Friday Frisbee, Hot Hot Hot

July 5.  Another gruesomely hot day.

July 6.  Another--hey, I just typed that.

I thought my outdoor thermometer might be broken.  But alas, it was true--we had about four days where our poor thermometer hovered around 104 degrees.  We had air conditioning.  The problem?  This day was Frisbee Friday.  And they played.

One of the men went out to play, and we razzed him pretty good from the sidelines.  At one point, one of the guys ran his water bottle out to him.

Below, Jacob tries to explain himself after he emptied Kelle's Mason jar of the last bit of water.

Even with the heat, the guys and girls still played their hearts out.  And we had fun watching.  :)

Back to life,
Christine

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Summer Hair Styles

I found a neat website/blog post about easy hairstyles.  I thought I'd try one.  The first time I did it, it really was easy.  Click here to view the original post, which has a ton of hairstyles you can do with your (at least) shoulder-length hair.  Here's how my first try turned out:

See my silver hair showing?  Woo-hoo!  Okay, now here's a different hairstyle I "created" all on my own.  Actually, a friend's daughter told me how to sort-of make this, and so I tried it.  I used much fewer bobby pins, and it stayed in my fine, thin hair.  And keep noticing all the silver--I have a streak of silver!!

For this hairstyle, I pulled my hair into a high ponytail.  Then I twisted the band around, but on the last "pull-through," I pulled my hair just part of the way through.  Then I wrapped the loose tail around and secured everything with bobby pins.  Just in case you want to try it.

All these hairstyles still take tons of time for me to do.  I'm so bad at styling my own hair, and I haven't had daughters to experiment on.  :)  But these styles have been worth it, helping me to keep my hair up and off my neck.  Yay for keeping cool in any way that I can this summer!


Back to life,
Christine

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Shattered: The Eight Hundred Ceiling

July first.  Lazy Sunday afternoon.  Fernando suggested a Scrabble game.  I'm always up for a Scrabble game.  It was one of those games.  You Scrabble players know what I'm talking about.  At one point, I had the following tiles:

W  -  U  -  U  -  A  -  A  -  A  -  F

Try doing something with that.  No fun.  Here is a picture of our finished board:

Our combined score?  833.  The 800 ceiling has officially been shattered.  I think that's four 800+ games, with one of those being a 900+ game.  Yeah.  It has been a really good year for Scrabble.  :)


Back to life,
Christine

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Friday Frisbee = FUN!!

Enjoy all these action shots from another Friday Frisbee night!

Thomas tries to psych out the passer

 Joseph has an amazing throw

 Danny and Nathan "jawing" playfully

 Danny's thought bubble:  "Nooooooooo!"

 Everyone needed water on this hot night!

Back to life,
Christine

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Morning Storm and Baking Day

June 29 dawned bright and hot; the day after a 105-degree day promised more heat for us.  I edited photos in the basement for a while, but when I came upstairs, I noticed it was really dark outside.

We hung out near/in the basement for awhile, until the storm blew over, and then it was up to the kitchen to begin preparations for Fernando's special day--his birthday was the next day!

We made homemade frozen yogurt, freezing the plain mixture for a few hours:

Then we added toffee bar bits and graham cracker pieces, and stirred everything up.  You'll have to wait a while for the "finished product" images.  :)

Jacob mixed up the pie crust ingredients:

And Danny mixed together the ingredients for the pumpkin pie, which was Fernando's request for dessert.

 The pumpkin pie awaits the oven

 Yum--the finished pie

And, I figured if I was going to make one pie, I was going to make two.  So I pulled out some apple pie filling from the freezer:

 Jacob put together the crumble topping for French apple pie

 The French apple pie awaits the oven

 The finished French apple pie

Double pie--double yum!

After all that work in the kitchen, the guys took a break, and we took them to Friday Frisbee.  I actually didn't take a single picture on Fernando's birthday (gasp!), since I was too busy socializing with the two families we invited over.  :)  Fernando loved all the food we had, and the fellowship we shared.  He had an awesome birthday, and we had a grand time celebrating his special day.

Love you, honey!!



Back to life,
Christine

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Khaki Skirt!

Another quick blog post!  On my recent walk home from physical therapy (for my neck--it's much better now!), I had a sudden urge to stop at the Goodwill store.   I actually found a khaki skirt that fit!  And that I could walk in!  I can wear any top I want with it, too.  This makes me happy.  :)

photo courtesy Danny

What do you think?


Back to life,
Christine

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Grilled Romaine with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Yes, you read that post title correctly:  grilled lettuce.  Really.  The produce lady at the farmers market told me to try it.  I was skeptical, as was my friend Lori.   But after the meal, we both agreed that it was very tasty.  It was so easy and quick to prepare, and since Fernando is the griller in our family, all I had to do was cut and drizzle.  The picture-taking part of making this side dish was the most time-consuming part.  :)

Grilled Romaine with Balsamic Vinaigrette

one nice, big head of Romaine lettuce
evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
balsamic vinaigrette

Remove any bad leaves from the head of Romaine and rinse thoroughly.  Shake out and allow to dry.  Slice Romaine head in half lengthwise.  Drizzle a little evoo over both sides of each half.  Or, use a pastry brush and brush the oil on.  To grill:  When my husband finished grilling burgers, he placed the halves on the grill, and grilled the halves for about two minutes on each side.  So basically, grill at whatever temperature you've been using.  Place the halves cut side up on a serving platter and drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette.  I sliced some farmers market tomatoes and placed them on the platter with the lettuce.  Yum.

You simply cut this with a knife and eat it.  It's a great way to have a "salad" presented in a different way.  The outer leaves are wilted and warm, but it's still crunchy.  It was great served with the tomatoes.  Even the leftovers--what little there was--were great cold when I ate them the next day.  :)

Back to life,
Christine

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Berry Banana Baked Oatmeal

I just re-read the title of this post--too bad oatmeal doesn't begin with B.  :)

I found the original of this recipe on Pinterest, and decided to modify it for taste and health.  Okay, I also modified it for amount in order to feed my five guys.  Here is what I came up with.


Berry Banana Baked Oatmeal

4 cups oats (I used organic regular rolled)
2/3 cup sucanat (or brown sugar, which will produce a much sweeter result)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

about 2 cups berries (any kind; my photos are with blackberries; raspberries are awesome)
3/4 cup chocolate chips (reduce or eliminate--I use semi-sweet and original recipe called for milk chocolate)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (would work with other kinds of nuts, too)
1 ripe banana, sliced

4 cups milk  (I've recently [2016] used rice milk with great success!)
3 large eggs (if halving this recipe--use an 8x8 or 9x9 pan--use 2 eggs)
6 tablespoons butter, melted (can use extra virgin coconut oil instead)
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
cinnamon/sugar for sprinkling (if desired)


Oil a 13x9 pan with olive oil or coconut oil.  Mix oats, sucanat, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, half the chocolate chips, and half the berries.  Spread evenly in the prepared pan.  Sprinkle the walnuts over half the mixture in the pan (we do this for the nut-dislikers in our household; feel free to sprinkle them over all!).  Sprinkle the remaining berries and chocolate chips evenly over the whole top of the mixture.  Place the sliced banana evenly over the whole top.

In a separate bowl (a large one with a pourable spout is great--love my Pampered Chef 8-cup glass mixing bowl!), combine milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla extract.  Pour over the dry mixture in the pan.  Wait a few minutes for the liquid mixture to soak into the oats mixture.  Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the top, if desired.  Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes, or until set.  Spoon into bowls or onto plates and drizzle maple syrup over.

If you don't like to spend a lot of time in the morning getting breakfast ready, just do this the night before:  Mix the first five dry ingredients together.  Chop the nuts, put them in a prep bowl, and cover; do the same with the chocolate chips (prep bowl and cover).  If I use frozen berries, those are easy to throw, straight from the freezer, into the mixture in the morning.  I also put the butter in a small pan and place the covered pan on the stove so it's ready to go.  I put the measuring spoon and vanilla out, as well as the cinnamon/sugar for sprinkling.  I made this recipe this morning (with raspberries--oh, my), and it took about ten minutes before it was in the oven, with the prep already being done.

 

Below is a strawberry/blackberry version, which was also dee-lish:

And a phone photo from the summer of 2016, made with Alpine strawberries from my gardens:

Happy breakfast-ing!!


Back to life,
Christine

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