Back to school

Well, we have survived the first week of 5th grade!  Can you believe my girl is in fifth grade!  WOW!

This year I tried to start out making good habits, so the first day after school was VERY difficult, but once I won the "battle of the minds" things were pretty smooth sailing since then.  Whew!

Technically she asked me not to post on my blog, but I just couldn't help myself.  I loved the outfit she chose for her first day.  When we bought it I told her it might be too hot for the first day to wear pants, but she insisted.  Little did I know that I would be in the 60-70's that day.  Crazy for August.

And speaking of selfies (from my last post), she even took one of herself on the bus on the way to school.  This was a fun surprise for me while going through our photo stream to get pictures for the blog.  Love it!

On meet the teacher night, I wanted to get a picture of her and Mr. Spreacher, but she refused.  So the next best thing was by her lockers (she actually gets two this year).  She was pretty shy around her teacher and wasn't sure what she thought about having a "boy" teacher.  Now I think she has decided she thinks he is pretty cool and is going to have fun this year.

And a few more bits of summer before the weather gets too cool.  Of course, the lemonade stand still makes an appearance every so often.

You never know which friends are going to show up to help out.  They all love doing it.

And her recent outdoor activity...skateboarding.  The neighbor boy let her use this one and she is actually getting pretty good.

Well, here is one last bit of summer to share...a recipe using fresh peppers from my garden.  It was so good, I can't wait for a few more peppers to grow big enough to harvest so I can make it again.  LOL!

Stuffed Peppers:

1 lb ground beef

1/2 cup of shredded cheese

cauliflower (a few florets)

Bell peppers

I cooked the ground beef in the microwave using my RockCrok from Pampered Chef.  If you don't have one, I highly recommend it.  I am just getting started on using it, but now that school is back in session I see me using it more often.  

When the ground beef is nearly done, I added in some diced cauliflower and green pepper (I used then tops I cut off the peppers) and also sprinkled in some of the shredded cheese.  I cooked for one more minute in the microwave and then stuffed my peppers.  

I baked them in the oven for 20 minutes.  I put my peppers in a muffin tin so they wouldn't fall over.

 Pulled them out and added the rest of the shredded cheese to the tops and baked for about 5 more minutes or until melted and starting to brown.

It was so good.  Try it out!

I think we are all caught up!  Wow!  Hopefully I won't get so far behind, but you know sometimes life gets in the way (and sometimes scrapbooking does too). 

We have several new neighbors, so here are some cards that might show up on their doorsteps soon to welcome them to the neighborhood. 

And maybe a few birthday cards just for fun...

Later gaters...

Darla

The selfie stick

Whenever Joe and Hope go shopping together, it never fails she comes home with something.  A recent trip resulted in a selfie stick.

Suddenly our i-cloud photo stream is filled with HUNDREDS of selfies.  LOL!  They all crack me up.  Here are a few samples...

And I guess I will wrap up the rest of the summer, since we started back to school this week.

Hope went to Adventureland with a friend...they had a blast (and I had a blast staying home to scrapbook)!  Thanks Michelle!  :)

Hope is in the fourth card from the back with her arms in the air.  She was SO excited to tell me that she rode the entire roller coaster with her arms in the air like I usually do.  She was pretty proud of it!

She was FINALLY tall enough to ride the storm chaser.  Yeah!

She got to ride the log ride ONE more time.

And Joe and Hope spent the day at the Iowa State Fair. They had a lot of fun together.  I had to work, so I missed out of the fun, but I was actually ok with it.  That way I wouldn't cheat on my diet by eating a corn dog and mini donuts.

A selfie on the sky glider.

And the thing she was most excited about doing at the fair...Little Hands on the Farm.

And we went to the "Back to School Bash" for our church.  We have several different locations throughout the metro and this was the first time in 8 years all the sites worshiped together at the Waukee football stadium.  It was very cool!

Here is a picture of the stadium by a helicopter that flew over.

And then the helicopter landed so you could get in it to see it.

And a side note of how much Hope has grown lately, she couldn't find her shoes that morning, so she decided to wear MY shoes and they weren't even that big.  Good grief!  If she ever grows into her feet, she will be tall.  LOL!

I will save the back to school photos for next time...

So here are some cards to celebrate my neighbors.  One who became a mom to a baby boy and one who became an aunt to a baby girl (both for the first time)...

Until next time...have a great day!

Darla

Throwback Thursday

Well, before summer is over, I thought I would try and catch up on what we have been up to the past few weeks...

We went to an Iowa Cubs game with our neighbors (and they won)!

We went out to dinner at Joe's Crab shack and Hope ordered a shark themed drink.  When it came, it had a shooter of grenadine she could add to it like it was a shot.  Good grief!

We have set up the lemonade stand several times.

Hope went grocery shopping with me one night and wanted "kid wine"...aka sparkling grape juice.  So when we get home I needed to take Taylor outside.  When I got back in THIS is what I saw.  Cracked me up!  Looks like she was just chillin' with a glass of wine.

We had a special sleep over with Hope's birth mom and Hope's biological brothers and sister.  

Hope loved having Hanna to hang out with and took very good care of her while all the kids were playing together.

We watched the movie "Home".

Lucas didn't really want to have his picture taken, but we managed to get him in there.  LOL!

Until next time...

And of course the neighborhood slip n slide party.  What a blast!

The kids ripped a hole in it on their first few times down, so Damon was under the plastic making a repair  (and Joe apparently was "helping" him).  LOL!

There were a LOT of fun times and happy faces coming down that slide all day long!

Even the grown up's got on the slide too!

And in case you are wondering about the mechanics of the slide, here is what the back of it looks like.  This has developed over the years to make sure we don't blow through the back when the adults start going down.  LOL!  He even has it set up with a sump pump to recycle the water back to the top.

 And we had a margarita contest.  I came in second with my mango jalapeno recipe.  I was a little short on tequila, so it wasn't as strong as it should have been.  Oh well.

And that pretty much brings us to this week!  More on that later, as Hope has had fun cramming in as much fun as she can before school starts on Monday.  We had meet the teacher night tonight.  She didn't want to introduce herself because she has a "boy" teacher.  I am sure before you know it, it will seem like no big deal to her.  I hope it doesn't take too long.

So in honor of all those teachers getting ready for their students to return to class...Thank you!

Until next time!

Darla