375° for 15-18 minutes or until crusts are browned and cheese is melted

Yield: 32 appetizers

Enjoy!!!

15 of 52

Tuesday night we braved the 60 degree weather (in late June!) to attend Nathan's baseball picnic. The boys were fielding crazy fly balls from the coach while Lilly did laps on the shuffle board court... and since Patrick and I over did it on the yummy pizza and awesome desserts we took turns joining her - even though we looked pretty darn silly and likely didn't burn any of it off. Anything for that little blue-eyed girl!

Forever in Blue Jeans, making it all happen

********************52 Weeks********************
52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!
**************************************

Saturday Salads

This salad is the only one I actually make from memory and thus have no specific measurements. It has a little sweetness to it that I love. It is my absolute favorite because my Mom made it all of the time when I was a kid, so it takes me back to the time when I didn't have bills, cars and kids to worry about. :) Enjoy!

Mom's Pasta Salad

1 box sea shell noodles

1 small container Cool Whip

Mayo

2 cans of tuna or chicken

1 package of sweet or baby peas

Garlic salt

Shredded Cheese

Boil noodles, drain and rinse with cold water. I often will spin my noodles in my salad spinner so the dressing will coat the noodles better. Add a couple big scoops of cool whip and mayo and two big shakes of garlic salt. Mix and taste, add more mayo and/or cool whip as needed. Add peas and tuna, mix and taste. When everything tastes well mixed add the cheese and refrigerate. This is one of those salads that tastes even better the next day.

Visit A List Maker's Life for more summer salads!

What to blog about?

Good evening (or morning if you've already made your rounds) and welcome to the post that is about nothing in particular but exciting just the same. Huh? Well, anyway... here is what I have to show for today:

I FINALLY cleaned my scrapbook/craft area! We are talking about years of *stuff* that has been moved from house to house and never organized. During Lent I threw away a ton of old birthday cards, school memento's that meant something at the time but years later draw a blank and other odds and ends I thought I might use. The result was a lot less to organize and slowly I have been adding appropriate shelves and drawers and the end result is this glorious area. I even finished scrapping Christmas 2007 and started Christmas 2008!!!! (yes, that is a cat on my scrap table... he can hardly believe it either, he thought all of that junk was holding itself up this whole time)

The other exciting event today, other than the awesome lack of humidity, is the discovery of an ice cream truck in our neighborhood! Okay, I admit that the kids are far more excited than me and as the summer wears on so will my patience and lack of money... but hey, for today, it was fun. I am certain the ants are loving all of the pink melty spots left by Lilly and her Pink Panther concoction. EEEWWW!

Have a great weekend!!!

14 of 52

The good times never end! Yesterday, while browsing my family's Nystrom Cottage website, I came across these great pics taken by my Mom. Now I know the wedding was over a month ago... but my lack of being in pictures this week as well as how much I really like the one with all of my babies is reason enough to keep the party going.

Visit Forever in Blue Jeans for more Marvelous Moms

********************52 Weeks********************
52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!
**************************************

Father's Day Fun

What a fun Father's Day! We started out with a special gift for Patrick, a hard bound book full of pictures of the kids. We snuck away to the park a week before Nathan left for his loooong trip to Mexico (and thus missed Father's Day) and I snapped pictures of the kids wearing three of Patrick's favorite Redwings hockey jerseys. Lilly is wearing a jersey with our last name that I had made for Patrick as a wedding gift, almost 10 years ago.

We enjoyed breakfast at Perkins, picked up a few snacks and bottled water and headed out to Michigan's Adventure! Topher had fun taking Daddy on all of the rides he is finally tall enough for, he is far more of a thrill seeker than I would have ever imagined.

Lilly loved the "flying" elephants and airplanes but freaked out on the log ride, we generated many stares from people as she screamed her head off. The water park was a wonderful and refreshing treat in the hot afternoon.

What a fun way to spend Father's Day!