July 1st

July 1st is a special day....  Noela was born that day!  For her fourth birthday, we invited some of her friends over, and made pretzels. 

The Birthday Girl!

Everyone got to role out and shape some pretzels!

And the finished product was delicious!  We ate them with salt, butter, mustard, olives, and frosting :~)  The little ones especially liked decorating them with the sugary stuff!

Here is the pretzel recipe...Enjoy!

4 teaspoons yeast (2 packets)
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water
5 cups flour (I used white....but am going to try wheat sometime soon.)1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon oil (I used olive)
1/2 cup baking soda
5 cups hot water
Salt for topping

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar in warm water. Let stand for 8-10 min. or until mixture begins to foam.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar and salt. Make a well in the center and add the yeast mixture and oil. Mix and form into flexible, slightly tacky dough. If it feels too dry, add water by little bits until it feels right. Knead the dough until smooth. Place the ball of dough in a large bowl lightly coated with oil. Turn and coat the dough in the bowl and and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large saucepan, bring 5 cups of water to a boil and dissolve baking soda (Careful! The soda will want to bubble over!). Keep a lid on saucepan and reduce heat to a simmer.

In the meantime, turn dough out onto a lightly oiled surface and divide into 10-12 equal pieces (or however large you want your pretzels). Roll each piece into a 1/2 inch rope and form into a pretzel shape (or whatever shape you like!). Using a flat spatula, dip each pretzel (one by one) into the boiling water for a couple of seconds and place on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

If you would like to do this for a party, simply prepare the dough, and start it rising.  Your guests can then roll out and shape their own pretzels, bake them, and eat them right then!  Make sure to have a large variety of toppings...it makes it lots of fun!

Jam...

Now that we are a little less busy, I'll try to catch up on some posts that should have been done a couple weeks ago.  We made jam with our Grandma the last week in June, like we do every year.  Enjoy the pictures!

 Berries + Sugar = Jam!!

After we finished, we enjoyed one of Grandma's delicious meals (she is the best cook in the world!).Vegetable pizza....

Soup.....

                                                                     Bread....

And salad, with almost every topping you can think of!

We also celebrated Noela's 4th birthday (more on that later)

And our little cousin came over!

Future juggler.....

Or future builder?

Thank God for our wonderful bounty of strawberry jam!  We'll have enough to last until next June!

Acts 14:17,

"Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."

Fair Weather!

Last week, we performed for at a fair in the county next to ours...

We always enjoy talking to the audience......

And afterwards, we enjoyed the free admission to the fair.  Noela was particularly fond of her balloon!

The chicks at the petting zoo were darling! 

Several years ago, we hatched chicks, and these ones prompted, "Mama...can we hatch some chicks of our own again?!"

Overall, it was a long, hot, fun day!  Thank God for a wonderful performance and perfect weather!



Our hard drive crashed today--we lost everything. Our pictures, documents, etc. Not sure when I'll be able to post again (right now, I'm posting from Staples).
I can't imagine what people feel like when they loose their home. We only lost our hard drive!

After performing in Indiana, we headed to Homer, MI, where we had another performance scheduled.  We were staying at our Grandma's summer community.  She has a lovely little trailer that is on the tiny lake where she lives.

It was l.a.t.e. by the time we were on our way and driving, and everyone was tired.  Sometimes it is a trying job to be the navigator!  But we finally got to our destination and got to bed around 12:45 am. 

The next day however, the boys where up, bright and early to go fishing.  Lance especially loves fishing.  We couldn't get him to leave the dock even for meals!

Take a close look at his expression!  :~)  Isn't he cute?  He is a very serious fisherman!

Grant is a fountain of joy to those around him!

 Ellie had a wonderful time helping Penny out with meals!  She followed Penny around everywhere.  That is the highest complement you can get from Noela.

Good job, Noela!  (And a big "Thank You" to Penny.  We loved having you join us!)

Saturday night we had a family pow wow (or bonfire, if you are familiar with the BibleBee!)--we perform at churches, but this was really the first time we had taken an actual Sunday morning church service.  With a few touches here and there, we finally decided what to take out and what to add.

On Sunday morning, we all headed over to the church.  The group was a very nice audience, and it was a pleasure performing for them!

Then we headed home, thanking God for a wonderful weekend of performances!

We will be returning to this same community for a Fourth of July church service, so pray that their hearts would be open to the wonderful message of God's love and salvation!

Indiana!

" This morning, we woke up early and practiced. Then we all packed our suit cases, instruments, sound equipments, and floor, and puzzle pieced it into the van. We all finally were loaded up, and started driving down the road. Dad looks at Mom, and says, 'So, were are we going?' Haley, 'Indiana!' 'A lot of help that does...do we have the address?'  'I think it is at home....' "

Praise the Lord for a wonderful performance in Indiana! 

The food they fed us was tasty,

and everyone had smiles most of the way!

Mr. Wardlaw was Mirae's, Noela's, and Lance's special friend!

After the performance, we headed to stay at our Grandma's vacation home, the location of our next performance--I will tell you about our stay and performance there in another post.

Mr. Wardlaw, we loved coming to your church!  Thank you for inviting us!

Blogger doesn't want to agree with me right now.........it will not format how I want it too!  Oh well, it is late anyway!

Baby Eyes....

Eyes are such pretty things, aren't they?  Especially baby's eyes!  They are so trusting and clear, and make you just want to hug them!  I have a couple baby cousins with the clearest blue eyes, and they are quiet adorable to take pictures of!

Mirae's eye are pretty too!

Family time

Summer is finally here!  The pool is warming up, the dandelions are all fluffy, we have some performances coming up, Bible Bee is starting, and much more!  I am so thankful for warm weather!  We have a performance tomorrow, keep us in your prayers.   

Photo and video credit: Lydia F. at Reel Christian