More about pie

Our second kind of raspberries are ready for picking now.  They are definitely a larger berry, and taste a little different than the ever-bearing variety.

 They all taste good wrapped in pastry.

Back From Girl's Camp

Emma survived her first year at Girl's Camp.  This is the first time she's been away from home by herself for more than 1 night.  I mean, she's spent some time away at Grandma and Grandpa's house, but always surrounded by sisters and cousins.  There were no cell phones allowed, so I was left in the dark on how she was doing.  It's a little nerve wracking from the mom's perspective.  Ryan went up Friday night for the Bishopric dinner and testimony meeting, and he reported that our daughter was alive and well.

Emma and the group from our ward:

Emma is back now- a little sunburned, a lot tired, and full of things to tell.  All the girls shared one tent that was not quite big enough for everyone, with their stuff in another tent.  Kendra was on the end nearest the door, and sometimes got shoved outside (on accident?).  Kaylee was the first to wake at 4:30 am, and decided to belt out Disney show tunes, to the annoyance of every other girl in the ward.  Food prep, testimony meeting, skits, and how many camp songs did they learn....?

Gone Fishing

Ryan was invited to go fishing with the scouts Wednesday night, and said he would only go if he could take the girls.  Emma is gone at Girl's Camp, so it was just the younger 3.  They caught a fish for each of them.  Here's what's left after Ryan cleaned them up.

 And cooked up:

They weren't very big, but we sure enjoyed them.

Splash Pictures

We were invited to our bishop's house to play in his pool this evening.  We had the pool to ourselves to jump and splash to our heart's content.

Nesting Again

Mama Turkey has been laying eggs again.  Instead of being by our neighbor's barn this time, she chose the raspberry bushes.  

I told them to clean their rooms...

I thought the laundry had been on the light side lately.  Looks like they were saving up for me.

Oy vey.

Girl's Camp Prep

 Emma was packing and getting ready for her very first year of Girl's Camp, when I came upstairs to check on her.  I found all of the girls in Emma's room.  I think they are all going to miss Emma.

Emma is so excited.  I think she has been counting down the days since the end of school.

Celebrating Dad

As today was Father's Day, we let Ryan choose his dinner.  He wanted macaroni salad and hot dogs.  

 He also got to choose the Sunday night family movie- The Princess Bride.  Can you believe he'd never seen it before he met me?

Pacific Crest Trail

For Father's Day, Ryan really wanted to hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail.  We aren't exactly equipped for the family to go on a overnight hike in the woods, so we opted for a day hike.  This one started at Lake Tipsoo at Mount Rainier, and provided some amazing vistas.  Sometimes I get lazy, and only take pictures with my cell phone.  Coming home and uploading our pictures on the computer, I am reminded how much better pictures our camera takes.  

 We couldn't sit or stand still for long.  The mosquitoes were so, so thick.  Bug spray did not keep those suckers away enough.  Although, I would guess we would have come home with many more bites without all that bug repellent we administered.

Beauty and the Beast

Everything this week led up to the big performance- the singing, the costume making, the rehearsal of lines, and, of course, the dramatics from dawn to dusk.  Emma landed a speaking part this year.  You know that super creepy guy who comes to haul Maurice away to the insane asylum?  Yah, him.  He has a name- Monsieur D'Arque.  My lovely 12 year old daughter got to be a creepy dude whose name sounds like Mr. Dark.

Annie and Maddie were candle sticks, and happy ones they were too.

 Emma's age group was walking on, and I could not for the life of me pick out my daughter.  I knew she was supposed to be wearing a black shirt/costume of some kind, and would be wearing a man's wig.  But I could. not. see. her.  Ryan found her and laughed at my stupidity.  But seriously, without the arrow below, could you?

 She was wearing a horrendous wig.  I never managed to get a really good photo of it, mostly because Emma ran off the stage as soon as the performance was done to take the thing off.  Think black colonial wig, with a pony tail all the way down her back.  Ryan wants one to go with his mullet wig.  It's that bad.

Elizabeth was much easier to spot.  She's sitting down:

You can tell Elizabeth spotted us too.  She's sporting a great smile.

And a better picture of Emma with the cast.  She has an awesome brown vest to go with the wig.  Emma got to be a male villager when not Monsieur D'Arque.

 Elizabeth's number- the Bonjour song at the beginning of Beauty and the Beast.

 Annie and Maddie's song was Be Our Guest.  The soon-to-be-1st graders were candlesticks and the 2nd graders were food.

And here's Monsieur D'Arque, looking very sinister in the long, black robe.

 And trying to haul Maurice to the Insane Asylum.

 The action was riveting.  Elizabeth's group was entranced.  (Elizabeth by this time had rearranged the stickers on her apron about 5 different times.

 Finale!

One last thing about this performance of Beauty and the Beast.  This has nothing to do with my kids, but it's worth remembering.  So, as the Beast lies dying on stage, Belle says, "I love you," when the Beast suddenly gets up, leaves, and is replaced by a much shorter boy (Ben A who is from church) who lies down flat for about 3 seconds.  Belle is still weeping, and Ben sits up, stands up, and tells Belle, "It's me!"  Belle gets up and has to look way, way down to see that this smaller boy is indeed her true love.  They stare awkwardly into each other's eyes, and fist bump.  No pretend kisses for this crowd!  Ryan loved it.  He thinks we should tell our kids that fist bumps are appropriate displays of affection at least until the end of high school.  We'll see how well that goes over.

Dress Up Days

Drama Camp has been this week, easing us into summer vacation.  Sometimes we get a bit cranky when big changes come, so I was glad for the chance for the girls to see friends and have something to do for half of the day.  

Monday was "favorite costume day."

 Obviously the kids are practicing their dramatics.

 Maddie- a mom, Annie- princess, Elizabeth- a fashion model, Emma- an artist

 Tuesday was pj day.

 Wednesday was crazy day.  Frankly the kids were a lot less crazy than years past.

Then this picture I took to illustrate how almost every day is "crazy day" at our house.  These are examples of perfectly acceptable outfits for the everyday wear, in the eyes of Annie and Maddie.  Some days I think the kids are going to be appalled at the outfits I let them wear.  But they pick out their clothes, and they think they look nice.  What can I say to that?

Summer Time

With all of our raspberries, I feel like I need to do plenty of baking.  I've made a few batches of freezer jam already, several pies, and then this is my latest delicious excuse to eat raspberries:

 They are Raspberry Cheesecake Crumb bars, recipe found here.  If you like cheesecake, I highly recommend checking it out.  Just a note- I added some spoonfuls of raspberry freezer jam in addition to the fresh raspberries.  I took a batch with us to a Spanish Branch (church) activity, and they seemed to be a hit.  I've also made these with blackberries.  Mmmmm.  Speaking of which, I think we are only a couple of weeks away from blackberry season.  We will be swimming in berries.

I came across Maddie and Emma playing a game of checkers and listening to music today.

It made me smile.

Play Time

We are so excited for summer free time!  Today we spent a couple of hours at a friend's house playing.  The kids came up with something that mine probably would not have come up with on their own:

 Double-decker swinging!

We were actually invited over to play in the pool.  There were 5 families worth of kids in the backyard, so there was plenty of running around and noise.  Once again though, Emma was the oldest kid there.  She is tired of that.  Good thing Girls Camp is next week.

I thought Elijah was tough/brave having Elizabeth sit on his shoulders.  She is an entire year and two days older than he is.