School's out!!!

School was out for Princess B on Tuesday and it's been crafts and swimming ever since.

This week B learned to swim down to the bottom of the pool and get the dive rings:



We made fireworks the other day--with cupcake liners, paper, paint and markers.


I found the idea here
(We didn't have black paper, so we did it on white and Princess B decorated the sky later)
These were mine:


She saw an infomercial for these Bendaroos. a few weeks ago and it seemed like fun--so I ordered them
She spent 2 hours yesterday afternoon creating things.
The first thing she made was for her brother (awwww).
Knowing he likes Spiderman, she made him a "mask" and a Spider which she put on his bedroom wall.


She made flowers,

bunnies
(This she modelled after a bunny from a Japanese craft book)



birds and more!

Today, my sister, BIL and nephew are coming to camp for the Family Camp week--so we are going to be out there and back every day.
A summer of fun indeed!

:)

Summer's here!

(The first 3 Strawberries from our garden)

Well, maybe not officially summer, but it feels like it.
Hubby did a super fast, super easy opening of the pool this year--which is great since we've had some really sticky days already.
Princess B is excited to come home from school and swim before and after supper.



Little man has been taking swimming lessons (A Birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa)--and is using some of his new skills (floating, gliding, swimming on his own)

Start of summer also means Soccer season!. Soccer us HUGE in this area (Hockey is big in the winter, but in the summer--Soccer is it)

Princess B is playing in the under 7 league and is very excited to play for the McDonald's team (Free ice cream cones, dontcha' know)


Little man is not playing this year, but gets very excited to put on his soccer shirt and cheer as loud as he can. He also likes rolling around on the grass!



I've also been Knitting (again, I can't show pictures--so that is really boring), and making stuff.

Oh wait, I can show a picture of this:



It's a little Knitted Acorn bag that I test knit for a fellow Plurkie (Plurk is like Twitter but WAY cooler--Twitter makes no sense to me, I cant follow the conversations. Plurk is laid out like conversations and e-mail--all the responses stay together. I 've been on it for a year and have made friends, sold stuff from my Etsy store by posting there first--test knit stuff, etc etc--Join, it's way cool)

So, this Acorn bag is a cute little project bag that you can take your knitting along in--space for a skein of sock yarn, needles etc--Cute little handle on the top!


So, Erin should be releasing the pattern soon--You can see her pattern specs on Rav here


I've made a lot of bread lately, and some homemade yogurt from this tutorial.
I'm not a fan of plain yogurt (I find it too sour)but I can eat this plain--it's that good.
I've mixed some with strawberries and I love it!



So that's what I've been making....(My brain has so many ideas lately, no time and/or hours to do the things I want)


Oh--I have made some soap for the first time in a long time.
The bug hit me one day and I whipped up a batch of Bamboo/Teak scented soap.
(It sounds strange--but I have a Bamboo air freshener that smells so light and fresh that I wanted to find a soap scent to match).

It's naturally coloured with Chlorophyll and smells divine!
:)

Dear blog:

I love you, but I don't have a lot to say.

I have test knitting which I can't show you yet.
I have not been doing much other than sleep and/or try to catch up on laundry (if I do laundry every day, why do we still have more?)

I will feed you pictures of bread:

This morning's bread---yummy (Basic Boule with some Rosemary thrown in the batter)


I tried this egg/toast combo that was posted on the Bread Book site here:


Thoughts: Next time, my dough needs to be smaller and thinner--mine was thick and ended up like soft bread (I am not complaining!).

I had to cook it a bit longer and ended up cranking the oven up to 400 (I was preheating for bread also).
It was really good and a nice way to get an egg in for breakfast!


One day a couple of weeks ago, Princess B wanted cinnamon buns (the ones from the store with the frosting you pour over)--but I knew I could make better.

I didn't end up using a recipe from the book for this, as I didn't want to make up a new batch of dough.
I used my Step-Mom's amazing sticky bun recipe (from a sourdough starter) and added both cinnamon and chocolate chips (It comes with it's own syrupy-yummy addictive sticky sauce)

(Contrary to popular thought--that is not a sugar bun with sauteed mushrooms)


I have use the pizza dough recipe:


and the Vermont Cheddar (No pictures as we pretty much devoured it when it came out of the oven)

I've also made a baguette (hmmm no pictures of that one either..)

So, the bread is amazing, I am in love with the book.
AND AND AND They are developing a new book full of healthy recipes, gluten free breads etc.

:)

Oh, and in case you want to try out the basic bread, I found this youtube video which gives the basic recipe.

Enjoy!!

(Oh, and the amazing Chef/Baker who Co-Authored the book commented on my blog a few posts back!!!)