Camp Fire Recipes

I got some of my camping recipes from Allrecipes.com. They had a camping recipes section with some interesting ones. Here is the banana concoction.

Peanut Butter Banana Melties

INGREDIENTS:
4 large bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:
Leaving the peel on the bananas, slice each in half lengthwise. Smear the inside with peanut butter, and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Place the two halves back together and wrap each banana individually in aluminum foil.
Cook in the hot coals of a campfire until the banana is hot and soft, and the chocolate has melted, about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the heat of the coals.

Here are some pictures of our Shrimp Boil and more camping fun:

Camping capers

This weekend was a fun adventure in camping. We had great fires to warm up to in the evening and beautiful mild weather. Morris even brought his own fire barrel for cooking and heat. Javin made several new friends while riding his bike around. They were up at 7 am riding bikes. Hope no one was planning on sleeping in around there! It was a bit chilly for swimming but Javin didn't seem to mind. He got his fill of water slides for one day at least.

The resident raccoon came to visit us one night and stole our bread and made a hole in the graham cracker box. He had no interest in the coffee, picky eater I guess. Here is a picture of Dad holding the remains of our box.

And the food...That was the best! We had all kinds of tasty treats to roast over the fire like smores and apple pies in pie irons, and bananas filled with peanut butter and chocolate chips. Mmm. Yum. We ended the weekend with a grand Shrimp Boil that included sausage, potatoes and corn on the cob. It is all prepared in a turkey fryer and then spread out on the table that is covered in butcher paper. Everyone eats it all up with their hands. What fun! I'll have to post pictures later of this annual tradition!

Molly went along with us. She did wonderful. She just got her summer haircut which helped keep her clean and tidy. But at night it got cold and she was shivering on the bed, probably wishing for all her hair back.

Time Flies By

Where has the time gone? The past few weeks have just flown by. June is a challenging month for us. Javin's school ended so we began a new summer routine. I'll post more about my summer school for the kids later. The anniversary of Kevin's death and Father's Day have now come and gone. Those two have got to be the hardest days for me to face all year. Too much down time gets my mind to wondering down depressing roads, so I respond with a full schedule of activities to keep things interesting. A trip to Chuckie Cheese for a birthday party was just what we needed to keep our spirits up.

We got our borrowed pop-up camper set up and had our own little camping night in the driveway. We were surrounded by animals with deer out one window and horses out the other... Then our neighbor decided to mow the yard at 9 pm, so our serene evening was drowned out by the rumble of the lawn mower. Ahh the joys of camping. The big question was, "Whose bed is Molly going to sleep on?" She ended up choosing Kailyn's bed but Kailyn kept kicking her so I moved her to Javin's bed. It was a fun outing before we head out this weekend for the real thing.

Sunday we went to Mohican for a picnic lunch and hike to Lyons Falls (uhh..Trickle, I mean). Kailyn does not have the endurance and energy that Javin had at her age. She walked pretty slow and had to be carried part of the time. It was a nice little hike with beautiful surroundings. Don't squint too hard, but there is water falling down from the top of that cliff. You'll have to take my words for it.

Javin's Tball season ended and Tae Kwon Do started up. He has been enjoying his class which is very small right now. He is getting lots of personal attention and is being challenged to work hard. Just what he needs.

Hole in the Mouth

Javin has had some excitement the last 2 days. His top middle tooth finally came out yesterday. It had been just hanging on for some time. Then this morning the tooth beside it came out as well. The adult tooth is already showing through. He has a big hole in his mouth today!

He said last night that I should just give him his money, instead of putting his tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy. I have no idea what he did with his tooth because it wasn't under his pillow last night. He didn't even remember it this morning. I guess it is not a big deal to him.

Bunny Tale

On Friday, Kailyn and I came upon a bunny in our yard. He was so cute. Kailyn walked very close to him before he darted away to my flower beds. He scurried about from plant to plant trying to hide himself before he took off through the yard again. He ran all around and came very close to us several times. Kailyn was quite impressed with the bunny in our yard. I hope he doesn't discover the garden. Here he is hiding by the steps.

We have also been enjoying the wildlife display in our front yard. This time of year our view is filled with little fawns. God's precious creatures.

Packed out weekend!

This weekend was a full one. I got to help at Javin's end of the school year party on Friday.We had carnival type game stations and group games. I ran the squirt-the-ball-off-the-bottle game. It was very hot so the ice cream sandwiches were a big hit! So was the face painting. Javin only has a few more days of school left. Am I prepared for school to be out already??? Not yet.

Straight from there we loaded up in Dad's big truck and drove on down to the Peck's for a very moving weekend. ;) We got in on the last of their big moving sale and helped pack up the house. We were amazed by all the interesting things we uncovered, like a big bag of sunglasses.

The moving truck comes this coming weekend. We will miss not having them within driving range. The kids especially enjoyed some Uncle Darin time during this trip.

Acrobat Kids

Javin was running on the dangerous side of life today. He spent the afternoon in Mimi's tree making a tree house. But ended taking a hard fall, so that was the end of that.

Then he moved on to daredevil swinging. I snapped some pictures then he fell off of that too. Kailyn joined right in and added her upside down swinging number. All in all, we only ended up with bumps and bruises, although he was just sure he broke his arm during the tree incident.

Always finish with a bow!

I, on the other hand, made some progress on my Slope O Weeds. It now has a section cleared away that will soon be the Slope O Ribbon Grass, thanks to Charlene's generous donation. One person's trash is another's treasure. She was so happy to get rid of it and it will be perfect for hill. The green vegetation on the right side of the picture was how this section of the hill looked this morning.

My irises opened up this week. They are so pretty. My mystery plants started blooming this week too. This plant emerged after a year that I planted alyssum and nierembergia, which are annuals. I left the alyssum in the ground all winter and it never died. I think the 2 mixed and now I have my own version - a hardy, spreading variation of alyssum. I've got pink, red and white flowers. The only downfall is that is doesn't bloom for very long. If anyone wants a start, just let me know.