Fun with Grandma...

My mom was able to come up and spend a few days with us this past week. We had a lot of fun! We were able to spend some time on the boat, my kids were super impressed with Grandma's wake boarding skills! We played "Greed" with some friends. We had our very own "Indianna Jones Movie Marathon" I made a batch of regular popcorn, and a batch of Jenn's caramel popcorn each night...yummy!

The girls loved being able to ride their bikes beside Grandma while she went running (I'm mean and make them stay home while I exercise, it's my alone time). It's tradition for my mom to take the kids to McDonald's for breakfast. Nalani is a HUGE sausage fan and ate all the leftovers, for such a tiny little girl she can sure put the food away!

Maika was sick for a few days, running a pretty high fever, but the kicker was that she was complaining of back pain, so I caved and took her to the doctor. It turns out that she had a pretty bad UTI that started going up into her kidney. After a BIG shot in the bum and a prescription she's much better! It was sure nice to have Grandma here to stay with the other kids instead of dragging them all with me! Thanks mom!

The kids have been begging me to take them berry picking at a local farm, so we decided it would be the perfect activity to do while Grandma was here. We had so much fun! We picked four BIG buckets of raspberries (Bronson probably ate the equivalent of a bucket while we were in the fields. The evidence was ALL over his face, but he charmed the owners with his winning smile and they didn't charge us a penny for his spoils!). After our hard day working in the fields, we stopped by the fabric store so my mom could get some material for an apron, ate at Sonic and headed home.

While my mom worked on her apron, I worked on the raspberries! I made 22 containers of freezer jam after selling one of the buckets to Rochelle, and keeping one bucket of the fresh berries. The kitchen was a red, sticky mess with the help of Bronson and Nalani! Bronson thought I needed help mashing the berries, he likes to use his hands. Nalani thought 5 1/4 cups of sugar to 3 cups of fruit wasn't enough, so she liberally added more. Sheesh! I can't take my eyes off them for a second! All in all I think it was a successful day! Logan was a great helper and loves to learn about cooking.

We were sad to see Grandma leave, but were so happy she came to visit! We love you, Grandma! Come again soon!

p.s. In the background of this picture you can see the left-over caramel popcorn. I had this for the first time at Jenn's house and now it's my favorite! So here's the recipe:

Jenn's Caramel Popcorn

1 1/3 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. light Karo syrup

1/2 C. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix sugar, syrup, and butter over medium heat and bring to a boil. Let boil for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over popcorn and stir until evenly coated.

Note: I usually pop 3/4 C. of kernels for this recipe.

Now go watch a movie!