Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Girls New Beds

Upon our return home from out monthlong vacation, we found a huge wooden set of bunk beds sitting outside, waiting for either the burn pile, or rain to demolish them.  Thankfully, there had not been rain here in most of the time we were gone, so the bunk beds were safe.  Ruth had been needing a new bed for a LONG time, and we wanted to move Anna back into the girls room...so we snatched them up.

We took the girls to WalMart, and bought them their very own set of sheets...they both wanted the same color - which makes life easier for me.  Here is the finished product:






First Outdoor Festival of their Lives...

The second half of June we spent in Pennsylvania, at the Agape Farm setting up and participating in the Creation Festival.  We learned a whole lot about ourselves and our girls those two weeks.
  • Our girls camp VERY well.  Two weeks in a tent was almost enjoyable...except that...
  • Being sick (puking and diarrhea) whilst camping is no fun, especially due to the lack of toilet.
The girls only got to see two adult concerts, and had one morning in the kids tent (sorry, no pictures of that one).  Anna ended up with some kind of virus similar to 5th disease.  Mama threw in the towel when Josh woke up in the middle of the night to help clean up Anna puke, and then decided to...well...he ended up with diarrhea too.  We left a day early, and I am okay with that, as Papa spent the next week sleeping most of the days away!

Below are pictures from the Casting Crowns concert.  Yes, I am wearing one of Josh's heavy flannels, and I was STILL cold by the time we got back to the room!  It got COLD at night...which was an absolute Godsend with a feverish, uncomfortable Anna.












Monday, August 2, 2010

Bagel Making at the Larson Home


Okay, since we did this several months ago, I forgot the recipe.  You will just have to use your imaginations!


Josh is kneading the dough.


More kneading.


Josh is rolling out the dough so it can be rolled into small balls.


Josh is showing the girls how to roll the dough into a ball.


After making 8 dough balls, we let the rest and raise.


Rolling the dough balls into "snakes."



To make the bagel a circle, Josh wrapped it around his hand.


This is the finished circle.


They get boiled for a couple minutes, then flipped.


These have just been flipped, I believe.


These bagels are ready to be baked.  I don't believe you bake them for more than 10 minutes total, flipping them after five minutes.


The finished product!

We used spelt flour.  I found that they taste better hot with cream cheese rather than reheated the next day.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Virginia Vacation

The month of June was vacation time for the Larson's.  We went to visit some old friends from our Friend Ships days in Virginia.  One of our many adventures took us to West Virginia to see our dear friends Mark and Jean Pfau.  This is a picture of Josh showing Shalom fish in the water below the bridge we were standing on.

My beautiful Ruth having an "adult" conversation with one of our friends.
Ruth and Shalom with their new favorite person, Lori Miller.  You will see why she is their new favorite down below.
Back in the Blacksburg area, we went to see some old FS crew, the Danners.  They live on a lake, and took the girls out on their boat.  Both Ruth and Shalom got to ride behind the boat with Josh and Jennifer Ward holding them onto the float.  They loved it!

While in Virginia, Ruth turned 4 years old!  She had stuffed crust pizza and M&M cookies with ice cream as a "cake."  Our wonderful hosts, the Steinakers put up with our galavanting, and times of just staying still.  They were great!

THIS is why Ruth and Shalom love Lori!  She let them ride on her big horse Romeo!  Both girls agree that they liked riding in front of Lori, rather than with Lori "pulling" the horse!