Father’s Day

We had a great time celebrating Fathers day all weekend. It started Friday night  when we had dinner with my parents and Payton got to help grandpa in the yard.She also had fun taking pictures of Grandpa, they are pretty good,even the one she got of his legs under the table.

Then Saturday we got Kevin an ice cream cake and did a few other errands before my hair appointment. That  night we celebrated Father’s day with Grandpa and Grandma Verver. Eating some yummy pasta from the Spaghetti Factory.

Finally Sunday we got to celebrate with Kevin. We got Coffee and doughnuts for Kevin, later we took him to the Outback for dinner. Payton had her third meal of mac and cheese and chocolate milk - she orders for herself at restaurants - she knows what she wants.

 Carrying the doughnuts is an important job and one she takes seriously.( I love the little purse she had to bring)

  Family picture - no it is not Saint Patrick's day - we are wearing green since it is Kevin's favorite color.

 We love Daddy!

Me and My Shadow

While we were playing out back I noticed my shadow on the fence and took some picture of me with Logan in  the Baby Bjorn. I tried to get Payton to join us but she wasn’t that interested. I did get a few with her but it is hard to see her. It was just fun trying to get some fun pictures since Logan and I are often not in the picture of our outside fun.

   Kisses

  Love the little hand up in the air on this one

 Here is the only one Payton cooperated for - she is in front of me and if you look hard you can see her upper body.

Feeding the ducks

The beginning  of June I took Payton to feed the duck over at the little pond near our house. She was excited but I think she thought I was a little nuts bringing bread for the ducks. It is fun do something that I did when I was kid with my own kids. She did a great job trying to get the bread to the ducks we had to go down closer to the water which was a little scary but it was fun and the ducks loved it – when she saw them eating the bread Payton said Ducks eat bread!!!! See mom isn’t so crazy after all.  In the end nobody fell in the water and the ducks got a nice little treat.  Here they come to get the bread!

Watching the ducks eat the bread.

So now we take any stale bread we have to feed the ducks. Some times there are one or two and other times there are more. We even saw a duckling one of the times. We may not have a lot of duck feeding time left sine the pond is drying up but in the fall they may be back we will just have to wait until then.

Stamping out Hunger

It is important to me that I to teach Payton and Logan that we should help and care about others.So when we got the card in the mail about the stamping out hunger food drive from the post office I knew this would be a great way to teach Payton that she can  help other families who don’t have a lot of food. The night before we went around collecting food from our cabinets and filled up our bag. Payton was so excited to put the food in and wanted to put more but the bag couldn't hold any more.

The next morning we loaded up the wagon and walked to put the bag out by the mail box and waited for the mail truck to come take the bag.

 Watching the mail lady take the bags left out

Banana bread

Today we made banana bread, a really yummy recipe I found on the Pioneer Woman site awhile ago. First we got our bowl and some of the ingredients ready then we got down to business.

First we creamed 2 sticks of butter with sugar.

Then we added the eggs

Then mashed the banana and added it to the mix

Then we measure the dry ingredients into a separate bowl ( I guess they  needed a hug first – very important step)

Then take a picture of your self while your mom mixes the flour mixture and sour cream.

Next find a pan and butter and flour it ( this can be done at the beginning if you like-photo by Payton

Then mix in a few chocolate chips , put it in the pan and bake for 70 minutes.

While you wait wash the dishes -(she wanted to play in the bubbles)

Here is what you get:

Decorating

Today we made frosting for our cookies and the frosted then decorated them. Payton had fun frosting but decided it should be a job for mommy and she would become the decorator. She had a special way that she puts on the sprinkles so she doesn’t get to many out. I let her choose which sprinkles to put on and she did  a great job making some really beautiful cookies.

Frosting her cookies

Decorating the snowman

I think he needs more sprinkles

Here is what our finished cookies looked like: Great job Payton!

So yummy ! 

Vanilla almond sugar cookies

Payton asked me if we could make cookies using her cookie cutters so I decided these would be an easy and fun way she could use her cookie cutters. First we made the cookies dough – Here is the recipe:
Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies ( from Bake At 350)
3 c unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 c sugar (I use sugar that I've stored vanilla beans in)
2 sticks (salted) butter, cold
1 egg
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pure almond extract
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.
The dough will be crumbly, so knead it together with your hands as you scoop it out of the bowl for rolling (video on University of Cookie). Roll onto a floured surface and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets (I recommend freezing the cut out shape on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before baking) and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Now the fun begins cutting out the cookies and putting on sprinkles!

Payton is getting to be a pro at rolling dough and putting sprinkles on. She loves to cut out the shapes, this time she chose the Christmas tree, candy cane, Santa, snowman, gingerbread man ( hmm is she trying to tell me something ? ) pumpkin, tennis racket, Ice cream cone, dog, giraffe, star, heart , and a few little ones. We had fun decorating and baking, but half way through we decided to make the second half plain and add frosting and sprinkles later. Once we were done baking we tasted the warm delicious cookies. It is so much fun to bake with my girl.

Finished product-  oh so yummy !

Ok, it is time forus to try our cookies with a glass of milk. Tomorrow we will frost and decorate the rest.

Tulip Festival Time!

We spent the morning of our 6 year anniversary looking at beautiful Tulips.We took our yearly drive to Mount Vernon Washington to experience the Tulips fields.This year was Logan's first time visiting the tulip fields and he slept through most of it.  We starting coming when Payton was 15 months old. Payton is three now and enjoyed it more this time. We got some great pictures and enjoyed the beautiful rows of colorful tulips. We love to go to Tulip Town with Grandma Verver. It is such a beautiful place to visit if you are ever in the Seattle are in April it is something you should go and see.

I want to hold my hand

One day when I put Payton to bed she called me back and said Mama hold my hand, it was so sweet. So I started sing the Beatles song and she thought wow mom just made up a song about it. So later that day I played the song for her and she was so excited! She sings I want to hold my hand - so funny sometimes she will add I want to hold your hand grandma etc. She loves holding someones hand and I love it! Her sweet little hand in mine such a precious moment I will remember.