We just returned from a wonderful family vacation to Bryce Canyon.  It is located in central Utah (just over 3 hours from where we live.)  It was our first “real” camping trip.  We stayed two nights and did it all by ourselves!

I have never been to Bryce Canyon before and it is incredible.  There were people from ALL over the WORLD there.  We saw very few “Americans”.  People come from China to visit Bryce Canyon!  It was very cool.  We saw some amazing sites and had some good old fashioned camping fun.  It was a memorable trip and we are looking forward to our next camping adventure.

I made a smilebox slide show if you have a few minutes.  We took way too many pictures, but wanted to share in case you are feeling bored.  :)

Create your own free photo slideshow

CRAWDADS!

My boys have discovered the joy of crawdadin’.  ’Nough said.

Calvin has moved through all his Cub Scout ranks.  The highest award that a Cub Scout can achieve is the Arrow of Light.  Calvin earned this award and it was presented at a special pack night in June.

***

Bro. Pappas is our wonderful Cub Master and he brought his gun for a special Arrow of Light ceremony.  There were two boys that received the award that night.  He spoke about the early hunters in America who cherished their guns.  This particular gun is a Hawkins Rifle.  50 caliber.  Muzzle loader.  Black powder rifle.  It was a great gun.  (Still is–he has taken down deer with this rifle.)

As part of the ceremony, both boys were able to go into the church parking lot and shoot this awesome gun.

****

Here is a picture of the Pappas’.  These are their mountain man outfits.  Sister Pappas makes most of their stuff by hand.  Very cool!

We had a fun Cub Scout Cook Out with our wolf den in early June.  We made ice-cream in a bag and cooked s’mores and pigs-in-blankets.  It was so much fun.

My neighbor Sister Nelson graciously allowed us to use her back yard.  It was the perfect setting for a fun cook out.

We brought DUCKIE along with us.

My fearless co-leader CeCe.

I’m not sure where Ivan was when I was taking pictures.  But he was there as well.

It’s great to be a CUB SCOUT!

Calvin turned ELEVEN on the 17th of June.  We had so much fun fishing and swimming last year so Calvin wanted more of the same for this year’s party.  We went to Spanish Oaks Reservoir and we all had a great time.

Calvin is 11 years old!

The scenery was beautiful.

The boys had a great time fishing.  No fish were caught, though.

We ate sub sandwiches and had a yummy CHOCOLATE TRES LECHE CAKE.  It was very rich and wonderful.

Happy Birthday, Calvin.  We love you so much!

We got in on this fun gardening opportunity that is mainly down in Arizona.  Somehow we got a chance to have a residential bucket garden.  It is kind of like square inch gardening.  These boys volunteered their time to install the garden for us.  Thanks, guys!

More info and pictures to follow, but if you want to know more, go to

http://thegardenmaster.com/

or

http://readymadegarden.blogspot.com/

Yes I am a guinea pig….  This is sand in plastic bags.  The bags last about 17 years.  There will be a trellis system and I spray the plants every three weeks with some organic nutrients.  Can’t wait to see what it produces.  I have some stuff planted and will continue to add more as the weeks go by.  A new adventure.  No weeds.  I can do this!

On the 10th of this month, Avalon turned the big TWO!!!  It was also Cousin Emily’s birthday on the 6th, so we did a little joint party and it was way fun.  Avy and Emily are soooooo into “BABIES” so we had a Baby Party.  We invited the whole family and celebrated at Aunt Mary’s home.

The Two-Year-Old Birthday girls.

Grandma Pratt designed the cake and I baked and decorated it.  I had way too much fun decorating it.  I bought some new tips and I think it turned out way cute.

Emily also requested “baby” cupcakes.  So, I made little mini-cupcakes and some of them are baby faces.

Too cute to eat!  But, we did.

And, what would a Baby Party be without a REAL baby?   Kelsey was happy to assist with that.

Emily shared some of her cool slinky tricks.

Yummy cake and ice cream!

Our Angel Avalon is such a delight to have around the house.  Her smile lights up our world with happiness and joy.

Here are a few things we would like to remember about Avy at this time.

• She likes to do back flips with papa.
• She has a love/hate relationship with clothes.  She LOVES clothes.  The fancier the better.  But, she also LOVES to be free of them (if you know what I mean.)
• She is a BIG eater.  Loves to eat all kinds of food.  You would never know that by her petite body.  At her two-year-old check up she had grown a bit.  She used to be in the 1% of “normal” children.  Here’s her recent stats:  Weight 24.6 lbs (24%), Height 31.5″ (5%), Head Circ. 19 1/4″ (85%!!!!) –No wonder I have a hard time getting those shirts over her head.  It’s HUGE!  I think it’s an “Allen” thing.
• She loves going to “choich” (church) and does great in nursery.  She goes in each Sunday and shows her teachers her pretty dress.  They ooooh and ahhhh over her appropriately.
• She loves to “hide” and count to three so you will come find her.
• She has an inclination towards “peent” (pink) and “purpur” (purple). But is trying desperately to learn all of the colors.
• One of her first animal sounds is the cock-a-doodle-doo she does for chicken.  It is very close to what they sound like.
• She loves lip balm and lotion and puts it on whenever she sneaks into my purse.
• She is very independent and likes to dress herself.  She’s getting pretty good at it.
• She loves to read books and is always asking mama or her brothers to read to her.
• She loves to sing or hum and some of her favorite tunes are “Popcorn”, “Monkeys” (bed or tree), “Snowman” and “Clementine”.

Avalon Kaye Pratt, we love you!

Avy LOVES to help me in the kitchen.  Surprisingly, one of her favorite things to do is help me crack eggs.  We make eggs for breakfast every few days and it is her “job” to help me crack them.  In fact, if she hears me even say the word “egg” she starts to bang her fist onto her leg and gets all excited.  She does the same thing when Reed brings in the eggs we collect from our chickens.  She can’t get enough of cracking eggs.

At first it was really messy.  (Even worse than this video shows.)  But, now after a month or so she does very well.  I do have to pick out egg shells, but even those are getting fewer.  I love my little helper.  Not bad for a small child under the age of 2.

I made this little movie so that you could see her in action.  It is a bit long (4 min.) so you may or may not want to watch the whole thing.  Her little smile at the end is cute, though.  Grandma and Grandpa will want to see it all!  (Oh, and it does look like it takes a minute to load….)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Do you remember THIS????

And THIS?

And THIS??

Well, we now have THIS!!

This is the FIRST EGG we collected from our baby chickens.  They are no longer chicks, but full fledged chickens!  And, some of them are laying eggs.   Right now we are collecting about 2 to 3 eggs per day from them.  Plus, our older chickens are laying about the same.  So, we are almost self-sustainable on eggs now.  Isn’t that fabulous?   We are thrilled!

Scrambled eggs, anyone?  Yummy!

I’ve had a couple of questions about the ice cream cake.  I’m sure there are many ways to make ice-cream cake, but this is how I do it.  It is easy and it tastes so good.  You can serve a cake with ice cream, but there is something about them being together that is so fun and so tasty.

Here is what I usually do:

• Make a cake into two round pans.  8-9 inches will do.  I like to bake my cakes from scratch.  Sometimes the boxed mixes don’t taste well after freezing.  Well, sometimes they don’t taste that good even if you don’t freeze them.  Ha!  Plus, when you make your own, you are using fresh ingredients and no chemicals.  No chemicals is GOOD!
• Once the cake is baked, let it cool and freeze the layers.  Clean out your round cake pans.  Let your ice cream soften a little while you line your round cake pan with parchment paper.  I think wax or even plastic wrap would work, too, but I haven’t tried that.
• Take the softened ice cream and scoop it into your lined round pan and squish it all in there.  You can make this layer of ice cream as thick or thin as you like.  Flatten the top and make everything really smooth.  Put this back in the freezer and freeze it solid.
• The day of your party, take the cake layers and the ice cream layer out of the fridge.  Pop the ice cream out of the pan and put the layers together.  Cake–ice cream–cake.  Then, frost as normal.  With an ice cream cake I just like to use whipping cream.  Whip it thick, like the consistency of frosting, add a little sugar and then frost the cake.  It is easy and isn’t so sweet that it overpowers the ice cream.  Put it back into the freezer until ready to serve.

Ok.  What have I forgotten?  Any questions?  Have fun!  My favorite, I think, would be chocolate cake with a layer of Breyer’s mint chocolate chip ice cream in between.  I did a white cake with sherbet between once and I will never do it again.   The boys LOVED it, but it was way too sickeningly  sweet.  Gag!  Good luck and let me know if you try this in your home!