Ice Cream It Is.....

Ainsley has shown a real interest in cooking lately.  She always wants to help bake, cook, and make her own food.  I haven't been very good at encouraging this.  Partly because it's not very advantageous to me.  I usually end up with a large mess...and we all know how I hate messes!  Today Ains was begging to make cookies and I remembered how recently a friend of mine had written on her blog that her 7 year old daughter made cookies all by her self.  So I decided to push aside my hatred of messes and let her have at it.  I told her that if she would clean up after herself she could make her beloved cookies all by herself.  And so she did.  She worked for a VERY long time to get her cookies ready to go in the oven. She had a few questions along the way but was figuring out everything quite well, even considering she was doubling the recipe!  When time came to put the cookies on the cookie sheets I swiped a bite of the dough.  Something was wrong.  Very wrong.  We read over the recipe and tried to find the mistake.  We eventually realized that instead of adding 1 1/2 tsp of baking soda she had added 1 1/2 C. of baking soda.  1 1/2 CUPS!!!!  The dough was so, so very bad.  We dumped it in the garbage immediately.  We would have started over but we were out of Crisco.  So now we sit cookie-less and messy.  Props to Ains for trying, and for doing an appropriate amount of cleaning for a 9 year old!  But it looks like ice cream will be the treat tonight!

McCall 2013

We made a summer bucket list and have been busy crossing things off of our list.  This week we worked diligently and were able to check off camping in the back yard, floating the Boise River, making homemade ice cream, and a day trip to McCall.  I didn't dare take our camera on the river when we floated it for fear it would get ruined.  And it's a good thing I didn't because we got soaked, but we all had fun.  The kids camped in the back yard with their cousins and we made dutch oven cobbler and ice cream with all the kids.  We were busy!  And on Saturday we headed up to McCall with my parents and Kort and Dan's family.

We started the morning with some canoeing.  We drove to the far side of Payette lake and rented canoes that you can paddle up river for up to 7 miles of calm water.  It ended up being me and John's favorite part of the day.  We were out on our boats for 2 hours.  We were able to stop and play in the water...everyone was brave enough to take a dip in the COLD river water. The water and the scenery were great. 

Then we headed to the beach for some fun. The kids played in the sand and water for hours.  When we all realized we were starving we cleaned up and headed to The Pancake House for dinner.  Most people are tricked into thinking it's just a good breakfast place.  But in my opinion a pancake is a pancake. So while the kids enjoyed their HUGE plate sized pancakes and huckleberry syrup I enjoyed my battered fries and burger on a homemade bun!  We drove home full and happy.  I love our little get-aways to McCall.  It was a perfect day.  I only wish I would have taken more pictures!

Happy 4th!

Our Fourth of July has been spent the same way for years now.  A big breakfast at my parents, followed by lots of swimming, followed by a trek down to the park for fireworks.  This year we mixed it up a bit because Ainsley's friend Heidi invited her to walk in the parade downtown.  I've never been in a parade, sad I know.  And I didn't want to deprive Ains of this opportunity.  So to the parade we went to watch Ains, get all patriotic, and get candy .  We found a great spot in the shade and on the grass...score!  And then we enjoyed the show. 

 

Our favorite part of the parade (other than Ainsley of course) was the shirtless biker that rode by.  He seriously seemed to be part of the parade and was following the path and speed of other parade participants.  Not sure what his point was but we appreciated his participation. 

 Owen was especially impressed.

But the bagpipes were pretty good too.

We went home for lunch and then filled the rest of the day with lots of swimming, home made ice cream and slushies, ribs, and of course our trek downtown to Ann Morrison park for the fireworks. But we only took pictures of the parade.  Because we forgot our camera.  Lucky you!