My Sweetheart is 4!!!

Today is my Sweetie's 4th birthday! I can't believe she is 4 already! We had a nice day celebrating with family after church for her and my brother, who also has his birthday today. We forgot the camera though, so we didn't get too many pictures today.

Yesterday my grandparents came over to wish her happy birthday.

This morning she was so excited to open her presents! She loves ballet, so we gave her a tutu and ballet shoes. Except for church, she hasn't taken them off all day!

She also got some new babies and a sling to carry them in.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart! We pray that God blesses you with many more happy ones!

Finally!

Finally, a day warm enough to play in the water! We got out the pool today and the kids loved it! They played in it all afternoon and even wanted me to let them go back in after dinner. Hopefully this weather sticks around for our camping next week!

Tasty Tuesday - Berry Delicious Tart!

Since the weather hasn't been cooperating, we aren't going camping this week. With all the rain we've had we haven't been able to get in the fields to chop the grass or replant the corn field, so we are post-poning our camping for a week. Hopefully the rain will let up enough for us to get everything done this week. Since we are home I thought I would share another recipe with you. I tried this one a couple weeks ago and Mark says it is his new favorite dessert so I know it is a good one!

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup cold butter
1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened mixed berries, thawed and drained

Topping:
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cold butter

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine flour and 1/3 cup sugar; cut in butter until crumbly. Press onto the bottom and 1 in. up the sides of a greased 9-in. springform pan.
Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.
Spread jam over crust. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and remaining sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla; beat on low speed just until combined. Pour over jam; sprinkle with berries.
In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, oats and flour; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over filling.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 30 minutes longer. Serve warm or cold.

Linked to: Smockity Frocks

My Little Cooks!

Buddy and Sweetheart love to help me out in the kitchen when I am making something. When I saw this cute apron tutorial at Skip to My Lou, I thought that would be a good project to try next on my sewing machine. Except I didn't have any dishtowels that size or bias tape on hand. I have a bunch of material stored away from a project that never happened, so I thought I could just use that and some ribbon that I had instead. I just folded the ribbon in half, ironed it, and then sewed in on similar to the bias tape. My first one was really too long for Sweetie, so I shortened up the second and I think they both fit pretty well!

Now my little cooks are begging me to bake things everyday so they can put on their aprons and help me!

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Rain Rain Go Away!

It has been raining here for months! OK, maybe not literally months, but it sure has felt like it. I wish summer would hurry up and get here. Every once in a while we've had a sunny day, but so far it hasn't lasted long. We need some sun soon before all the corn fields rot and so we can get our grass in again. Even with all the rainy days, we have been keeping pretty busy around here. The kids have been doing a lot of reading lately and I think it is so cute watching them sit together and listen to a story on tape. We officially finished up our school at the end of May but the kids still want me to find things for them to do, so they are still practicing a lot of what they've learned. I have been busy trying to clean out and sort through all the supplies I've collected for school and am starting to get things ready for the fall. We finally decided to go with My Father's World curriculum, so I have been going through that and planning what we need. Buddy is easily ready for the 1st grade curriculum and Sweetie for the Kindergarten one, so we will work through those. Since it is actually a grade ahead for each of what their ages are, I'm not too worried if we get behind for a while once the baby arrives. I know they are both still ahead of where they need to be. Last week we took a day to celebrate the start of summer vacation and took the kids to a nearby wave pool. They loved it and had so much fun!
Buddy has been working very hard on his Tae Kwon Do lessons lately too. He is much more focused and excited about what he is learned since he moved up to the older kids' class. He even started going to the sparring classes to practice what he learns on an opponent. He now has a bunch of pads and equipment to wear for that and he carries his bag of it around every where. He even sleeps with it at night!
We have been working at cleaning out the guest room for Sweetie this week to make room for the new baby. She is so excited to paint it and move all her stuff in, but I'm not sure if she will ever be able to settle on what color she wants! She is also getting excited for her birthday in a few weeks. I can't believe she is going to be 4 already!
My Lovebug is getting over a nasty cold this week. His nose has been constantly running and I think he was just feeling miserable, so I am glad he is finally feeling better. He also used his little training potty for the first time this week! I've been letting him sit on it once in a while and he was pretty excited when he finally went in it. Afterwards, we all gave him high-fives and got really excited for him, so now if he is ever in the bathroom when I am using, he says "Yay!" and gives me high fives.
In a week and a half, we are going to head out camping for the week, so next week we will be busy getting everything packed up. Hopefully the rain will have stopped by then and we don't have a soggy vacation!
Well, if you made it through my long post, thanks for sticking with me and hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Tasty Tuesday - Chewy Granola Bars

I love granola bars and have been trying out a few homemade recipes for them, but none have quite turned out the way I want. Until now, that is. I have finally found a recipe that I love as much as store bought chewy granola bars.

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups quick rolled oats
1 cup + 2 Tbsp Sticky Bun Sugar (see note farther down)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup oat flour (or 1/3 cup quick oats, processed till finely ground in a food processor or blender)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional
2 to 3 cups dried fruits and nuts (I used raisins, craisins, chocolate chips, coconut, sunflower seeds, and pecans)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey, maple syrup or corn syrup
1 tablespoon water

Note about Sticky Bun Sugar: You can substitute 3/4 cup granulated sugar + 2 tablespoons light corn syrup + 2 tablespoons melted butter for the sticky bun sugar. And yes, you'll still add the additional granulated sugar and butter as called for in the recipe.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan. Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit and nuts. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted butter or oil, syrup or honey, and water. Toss the wet ingredients with the dry until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Spread in the prepared pan, shaking the pan to evenly cover the bottom and patting down gently. Bake the bars for 25 to 30 minutes, until they're golden brown around the edges. Remove them from the oven, loosen the edges, and cool for 5 minutes. Use a knife (or bench knife) to cut the bars while they're still warm in the pan. Carefully remove warm bars from the pan, and cool on a rack. Alternatively, remove from the pan before cutting into bars; it helps to cut in half first, then loosen the bottom of each half with a turner/spatula before turning out onto a sheet of parchment to cut into bars. Wrap bars individually to store; or place in a single layer on a plate, and cover with plastic; or store in layers with parchment in between. In humid weather, it's best to store bars in the refrigerator. They also freeze well.

I found that after letting them cool for 5 minutes, mine were too crumbly to remove from the pan, so I just cut them up and let them cool completely in the pan and they still turned out great.

Enjoy and please let me know your favorite recipe so I can try it out!