Sweet 16 Olympics

It all began so innocently.  A sweet 16 birthday party, what mischief could they get into right?

Let the mayhem begin!  Before I knew it they were blindly dropping chocolate syrup covered marshmallows on their friends faces

and rooting for gummy bears in vats of cold jello using only their toes

and eating strange foods, like raw onions and packets of Bojangles honey in record times.

Then they proceeded to throw cheetos at each others shaving cream covered heads just to see how many would stick

and squeeze every drop of juice out of unsuspecting fruit using their bare hands.

Some crazy kids even drank the stuff!

As if that were not enough they turned each other into living art work using tools such as TP, tin foil and shaving cream.

They recruited Becky and me into holding the shower curtain so that they could blindly fling water balloons at each other.  Becky got nailed, sorry Bec!

To cap it all off, everyone grabbed a can of shaving cream and went to war. A war to end all shaving cream wars.

That's when things got crazy!

Chocolate cake was devoured and it all ended as innocently as it started, only with a hint of menthol in the air.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAITLIN!

What's all the buzz?

Ever see the inside of a bee hive?  We have!  It's pretty cool.  We got a little bee education last Saturday and we can now tell you where that honey for your biscuit comes from.  Some friends of ours from church own these hives.  They invited the kids over to get a look inside.  Baylee is the lucky kiddo that got to wear the other bee suit.

Mr Moore just let a bee sting his hand so that he could explain it to the kids.  What a guy!

There's the inside of the hive.

He pulled out one of the frames to show us where the honey is located.

Look at all those bees!  There were THOUSANDS of them buzzing around!  It was a little unnerving.

My family is keeping a safe distance.  Except, wait, where's Gracie?  You guessed it, she's right behind me (behind the camera) in the thick of the bees.  She had to see for herself what all the buzz was about.  Brave kid.

Baylee sporting this snazzy bee keeper look.

Sweet 16

Happy Sweet 16 Caitlin!

We Love You!

Furry Friends

Hey guys, I wanna come out and play, please,please, please can I come out and play, huh? Oh I can't stand it! My people are out in the yard playing and I'm stuck in here. Can I come out please, please please.....!?

Mom, they won't let me go outside.

My constant companion

I think I hear the ice cream truck, here it comes.....

Mom!  The ice cream truck just went by, we missed it!

Wild Abandon

Sunday Suppers

It's Saucy Sunday here at Lovin' Life At Home.  Yep, you guessed it, todays recipes are all about the sauce.  I would be remiss if I did not give props to my lovely assistant Abbie who took every photo for todays recipes.  I never realized how difficult it would be to cook while trying to document EVERY step along the way.  Luckily for me I was able to call in the reinforcements.  Way to go Abs!  Back to the sauce... these are two of our family favorites.  The first one is Ginger Sauce which, according to my people, is a requirement for eating homemade egg rolls (I'll post those later).  I tend to agree. It's also yummy on sticky rice.  BTW don't just throw these sauces on any ol rice, they belong on a good Jasmine/short grained rice.  

The second recipe is for Finadenne  (fin-ah-denny).  We learned to love this one while living on Guam.  They use it like we would use ketchup, on everything.  It's awesome on rice and almost any meat.  I told my family when we left Guam that our fridge would never be without finadenne from now on.  Traditionally this sauce is supposed to be spicy and is made with little birds eye peppers that grow on Guam.  They call them boonie peppers and they pack a huge punch.  Here we have to settle for what we can find at the local produce stand.  One more thing, just in case anyone from Guam reads this.  As with any native ethnic recipe I am probably not doing it the way it supposed to be done, so don't send too many flaming arrows my way if I goof it up.  

Ok here we go...

Ginger Sauce

1/2 C soy sauce

1/2 chopped onion

4 T lemon juice

1/2 tsp vinegar

1 tsp sugar

2 cloves of garlic (I like more)

fresh ginger  2 slices  about the size of nickels

Our cast of characters today

Soy Sauce

Vinegar

Combine all of the liquids in a mixing bowl

Add in your sugar and stir

Peel your ginger and garlic

See I told you I like alot of garlic!

Press the ginger and garlic into the soy sauce mixture.

Chop those onions up about as fine as you can get them and stir them into the mix.

Mix it all together and let it sit in the fridge so that all of those flavors will get to know each other real well.

Enjoy it on rice, egg rolls, stirfry or whatever your heart desires!

Finadenne Sauce

Equal parts soy sauce and vinegar- I use about a cup of each

1 or 2 peppers depending on how hot you like it.  It is supposed to be spicy

1 small onion 

Dash of lemon juice (optional, but I always add it)  some folks on Guam differ as to whether or not to add lemon juice or replace the vinegar with it altogether.  So I will just give it to you the way we prefer it.  BTW on Guam Calamansi juice is what they call lemon juice.  Calamansi is a cute little lemon/lime fruit that grows on the island naturally.  

Slice your peppers into rings.  No boonie peppers here in VA, so we'll have to settle for red chilis and jalpenos. After slicing, add your rings to your bowl.

Measure your soy sauce and vinegar.  My friend on Guam never measures it,she just pours till it looks right.  I would do that typically but for you guys I used a measuring cup.  I was thinking of you!

Pour your soy/vinegar mix over the peppers.

At this point you can add that controversial splash of lemon juice if you dare.

Chop the onions up fine just like we did for the ginger sauce above and add them to the bowl.

You end up with a yummy looking concoction like this.  Look at those peppers! Ummm Ummm good.

Stir it up and either eat it right away or store it in the fridge in an airtight container.  After those peppers marinate a few days in that vinegar, watch out they WILL be spicy, but oh so yummy!  Hafa Adai Ya'll.

(That's Guam talk for Hello and Goodbye, except the ya'll which is ALL me)

Cats

"In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have never forgotten this."   Terry Pratchett

Park Day

Feeding the ducks

Our future nanny and Blair, our DLF

Teeny Tiny Tele Talker

That's our Gracie, she's become very familiar with the telephone lately.  She and her pal Brenna could spend hours on the line chatting.  Must be part of being a girl.  Notice here how she can even busy herself with other projects and still hold up her end of the conversation like a pro.

She's a natural.  

Next thing ya know she'll be asking daddy for her own cell.

I think we all know what his answer would be!

Braces On Faces

Today was D-day.  Abs got her full set and Holly got her bottom set added.  Everything went without a hitch