The Family That Plays Together...

STAYS TOGETHER!

Here are Daddy and Emma on their nightly playtime excursion to the "bailbox" or mailbox in adult language. This little 5 minute trip every evening lights up her little face for hours.

As my faithful blog readers know, we received a homemade ice cream machine for our birthdays a few weeks ago. On the evening of celebration, my SIL Michelle suggested, NAY challenged, the entire family to an Ice Cream Competition. Bring It Sister! BRING IT.

This world class competition was held last Sunday night at our home, with a BBQ preceding the festivities. As I take my desserts VERY seriously, this competition was no exception. We turned to our trusty "Ben and Jerry's" ice cream recipe book for ideas and found a homemade Mint Oreo, which I knew was a winning combination.
A picture of the innocent bystanders unaware of the "fight to the death" race happening in the kitchen. Oh to be young and innocent again.

Kurt and Tara brought an interesting element with the "roll your ice cream on the ground" ice cream machine. It yielded excellent results. Their concoction included strawberries, brownies and chocolate. YUM.

Here are the contenders.

In addition to ours and the rolly polly creation, Mom Adams brought a fantastic homemade strawberry (probably my favorite of the night), and the Jeff/Michelle team made a spectacular oreo/brownie ice cream. And where it lacked in consistency (more like a shake) it made up for AMPLY in taste. YUM YUM YUM!!

Don't worry this was our "First Annual" Ice Cream Competition... so start preparing NOW and you can join us next year. Start saving your recipes and your calories, cause your gonna need them for this FIERCE evening.
And what would a summer be without a cute little baby in a cute little bikini?

I know, I know - I'm a horrible mother who is instilling inappropriate values in my impressionable daughter. But, guess what? Her belly hanging out over her bottoms, trumps whatever guilt trip you are about to lay on me.

I'll start the modest dress when she is out of diapers and her bum doesn't look so cute.


And the last bit of "playing" our family continues to do is our triathlon training. Yes, we are still training and yes it is going well. In fact, so well, that on Saturday we completed almost the entire triathlon in a "dry run". We were only 3.5 miles short on the bike, and otherwise we finished it all. We are pretty slow at this point, but are hoping to improve our time before the big Thanksgiving Day event. It has been a lot of FUN! I'd encourage anyone out there to join us in the craze.