daily glimpses

Summer Fun

Here's a couple pics of the kids from last Friday. We went to the YMCA Birthday BBQ. They had lots of activities for the kids - including face painting, which was a big hit. :) Andrew was excited to be a kitty - even after I tried to convince him he was a lion. lol I took all the pictures when I got home because I didn't bring my camera with us.

That last picture of Hannah cracks me up - she looks way chubbier than she is, but I got the picture of her teeth that I've been wanting. Her top teeth that came in first were on the sides, so for 2 months now it has looked like she has fangs. lol

One more picture of Maegan from yesterday. She got this dress in the mail from Grandma Grendell.

tagged

I was tagged by Jodi so here it goes....

3 joys: my family, my friends, my faith, and hobbies (yes more than 3)

Fears: someone I love dying, finding a dead body and that my children won't make good choices when they're older.

Goals: lose weight (why is this always a goal of mine?), keep a cleaner house, get my photography business going again (I pretty much put it on hold the past 18 months)

Obsessions: scrapbooking stuff, taking pictures, Twlight series. lol

Suprise facts: I went skydiving in college. Ummmm....is it sad that I can't think of two more?! :(

I tag Laura, Holly and Nicole. :)

summer salads

When the heat gets going and you dont' feel like cooking, it's time for a nice cool summer salad. Unfortunately, I don't have many recipes for these. So I am hoping you can help! I'll post my favorite and I would love if you could post yours in the comments. I'm sure we all could use some good ones.

This is one that I love!!! I make it for big family gatherings because a) it's really tasty. lol b) it makes a lot and goes a long way. It would be perfect to bring to that 4th of July BBQ you're going to tomorrow.

Frog Eye Salad

1 1/3 Cup acini di pepe pasta, uncooked
2 cans (11 oz each) mandarin oranges, drained
20 oz. pineapple chunks or tidbits, in juice, undrained
1 3/4 Cup milk
8 oz tub of cool whip (I use the lite or free version, you can't even tell)
1/4 Cup sugar
1 (3 oz) package instant vanilla pudding (use the small size. I use a 1oz pgk of sugar free and it's very tasty)
8 oz can of crushed pineapple, drained
3 Cups mini marshmallows
1/2 cup coconut, flaked

Cook pasta according to directions, drain. Rinse with cold water to cool quickly, drain well. Drain juice from pineapple chunks, reserving 1/4 cup. In a large bowl, combine the reserved juice, milk, sugar and pudding mix. Beat well (about 1-2 minutes). Add pasta to mixture and stir gently. Allow to set for 10 minutes. Add crushed pineapple and chunks, oranges, and 2 Cups of whipped topping (I prefer to add all of the cool whip at this time than save some for the top.), marshmallows, and coconut. Mix gently and thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate until cold. Top with remaining cool whip if you like. Makes 12 servings, one cup each.

Note: Sometimes I have a hard time locating the acini di pepe pasta. It is made by Ronzini and it looks like this....

You'll find it in the pasta isle - some stores carry it, some don't. I've found it at Winco and Top Foods recently. They're super tiny round pieces of pasta and when they cook up, I guess people think they look like frog eye's - lol. Good way to sell it to kids.  :)

I hope to read some good recipes from all of you :)

sunny days....

This past week was just beautiful! Warm and sunny. Thursday we went to join some friends at the park and run around and play before naptime. :) I took my camera along to play along. Here's a couple of my favs from that day.
Hannah is starting to get braver and wants to go exploring a little more. She loves walking anywhere we will let her. I just love her sunny personality - she truly lights up our family.

This is Andrew's friend, Brooke. He loves to play with her. He is so excited that they have swimming lessons at the Y this session together.

Cierra is one of Maegan's friends that she loves to spend time with. They always have a good time. She's always willing to ham it up for my camera :)

Maegan loves to play on the playground equipment. She always wants to slide down those poles and go on the monkey bars, but she's still a little scared to do it. This is a little neighborhood park, so she gave it a try this time. She was very proud of herself. She even hung from the monkey bars which is a big step for her.

Andrew was there too, but he was too busy to slow down enough for me to take his picture. That shouldn't surprise any of you. lol

Matthew spent all week at Cub Scout Day Camp and had a great time going each day. His favorite activities were Archery and shooting the BB Guns. of course!

Blondies

Do you ever watch Everyday Baking? It's a spin off from Everyday Food. I really enjoy watching it - not only do they have really tasty recipes, but I also enjoy watching because they explain why things are added or why you have to do things in a particular way - it helps in other recipes once you understand some of those things. Anyways, I saw the episode earlier in the week with the recipe for this one......Yummy! I made them 2x this week. Once to test to see if they were good. The second time to have for my scrapbook night I did last night with some friends. They are quick and easy and make less than a batch of cookies if you just need a smaller treat.

Blondies

1 stick unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing of pan

½ C packed light brown sugar

1/3 C sugar

1 lg egg

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 C flour (spooned and leveled)

1 tsp. Salt

1 C semisweet chocolate chips

1 C chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.      Brush an 8-inch square baking pan with a piece of parchment paper, leaving      a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Butter paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk butter      and sugars until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix      just until moistened (do not overmix). Fold in ½ cup each chocolate chips      and walnuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Sprinkle with      remaining chocolate chips and walnuts.
3. Bake until top is golden      brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 40 to 45      minutes. Set pan on a wire rack, and let cool completely. Using parchment      overhang, lift cake from pan and transfer to a cutting board; cut in 16      squares. Store blondies in an airtight container at room temperature, up      to 2 days.

summer is here....

the kids had their last day of school this week. They are very excited. We're enjoying the lack of schedule and early mornings this week, but then next week we're going to come up with some kind of system to keep ourselves a little busy and get out of the house once in awhile. I'm on a mission to scope out new parks and photo ops. :)

Here's a picture of Matthew from a couple of weeks ago - I know he'll be spending a lot of time doing this now that the weather had finally decided to warm up and dry out. :)

I am going to have to join him next week - I need to finish reading The Host - I have just not had the time lately and it started slow for me, but now I'm a good 125 pages in and it's picking up. :)

If you haven't already - check out the new design at Once Upon A Design - we have new established designs. :) They would make awesome wedding presents this summer!

hidden beauty

This little nest and egg were hidden in a planter at my Grandma's house. I wonder how many other beautiful things do we pass by each day that go unnoticed?

layout shares

I had a really fun time with the theme for this month's Garden.....being inspired by advertising. Here are two of the ones that I did. :)



Copyright of Two Peas In A Bucket .

can't wait until tomorrow?

Tomorrow the special edition of Eclipse comes out tomorrow. It has the first chapter of the next book in it. But if you don't want to wait quite that long......you're in luck!

Here's a sneak peak at chapter one of Breaking Dawn (Twilight series book #4). Just click here, it's not long, but it's something. :)

sew cute and sew grateful

cheesy blog post title? yes, but it couldn't be helped. lol I had bought this fabric to make a quilt for Hannah last fall - and it fell into that pile of "going to do soon" then to the pile of "going to do someday". You know the one. My mom was on a sewing kick a couple of weeks ago and offered to sew it up for me. You don't pass offers like that up so I brought all the fabric down to my mom's and she sewed it up one afternoon! I adore how it turned out and Hannah seems to love it too. I had to go out and take her picture on it right away because the colors (and my favorite part which you can't see in the picture is the jumbo brown ric-rac around the edges!!) were just so fun. Thanks Mom!!!