...to start having my children help make dinner

...really because I wanted to cause them more stress.

Or so they think...

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks...and this is just the basics.  Anything less and I think it is called child abuse.

All of the extras: muffins, cookies, desserts, salad dressings, dips, that is all icing on the cake.

Pun intended.

I acknowledge that I bring on some of the stress of feeding my family.  But for the most part I really enjoy cooking and providing healthy meals...foods that I can pronounce all of the ingredients of.

So....I decided to begin sharing this J-O-Y with my children.

I decided that the big kids would alternate days on helping me, start-to-finish, put dinner on the table.  Their tasks:

• slicing
• dicing
• reading directions
• baking
• setting timers
• serving
• pouring (the milk)
• cutting (into bite sizes on their plates)

Unrequested!  Only this little lady willingly participated in our activity!

This is what I am working toward...quality time spent in the kitchen with my cherubs.

A sous chef in the making!

Yesterday, was Isabella's first day.  And yes...I interrupted her in the middle of a chapter!
Today, William missed out on fifteen minutes of basketball time.

In case you were wondering I did not start with difficult meals.  Nope.  I am smarter than that.  I picked hot dogs, and Walmart's rotisserie chicken!

Dinner merely involved heating up some rolls, cutting some veggies, and helping to prepare the plates.

Armageddon.  Disaster.

MOANS.

AND

GROANS.

End of the World.

I found this little funny...

I will persevere.  

In other words...now they know their allowance is directly dependent upon their joyful participation in this activity.

...to recap our night

...at the drive-in.

What fun we had!

love the view

Mark had a long weekend this weekend and we took advantage of the extra day by staying out super late on Sunday evening!

There is a drive-in movie theatre in Black River, NY.  They play a double feature several nights each week and it is less than a ten minute drive from our home.

We Mark loaded up sleeping mats, sleeping bags, chairs, and bug-spray into the back of the truck and we all climbed in so excited to see not only one, but two movies!  Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days of Summer and Ice-Age 4 Continental Drift.

Abbey finally fell asleep near the end of Ice Age.

I am not certain the kids realize how special it was that they were able to experience this activity.

Some things I learned:

• That Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days is actually a pretty funny movie.
• That as much as I love Scrat...it is time for the Ice-Age franchise to be complete.
• At one time there were over 4000 drive-in theaters across the country and now there are less than 400.
• This was a surprisingly inexpensive family evening.  Snacks AND sodas AND admission:  $35.  
• AND there are no germy movie seats involved!  (This is a special note to my friend Beth)
• A family of six can lay rather cozily in the back of a pick-up truck together.
• It isn't all that comfy to lean against the cab of the truck for the duration of two feature-length movies.
• A sleeping little one in my arms made it all much more bearable.

Will took this picture during intermission:  Audrey never moved.

I hope there is something playing again soon that we'll all enjoy!

...to bring in my finally...

...renovated icebox!

We have finally said adieu to my little purple cabinet.

After hours spent cleaning the hardware, sanding the exterior, and cleaning dust and debris from all surfaces in my garage we finally were able to bring the icebox into the house this morning.

Audrey insisted on being in front of the camera...

Audrey wanted to be in all of the pictures...

Until I tricked her and got a picture of my newest favorite piece of furniture without her in it:

Even the name plate cleaned up pretty well:

I am super happy with how it turned out; especially given what it had looked like before:

Audrey has taken to putting her toys in it already...

My new basket (from Africa...thank you Karen & Dave) is also full of Audrey's items.

I owe thanks to Mark who in spite of his eye-rolling (about bringing this piece into our house in the first-place) was extremely helpful.  Especially at the end...lugging the piece inside, helping me put all of the hardware back on, and fitting the legs back on the piece.  (He spent quite a long time with the rubber mallet trying to make the legs fit back on the piece just right.)

Maybe he thinks the time spent was well-worth it too?

...to work in the garage

...I think I am making our problem worse

The state of the garage that is.

 Sanding, scrubbing, painting, scraping....

the inside is really off-white and white; not yellow.

Dust and dirt and grime everywhere.

Just maybe we'll be able to park in there again by the end of the weekend?

Mark sure hopes so!

...to set up the water slide

...well really it was Mark who started the project.

And it was really the other day we did this.

But it was a REALLY hot day.  A perfect day for the water slide.

Can you see from this picture where this story is going?

I love that she has her ring...

Except there were some troubles..notice Will's goggles?

He is wearing them because the water hose on the slide isn't working anymore...

And because we had to set up the sprinkler instead.

Here it is blasting right in Abbey's face!

Unfortunately there were many other problems...

Note:  All of the tape...

Deflating...

And sadly after four summers,

the water slide is no more.

...to show some more MI days

...aren't these supposed to be the L-A-Z-Y days of summer?

The kids were so lucky to have been doted on the ENTIRE time we were back in MI.

Disclaimer and other notes:

• This is a post for the doting family members and grandparents.  
• They are in no particular order.
• I wish I could have gotten more pictures of some other really fun things they did (trips out to lunch, dining at different breakfast venues, a kayak trip, manicure, special quilting day with Great-Grandma Viele...).
• My son got a new Tiger outfit while he was home.  He wore it every day.  He is still wearing it every day.  Good thing it dries in the drier quickly.  That is why you see this outfit in nearly every photo.

Here are some of the highlights of their days (those I was around to photograph)...

Here is a photo of one of many of the gatherings for us:

My cousin Sarah made a special trip (twice) out to see us.

Another gathering with my Dad and cousin Emily.  The Viele family sure laughs a lot!

Time on the trampoline...they only fell of twice.  Ugh.

Aunt Deb and Liz made several trips to hang with us:

Yep.  Lucky Us.  Isabella now has a French Horn.  Even better...she practices all of the time.

Why not spend some time zooming around the country in the buff?

Or shall she try to hitch hike instead?

A trip to the bookstore was Great-Grandma Ford was a full morning activity.

Gasp!  Downtime?  Say it isn't so...

Time for an art project with Aunt Debbie.

Taking a short hike onto a little island.

Playing on the river rocks.  I think Uncle Steve is trying to pull Will in.

Sharing a quiet moment.

Uncle Dave has all these kids headed out on a little hike.  This meant Aunt Karen and I got to talk, un-interupted, for a blissfully long period of time.

More craft time.

Making a new best friend.  My Audrey and sweet little Aubrey.  Born just two weeks apart.

Looking for the pirate ship that sank long ago in Dimondale, MI.  Who knew?

Gathering for an amazing dinner at Aunt Jean's...

with Patty Horn as our special guest.

Heading into Dimondale for ice-cream!

Of course...another ice-cream night!

A full moon.  And the crazies never even came out of my children!  Was this because no one ever told them no?

My Dad, Me, and my crew.  

A special good-bye from Uncle Don.  Just 'cause Will missed him at dinner.  Will still talks about this.

Sweet feet.  Lil' one found her own fairy bridge.

Papa and a few of his girls.  What a happy group!

Finding the pirate ship remains made them silly!  Or maybe it was that full moon?

Yes.  You guessed it...more ice-cream.  And Uncle Dave and Aunt Karen happened to stop by!

Love this photo of my cousin Emily and Will.  They share the same contagious smile.

We sure are blessed to be so loved.  And so thankful too.