From our Beantown kitchen- Summer fruit salad & apple dumplings

This has become a favorite summer dinner.  It's so easy to throw together and there's no cooking involved.  I serve this salad like a mini salad bar to accommodate our picky eater and because leftover fruit salad is the next morning's breakfast.

Mixed Fruit on Romaine Salad

with Poppyseed Dressing

Toss & put in serving bowl:

1/2 fresh pineapple, chopped

1 pound fresh strawberries, sliced

2 cups of grapes (or blueberries)

Feta

Sliced almonds

2 hearts of romaine

Poppyseed Dressing (store bought Brianna's is my favorite)

Serve the fruit salad, feta, almonds, and romaine in separate bowls like a salad bar or toss it all together in a large salad bowl.  Top your salad with poppyseed dressing.  A couple of my kids just like the fruit salad.  We serve croissants on the side.  Enjoy!

My blogger friend who inspired this recipe uses a mix of canned and fresh fruit for her version.  Check it out.  I love her blog.

If you haven't visited Pioneer Woman Cooks yet, you should.  This apple dumpling recipe is so easy and yummy, and yes, it's loaded with fat.  It's just the indulgence I need to motivate me (out of NEED) to hit my jogging path in the morning!  I do think I'll try it with less butter and sugar next time and see how it turns out.  I  love that this dessert is something my kids can help me make...so easy and fun to throw together, and so delicious a la mode!

We missed Nina!

Can someone tell me why I was excited for Christina to go to girl's camp, but a little teary-eyed as well?  I wasn't the only one looking for tissue.  Grace cried off and on for two days..."I miss Nina!"  This is girls camp we're talking about.  What are we going to do when she goes to college?

Christina was gone for 5 days and said she had a great time at her 1st Girls Camp.  They camped at a site that our church purchased recently.  This is the same site where the Father's and Son's Outing was held this year.  The men and boys at the F&S Outing put a great amount of service into their campout by preparing the camp for the girls camp.  It's still a work in progress, but I think it was good for Christina to rough it a bit.  I don't think I've ever been camping when it's rained for 4 days straight, and those were the conditions of Girls Camp this year.  No matter, Christina had a ball.

One silly camp story:  A few days before Girls Camp Christina heard that there would be snipes that bite people at the campsite.  Grace was concerned that Christina would get attacked by a "snipes."  We didn't have snipes when I went to girls camp.  I figured it out when Wayne said, "They won't come after you if you're quiet and doing what you're supposed to."  I watched Christina get online and look up "snipe" on Wikipedia.  Turns out a snipe is a bird.  Christina thought, "Those are snipes?  Those bite?"  Christina didn't figure out the hoax and Grace got more nervous for Nina.  Turns out the snipe hunt was a little crazy, but I'm thankful that Christina's pal, Nicole spilled the beans and filled Nina in on the secret, so she played along.  Ah, girls camp:)

Because of the rain, the girls' major hike was cut short.  The girls got soaked and sipped hot cocoa in the dining hall while drip drying.

What would girls camp be without woven bracelets.....

face painting.....

silly songs....

old friends....

new friends.....

awesome leaders.....

......and beautiful scenery?!

 Thank you to Nina's leaders and friends for making her 1st year at girls camp a great one.  Maybe next year I'll tag along:)  We missed you, Nina & even though you came home to us exhausted, filthy, and smelly, we're SO glad you're HOME!!!

PS. Do you think her sisters let her catch up on sleep?  

Not a chance!

Breaking Dawn

My copy of Breaking Dawn arrived yesterday and I just finished.  I'm so glad there was resolution!  I loved it.

Last night I told Wayne, "I just don't see how they can make a movie as good as this book. Their Edward and Bella would not be what I see, and would just make it less real ."  LOL!  I love this series.  I'm sure I'll read through it again, but for now I'll recover my neglected house, whip up a pasta dinner, and get back to my "small but perfect piece of our forever."1

1. Stephenie Meyer, Breaking Dawn, pg. 754

Painting T-shirts

I saw these fun shirts and thought it would be fun and cheaper to make them.  Here's my finished product:

For "initial" shirts for my boys I found plain t's (gray and kahki) on sale at Target.  I think I spent $6 for both.  I made super size initial stencils out of plain old poster board and purchased white fabric paint at Michael's.

To make the t's, you can use a stencil brush, a paint brush, a piece of sponge, etc.  Just make sure that it's large so you're not painting all day.  Slide a piece of cardboard in the shirt, so you don't paint through to the back of the shirt.  Don't put too much paint on your brush...you don't want to soak your shirt.  I pressed down on the stencil while painting the edge of the letters to make a clean line, although I wasn't going for a perfect letter.  I like the well worn look.

After you've got the letter painted, air dry.  I put a dish towel over the painted letter and using a hot iron, heat set the paint....and That's It!

Martha has a couple of great tutorials as well....

Martha's Potato-stamp Shirt

Martha's Potato-Print Baby Clothes

This is such a fun project. We did this for Christina's birthday party.  The girls did a great job.  Potato stamping would have been less time consuming and probably uses less paint.

Happy Painting!

Wesley's new talent....

For Family Home Evening we give each of the kids 60 seconds to do or say anything they want and they get everyone's undivided attention. The trade-off is that they give their undivided attention for the rest of FHE. It's a pretty effective arrangement. Monday night, Wesley had this new talent to share....hurray for Wes!

Wesley and grandpa

This is for Wesley and for all of the posterity of Great-Gma E.  I wish I spoke Swedish!  Translation anyone?



Thanks, Dad!