The Only Way My Kids Will Eat Squash Without Complaining

One of the things I love about summer is our garden.  I love to get the soil ready, I love to plant it, and I love to eat all of the stuff we grow in it; unfortunately my kids do not share the same love as I do.  They like a few of the things that we grow, but none of them enjoy the squash. 

Over the years I have tried literally hundreds of recipes thinking surely this one they will like, but no matter how I cook it they do not like it.  This year I finally found one way to serve it that they will not complain about, a nice bribe.  I have told them if they just take some and eat it without complaining they can have a See's candy.  This worked.  They will take their allotted amount and quickly eat it without complaining to get a See's candy after dinner.  The only problem I have now is that I am out of See's and we don't have a store here in Lubbock, and we have a lot of squash still growing in the garden. 

Here is how we are eating our squash today, sliced sprinkled with salt, pepper, and garlic powder baked with mozzarella cheese and bacon bits on top.  I know they will complain, but such is life at our house!!!

Emily Turns 13

Yesterday Emily turned 13.  She is officially a teenager and my boys have been giving her a hard time about it ever since she woke up.  It is hard to believe it has been thirteen years since I had my first child.  Emily has been such a joy to have in our family.  She got the traditional breakfast in bed and presents when she woke up.  Because it was Sunday we had to get ready for church.  She got a new outfit to wear to church and she also got to wear makeup for her first time.  She was very excited.  Here is a picture of her all ready to go to church.

After church Annabell had us over for dinner and she got a cake for Emily since we had just gotten home from vacation the night before.  We went out to eat for her birthday dinner tonight.  Emily chose Texas Roadhouse.  I know she would have preferred going to The Olive Garden, but she knew the boys wouldn't like it.  Emily is so considerate that way.  We all love her so much!  I hope she will stay as sweet as she is right now as she continues on through her "teenage" years!!

Summer Vacation #2

Our second vacation was a trip to Utah.  We spent two weeks there, the first week we spent in Beaver visiting with family and having fun.  The kids got to ride horses;

go up in the mountains and roast hot dogs and marshmallows, ride in canoes, and catch fish;

Tyson and Justin also got to enter a pie eating competition.  Tyson did it first he was very excited at the start of the race

He seemed to enjoy every minute of it

until the end, he said he didn't want to ever eat another lemon meringue pie again!

He did get third place!
Justin decided to give it a try next, since they didn't have any adults enter the competition they decided to have a second one with kids so Justin was able to get in on it with some of his cousins.

Amy and Justin were excited to get started

The excitement didn't last long, Justin told me he thought he was going to throw-up, I told him just to quit, but he kept on going.  He ended up getting third also!

After the pie eating competition we headed up to Centerville to visit my Aunt Marie and celebrate the 4th of July.  They were doing their celebration on Saturday instead of Monday.  Here is a picture of the kids after watching the parade.

We visited with lots of family while we were up there.  We were so grateful to my Aunt Helen who hosted a wonderful picnic at her house.  I got to see some relatives that I hadn't seen in a long time.  We stayed with my sister Saturday and Sunday night and the kids enjoyed playing with all of their cousins at her house.  It is so amazing to me at how well they can get along and play when they only see each other once a year.  I am so thankful for wonderful cousins and nieces and nephews.

Monday we headed down to Provo for Tennis camp and Soccer camps.  Emily did tennis camp and Tyson and Justin did soccer camp.  They had a good time, and I enjoyed shopping at all of the fun stores there in Provo.  We also got in some hiking, more visits with cousins, water park fun, a BYU men's soccer game, and a behind the scene tour of BYU studios thanks to Ellen's nephew.  It was all a lot of fun.  Here are some pictures from there camps.  My camera battery ran out so I don't have very many pictures.

Summer Vacation #1

We went on two vacations this summer. The first one was to San Antonio. We hadn't gone to San Antonio since Justin was a baby, so we decided we needed to go back and see all of the sights there. The kids were most excited to go to Schlitterbahns, a water park there. It rained so hard the day before we got there that the park had closed down so we went to Sea World instead. The kids had a lot of fun watching the shows and going on the water slides.

The kids enjoyed the Sea Lion show the most.  The Shamu show wasn't as good as we had remembered it from last time, but it was still amazing.

The next day we went to the water park, but only one of the three parks was open. The kids still had a lot of fun there. I think we would enjoy going back again sometime to see the rest of the park. Ryan and Abigail really enjoyed the splash pools.  I decided it is easier killing time at a splash pool than it is at the kiddie section of an amusement park.

Our last full day there we went to Fiesta Texas.  The kids had a lot of fun, but because of height restrictions it was a little frustrating.  Everyone was just a centimeter too short to go on the rides they wanted to.  Abigail could only go on two of the rides in the Kiddie area. 

We didn't do all of the things we had planned on doing, but we still had a great time.  It was rainy most of the time, but that kept it from being too crowded and it actually kept it from being too hot also. 

Soccer in June, Not Good!

Today I discovered the reason soccer is a Spring sport here in West Texas and not a summer sport. My two boys had soccer games that had been canceled earlier due to rain. Justin played his game first at 3:00, and when we left the car it was 102 degrees, Tyson played second at 4:30 and the temperature was then up to 106 degrees. It was so hot!!! Tyson's team was playing to determine who would take second place, Tyson's team won even though they barely had enough players to play, which means no one got a break, except for the water breaks that they had to add to the game for fear of heat exhaustion. I really don't mind hot weather, but it was miserable sitting out in that heat for 3 hours.

World's Worst Mom Award

I get the award for World's Worst Mom this week.  It was a crazy busy week, and Friday was the busiest day of all.  Ryan woke up with a fever, but I was suppose to cook pancakes at Tyson's class, help run a booth at Buddy Field Day, and I was in charge of Justin's party which was with the whole first grade!  Jeff was out of town, and all of my friends were also helping out, so I gave him some Advil and we headed up to the school.  All of the parties went well, and Emily also helped with Buddy Field day so she helped me with Ryan and Abigail.  By the end of the day Ryan was not feeling well again.  He fell asleep on the way home, and when he woke up at 5:00 he had a fever of 102 degrees.  He said his throat hurt so I looked in his mouth.  One tonsil was almost completely white, and they were touching each other in the back of his throat.  I took him up to urgent care and they checked his ears first and said he had an ear infection.  I told them I was pretty sure he had strep too.  He took one look in his mouth and said, "Yea, I am pretty sure he has strep also."  While we were on our way home from getting his prescription filled Emily called and said Justin is throwing up all over and he his half asleep and we can't get him to use a pan.  When I got home found out she was not exaggerating.  It was on both ends of the couch and all over the floor.  I had given them Hawaiian punch for lunch, unfortunately red does not come out easily.  Jeff came home about 10:30 at night and we were barely finishing scriptures because I had not had time to get them to bed.  Next year I will not volunteer for so much and I will make sure I delegate enough so if I have a sick child I can call in sick and still have everything run smoothly.

On a happier note, Ryan had his preschool program, and we have some fantastic videos of it.  If I can get them to down load.  Tyson did great in the talent show, I may have a video of that later.

I couldn't figure out how to download to this post, but here is a great picture of Justin with his teacher.  I think the preschool posts are by themselves, I hope you enjoy.

Tootie-Ta

Ryan is the short blonde boy between the two tall girls. Emily recorded this for us.