Raspberry Pretzel Dessert: The Recipe

I put this picture up on both my blog here and on instagram and have had many requests for the recipe. Special shout out to Gail Olijnek, a family friend from church. She's the one who contributed this recipe to the awesome blue Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church Cookbook.

And now prepare yourself. This is one of the best recipes ever. It's salty, it's sweet, it's creamy, it's fruity, it's got lots of texture...it's just a winner.

First Layer:

2 c. crushed pretzels (I use Rold Gold little sticks, crushed in a big ziplock with a rolling pin.)

1 1/2 T. sugar

1 stick melted butter

Mix these three ingredients together and then pack in a 9x13 cake pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 325. Cool completely in the fridge.

Second Layer:
3/4 cup sugar
8 oz cream cheese
8 oz. cool whip
Beat sugar and cream cheese well. Gently fold in cool whip (mine never completely mixes together...the cool whip seems to deflate really fast...) Carefully spread over pretzels, trying to cover pretzel mixture completely.

Third Layer:
2 c. boiling water
2 (3oz) boxes raspberry jello
2-3 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)
Mix water and jello together and stir until completely dissolved. If using frozen raspberries add to the jello and allow to thicken. If using fresh raspberries, put jello mix in the fridge and allow to thicken. Then add the raspberries. (This whole thickening part is very important. I jumped the gun when we were first married and the jello seeped to the pretzels and made a mushy, soggy mess. Now I let my jello set pretty firm so it's even a little lumpy when I go to stir it up again before I put it on top of the second layer.) Then pour it on the cream mixture.

Refrigerate. Gail adds another spoonful of cool whip on top when she serves it, but I never have. 

It's best eaten within 24 hours. Over time the pretzels loose their crunch.
But we've never really had a pan last longer than 24 hours. This stuff is amazing!

the secret sauce to friendship

(This picture has nothing to do with this post, but I didn't get a single shot from Saturday night, and we did eat this raspberry pretzel dessert...so it will just have to do!)

I had a group of friends come over on Saturday night who brought greek food for a picnic dinner, unloaded and loaded my dishwasher, brought all the goods for a foot soak and pedicure and brought three hours of awesome, thoughtful conversation. It was dreamy.

These are friends I made while attending Cedar Valley Church in Bloomington. We were in a small group together from when I was pregnant with Ivar to when I was pregnant with Elsie. Sometime this past winter the mom's of the group started meeting up on one Friday night a month, me driving from the country meeting up in their neck of the woods. Their small group expanded and now there are seven of us who are either currently in or used to be in this small group.

We loved these friends when we were with them formally in the small group. But we were still at the infancy stages of relationship. We watched videos together and had spirited conversation. And we got to know each other. We ate good treats, walked through job transitions, laughed a lot and started building a friendship.

But it wasn't until we mom's met that first Friday night, just this winter, that I realized something huge about how friendships are formed. I was telling the story of how Ivar didn't care to walk until he was 18 months and how hilarious it was to have him three times the size of the other babies in the infant nursery at church because he couldn't graduate to the toddler nursery. Not until he walked. Which he was in no hurry to do. Finally he took his first steps...

And then someone broke into my story and reminded me, "we know. we were there!" And it's true. Ivar took his first steps at our small group. Surrounded by a group of adults in the youth room at our church, he walked clear across the rug right into our arms. And everyone cheered. It was epic!

I stopped telling my story, and was struck dumb with how awesome it was that these people remembered that milestone from years earlier, that I hardly remembered myself. And now, three years later, and (between us the seven of us) TWELVE kids later, we are still celebrating the milestones of one another. The secret sauce to these friendships is longevity. Time. Time together, shared experiences. Memories made even when I didn't know we were making them.

Saturday night will go down as another. The night they drove all the way to my farm to celebrate baby #3, to bring dinner, do my dishes, eat sour patch kids and raspberry pretzel dessert, to pray over me for my labor and delivery, and to pamper me. We'll add tonight to our list of shared memories and in time we will build more and more.

nine months pregnant! (I think)

If you divide 36 weeks by 4, you get nine. Which means if the average month is 4 weeks long, I have been pregnant 9 months. I don't know if I technically am yet, as weeks and months are terribly confusing in the world of pregnancy tracking, but 9 months feels very accomplished so I am going with it. Because I like to feel accomplished.

I just went through a hard month of carrying this baby. I was in pain and had a few other physical issues that were trying and those trying things got me down. Mentally down and literally down. I am on a pretty strict cycle of two hours up and active and one hour laying on my left hand side. Which, turns out, is awesome. To be forced to rest as a mother of two would be equivalent to forced daily bowls of ice cream. There just isn't much to complain about.

As a result of the pain I was in, I started eating better, cutting way back on social-anythings and we bought a bed for our living room. No joke. If you came over right now you'd find two couches, a fire place and a twin bed. Not awkward at all. I spend my "left hand side" time on this bed. And also sleep there at night. You can imagine Rory tucking me in at night and then heading up to our bed. Without me. The bed was purchased when it was terribly hot and I was dying in our stuffy bedroom. And when Rory kept waking me up to tell me I was snoring. To which I would sadly tell him, "but I was finally sleeping!" I also get up frequently to visit the bathroom and when I roll over (which is all the time) I have to readjust many pillows. I was restless and hot, and Rory was annoyed and crabby. The bed was purchased with both of our full support and enthusiasm. When baby comes I'll move back upstairs, but in the meantime the bed does serve as a quality conversation starter.

Elsie and Ivar are very ready for the baby and it's adorable. They love feeling kicks and seem very aware of what is coming (though none of us really can brace for all the ways a baby will change our normal). Elsie has taken to calling her pink blanket, "Baby Lily" and will come and tell me when Baby Lily "is crying because a lion bit her." I've always hoped my kids would have an imaginary friend, just for the fun of it, but this blanket that is held so lovingly is pretty close. I will continue to encourage this Baby Lily thing as long as I can.

Other than that, the baby is gaining an ounce a day. Pretty impressive. And I have to say this: I absolutely love being pregnant. Even with the harder parts of this pregnancy, there is nothing more marvelous and amazing and privileged than getting to carry a little life in my womb. I love this baby fiercely already. And this is before I've even set my eyes on my babe. What a joy it will be to hold him or her in my arms!

harmony, minnesota

For our babymoon we spent the day and night in Lanesboro, ate another awesome caramel roll in the morning, and then drove twenty minutes to Harmony, Minnesota. There are tours you can take of Amish farms, as well as tours of Niagara Cave. We just had half a day and chose the self-guided Amish tour, a CD you play in your car that tells you how to get to various Amish farms where they sell their goods to you, the tourist.

In the end, the CD wouldn't have been necessary. It was more like a talking GPS than a super informative self-guided tour. But I don't know how you get a map without having the CD... Also the CD tour brought us to many smaller farms, where we got to talk to one of the parents, whereas the tour buses that go tend to visit the larger scale farms with larger storefronts. I can see pros and cons to each...

I would recommend bringing cash. We didn't have much on us, but purchased something little at each place (jams, cookies, granola bars...) They sell much larger items too: aprons, baskets, bird houses, wooden furniture and my treasure from the day: a basket that holds all the plates, napkins, utensils and condiments for toting out to the picnic table. I love it so, so much.

On the whole it felt like these Amish families were living well below the poverty line. I could be wrong, but based on the appearance of buildings, peeling paint and weathered shingles, it did look a bit exhausting. You don't take any pictures on these tours either. They believe that photos are a graven image. (Unfortunately, the day before while at the cattle auction there were two Amish men sitting across from us. I was taking pictures of the cows and trying to get a shot of the whole arena when one of them caught my eye and shot me a fierce look. The other had his hat tilted down. The bummer was that I hadn't even seen they were there...we had just arrived. But the rest of the time I shot my pictures towards the other end of the arena and also deleted all of those first pictures.)

It was a drizzly morning, and visiting these farms was fascinating. I did get the sense that part of their actual income comes from people like us stopping by, purchasing in their shops. And the landscape along the drive was lovely. It's just such a pretty part of our state. 

In the end, I'm glad we went. And I'm excited to go back and visit the cave.

I believe this is called nesting...

Last Sunday on the way to church Rory asked me if I was okay, wondering what was on my mind. I told him calmly, "I don't want to scare you, but I am ready to get rid of most everything inside our house. Every room I walk into I want to purge. Like the laundry room and all of those shelves of storage. Do we use any of those things? And I can't handle our upstairs. I know we don't need a bigger house, but we do need less stuff. I'm done stepping on toys..."

That afternoon I came home and hit the laundry room like my life depended on it. Nothing was safe. Rory moved his office fully to the cabin, I found new homes for some items and pitched others. I took down the shelves and decided the laundry room would be just that: the laundry room. Rory built me a folding counter and one day I'll paint the walls...

The next weekend I went to town on the kids rooms. No toy was safe. I have not a bone of sentimentality in me at the moment. If something was missing, broken or had no other like toys, it was a goner. I had a box for give away, a bigger box for throw away and then found an awesome deal at Menards: 12 tupperware tubs for $6.99. Rory whipped out a label maker he just purchased and was thrilled to get to use it. The toys are high enough that the kids can't reach a thing. Which means we have full control of what comes out, and only after the other toys have been put away.

Ironically I am supposed to be laying low. And I actually am. The night I sorted toys in the nursery there was a huge thunderstorm. I sat in the glider rocker with all the windows open and then would visualize picking up the next four things I would put away before I sat back down again. It was a very slow process, but I did it! And now there is not a single toy in the nursery (except the train table) and we are on the right track, getting ready for baby!

peanut butter banana smoothie

Two weeks ago I decided to go pretty-much-paleo again. That's what I called my sort of grain-free diet. Interestingly, to get back on the wagon I referenced my very own blog (linked above) and found it tremendously helpful. I was so proud of myself!

Two days after cutting out bread, cereal, bagels, bars, pasta, and anything else that has flour or grain (everything except oatmeal and corn chips) my feet deflated. No kidding. I've had some serious cankles this pregnancy and just like that, I had my normal feet back. A week later I ate a very worthwhile piece of chocolate cake that a friend brought over for Bible Study and just like that, my feet puffed up like balloons again.

Clearly I have some serious issues with flour or wheat or carbs of some sort...but let's stop talking about my feet, shall we?

As a result of me going grain-free, we have done away with cold cereal at our house altogether. Mostly because it's temptation island for me, and not good for anyone else either. We've moved on to smoothies, oatmeal, eggs, annika's granola and grain-free granola with yogurt. It's a bit more work and prep, but remember that thing about feet?!!

My new favorite smoothie (and the kids') is peanut butter banana. This will sincerely get me out of bed in the morning, I love it so much.

In the blender I throw (I measure nothing, so I'm going to guess here...)
1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. plain old home yogurt (most protein, lowest sugar I've been told)
2 T. natural peanut butter (just peanuts and salt listed in the ingredients)
a scoop of Whey vanilla protein powder. I've used Market Pantry. This is Walgreens. Both are great.
1-2 RIPE bananas. The more brown the better. Often I peel mine and freeze them in chunks.
5 ice cubes
a handful of spinach

Blend until smooth. The addition of the peanut butter in this one is crazy good. Sometimes I make it at night as my "icecream" or dessert... Enjoy!

breakfast buddies

When my brother's kids were here, Ivar kept bringing his cousin Claire's school picture over to our breakfast table so we could have breakfast with her. It was funny because then we'd go and actually see Claire in the flesh, but having this sweet picture at the table gave me an idea.

Last Thursday my nephew Jack drove with his parents to college. I was thinking a lot about them and him and decided we could have Jack's graduation announcement picture join us at the breakfast table. I talked to the kids about what a big deal this day was for Jack. And they were very concerned he might miss his mom and dad at nighttime. And wondered if he'd be home for his birthday. We talked about growing up and learning and becoming an oldult (their term) and then we said a prayer for Jack.

The next morning, Ivar brought Jack to the table again and we prayed for him again.

So now this is a thing. I have found school pictures of all of my nieces and nephews and plan on having one of their pictures join us each morning so we can pray for that cousin. I'm so excited about this plan and love how intentional and connected it makes me feel to all of them. Hopefully I'll be able to drop that cousin a line letting them know, or send them a picture of their picture at our table. But no matter what, that cousin will be well loved by their littlest cousins, prayed for and thought of.

fried eggplant

I gave my friend Annie and eggplant last night and decided I should post what we do with our eggplant so she knows what to do with hers. I also want to recognize that the last recipe I posted was fried green tomatoes. Which is basically the exact same everything as this "recipe." This may make it seem like we fry all of our vegetables! We don't, I promise. But I will say that my kids both ate two egg plant rounds for lunch yesterday and LOVED them, which felt like a win. Mostly this is just the only way I have found and loved to eat eggplant.

So here's the step by step:
1. Cut your eggplant into 1/2 inch rounds. Salt both sides to take as much moisture out as possible. Some let this sit for 30 minutes, but I'm hopeful lunch will be over in 30 minutes, so they only have as much "sweat time" as it takes me to set everything else up.

2. Take three wide and shallow bowls (the cereal bowls pictured above were annoying), fill them with the ingredients listed above. Add some shakes of any sort of seasoning salt to the flour and the bread crumbs.

3. Coat the bottom of your fry pan with oil, plus a little more.

4. Using a paper towel wipe down an eggplant round, taking out as much moisture as possible, and then using a fork coat the round on both sides in the 1) flour 2)egg and 3) panko.

5. The oil needs to be hot enough to sizzle the egg plant, but not burn it. I've noticed my oil starts to dance a bit...I've heard if the end of a wooden spoon sends out bubbles it's ready. Usually I just try putting a bit of a prepared egg plant in and can tell if it's going to fry or if the oil needs more time to heat up, or needs to cool down.

6. Repeat step 4 for all eggplant rounds and add to the skillet.

7. Check them and flip them when they look golden.

8. When they're done they'll be a bit softer, mostly the color will tell you when they're done. Place them on a plate with a paper towel to drain.

9. Top with fresh mozzarella and Marinara Sauce. Some eat it over spaghetti (I don't). And then eat your heart out. I love these so much!

a week-in-the-life revamp

I started documenting A Week in the Life for our family this weekend. Basically it means I am bringing the big camera with us everywhere we go. I'm trying to capture the actual life events in hopes to remember our normal every day.

Rory took this picture above and told me one way to capture our normal every day would be to get a shot of me coming out of every bathroom I frequent throughout the day. Because at 34 weeks, this is a very huge part of my normal every day. I heard the camera and saw him take this shot and laughed so hard.

I took pictures on Saturday and Sunday and I'm already needing to revamp my goals for this project because here's the thing. My baby is really, really low. And life is quite uncomfortable lately. And I've been put on sort of a modified bed rest, two hours up followed by one hour laying on my left hand side. The goal is to keep this baby growing inside of me as long as possible. The goal is to make it to 40 weeks.

I decided to do A Week in the Life before I started feeling all of these very-pregnant symptoms. I worked hard yesterday going to church and the fair (all for two hours at a time, rest time in between) and today I am totally wiped out. And I haven't taken a single picture, mostly because there isn't much to document from my bed. I've seen lots of awesome pictures throughout the day, but just don't have the additional energy to run ahead of the kids to get the shot or even get up from my chair to grab the camera.

So this might be more of a wordy week-in-the-life. I have spent a lot of my time listening to my kids' conversations, without them knowing. And that feels like it's own special treasure of memories to document. This week might be a bit more wordy than full of pictures, and a bit more sleepy than active. But that's okay. That's our actual, honest-to-goodness week-in-the-life here in the middle of August 2015.

celebrating marriage and daily life

I told her, "Now Elsie, mom and dad need 15 minutes to get ready, and I don't want you to get dirty." She told me, "Okay. I'll just go play with the kitties." Oh dear.

We got all gussied up for the night and drove to Art House North where we had a fancy dinner for Rory's folks, Marlene and Madison, to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary. It was such a special night, and hopefully I'll have pictures to post of the whole night for another post. There was a photographer there and I'm so excited to see the shots she got.

Until then, I just read this post on Ann Voskamp's blog and thought it was so good. It's a guest author who wrote a post titled, "How quiet marriages may be the most exciting marriages of all." Please go read it. Especially after a night like last night that celebrated 50 years of two people who devoted themselves to each other. There is nothing more powerful and inspiring and beautiful to see. I left feeling encouraged and excited to keep pouring into my own marriage.

***

In other news, I'm going to do A Week in the Life next week. Anyone want to join me?!! The whole purpose is to take seven normal days and to document the ordinary. To take pictures at the grocery store, to get pictures of your house not totally tidy, your kids in church nursery, or any of the other "normals" that don't ever really get documented. Most of the time we have our camera out to document special events, or events out of the ordinary. But the point of this week is to make sort of a time capsule of what life looked like in August 2015. For us it will document life with just two kids, just before the third joins the family. I have watched Ali Edwards do this on her blog for probably five years and have never joined in, but this year I realized how much I would love a slice in time like this even from before we had kids! So I'm jumping in with both feet. Expect lots of pictures next week.

(I ordered the scrapbook, but you truly wouldn't have to. In fact, I'm not sure it will totally work with my style, but I'm wanting to do something creative like traditional scrapbooking so I got it. Ali starts on Monday morning, but I think I may jump start this weekend. I'm feeling especially inspired.)

But now, before you forget, go and read that article on marriage. It was so good! Happy Weekend!

Lanesboro!

We're six weeks from our due date, which made me think it was high time we head out on a Babymoon. For a few weeks we talked about going up to the North Shore, but we only had two nights and between the four hour drive back and forth and the cost to stay up there, we started thinking of other destinations.

I have heard about Lanesboro and Harmony for a long, long time. So I told Rory we would consider this trip a scouting trip more than anything, scouting out where we would like to stay next time, discovering our favorite places to eat, jotting down the things we'd like to do on future visits.  We dropped off the kids with Mimi and Papa on Thursday afternoon and went to see Mission Impossible, eat at Buffalo Wild Wings and then went home to sleep, saving us a night's lodging. On Friday we got up and were out the door by 8:30 heading to Lanesboro, just under two hours away.

A few things to note: the countryside in this part of Minnesota is stunning. Like jaw dropping. It felt like we were driving through some lush and bluffy picture that I've seen on a jigsaw puzzle. Of course it is early August, and probably the most green and stunning time of the year. But I'd love to come back in the fall...and spring...and winter. I didn't get a single picture of the countryside, which is so odd, but I think it's because I was taking it in. Which is good.

When we arrived, we drove to find a place my cousin Sarah had told me about. Her friends were fantastically helpful in letting us know some great destinations (I'll write about their tip for caramel rolls below) including the Lanesboro livestock auction place. (Can't really remember the formal name...) Rory and I arrived and it was incredible. There was so much to take in. The bidding was serious, but the cows lightened the mood. And I sat next to the nicest retired farmer ever. He talked to me the whole time, knows everything about every kind of cow, told me which cows out there had pneumonia, where each breed originated from and how cows have been bred to be so big and huge but he, "likes the cows that are the way God intended." I liked him so much and in the end we swapped contact info and he invited us to his farm to see his calves in the spring.

The town of Lanesboro is adorable. It boasts that it is "the bed and breakfast capital of the world" and was clearly designed to be a little get-away destination. There are great bike paths, tubing companies that will shuttle you down the river, fun shops, good restaurants, a reputable live theater and even a Hawaiian shaved ice stand. It feels very vacation-y.

This is the bed and breakfast I would try to stay at next time:

The Bed and Breakfast we stayed at was fine, nice and clean. But on the whole I have issues with Bed and Breakfasts. They're really hit or miss. And I sort of don't love the colors mauve and forest green and I don't love doilies, and that seems to be problematic. B and B's also can have some awkward breakfasts in the morning, sitting with strangers, trying to make early morning small talk. And I sort of always wonder whose room I'm actually sleeping in...was it their daughter's room who is now at college? Or their grandma's before she passed away? All this to say, I put off making a reservation at any B&B because I was waiting to stumble upon an AmericInn or something. But we didn't so when we arrived we quickly grabbed the last room in town at a nice B&B that had a nice room, right next to the owners room. It was clean, and comfortable and had cable tv, so we were pretty set. And then we closed the door and discovered this clock:

Iowa Hospice. Love in Action. We laughed so hard. And then wondered who it was who had died in the bed we were about to sleep in, hoping she was a lovely grandma, filled with peace and sweet things. 

The town is charming and we did a lot of reading, napping, eating and exploring. It's so exciting to discover a new part of your state that is so awesome. We will be back. And when we go we will again frequent the Lanesboro Pastry Shoppe...a shop that has not been remodeled since the day it opened, apparently, and has also never strayed from its original caramel roll recipe. Which is a good thing. I had one each morning followed by massive sugar crashes. But man, those caramel rolls were so good!

Ivar art

Rory's folks graciously took our kids for the weekend so we could enjoy a bit of a babymoon. We went to Lansboro and I have much to report. It was a great overnight. While Ivar was at Mimi and Papa's, he drew this awesome picture of his dad and the barn. Pretty great, isn't it?

And then he drew this portrait of pregnant me:

That's about right.

the minnesota landscape arboretum

My mom has been telling me about The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for years. Telling me I should really get there sometime. Then my sister-in-law, Lisa, started raving about it. Next my friend Rachel started posting pictures on her instagram and wrote that they got a membership.

Last Monday the whole Harrington clan went to the Arboretum for a picnic and my jaw was on the ground the whole time. I just had no idea. It was so awesome. It was so stunning. We walked through rose gardens and vegetable gardens, we saw giant lego sculptures and got sincerely lost in a hedge maze. The grounds are spectacular and Rory and I started dreaming of landscape ideas for all around our house.

As a life-long Minnesotan, I cannot believe it has taken me this long to get there. But I also believe that once I find something awesome, I must shout it from the rooftops. So hear me now: this place is AWESOME!

You know what else is awesome? Cousins. And Aunts and Uncles. And Family. After the Arboretum we drove to a cemetery nearby, surrounded by cornfields, where my Aunt Jan's ashes were buried. There were so many of us able to gather and it really was special. The day was glorious and it was good to be together. After her burial, we went out to Uncle Don's house on Lake Minnetonka, my first time to his home since Aunt Jan died, where we had a huge pot luck barbecue just like we used to. It reminded me of my favorite kids book, "The Relatives Came" when family all gathers together in one house. The books says, "You'd have to go through at least four hugs to get from the living room to the kitchen. Those relatives!" And later the book says, "And then everyone split into two's or three's where there was quiet talking and catching up." We lived that on Monday night and it felt so good to be all be together.

It was a precious time, and Aunt Jan would have loved every minute of it.

homemade bubbles!

Our third pinterest project was Homemade Bubbles. There are all sorts of recipes out there, but I used my mom's tried and true recipe with Glycerin, found in our church cookbook. She used to make this stuff when she taught preschool. I had hoped to make enough to fill a mini pool, but it turns out Glycerin is expensive, so I filled a big flat rubbermaid instead.

I doubled the recipe, and a few days ago tried making the bubble wands in this video and they are amazing. I used chop sticks, twine and a washer and made huge bubbles. Totally recommend making the big wands. And mom brought a crate, which made for awesome bubble caterpillars. You can't go wrong with bulk bubbles on a beautiful day!

Homemade Bubbles
3/4 cup Dawn Dish Soap
2 quarts water
1/4 cup Glycerin (I found mine in the Cub Foods Pharmacy. Call before you go...it was their last bottles and they said they don't always carry it. My Walgreens did not carry it. Drug stores and Pharmacy's seem to be the best bet.)

Mix Glycerin and Dawn together gently. Slowly add the water...you do not want the mixture to foam! Slow and steady is the key. Mom uses little plastic berry boxes as bubble wands, or cuts a circle out of cool whip/tupper ware lids. Or again, the string and sticks diy wand was pretty awesome too!

Have fun!

four square, kick lines and step stools

The five days my brother was in town turned into a family reunion, but rather unintentionally. My mom and my sister and I each took a day to host the whole clan and it wasn't until we were well into the week that we realized we basically had planned a family reunion, but without the planning. Each one of us was responsible for the food the day the group gathered at our own home. Last year we went to the North Shore, and we hope to again someday, but it really cost a lot to stay there. This reunion was way less money and at the end of each night, we were all in our own beds (except Mat's family of course). We were tired...the driving was a lot, but on the whole, I think it worked.

Sunday was the day everyone came to my house. We went to church, had subs for lunch and then my nieces and nephews recognized our barn as the perfect place to play Four Square. We all played and I started to remember how awesome that game is.

We hung out, made bubbles, got out the sprinkler, took a picture of the kids with my folks for the Christmas card, and my Uncle Mark and Aunt Jane and their great-niece Niu Niu came in time for dinner. It was then that were informed by the kids that there would be a talent show after dinner. They explained that everyone must participate and then they set up the chairs for the audience. As a former Bible Camp program director, the fact that a talent show was happening without my planning, at my farm, was about the greatest thing ever. It was so fun. There was dancing, my dad told a joke, Ivar flew his kite, the adults did a kick line while singing 'You are my Sunshine' and step stools were used as the stage to jump off of as the kids sang "Baby you're a Firework." It was a very, very good time.

moon sand

The second pinterest project we tried was Moon Sand. This is just baby oil and flour. Again, two easy ingredients. The recipe calls for a specific ratio, but just like the 2-ingredient play doh, we just kept playing with it. 

Nellie had broken her arm a few weeks before she arrived which meant she couldn't swim or jump on the trampoline, and this project in particular was sort of our special time together. She told me what she though the bowl needed more of and eventually she wanted to make it into dough with lots and lots of baby oil. And then we went back to sand and added lots and lots of flour. The actual mixing and making of Moon Sand turned out to be the fun of this stuff. I suppose we could have built a castle at one point, as it turns into wet sand, but mostly we just talked for an hour and added more of something to the bowl.

This was also the day that we went to a family friend's pool. Nellie was so good about keeping her arm out of the water. She was allowed to go in three steps and she did great. Mostly she played with Elsie and was so good and sweet to her. I love that about cousins and how the bigger ones take such good care of the little ones. And it's so fun to watch the once "little cousins" become the big ones. 

my favorite moment of our reunion

This here is quite possibly my favorite moment from our whole five days together. It was our first shared meal on Friday night at Annika's house, before we went to her town's parade. After dinner Simon started telling us a very detailed joke. He is an awesome storyteller and did not leave out one detail. Mat timed it and the joke was five and a half minutes long. It was like we were right there with the poor guy who was discovered to be a fantastic high diver on the cruise ship he was living on. His final dive was so, so high that when he hit the pool he went through the bottom of the pool, through 1st class, through 2nd class, through the cargo floor, through the boiler rooms and out the bottom of the boat. When he surfaced next to the cruise liner they pulled him up and everyone asked if he was okay and he said, "I have been through many a hard ship."

We laughed so hard. And were so pleasantly surprised that there was an actual punchline after so much story.

Then my dad tried to tell a joke that fell so flat no one knew the joke had ended. He scanned all of our faces to see if we got it and then his face fell and realized his audience was about 30 years too young to remember the song that was the punchline. And I fell to pieces. I laughed so hard because my dad is a master joke-teller and it is rare that a story of his doesn't go over well.

I just love family so much. I love how each person contributes to the personality of your whole family. And we have some awesome personalities in this clan.

2-ingredient, 2-dollar play dough

Earlier last week I got on a little pinterest kick looking for fun projects to do with my kids. The timing was awesome because by the time I had purchased the supplies the whole Harrington clan had gathered and I was able to bring one project each day. This first one was completely successful, even though I had my doubts.

In a large bowl we mixed Corn Starch and Hair Conditioner. I found V05 Conditioner at Menards for 73 cents. And I think the Corn Starch was 1.20-something. Which meant the whole experiment only cost $2. Even if it had been a fail, it wouldn't have broken the bank.

I should also say we just kept working with the ratio, which meant that each kid got a chance to stir. In the end we used 3/4 of the bottle of conditioner and used a whole Market Pantry box plus a little extra Corn Starch that my sister had because of over-zealous conditioner squirters.

Also! This is totally an outdoor project. I saw it listed under "boredom busters for rainy days," but this is a project to be done outside! Corn Starch is quite messy...really, don't do this inside unless you are making it without kiddo-helpers. :)

The end result was awesome. It was the softest play dough I've ever made. Later we realized we probably could have added food coloring to the conditioner when we first squirted it into the bowl to add a little color. Eventually the kids made the play dough into a volcano and with Simon's lead, they added baking soda and vinegar to make a grand eruption.

cousin time

My brother and his kids are flying back to Seattle right now after five very full days of family-together time. It was so awesome. We packed it all in. And at this moment I think I could sleep for three days in a row. We picnicked and went to a parade. We swam and made all sorts of play dohs and squishy concoctions I found on pinterest. We went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and the Minnesota Zoo, saw lots of relatives, enjoyed a talent show and a fashion show and a slide show. We played four square and made bubbles and ran through the sprinkler. And a few even ran a 5K.

I didn't run the 5K, but in this moment, my 8-month pregnant self feels like I ran a 5K, which has to count for something. So many stories and pictures to pass along. But for now, I'm going to bed...