Friday, August 8, 2014

Let's play catch up

Here's what's been going on the last week:

Sunday we had a family reunion on Aaron's side. We were at his sister Cynthia's house, where they have a pond with zipline, a pavilion with picnic tables and a firepit, and lots of land.

Taken from the deck of the house

The kids were just the best. I love it when kids who may not have ever met each other become besties in about 2 minutes. They did a scavenger hunt before the lure of the pond hooked them for the rest of the day.

All girls, except for little Cohen, being held by our niece Lauren

Kate, Julia and Lauren

Zip line!


As you probably know, we have a community garden next to our house. This is our last year for that and there will be houses there soon (living through construction should be fun). Anyway, one of our neighbors planted a sunflower this year and it finally bloomed!

I took this from our second floor window. I love that it
faces the house so I see it whenever I walk past and
it makes me smile.


I started the longer-than-I-want-it-to-be process of reorganizing/purging/decluttering the bathroom shelves. I need some suggestions on organizing. I don't like the wicker baskets that are so big and I can't see anything in there and definitely can't find anything. Here's the before pic:



Here's the recipe for the Blackberry Lemon Trifle I made last week. I got the recipe from The Fake Gourmet.

8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 container whipped topping
1/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/4 cup water
6 cups fresh blackberries, washed (or frozen, thawed)
1 jar (10 oz) blackberry jam
1 pound cake, cut into 1/4 inch slices

Combine cream cheese and lemon juice and mix until smooth.
Add condensed milk and mix again.
Fold in whipped topping. Set aside.

Combine lemonade and water.

Line the bottom of a trifle bowl (or whatever bowl you want to use) with pound cake. Brush on the lemonade mixture (I spooned it on) and if you're patient, wait a few minutes for it to soak in.

Spoon blackberry jam over the pound cake.

Spread whipped topping mixture over the jam layer, then put blackberries over the whipped topping layer.

Repeat.

Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

My bowl was way too big! But this is delicious and easy!

Have a great weekend! I know I will because I have my niece Jackie visiting. Look how gorgeous she is!




5 comments:

  1. That property looks amazing! What a fun time! Thanks for sharing that recipe too!
    Have a fun time with you niece :)

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  2. Lauren is so grown up! I love love love Jackie's hair. Have fun this weekend!

    I think you should look into clear bins for refrigerator organizers. They come in all different shapes and sizes. Like these: http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/refrigeratorFreezer?productId=10027634

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  3. What a fun family get together-- that property is SO awesome :)

    I agree w/ the clear bins, but maybe ones with lids too. For items you don't use AS much, but still want to be able to see what's all in there!

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  4. Jackie's hair is amaze balls. That color, and she pulls it off beautifully! Looks like you and I both went all radio silent in the blog world.

    I second the clear bin suggestion. target has some great ones, Container Store, amazon. The possibilities are endless! <3

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  5. That sunflower is so pretty--sometimes it just takes something small like that to brighten your day! Did you make any progress on your bathroom? I'm a terrible organizer and anything that looks remotely decent was copied from Pinterest!

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