Friday, July 10, 2009

Last of the Sparkly Bread

The other morning my little kiddies woke up to a surprise for breakfast. Sparkly Bread. Zoe words were, "Finally. Mom made some more sparkly bread." Actually, I didn't make more, I just took a loaf out of the freezer and let it thaw overnight.

You may be thinking, "Sparkly Bread?" Let me explain. You probably know this delicious treat by another name...Amish Friendship Bread. My little kiddies like to call it Sparkly Bread because of the lovely, glistening, sparkly sugar on top.

A while back, my friend Misti, gave me a zippered plastic bag and a note. The zippered bag contained a mixture and the note contained directions for the mixture. Little did I know how much we all would fall in love with this bread. But, fall we did.
The note tells you to keep a "starter" for yourself, and then give the rest away to friends. At the end of the note, it also explains that if you give away all your "starters," you'll have to wait until someone else gives you another back.
Well, I've got to tell you...I cheated. I saved one of the "starters," instead of giving it away, and made more bread for my family. Then I froze it. So we could have some for later. Guess what? I also found out you don't have to wait for it to come around again. I found a recipe for the "starter" and some for the bread. This one is most like the one I received. It uses pudding.
Give it a try and give some away!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Tadpole Transformation

Remember when we got the polliwogs? And they died... And then we got some more... And then they died too?
Well, my friend Shannon wanted to get some. A few weeks ago, on an overcast Friday, she took us to a new spot.
She collected some tadpoles and we collected some tadpoles. Shannon kept hers, but I told the kids we had to let ours go...You see, I didn't want to cause anymore unnecessary deaths...

Well, the transformation happened. One of her little polliwogs grew some legs. She called me this morning to tell me about it, and asked if my little froggies wanted to come over and take a look.

Shannon also was kind enough to let us take the little frog, and a few friendly tadpoles, back to their original habitat. Oh, what fun!

Stake Youth Hike

Yesterday, Gene and I were lucky enough to slip away from our little goats (kids) to go on a hike with some of the youth and leaders in our stake. The hike was up a slot canyon in Kannarraville. It was a bit strenuous going up, but very worth the trip. I thought I'd share a few snippets.
This hike is definitely NOT for little ones. Gene thinks it may be okay for the two older ones if we take our time and go slow. It is on the TO DO AGAIN list.