Kennywood Heinz Employee Picnic

A Day at Kennywood

We spent the day at Kennywood (an amusement park) for the Heinz Company Picnic. We had a lot of fun and the weather was absolutley perfect.

The park had about 20 different rides the kids could go on; some even the adults could enjoy.

This was Jacob's favorite ride! He loved the cars.

Abby found it her solemn big sister duy to keep Jacob safe on all the rides. She takes her big sister duties very seriously.

We enjoyed funnel cake and deep fryed oreos! Yum

Heinz had a large pavillion set up with food, drinks, animal balloons for the kids, face painting, and radio disney.

Abby was called up on stage to participate in the huluhoop contest. She did pretty good coming in 2nd place. She won a Pirates of the Caribbean Sticker....Or according to Jacob a Jacks sticker.

A Post for Jaime - Strawberry Festival

Apparently, I need to post more pictures of the kids! So here you go. A few weekends ago we went to a Strawberry Festival just south of Pittsburgh. This is the view of the festival from the strawberry patch which was up on a hill. I know it's hard to see but there are bounce houses, animals, slides, a barn playhouse, horses. etc.

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures. I guess there was a finger print on the lense. Darn, some of these pictures would have turned our really good.
Playing in the bounce houses which of course they loved.



We rode in a wagon up to the strawberry patch and got to pick our own Stawberries. Jacob ate while he picked (green leaves and all) and insisted on holding the basket.

We got to feed the goats, see bees in a beehive, meet Strawberry Shortcake, play, and ride horses.

This was by far the kids favorite activity. The helmet wasn't required but Jacob insisted on wearing it. Even though it was overcast is was really humid. Jacobs cheeks were bright red.

Jacob has been asking almost everyday if we can "tractor, strawbies, horse, play" go now!

Look at it Now!

Our house is fully framed, we have a roof, the cement in the basement has been poured. I'm still in awe at how fast everything is moving. I only got this one picture because the camera wasn't cooperating. More to come next week.

The Dad's Amazing Race

On Saturday some girls from the ward and I sent our husbands on The Dad's Amazing Race challenge as our gift to them for fathers day. The teams were randomly assigned and given t-shirts, a water bottle, small snack, money to complete some challenges, and their first challenge.

We had 14 guys participate. Andy was partnered with veteran of the area Ryan so that was really helpful since Andy didn't know where anything was.

Their first task was to get water from a nearby creek and fill the milk jugs up. After that they go their first clue and were off! There were 12 challenges/road blocks. I was stationed at Barnes and Nobles where the guys had to find an Author with the same first or last name as them.

For the last task they had to do an obstacle course that involved basketball shooting, hulu hoops and a grand finale slide down the water slide.

Andy and Ryan came in 3rd and the winners won gift cards to Best Buy. The guys had a great time and we wives had fun watching them complete the challenges. Afterwards we had pizza in the park. It was a super fun night.

We've Been Framed!

Ok so we haven't been framed, our house has. Look how far it has come.

Here is a view of the back of the house. The basement sliding door opening and the first floor sliding door opening. Oh, and the window over the sink where I'll be looking out for many many hours.

A view from the back corner of our yard.

All of our doors, windows, tub, etc have arrived.

Abby is standing by the smallest window I have ever seen. This is our 1 window that came standard in the basement. I didn't realize it was sooo small. Kind of looks a bit silly. But since the deck will be over this part anyway, it's not a big deal.

Standing in our backyard looking into our neighbors.

Abby in the middle of our backyard. There is still a ton of dirt and rocks that need to be moved.

Standing in our front door. So very exciting! These pictures were taken on Sunday and from what my Sales Rep tells me the second floor is already on.
Wow, can you believe what has been done in only a week! It was so nice to see how much progress has been done on the house. It's so weird walking through all the rooms because everything looks sooooo small. I know our house isn't small but wow, it sure looks small.

2 Teeth Down More To Go

Abby's 2nd tooth finally came out! This thing has been hanging on for months! The first tooth took a while to come out and the second one took even longer. The 2 "permanent" teeth had already grown in before the baby ones fell out. So no toothless grin so far but still cute. She was very excited about the money under her pillow. She has been working really hard cleaning dishes, vaccumming, etc. so she can earn money to buy a Rapunzel Tower. She has to save up $35.00 so it is taking a while but she is a hard worker.

Lemony Goodness and Mongolian Beef

I have been a little bored with my recipes lately so I ventured out a bit this week and had yummy results. These 2 recipes come from "Your Home Based Mom". The link to her blog is on the right if you scroll down.

Mongolian Beef - I added the green beans, it just sounded good.

I cook the rice recipe below to accompany all of my Chinese Food recipes. It is a lot more flavorful that plain white rice. I created this one myself and I usually don't measure but I think I got it.

Ginger Orzo Rice:

1/2 cup of white rice

1/2 cup of orzo (its a small pasta that is in the shape of rice)

2 cups of chicken broth ( I use water and bullion)

1/2-1 onion chopped, I just used what I think looks about right

1 - 2 teaspoons of fresh chopped garlic ( I use the pre-chopped jarred kind, so much easier)

1 teaspoon of fresh ginger OR 1/2 tsp of powder ginger

a bit of oil.

In a pan (that has a lid) saute the onion for a few min. then add the garlic and ginger until fragrant 30 sec - 1 min. Add the rice and orzo and saute for a few min. Then add the chicken broth. Bring to a boil for a minute or so and then put the lid on, lower the heat to LOW and cook for 20 min. Take off the lid fluff with fork and enjoy!

Variations: I leave out the ginger when I am pairing this with chicken or something not Chinese food related. It's kind of like a way better version of Rice A Roni.

And Now for Lemon Crinkle Cookies...so good! Well, not as good as chocolate chip but still very good. Chocolate cookies are like gold at our house and so to make something other than chocolate chip made everyone a bit nervous. The kids and I made this recipe tonight and it was a nice change, so soft and chewy and simply scrumptious. Thanks to Your Home Based Mom for these great recipes and this beautiful picture of the cookies.

We have Cinder Block Walls

Here is a view of our culdesac from our house. We are the first house so we sit on the corner. Some of our neighbors houses are done and they've moved in. It's quite a construction mess right now so I'm glad that we are one of the last houses being completed so we won't have to deal with it for too long.
Here is a view of the basement and where the sliding glass door will be. You can see our neighbors house across the street. It is a Fox Chapel model with an integral garage.

Abby is standing in our driveway in front of the garage.

These were taken about a week ago and since then the only difference is that the cinder block walls are higher and the pipes have been installed in the basement. I can't wait for framing to begin and for our landscape to be leveled! Hopefully that will happen soon.

Our Weekend Warriors

Last Saturday we took the kids to Lowe's to make wooden airplanes. It was fun and (free)!

Jacob was a little wild with his hammer so Andy had to keep close tabs on him.

Abby took the whole thing very seriously, wearing the goggles, following the instructions, and scolding Jacob for doing a bad job. They were really cute. Sorry for the bad picture quality, I took these with my phone.