Strawberry Banana Ice Cream

The ice cream maker is defining our Summer.  The Summer of Ice Cream. New flavors and combos are ever floating around in my head.  But this week I've put the ice cream maker on the shelf while we clear out the freezer of all the the batches of the last few weeks.  Tonight was strawberry and banana, and what a perfect combo they were together :)

And I particularly think it's a good day when there are far too many good photos to have time to edit them all, and there's far too much sticky goo all over my child to easily be cleaned up.

The Festival

...in the park is just what you'd expect - lights, rides, deep fried food and kids running in every direction. It was in fact her first time on a ride, and after careful consideration - we decided it was worth buying over-priced ride tickets to let her see how she like the whole thing - and wouldn't ya know, it was the most excited and happy I think we've ever seen her.

The first ride, the safest looking of the bunch - a handful of colorful cars underneath a striped canopy filled with blinking bulbs, the smile on her face couldn't have been wider, the laughes, just complete joy.  So much so that we rode this one 3 times :)

 And maybe a little more questionable, this was her first try at a roller coaster.  Joy, not nearly that of the car ride.  Her face as the dragon rounded the corner and bopped over the hills was that of possible puking. Luckily this was a short and sweet ride and she escaped unscathed and ready to head on to the next spot.

One of our last stops was the Silly House that I walked through, pretty much holding her the entire time.  Far too treacherous for a toddler, but of course the ticket man wasn't going to say so :)  But again, lesson learned and next time we'll just stick with the carousel and beepy cars.  It was, dare I say, sort of a magical evening in the park.  The happiness on her face and excitement was more than enough proof that these are what summer days should be like and that I hope we create again and again for her.

11 hometown parade

Once again the yearly tradition of heading back to my hometown, to sit on the same curb I have for every year of my life... in front of my uncle, now brother's, house.  It's this perfect spot, a block from the park where the parade ends and everyone gathers for the town festival.  But first, the parade. 

 It seems like forever before the parade starts, all waiting patiently for the first firetruck to round the corner. We can always hear them coming a mile away.

 But when the mix of floats, bands, and candy come parading our way it's all smiles where we sit. There's enough candy tossed to rival Halloween, and the sirens and band are quite entertaining. Mucho thanks to my dad for the best watch dog, keeping Josie firmly on the curb rather than running through the street for all that candy!

 



Firecracker 5k

 Bright and early, this one was! The morning was cool but sunny and so much fun pulling up and seeing hundreds of fellow runners ready to go. Josie and my mom came along to cheer us on, and by US I mean me and Ed! I should have known, even though Ed's not a runner and was planning on the walk portion of the 5k "run/walk", he took off and never looked back - literally. Left me in his dust, but I didn't let it shake my determination to keep pace, keep breathing and finish strong.

This is me post finish line checking my time and so pleased with my best 31 minutes yet... love my nike+ gps sport watch, even with it's .03 mile inaccurate reading for today, grrr.  Today's finish felt great, I wasn't exhausted... although... I think Ed was ;)

I even forced a picture upon Marci (season 11 of The Biggest Loser), and was not ashamed to do so. I'm a fan of the show and was especially a fan of Marci and Courtney - they're from my hometown, and ironically, own the Dairy Queen in town, mmm a love of mine.

I'm thrilled I have a new 5k buddy in Ed, there are a few local ones coming up for the 4th weekend and I'm already planning the next one for us to 

Summer Lunch

 A "best" about summertime? Eating lunch outside, in our bathing suits, getting sticky and messy and not caring at all.

And just so you're all convinced I've gone off the deep end and transformed into Martha Stewart wanna be over here... the homemade jam is, as Joey from Friends would say, "mmmmm jaaaam!". I've said a 100 times, I'm not about to challenge Smuckers, they do a fine job, but I couldn't just COULDN'T get past the nagging urge to learn to can/jar something.

 And with the over abundance of pb&j sandwiches in my home these days, and the over abundance of to die for strawberries around these days... I gave it in and was surprised how much easier it was than I thought. And although hard to tell, you can see by the gunk all over Josie's lips and cheeks, the homemade jam is a winner.  I made ONLY a dozen, or so, jars to last the year... but blueberries are next, and I'm certain it's going to be even better that strawberry jam.

 

 

Purple Goggles

We may never have a dreamy inground, or above ground for that matter, pool - but we sure make the best out of a little kiddie pool with about 5" of water.  If you ask me, it's money well spent for endless hours of fun. 

On the last Target trip the goggles caught my eye.  Oh the photo opportunities that I knew would happen... and they sure delivered.  She thinks they're hysterical.  

I tried to teach her the concept of putting her head in the water to have a look around, but she mostly thought they felt funny and thus, lots of belly laughs while I laughed at her expressions.

 

 Just seeing them on her face makes me laugh a hard one, her round cheeks and gumball nose get a little squisy and in my humble opinion, just beyond adorable.



A Happy Father's Day

One of the best actually!  Just so happened, my dad's birthday fell on Father's day this year, so double the celebrations and guarantee that my brothers would drive out for the afternoon too.

 Happiest of birthday wishes to Popsie, the best one around!  He even shares his birthday cupcake with the munchkin, what a guy ;)

Any time my brother comes out and brings his dog, Josie is infatuated and is always going in for the kiss.  Luckily Bristol's spunk just about measures up to Josie's and they entertain each other for quite some time.  The afternoon was filled with some amazing food cooked up between my mom and me.  Days like today, back and forth from kitchen to kitchen and working hard at making beaten down path through my yard to their house are exactly what I imagined having them living next door would be like. 

And of course, happiest of Father's day having Ed home today from a week's trip and being home for a whole week this week HOORAY!  Made a special cookies and cream ice cream batch just for Ed... or at least I've deemed it so in efforts to keep my spoon out of the freezer.  Logged a good 4.5 mile effort this early morning, only to be defeated by strawberry rhubarb pie and homemade strawberry ice cream by evening.  A good day it was.

The Perfect Scoop

I'm not really sure, in hindsight, where I caught the ice cream bug... or the want to make it at least (because I've always loved ice cream), but the ice cream maker arrived last week and either I'm an ice cream genius or awesome homemade ice cream is really easy to do (i'm guessing the easy part is right).  Although I have put quite a bit if reading and research into to how it should properly be done, I can't help but make yet a 4th batch of a 4th flavor tonight. 

My first recipe was an adaptation of this adaptation from a David Leibovitz - author of The Perfect Scoop. I love the recipe so much that I bought the book and presently have peanutbutter cup and cookies and cream in the freezer ready for Father's Day weekend.  Back to the scoop at hand,  I had raspberries stocked in my fridge, rather than blackberries and I think raspberries worked even better.  My perfect scoop has to be creamy and rich, and boy does my ice cream maker and my choice of recipe sure deliver so far. 

My diet can't handle all this ice cream in my life, so I even bought white cardboard freezer treat cartons and whipped up a cute label so giving away the ice cream will be almost as enjoyable as eating it.  mmmm.  Ah, off for a 5miler run in a few minutes... this scoop of ice cream was totally worth it.

Running with the Horses...

I did it! Only a few weeks after hitting my running stride (4.1 miles around the "block"), my brother twisted my arm into running a 5k this past weekend.  It was at Balmoral Park, a horse track I remember visiting once or twice as a kid... so kind of a fun place to kick off my first race.

I knew I could do it, but still nervous to be trying something new nonetheless!  Turned out to be a big family event with Rebecca, and Hannah too.  Good time, even though I had to take a walking break after mile 2 to recover from a side cramp, and lesson learned - no chatting along the way, this isn't a social sport ;) ! My time suffered from maybe a mix of things that made me lose concentration - but now I know to do better for the next race.

The race route actually took us around and then on to the horse track with a finish right in front of the grandstands.  Ed was there take pictures while my mom was off watching the kiddos. I'm still a slow poke, but not too bad considering I just caught my real stride only a few weeks back. It can only get better from here. 

Popcorn Fest 5k, here I come!  Although they all think I'm ready for a mini marathon, I think I'll stick with my 5k for a bit.

Up

I am the best copy cat - with all thanks going to this photo I found via pinterest, I copied, not once, but twice!

I had a family shoot on this particular day for a family celebrating a first birthday, so the balloon theme was fitting.  And to have all these balloons left over and not try it with Josie too would have been tragic.  Cute, although the original can't be beat, I think these were still worth the helium to give it our own try.

Just Picked

as far as favorite foods of all time, Strawberries are right up on my list.  Lots of great memories of my grandma bringing me strawberries because I'd always tell her they are my favorite food.  And I think the still kinda are ;) Especially, local. homegrown. just picked today. perfect. little. red. mmmm.

I wasn't expecting the sign to be up, but as I drove past our local farm stand today, their "Fresh Picked" strawberry sign was out and I made a U turn to get back there for our first buckets of the year.  YES, buckets.  I buy by the bucket full, and that's still not enough. 

This year, I have a plan.  These little berries are so sweet and so juicy, they don't last long... so preservation is the key.  The first bucket is going right into our mouths, but the second bucket is getting hulled, sliced, and frozen for year round strawberry love.  We're big oatmeal eaters and have been adding store bought frozen, which is lightyears behind the flavor of these.  And jam.  Jam here we come... OH and ice cream.  My new ice cream maker should be here tomorrow.  I bet by the weekend I'll be sharing my ice cream success stories, or so I hope.

I considered not sharing. Kidding! sorta.

Luckily my dad drives right past the farm stand every day, I'm going to need a few more buckets I think.