Raspberries

Seth loves raspberries.  This time I let him try to feed himself...

(He did have a bib on, but Anika took it off.  It was COVERED in raspberry!)

So happy in raspberry up to his elbows.

You should have heard the sound he made while pulling this face.

Ha ha

Anika dancing...

....in the outfit she chose.

Anika's First Day of School!

Anika started preschool!  I know she might be a little young, but we are both ready :)

Finishing her banana.

My camera is still broken so we had a little photo shoot with my sister's much nicer camera

(although I still don't take good pictures).  I didn't really pose her for the pictures.

Most of them are her interpretation of my instructions :)

She goes Tuesday and Thursday for 1 1/2 hours and she LOVES it!

I already forgot the first show-and-tell, but thankfully she had been scrambling around putting

dried leaves and some grass in her bag while I was trying to corral her into the car.  I dropped

her off and the teacher asked me if I had remembered.  First I was bummed, but then I suggested

that maybe she could show her leaves.  When I went to pick her up the teacher told me that

Anika had been very excited to show her leaves and grass.

After we got home we called and talked to Dad/Nathaniel.  She very excitedly and

articulately told him all about it:  ABC's, songs, books, popcorn.

Smile?

She is 5-6 months younger than the other 3 children participating but she fits in well
and will be in the same year of school as them anyway.  It is a neighborhood co-op
so each mom teaches for two weeks at a time, four times.

El Cabin

We went to the good ol' cabin in Star Valley.

My camera is currently broken so these are the only pics I have (so far?) from my sister.

Our first annual water fight.

There are four coolers full of water balloons surrounding a sprinkler.

You had to run into/under the sprinkler to get your ammo.

Emma and I chasing Dave

A couple of grandkids going after Granda

Notice Anika throwing a balloon at Emily (on the left) in the next two pictures.

Good form, Anika

Anika is throwing a balloon at Emily again.  You can see me getting my dad on the right.
The balloons mostly bounced off of people, so I started squeezing the balloon as I threw
it so it would break.  You can see the water in action.

Anika getting Emily yet again...

... less effective.

I'm pretty sure Emily wanted me to put these pictures in too.

Nathaniel's Savory Zucchini Bread

Savory Zucchini Bread

We sure have had a lot of zucchini lately, and we've been getting increasingly adventurous with ways to use it.  Nathaniel wanted to try out a savory zucchini bread.  There's probably a recipe out there, but he just made this up, and it was really tasty:

1.5 cups warm water
1 T yeast
2 T sugar
Let sit for a couple of minutes (proof the yeast)
1 T salt
~2 cups grated zucchini
0.5 package of cream cheese
2 T dehydrated onion flakes
0.5 cups shredded carrot
2 t dill seed
1 egg
1 clove minced garlic
~7 cups flour

Mix it all up,
let it rise for 90 minutes,
split into 2 bread pans
let 'em rise another 30 minutes
bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes
It turned out really tasty, but the next time I make this, I'm going to adjust a few things - probably reduce the water to 1 or 1.25 cups, and I think some sun-dried tomatoes would be really good in it.

Anika's Prayer

About a month ago Anika started hi-jacking our prayers.  We would start

praying and she would jump in with one of her two prayers.  Her prayers

had the usual beginning and ending.  In the middle she was either

"grapeful" (grateful) or gave "hanks" (thanks) for "this day" or "this to eat."

Yesterday she surprised us with new content prayer during dinner:

"...Hanks for eating our breakfast.  Hanks for playing at Conner's house.

Hanks for taking me to the playground..."

and another couple lines I couldn't remember :(

It was very cute.