Enjoying the sunshine

Reading with Daddy

Happy Father's Day

We had a great day with Wayne's parents, Ted and Sue, in Hesston today. We enjoyed a delicious lunch, went to the spray park, cooled off (for the adults) with a trip to Sonic for drinks, and back to Ted and Sue's to relax and hang out. :)

Tyler's kindergarten teacher sent him some things he could work on over the summer. One was a finish the sentences page to give to Wayne on Father's Day. (I'm underlining Tyler's responses):

MY SPECIAL DAD
ByTyler Stuckey

My father is the most wonderful dad in the whole world! He is as strong as he weighs. He weighs 200 pounds and he is 6 feet tall. His favorite food is pizza and his best friend is Pat. When my dad was little he probably liked to play with cars. I think dad looks funny when he poops.  I wish my dad would go to Worlds Of Fun  with me EVERY DAY!!! I wouldn't trade my father for a bey blade because I love my dad as much as anything! I love him MORE than anything!!! 
Happy Father's Day!

Popsicles

Even though yesterday's weather was cooler and it rained, Tyler wanted to invite our neighbor kids over to run in the sprinklers. After a very brief time in the sprinklers, we got out the popsicles.

Aubrey fell and gave herself a fat lip last night. For some reason, I thought that this warranted Aubrey to try her first popsicle. :) She loved it, and ended up a little blue mess.

Aubrey and Brody

Tyler is a goofball!

Harvest

My Aunt Joye invited us to come up for supper this week. We enjoyed a picnic/harvest dinner by the field the men were working at.

Tyler and Wayne rode on the combine for awhile...but Wayne only took pictures of that with his cell phone. Soooo, here's a silly picture of Tyler. :)

Back at the house, Wayne played croquet, and we marveled at the beautiful double rainbow..which was very hard to capture with our point-and-shoot camera.

Again, not the best picture, but I wanted to share Aubrey giving Buzz a hug.

17 Months

For awhile now, we haven't needed to use the monitor. This month marked the end of using 2 of 3 baby gates (the 3rd is to keep her out of trouble), and she was weaned from her bottle. So, I guess she is officially no longer a "baby," but of course she's still my baby. She enjoys initiating a game of Peek-A-Boo, and still loves waving at people (when she's not feeling shy), and loooves dogs. She can really ham it up sometimes, and enjoys making silly faces at us. Tonight, I took a few pictures...

Carnitas

We've been eating a lot of Mexican food around here. Mostly taco/fajita salads. When we go out to eat, I usually order carnitas as my meat, and this spring, decided that I'd like to try to make it.

I found a recipe on epicurious.com that I've tweaked a bit and Wayne and I both love it. If you also like carnitas, give this a try.

Carnitas
4 pounds pork shoulder/butt  (Discard large pieces of fat that are easily removed).
3 cups water
1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup lime juice (or one whole lime halved - if you use this, remove after 1 1/2 hours of simmering)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
8 garlic cloves, peeled
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk (or substitute with 1 tablespoon
  cream and 1 tablespoon honey)
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons table salt
Put all the ingredients in a wide 6-to 7-quart heavy pot and bring the water to a boil, skimming the surface as necessary. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the pork is fork-tender and the liquid has completely evaporated. (Epicurious says to simmer vigorously 1 1/2-2 hours). However, I have found that letting it slowly simmer for a lot longer (all afternoon, for example) helps the fat to separate, the meat falls off the bone eliminating the laborious task of cutting the meat into small pieces.  Discard the bay leaves.

Crockpot: Put in all ingredients except water. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Transfer the pork to a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil and lightly spray with cooking oil. Brown the pork, uncovered, for approximately 15-20 minutes. There's no need to stir.

Enjoy!

Kansas City

Last weekend, we enjoyed a little getaway in Kansas City.

Friday, we headed up and enjoyed a barbecue lunch at Oklahoma Joes. After a fruitless afternoon of trying to get Aubrey to nap, we headed out for supper, then on to Legends. Of course, we had to visit T-Rex Cafe and Dave and Buster's. The weather was gorgeous and we just enjoyed walking around window shopping.

Saturday morning, the Pankratz's and Jaberg's met us for a fun day at Worlds of Fun.

Here is some of the crew, waiting in line.

Here are Tyler and Oliver getting ready to ride Mamba. It's the biggest, fastest ride in the park. I still can't quite believe Tyler rode it. It was his least favorite ride of the day, but he never complained and it didn't deter him from riding more rides.

The tired little ones, late afternoon (with Michelle and Lisa).

Aubrey conked out before we got out of the parking lot.

Sunday, we enjoyed exploring about half of the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead. We definitely want to go back!

Aubrey enjoyed the baby goats. At first she is doing her "woof woof" because apparently they remind her of dogs. Then, she tried to give them hugs. Here's a little taste...

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at The Cheesecake Factory before heading home. It was a fun weekend. I came back tired, but refreshed. :)