June Excitement and Play

 Our summer started off well and with what Andrew called, "The Best Ward Function EVER!" Our ward activities committee decided to have a nice family car derby competition and race. So there were no rules to making your derby cars. While I was down in SLC (two posts below) Andrew was making his black unrestricted flame car.

He bought a remote car from DI, took the wheels off and then attached them to his streamline derby car. He painted it and shined it up. He tested it here on the farm and it ran pretty fast. Now I don't remember what it was that he used to propel it, something like carbon dioxide engines. Heck who knows I just know it went pretty fast! So of course I thought it would be fun to have a little car of my own, one that would actually be able to go down the real Pinewood derby car track. So he whipped up my little "bug" design and I painted it. What was cool about my car, other than the paint job :) was that the whole car was pine but inside was about 6 pounds of metal so the car was VERY heavy. It was our secret plan to make it go fast down the track. Well race day came and of course the girls were drawn to the shiney pink color of my car and started to play with it, dropped it and sent one wheel flying. Darn it! As any of you fathers know, (if there are any I doubt you read this blog but anyway.....) if you lose a wheel that throws off all of the balance of the car and Andrew had to hurry and fix it and wasn't able to spend very much time fixing it so it was kind of a dud when it finally went down the track! Bummer! But she did have a good name, "BIG BERTHA!" The other competitors, the one's with the really unrestricted cars (flames, rocket engines, etc.) went out to the church parking lot for their races. So on to Andrew's car, when he had first tested it he had to use a car battery in order to create a spark to start the little rocket engines on his car, BUT this time he could only find a little battery for .... I dont' know what.... it was just little okay. So when he went to make his spark to send his car flying it didn't create enough of a spark so therefore the car did nothing. It did nothing for probably 6 tries.... POOR ANDREW! He had worked so hard and his car was turning into a dud. Meanwhile they were sending other cars that were taking about 2 seconds to go from one side of the parking lot to the other.  In other words they were REALLY FAST! I actually have film of it on my video camera and if I knew better how to load those videos I would but for now you will just have to take my word for it. So when Andrew finally got his working it didn't go quite as fast. But it was by far the best looking car out there. Oh well it sure was fun making our cars and racing them even if we did come in dead last!

Here are just a few pictures of the girls lately. They have been playing together a lot more lately and it has been AWESOME! I love hearing them chatter with each other and play little games.

Lily is a hoot in Grandma's glasses.

Well rhubarb season has finally hit the farm and with several plants spread around the farm we all get to try out our favorite rhubarb treats.

The girls just like to eat them plain, and for those who haven't had it plain it is sooo super sour that it may be worse than a lemon or lime!

Okay so Lily made some pretty good faces after taking a big bite out of her rhubarb but she shortly went back for more. What a goof!

So here is my new favorite rhubarb recipe.

Rhubarb muffins

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup milk with 1 T vinegar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg beaten

1 t. vanilla

Combine all of that in a bowl

in another bowl combine

2 c. flour

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

Add to milk mixture and then add 1 cup of diced rhubarb and 1/2 cup of nuts.

Pour into baking cups in muffin tins and then combine

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

chopped nuts

1 tsp. cinnamon

and put on top of muffins.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 mins.

We had to make this recipe a few times because we love them sooo much!!!

I just can't get enough of the girls so here are a few more pictures of their little personalities coming through.

"Saucey"

"Sweet"

Well June is flying by! :)