#100happydays 67-82

Sunday, July 6
Kent and I worked all day with the pitter (thanks for lending it to us, Janet and Andrea!) to freeze 60 lbs of smoothie-ready cherries.

Monday, July 7
Kent got himself a haircut!  Yay, finally!  He looks so handsome.\

Tuesday, July 8
Caylie having a snug with Bilbo.

Wednesday, July 9
Madison made this note to herself while school was still in.  I realized that when interpreted a different way it makes quite an existential poem!

Thursday, July 10
Madison and I were presented with our red belts!

Friday, July 11
Driving to Hood Mountain, and behold the beauty!

Saturday, July 12
Kent finished the 50 miles!

Sunday, July 13
Kiddos camping at Clackimas Lake

Monday, July 14
Kids playing at Manzanita beach

Tuesday, July 15
Playing Mexican train with friends (kiddos asleep).

Wednesday, July 16
Flying kites at Manhattan Beach

Thursday, July 17
Dock crabbing and feasting!

Friday, July 18
Devil's punchbowl day trip

Kai helping Caylie over the slippery rocks.  What a gentleman!

Kiddos in the pool

Saturday, July 19
Caylie buried in sand at Oswego State Beach

Daddy and Caylie playing pool

Delicious lunch - best clam chowder ever!

Sunday, July 20
Playing in the sand dunes

Daddy playing in the pool too!

Monday, July 21
Playing in the bear box

Hangin' with my boy in the fairy forest

#100 Happy Days 59-66

Saturday, June 28
My tkd class with my favourite ninjas.  A couple are missing from the photo :(  We'll have to get another one with everyone. 

June 29, Sunday
Dinner with the family out on the deck.  Summer has arrived and it's so beautiful!

June 30, Monday
Made these Canada Day sugar cookie cupcakes for the tkd camp. 

Tuesday, July 1
Happy Canada Day!  After delivering the cupcakes and the kiddos had a blast at camp, we went out on the town and celebrated with the rest of Penticton.

video

Wednesday, July 2
This one is a video happyday instead of a photo.  I had been working on gathering the pics and video clips of tae kwon do for this video for months, and today I put it all together in this 3.5 minutes.  The video was a gift for our Master and Instructor, who are testing this week (and it's a really big deal).  The whole club helped put this together, and it turned out pretty great!

July 3, Thursday
Caylie and her new bestie she met at camp playing at Sun Oka beach.  Don't we live in a beautiful part of the country?

July 4, Friday
Went cherry picking with my Dad.  The kids, Kent and I picked cherries and Dad napped under a tree.  We picked 60 lbs!

Saturday, July 5
The girls cleaned up at the tournament and each came away with a gold in poomse.  Madison also earned a bronze in sparring, and Caylie a silver.  Proud girlies!

Happy Bread and Popovers

New experiments in bread this week:  Happy Bread and popovers.

Happy Bread was a recipe I'd been wanting to try because it looks so beautiful in the photos of the tutorial (you can find them here).  Madison's school chum has been ill lately.  She had to go to the hospital at the end of classes, and is now on bed-rest.   Our usual is to bring a treat and Madison thought bread (that's my girl!). 

Happy bread, but not happy expression on this model

Madison helped with every step of this bread, and we made two loaves so we could keep one.  We liked it, but we thought the yeast-rolls I made a few weeks ago were better tasting.  These were more crusty - not that that's a bad thing, the buttery, crunchy crust was nice - but I preferred the softer yeast rolls.  These were very pretty, of course, making them perfect as a gift or as a table decoration, but they were a lot more work to shape than I would do for an ordinary loaf.

Also I made some pop-overs for dinner to go along with crock-pot roast beef.  I have made these before, so I can't claim them as an experiment, but I think they still count as bread.  I used the recipe from my favourite cookbook,

This book really does have everything, and I use it all the time.  It was a wedding gift from my grandmother.

Mixed up the batter

Out of the oven

Alongside roast beef and gravy

These have a very satisfying, eggy texture that is perfect for soaking up gravy.  I usually make them in a muffin tin, but if I want extra big ones, sometimes I use a mini-loaf pan. 

#100HapppyDays 47-58

Tuesday, June 17
I baked some treats to give away.  I love handing a platter of baking to a surprised friend. 

Wednesday, June 18
Caylie accompanied me on several errands.  She was a big help and good company, so we stopped for a treat.

Thursday, June 19
Fencing wrap-up bbq at the beach in Trout Creek.  I happened to be wearing a tank-top in the heat of that day, but the waterfront turned pretty chilly.  Kai lent me his hoodie so I wouldn't be cold.  Thanks, Sweetheart!

Friday, June 20
Here's my Kai-Guy doing his fencing homework.  Nice lunge!

Saturday, June 21
Kiddos playing on an old-school "kid breaker" (as Kent calls it).  And nobody got broken.

Saturday, June 21
Awesome trail run with my buddy, Rob.  I know I already had a Saturday pic, but somehow I mixed up my days and had too many pics. 

Sunday, June 22
Dinner out at Burger55.  I ordered the burger-of-the-month and it was scrumptious!

Monday, June 23
Madison and I made "happy bread"  for a sick friend.  It turned out very happy.

Tuesday, June 24
Snuggle with Bilbo Baggins on the bed.  First he murdered my arm for a while, then he got sleepy and put his head down for a nap on my leg. 

Wednesday, June 25
Staff party and I signed up for dessert.  It was a bbq, so the kiddos picked these hamburger cupcakes with cookie fries. They turned out so realistic, in fact, that several of the bbq guests mistook them for sliders.

Thursday, June 26
Before-tkd chat with my girl.  Just hangin' out together feels good sometimes.

Friday, June 27
Dinner!

#100HappyDays 40-46 ~ sort of

Tuesday, June 10
I took a picture of Kent standing outside the school while the kiddos played after class.  It was windy, and his hair was standing up on end.  I thought he looked cute and funny, but somehow the pic was deleted off my phone so I have nothing to show for Tuesday.  Sorry.

Wednesday, June 11
Kai's class had a dress-up and pot-luck day at school.  Kai decided to go as a hobbit and bring some hobbit seed cakes.  He was super proud of the outfit we threw together for him. 

Thursday, June 12

Madison's Expo day finally arrived.  She had worked and worked on this project for months, and finally on the morning of her presentation on Brazil, she woke up sick.  Poor thing.  But she stuck it out and went to school anyway, and here she is wearing her brazilian outfit, showing off her research, and serving the treats we'd made

Friday, June 13

Friday was a crap day, and I didn't take any pictures of anything that made me happy that day.  Fail.

Saturday, June 14

Caylie went to her friend Hunter's party and got to ride a pony!  She was so pleased and it was fun to watch her up there!

Sunday, June 15

Happy Father's Day  We took the kiddos to Summerland, and they tried out this cool tractor at Summerland Sweets.

 !. 

Monday, June 16

I baked bread, and everyone enjoyed it.  Yum