I got an iPOD!!!

I'm so excited! Today I got the 3rd generation nano ipod! I've been looking at ipods since the beginning of this year and figured this was my best bet. I'm so happy! Teresa had given me an mp3 player she won last year, but I could only fit 30 song on it. I gave it to Anna, so now every person in our family has an ipod/mp3 except Mom! I don't think she's getting one any time soon either. :)

The diet spoon

Today Anna was attempting to serve herself some yogurt. I say attempt because the spoon she grabbed was slotted. It was really funny!

Last night I was supposed to make dinner for Dad, Anna, and I. Well, it didn't quite work and Dad fried up some steak and potatoes instead. It was pretty sad. But the steak and potatoes were good!

Flowers and Ferns

Today Abigail and Emily were weeding so I was picking through the weeds and I found these really pretty flowers and ferns so I went inside and put them in a vase. I think they look really nice.

Tubing and Serena

These are the last pics from our camping trip:
Anna and Serena.

Elisabeth on the tube.
The air was about half deflated from the tube, so you were basically in the water and the water was a little choppy. It was still fun though. :)
I got to get Serena ready for the wedding. I loved her dress! And she is too cute...




We passed this on our way home. Isn't it cool?

Confusing Family Relations

I always wondered how you got sixth cousins twice removed or whatever. You get my drift. :) So I looked it up on trusty google and this is what I found.
(1st cousins share the same grandparents, 2nd cousins the same great-grandparents, and so on. In my opinion, by the time you get to 6th cousins, you're probably pretty much related to everyone. I don't even think most people could name their 5xgreat-grandparents.
The tricky part is the # removed part. I think I'm explaining this right. The children of your cousin (1st, 2nd, doesn't matter) are once removed, and the grandchildren are twice removed, and so on. But usually you don't say that your first cousin's children are your first cousins once removed. They are commonly referred to as second cousins (or probably even more commonly these days, your cousin's kids LOL).
So if you and a cousin share the same great-great-grandparents, you are 3rd cousins. And if you are invited to that same cousin's grandchild's Christening, that child is your 3rd cousin twice removed. And since that is a pretty tenuous familial tie, you can probably be pretty cheap about the gift. Get 'em some onsies or a sippy cup.
An easy way to think of it is: Your first cousin's kids are your first cousins once removed. Your first cousin's grandkids are your first cousins twice removed. Your kids and your cousin's kids are second cousins to each other. Your grandkids and your cousin's grandkids will be third cousins! Now if you want to get into second cousins once removed, you probably don't know them anyway!)
I don't know if all of this is true. I would love to here any different things you have heard!

Camping at Keuka

What was supposed to be a one night stay at Keuka State Park turned into three nights. We went there to surprise an old friend of my parents that we hadn't seen in ten years and she was turning fifty. But it was so much fun that Dad left Mom, Anna, and me there while he drove the two hours home to go to work while we stayed there an extra day. Other people were staying at the campground too, it was kind of a family reunion before a wedding they all had to go to. So we hung out with all the relatives and it was so much fun! The next afternoon Dad came and we decided to wait until the next morning to leave. So that's where I've been.
Our neighbors had two little girls that we got to play with. We went to the playground (the park had about four) and played with them the second day before going to the lake.
Anna attempting to climb the climbing wall.
And on top! I'd never climbed one before, it was kind of fun.
Joy on the teeter-totter.
Lunch at the lake after swimming. Serena with her mom Elisabeth.
The dad of the little girls brought a boat that we got to go on. Laura, Anna, and Elaine (the birthday girl).
Laura, Carina, and Anna being the masthead of the boat. :) Or they think their flying, I don't know.
Elaine and Mom eating a yummy lasagna dinner at someone's house while the wedding party rehearsed at the church.
Some of use went on a walk through Penn Yan after dinner. It was quite interesting. We were only about fifteen minutes away from the campsite, so we got to back and sit around the fire before bed.

Farfalle with Broccoli

You may ask, "what the heck is farfalle?". It sounds pretty exotic, but it's really just bow tie pasta. :) I made this recipe last night for dinner for the first time and it was really good. It called for anchovies and red pepper flakes, which I didn't do, and I put in some fresh basil and tomato.
I got the recipe off of foodnetwork.com. I wanted to make something with the broccoli we were getting from our garden and found this.
So here's the recipe:

1 lb farfalle pasta
2 heads broccoli, trimmed florets
1/4 c olive oil
4 T butter
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 c Parmesan cheese
1/4 c tomato, diced
1 T basil

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook 5 min. Add broccoli and cook 4 min. Drain pasta and broccoli, reserving 1 cup of water.

Meanwhile, in large skillet, heat olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 5 min. Add broccoli, pasta, salt & pepper, tomato, and basil, and toss. Add some of reserved pasta water, if necessary to make light sauce. Transfer to serving platter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

And wall-ah!

Bowman Lake

We took a camping trip to Bowman Lake from Saturday to Monday with a couple outher familes. It was so much fun! The only not so great part was that the bathrooms were about a mile away. At least we got in our excercise! And then when you got there they weren't so great, no soap, no hot water, no paper towels or anything to dry your hands with, and the women's bathroom was way on the other side of the building basically in the woods. Don't ask me why. But we were camping, what else can I say?
Anna and Megan on the monkey bars. The lake was a little hike, but not bad, and they had a playground and a volleyball net, so it was worth it. :)
Katie.
Michelle and me.
Megan and Anna again.
Laura.
All of the meat BBQ-ing.
I thought this was king of funny. All the moms around the table, and all the dads playing with the meat. :) Classic.
Without knowing it, everyone brought a different kind of iced tea for dinner that night. Green iced tea, peach iced tea, and sweetened iced tea. They were all good.

The next day:
Laura, Amber, and Emily after playing volleyball.
On the swingset after having ice cream at the concession stand. (my kind of camping)
And Michelle.
It rained on our way there, and rained when we got back, but stayed dry the whole time we were there, so that was good.

Going Camping...

We'll be back Monday!

A Delight

If you have never had Refreshing Lime Delight, you have had very sad life. :) Ok, maybe not, but you really should try it. We had it last night and it's so good, plus it's really easy to make.

Refreshing Lime Delight

1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream (softened)
1 medium can lime-aid (frozen)
2-8 oz. containers cool whip
(you can also put a couple drops of green food coloring in, but we didn't)

Work the above ingredients together in a large bowl. Line a 9x13 in. pan with graham cracker crumb crust (graham cracker crust, sugar, and melted butter)
Put the ice cream mixture in the pan on top of the crust. Keep in freezer.

And that's it!

Peaches

We canned 28 jars of peaches today. We'll do more tomorrow.

Babysitting

Anna and I babysat four kids Saturday. They had been camping out in their backyard, so we ended up spending almost the whole time in the tent or in the pool. At least the kids were in the pool, Anna got a little hot and went wading in it and got her shorts soaked. It was kind of funny.
Josiah and Me in the tent watching the other kids swim. It was basically an oven inside the tent, and they kept wanting to close all the windows and doors for some reason which made it even more hot. Don't ask me why.
Peter was singing at the top of his lungs these very strange made up songs about watching Hansel and Gretel in his pj's, so the other kids were spraying water on him. He put his 'safety goggles' on and kept on singing. :) It was really funny! I got a couple videos too.
All the boys and Anna were wearing orange that day. Me and Brianna felt left out.
Caleb, Anna, Brianna, Josiah, and Peter 'sleeping' in the tent.

Mexican Fiesta

We went to a surprise Mexican fiesta party for Tonika yesterday. We all had to wear these flowers in our hair when we got there.

We had tacos for dinner and cheesecake for dessert.
Me swinging at the pinata. It was really hard to get open.
The very wounded pinata.
We also did a craft where we made these notebook covers. They were all sewed togethere but we got to decorate them.
The group of us.
Tonika made pina coladas that were really good. I helped decorate. :)

Anna, Emily, Me, Tonika, Judith, and Katy before some of us went in the hot tub.

Blueberry Time!

We've gone blueberry picking three times so far and have frozen 35 pints. Mom uses a lot of berries for making smoothies in the mornings, so we go through them rather quickly. Usually when we go it's extremely hot, but this year it's been really nice. The first time we all were freezing! But the last two times have been warm but nice and breezy too.


Next up: peaches!