Pretzels

 A couple of weeks ago Robert was in the mood for a new bread recipe and saw a pretzel recipe he wanted to try out.

I'm all for new bread recipes, especially since Robert was making the dough (he's a great bread maker).

 I did help with the shaping, along with Alyssa.

 I grew up making pretzels with my mom all the time - a quick, no rise recipe. This one had to rise, boil, and then bake. I'm not a fan of pretzels boiled with baking soda (I can taste the baking soda), but this one didn't have too much and tasted great.

After waiting for the dough to rise, for all the boiling to be done and for the baking to finish . . .

 

. . . we were ready to eat.

A great dinner, if you ask me!

Bangs

Natalie asked if she could get bangs, I said sure.

(Below is the best "before" picture I could find, from when we were in MO during spring break. We forgot to take one right before the haircut.)

With boys in tow, Alyssa wasn't home, we went to get her hair cut (the boys were bribed with shakes to be good - it worked).

During the haircut, I looked over and saw the new bangs and said to Logan, "Look, she has bangs! She doesn't even look like Natalie anymore!" 

Logan looked over and said, "We'll call her 'Bangs'."

 

No haircut remorse - she loves it!

Make Way For The Ducklings

A favorite author and story of mine came to life, in a way, the other day when . . .

I had to stop in the middle of the road to make way for the goslings!

Still a Bit Chilly

Robert went fishing in the river last week and told us how warm the water was and not deep at all (we didn't have our normal winter rains that usually raises the water level quite a bit).
So, the kids were very excited to get in the river a month before we normally do.
Our last day of spring break they put on their suits and were off running down the path.
The water was cold!
Natalie and Jake braved it for a while, swimming and jumping off the rock.Logan wouldn't go in past his knees and was then content with playing in the sand along the bank.
Alyssa came down, but didn't even go in after the others complained about it being too cold.
We didn't last very long, but we can't wait for the water to get warmer so our days of swimming and playing in the river can begin!

Our Spring Break Week

Robert's spring break is a few weeks before the kids' spring break. Unfortunately, this means that the kids and I often venture off on our own during their week off.

So, last week we went to AR and MO to visit some of my family and go to the LDS Kansas City Temple open house. The temple is only a few miles from my parents and we were so excited to see that the open house would be during our spring break!
It was a long drive, but the children did great and I made it driving straight through.
We took a break in Little Rock to see some good friends of ours. We didn't have much time, so we met them at a park off the highway. The kids loved running around for a while.
My sister's youngest son was getting baptized that first weekend of spring break, in AR. My parents and brother were going to be there as well. We were so excited to go to their place first and be there to play with cousins and go to his baptism!
They have a great place with pathways through the woods and a zipline! We had a cousins' Easter egg hunt (inside due to some rainy weather). Here they are ready to go. Even Alyssa wasn't too old to look. They compared treats and made some trades. We had short, but fun time with them.
Some of the cousins, from MO, weren't able to come down to AR because they were sick, so my sister-in-law planned another egg hunt for us and her kids Easter Sunday. We gave the younger children a head start. Watching them all search for eggs I realized how much fun children have looking for Easter eggs.My parent's house is undergoing some remodeling as they get ready to sell it, and with my brother and his family there as well, the kids and I stayed in a hotel.
But, we spent every minute we could at my parent's house. The kids and cousins played games, built with Legos, and had a hard time saying good-night each night - waving and calling to us out their windows. It was probably good that we were at a hotel - the cousins had school and leaving at bed time probably helped them actually get to sleep at a decent time. They checked out early each day, after testing, to have more time to play.
Logan and his cousin Zeke have the same middle name. They became fast friends and loved spending time together.
The hotel had the coolest pool with a slide that went outside the hotel and back it and water play area.
You had to be 48" to go on the big slide, but they had a smaller one everyone could enjoy.

The kids couldn't wait to check it out.Some of the cousins even came one afternoon to swim and go down the slide.(there are 5 in the hot tub and the other three at the slide)
One day we went and walked around the historic square - trying on hats in storesand checking out a local history museum.We were there to go to the LDS Kansas City Temple open house and went on a tour Monday afternoon. (Natalie took this perfect picture)
My brother, Charles, and his family came down and my uncle and cousin were also there with us, my brother Thomas, and my parents. It was beautiful and wonderful to be there with family.
When we came out of the celestial room,(picture from the internet)
Logan turned to Thomas and said, "I like that room. It smells good. It smells like pie."
What a great description of the wonderful feeling you get when you're in the celestial room.
Later when we asked what their favorite part of the temple was, both boys said the "marrying" room.(picture from the internet)
We talked about parents and children being sealed to each other so we can be a family forever. The "marrying" room IS a great room!What a wonderful afternoon.
We love going to museums and historical places. So, one of our days there, we went to a living history museum with my mom. The houses and buildings were not yet open for the season, but we walked around and looked in windows.Below is looking in through the church window.
Logan found a small "house" and said it was probably like the one Abraham Lincoln was born in. I thought that was great that he would connect something like that. He wouldn't take a picture by it, but Natalie did.We loved the mill with the wheel. We'll have to go back if we visit when the buildings are open.
For our last night there, my parents took everyone who could make it out to dinner. Here are all the cousins at one table. It was a LONG drive, but well worth visiting and catching up with my parents and half my siblings and their families. I'm glad the open house gave us a great reason to take a road trip this spring break.

Early this month I mentioned that Natalie has done some video taping of commercials and other spots, with her friend, for their school morning announcements.
I got permission from the producer to post them on the blog.
This is a commercial they did for "desk companions."

It went over so well that students would asked where they could get them. The producer had to go on the announcements to say it was just a silly commercial and that there really weren't any desk companions at the school to buy!

Starting the Garden

The weather is beautiful and I'm finding some time to get out and work in the yard.
I've been substitute teaching for the last few months, and I've found it hard to plan my days when I could get called in for a sub job most any morning at 6am.
About a week ago I found myself with a day with nothing planned and no call to sub. I decided to drive by the park with free mulch and see if they had anything worth taking.
They did - and three hours of digging later the mulching around our tree was done!It was a project that had been on my list for quite a while. A month or so ago, Robert had to brought me enough rocks to finish the full circle (it had been 1/2 finished since the fall). I had finally finished digging in the ring of rocks (I had to sink them so the lawnmower could go over them.)

I found myself with another free day the next week and decided to transplant my strawberries. Over the last couple of years I had just let them grow at will and they were all clumped up and small. I lost a bunch of them to the heat last summer. The strawberries have also been hard to work around (including weeding) because they have been so bunched I couldn't do much digging around them. So, part of my transplanting project was digging in compost after taking them out and before arranging them all pretty.
They look really nice now - hopefully it will help them out this season.

You see in my strawberries, my rosemary bush - pruned, this year, to about half it's size. I love my rosemary bush. It makes weeding my garden smell wonderful.
The rosemary started flowering last fall, for the first time, and has continued. I love the small light purple flowers.

I made a quick push to get some cooler weather veggies in so we can get harvesting before it gets to hot. My peas are up.

My lettuce is seeded and is starting to come up.

And we've started our tomatoes and squash (in little containers to be transplanted later).

Fall is my favorite season, but I love spring - starting my garden and seeing things grow and flower.
I heard on a gardening show that it takes up to 5 years to really get blueberries going. This was very encouraging to me - our blueberries started as sticks three years ago and they haven't really produced yet. I'm excited by the way they flowered this year and need to get my deer netting up before they really start developing and become too tempting for the wildlife in our woods.

I hope to find more days of working in my garden and yard soon!