TVSF Day 2

At the petting zoo. She tried hard to convince me, but I told her the only way we will have a bunny is if I can name him "Friedfordinner".

We ran into Cayla with Gavin and Logan. I tried to get a picture of Logan smiling up at Liam with his two little teeth, but missed it every time.

A slightly healthier day at the fair....frozen chocolate dipped banana!

Dinner

I tried a new recipe for green curry with chicken and veggies. Very good! It was a little hot for the kiddos, I am going to look for some more mild yellow curry to try next time (or make my own :)

A not so great dessert, pantball suckers. The kids licked them long enough to get some good color and realize they were kinda boring. No flavor just sweet and shocking!

Fair time

The Tanana Valley State Fair is here again, fun but it means the end of summer for us.....just a few highlights of the adventures we had today. Abbie got to ride her beloved ponies and Liam got to climb a rock wall/tower. A good time was had by all until we were full and tired (not to mention out of money!). Next time they are promised midway rides with friends and probably less greasy and sugary treats :)

A hot day

It was still very warm yesterday, but the kids wanted to go ride bikes at the school. Abbie has just had her training wheels off! They seemed to be more of a challenge than a help. The small wheels kept getting stuck on the rocks and uneven ground around here. She did really well at the school on the pavement, only falling once and with just a tiny scrape. Liam had lots of fun doing tricks with another kid who was there and riding fast around on the pavement.

After some dinner we had to go cool off at Uncle Chris house with the sprinkler! Abbie engineered this shot herself, she says this is how you are supposed to jump through the sprinkler :)

Liam was content to not get TOO wet and chill with some hammock time and play with Titan (Chris' dog). Now it is still warm but sprinkling out today, just in time for the fair!

Cajeta

The newest experiment in my milk category...cajeta is a cinnamon caramel sauce made with goats milk. I got the recipe from the Rick Bayless website (link) I have watched his shows on the 'Create' network, part of our PBS channel. A lot of really fun and yummy Mexican food! Some of the ingredients are a little hard to find here, but most have substitutions and all are beautiful. I am not sure if this spread is so pretty...a lot of the food blogs I read say brown foods are the hardest to photograph appetizingly. It is too hot to bake bread and I forgot to take a picture of the apples that Abbie at it on. Oh well, at least you can see its gooey goodness!

Projects

Besides some costuming and a new handbag for Lily, I have also been working on a small upholstery project. I bought this chair at a yard sale last summer and it has been languishing in my garage. I had to replace the pad and recover the seat and back. It was very crushed/worn and a cat had torn up the back. It would have gone much faster if the staple gun had been more cooperative, but it still turned out pretty well. A new chair to use for shoe removal!

Berry season

A short but nice trip up the Steese Highway to our favorite berry picking spot. We got about one and a half gallons of blueberries and had a nice time in some beautiful weather! We are experiencing a last ho-ra of summer up here in Fairbanks and have had temperatures in the 80s. A little warm for berry picking, hats are a must!

Abbie found a tiny frog in the puddle by our camp. She was convinced it was the same one the found last year and put in a bucket...

It was so hot the second day, we even 'encouraged' the dog to get her feet wet in the creek. She was not so happy to do so, but it did cut down on her panting for a bit.