Some pictures from this week

With no plans yet made for my day, I've spent the morning just playing around on the computer. I thought I'd post some pictures from this week that I'd taken on my phone.

Jonathan took me on a date last Friday, we played a round of miniature golf and then bought the largest bucket of golf balls we could get and practiced our very poor golf swing till our arms were tired. LOL

Jade was invited to a gymnastics birthday party on Sunday. I'm thinking I need to sign her up for Gymnastics, the girl was going wild! Here she is getting ready to jump into the pit full of foam blocks

and the action shot

Cutter is in a silly stage of discovery. Jade has a toy egg that he found and attempted to keep on his head while running across the living room.

"see mom, it's half an egg"

he found walking kept it on his head, but running made it fall off.

Jade in all her fabulous-ness

Showing Cutter how she can balance the egg on her head on one foot! She's amazing;)
Monday I got to watch a friends two children. The two girls spent the entire day playing together and while the boys were very different in age...they too spent the day together. Here Kameron is teaching his very eager student about the tiny piano

snack time feeding. I may need to hire Kameron out from now on, he kept Cutter happily distracted most of the day!

I recently started buying free range, farm fresh, eggs from a friend of mine. She was short an egg in the dozen I bought from her on Sunday. Her husband said they'd give me an extra egg this week "but let me know if you get a double yolk...cause then we won't need too" (joking) and what do you know...I got a double yolk!! hahaha!
So there ya have it.

Watermelon!

I know I posted these pics on Facebook already, but they are so sweet I had to post them on here to. Plus, we've had so few sunny days this summer...and it's another rainy one today...I needed to post something to remind me that I do love living in Washington.

Cutter enjoying his little slice of heaven

Jade says watermelon is one of her favorite things

sheer bliss

My cannoli's

I made cannoli's a few years ago for a friends get together. They turned out "okay" but nothing fabulous. This time around I did a lot of searching for a really good cannoli recipe (which I found) and I borrowed my friends pasta maker for perfectly rolled dough (same thickness all around). My dough came out perfectly and the pasta maker was a dream to work with!
the cannoli's were for an International potluck event at our church, I made 40 bite sized cannoli's (the recipe below I just doubled and it was more then enough)
every last one of my cannoli's were gobbled up before I could sit down and enjoy my dinner (at the potluck), so lucky for me I had extra pastry dough at home to make more for myself and friends.

cannolismakes 16 servings.

shells2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 eggs plus 2 yolks
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup marsala
1 egg white, beaten
oil, for frying

filling1 lb whole milk ricotta, drained
3 Tbsp confectioner’s sugar
1/4 lemon, juiced (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
mini chocolate chips (optional)

1. make the shells: place the flour mixer. In a separate bowl mix eggs, yolks, butter and marsala, pour into flour and mix on low for just a few minutes. Dough should be smooth and moist. let rest, covered with a damp cloth, about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. roll the dough very thin and cut into 4-inch circles or which ever size you wish (I used a biscuit cutter for small cannoli's)

2. loosely wrap the dough circles around the cannoli tubes and seal the overlap with beaten egg white. deep fry at 325F until golden brown. remove from oil and carefully slide off the tubes. cool on a wire rack.

3. for the filling, drain the ricotta in a cheesecloth-lined colander in the refrigerator for at least an hour (overnight works best). whip in the confectioner’s sugar with a fork. just adding sugar keeps the ricotta flavor very pure, but for a more varied flavor, add the lemon juice and vanilla.

4. in a pasty bag (or a sandwich bag with the corner snipped), pipe the filling into the shells just before serving. sprinkle with chocolate chips and serve!

My kiddos

The past few mornings jade has been entertaining the newly "put in a booster seat at the table" Cutter with funny antics, quotes from her favorite films and has really put in an effort to teach him how to speak "Say STRAW-BERRY...strawberry!". I decided to film some of it this morning to share with you all