friesenfam.net

Friesen family blog

July 14, 2010
by janette
1 Comment

Cranberry Almond Granola

I don’t know why I always get the incredible urge to bake when its 90 billion degrees outside…I guess thats why I have a/c. My power company must just love people like me!

Oh for Yum!

Breakfast Granola

Makes 14 servings (not sure what classifies a serving…a 14th of this i guess. :) )

6 cups old fashioned oatmeal, uncooked

1 cup honey

1 stick unsalted butter or margarine, melted (I believe in butter, so i used it!)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup almonds or pine nuts (slivered almonds all the way)

1/2 cup dried apricots, sliced (I don’t dig these…so i used dried cranberries)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spread oatmeal evenly in roasting pan or large jelly roll pan. In medium mixing bowl, stir together honey, butter, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and vanilla. Pour over oatmeal and stir until evenly coated (i used my hands…stir? really?) Bake until evenly browned, about 20 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes to prevent clumping. Remove from oven, stir in almonds or pine nuts and dried fruit and continue to stir every 5 minutes until cool.

Notes: Okay…I wanted my almonds toasted…so i put them in the last time I “stirred”, with 5 minutes to go. They probably could have been in a little longer. I also like my granola clumpy…so next time I think I’ll stir less. Also…you’re gonna wanna bake this on parchment paper. You don’t have to, but I’d rather just throw that away than scrub a pan. :)

Store tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to one month.

Now, it says “breakfast Granola”. Somehow I don’t see mine making it to the bowl in the morning…I don’t see it making it to morning at all…

July 5, 2010
by janette
1 Comment

playing sleepover

Ellie says to Ev the other day…”Hey, Ev…let’s play sleepover.” So Ev crawls on up. The problem with playing sleepover with Evan is he has no clue what a sleepover is. It involved the couch, a blanket, and his sister, and that’s all he needed to know.

The other problem is that Ev doesn’t sit (or lay) still very often. Like, at all.

I did manage to capture them once…before he rolled over, crawled over her, or fell off the couch.

July 3, 2010
by janette
0 comments

Happy 4th of July!

I can’t believe summer is going this fast. On one hand, I’m thrilled…the further in we get, the closer to fall temperatures. On the other hand…the closer to snow too.

I just said snow…in July.

Anyway…Happy 4th. Hope you’re spending it with family and friends! Be safe, and remember why we celebrate today -

June 30, 2010
by janette
0 comments

i will never understand children’s clothing sizes

sometimes a 2T really means 12 months…sometimes a 2T means 4T??

Oh, girly…I bought this shirt for you when you were 16 months old…and we took you to Canada. And you’re wearing it today for the first time…So glad I didn’t buy the 4T, you’d have worn it when you were twelve.

June 30, 2010
by janette
1 Comment

summer sure keeps us hopping!

Since the kids aren’t in school yet, our daily schedule doesn’t change much in the summer. You may even think it doesn’t affect us at all…well, you haven’t seen my calendar. Summer is crazy busy!

Most of our free time lately has been occupied with some “outdoor rec.” Well, some outdoor, some indoor…

Swimming lessons started out like this…

are you all that surprised? Can’t say I was.

But, in the end, he mellowed out a little bit. Thankfully our swim instructor was all about just taking him into the big pool without us, crying or not.

The other one, I knew I didn’t have to be worried about.

and this was probably the highlight of her existence.

Jump, Tumble and Roll ends tomorrow. I think she’s really enjoyed it…and I’ve liked that she’s in an enclosed room with someone else for an hour practicing these things.

Will summer slow down now that these things are done? Probably not. That’s what summer is for right? Knocking yourself out so you can completely enjoy winter when you have to sit inside and have nothing to do?