Taste Tested

Feta Black Bean Dip - it's wonderful

Swimming Lessons

The last night of swimming lessons was last night and parents were allowed to watch and take pictures.

The boys were so proud of what they could do and I was kind of emotional thinking of how far they have come this year. Last summer the teacher had to bribe Brady to put his face in the water. This year he is diving off the board and perfecting his front crawl.

The lessons are "progressive" and most of the time Brady and Brett just had 1 or 2 other kids in their group - each going at their own pace. It was nice.

(She is counting to 3 really loud to him (below) so he will know how long to float :)

And then we celebrated at Baskin Robbins. . . .

Swimming lessons

I don't have any pics of the actual swimming lessons because this year the parents have been asked to STAY AWAY so the kids can concentrate. . . . . but the boys have been doing great (passing several levels) and we have 2 days left.

Brady has really enjoyed playing with Jake, a boy on Brady's summer baseball team that will also be going to BJF, after lessons, and Brett has been able to play with Serena, Sandy's granddaughter (while Brady goes and chats with Sandy. . . .Sandy took care of the boys from 8 weeks - 4 years)





They are very cute with each other.

New Favorite "Restaurant"

Grandma and Grandpa Stockwell came up Sunday and took us out to lunch. When they asked the boys where they wanted to go, they said "HyVee!" They were very surprised, but we loaded up and went to HyVee for their Chinese and salad bar. Everyone thought it was great :)

Taste Tested

Saturday night I tried some new recipes. . . . .

Bacon Cheeseburger pie - it was good and easy and made itself a permanent place in my recipe box. I will definitely add some things to it next time though - cut up dill pickles, maybe more ketchup. You could also do a pizza version and add pepperoni/green peppper and use pizza sauce instead of ketchup. Yum!

We went to the farmer's market Saturday morning and got some peaches to make Peach ice cream. They were Georgia peaches - I didn't know what I was buying until I got home and cut up the extra peaches to make fruit salad. HEAVEN. Seriously, I was trying to divide them up equally for everyone. On the way home from church Sunday Brady asked when we were going to the farmer's market again to get peaches and decided he should confess that after dinner Saturday he went into the kitchen and ate the rest of the cut up peaches. Too funny. Making the ice cream mix was kind of funny too because the boys were napping so I went outside to use the food chopper and mixer and it started pouring on me, but we got it done! Brett was pretty proud that we made homemade ice cream.

And we made some of these to go along with it - it was obviously not a healthy eating day. :) These were not as good as my favorite chocolate chip cookies - and we definitely didn't need a pan of brownies, along with the cookies! - but they were still pretty tasty.

College Basketball Experience

Ed's office held their "summer outing" at the College Basketball Experience last night and it was a lot of fun. It is such a neat place - when you go up the elevator you feel like you're in a huddle getting ready for a game because a coach is talking. And then the hallway leading into it has pics/videos from great moments in college games flashing.

Inside there are all kinds of basketball stations and a gym.

Another reason to proudly display the 5X Corporate Challenge Sign!

Rainbow Pudding Pops

We made these over the weekend and they were a hit! I even messed up and got "cook and serve" pudding instead of instant, but it didn't matter (just made it and let it cool for a minute before we added food coloring).

Brady's testimonial - "We are TOTALLY making these again!"