Doggies

Maya loves dogs! Most nights we take a walk around our neighborhood and we see how many doggies that are out that we can pet. There is one family that lives a few blocks away and they have 2 big white dogs that Maya loves. She asks about them every night and wants to pet them if we see them while we are on our walk. It's a sad night when the dogs are not out.

Saturday we had friends over and they brought their dog Coda with them. Maya was absolutely thrilled and had the best time! She could have played with Coda for hours. She was throwing balls, frisbees, and rings for Coda to catch. And she would just chase him around the yard where ever he went. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good action shots of them playing together but it was pretty cute.

Maya helped Dawn make sure Coda had enough food and water to drink

Maya wanted Dawn to hold her like David was holding Coda...like a baby

We had a good evening and it was nice that Maya had someone to play with while the adults were able to hang out and catch up a bit. So the big question...is there a dog in our future? No. We'll just have them come visit or see them when we are on our walks!

1963 Studebaker Hawk

Grandpa Snazzy has a special car at his house. And Maya and Shealy were lucky enough to get inside and play around for a bit when we were there for our visit.

Here's a better look at the fancy car parked on the street

Recipe InSeitz

These are a family favorite on both sides!

Almond Bars
3 sticks butter
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
4 tsp. almond extract
3 cups flour

Mix all together and put into a greased 9x13 pan.
Bake 40-45 at 350.


Grandpa Snazzy especially enjoys a good almond bar so I usually try and bake some when they are in town or take some with us when we are visiting in Ohio.

Quality Family Time

Is this a picture of this generation or what?  Both girlies playing with their iPads. Sigh. Can we say spending quality family time together?

Trip to Ohio

We took a road trip to Dayton to spend a few days with the Seitz clan. Uncle Eric, Aunt Susanne, and cousin Shealy also came from Dallas. It was fun to spend time with everyone! Here are a few highlights.

Maya and Shealy had so much fun playing together. Maya of course wanted to do everything Shealy was doing! Here they are coloring.

They had a great time swimming. Maya is practicing her back float. Shealy even taught Maya how to do the nestea plunge with a little help of course. Like I said she wanted to try everything her big cousin was doing and they were like little fish in the water!

The Seitz family LOVES to grill out. By grilling we mean using charcoal and a Weber grill.  Here are the two boys working their magic. And if you think you are going to eat any of that fine food before a couple of hours you are surely mistaken. Anytime I know they are going to fire up the grill I make sure to have a few snacks because it takes forever before the food is done. Don't get me wrong though it is worth the wait!

Joel & Susanne shucking the corn. Yes there was even a special grill just for the corn!

Guess who loved her first piece of grilled corn on the cob? She even wanted to eat the cob.  

And after only waiting about 3 hours...everyone is enjoying the meal! Ok maybe it was a little less than 3 hours but let me just say it's quite the PROCESS.

Recipe InSeitz

I shared last week I am going to try and post recipes on Fridays. I really enjoy baking and lets be honest eating sweet treats. This is my "go to" chocolate chip cookie recipe. I make these a lot! I got it from my sister several years ago and they are amazingly delicious.  I don't know what it is if it's the butter or 2 cups of chocolate chips or what but they are just so good! I like my cookies chewy in the middle and a little crunchy on the outside and these bake up just like that. Let me know what you think if you try the recipe. And if you have a favorite choc chip cookie recipe send it my way. I'd love to give it a try and put it to the test against these.

Choc Chip Cookies
1 Cup Butter
3/4 Cup Brown sugar
3/4 Cup White sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 Egg
*cream together then add:
2 1/2 Cups flour
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking soda
3/4 tsp. Baking powder
2 Cups Chocolate Chips
Bake at 350 for 8-10 min. (Longer if you like crunchy)

My little helper!

 Just a little bit messy...playing with flour is so fun!

Water Table

This has been the hottest summer ever! Don't get me wrong I am not complaining because I love summer! But wow every day we wake up and it's blue skies and sun. In years past I would have been loving it. However, now that I have a red headed fair skinned child I've been finding myself thinking can't we just have a few cloudy days when the sun isn't so strong and we can go outside and not worry about getting burnt to a crisp?

Maya has been enjoying playing outside with her water table. We usually end up moving it from the patio area to the driveway to get it out of the sun. But she could spend hours playing with this thing! On this particular day it was just too hot to keep any clothes on.

Visitors

This weekend we had friends visit from Chicago. I used to work with Rachael and we were both single at the time. We traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Ecuador, Mexico, Ireland, and a few other places together back in the day and had a blast. Wow how times have changed in just a few short years! At the time we both had challenging jobs that kept us on our toes. Today we still have challenging jobs that keep us on our toes just in a totally different way!  Maya loves playing with Timmy (4) and Luke (21 months). And she is already chasing after Timmy but I think Timmy is sweet on her too. The little hug below is too cute. We are so glad they came to visit! We just wish we could see them more often.

 

 

Recipe InSeitz

My side of the family loves their sweets & desserts! We grew up having dessert or a sweet treat after every meal! Yep you heard that right. Ok we didn’t have dessert after breakfast but we sure did after lunch and dinner. Still do and we’re not going to feel bad about it.

My Grandma Vermeer was a great baker and she taught her girls how to bake and my mom taught my sister and me. My aunts taught my cousins and we all still bake. When we get together for holidays lets just say there is a huge buffet of desserts to try! I remember being in the kitchen helping to make cookies and bars at a very early age; cracking eggs, pouring in the flour, chocolate chips, etc and I loved it! Mostly because I knew that at the end of the baking time there was going to be something really tasty. I still love to bake and usually make something at least once a week.

Joel thinks we are totally nuts for always baking and needing something sweet after a meal. (And I think he is surprised that we aren't all largely obese.) Don’t get me wrong he likes his sweets too but he has way more discipline. In his little world he would have dessert on Tuesdays and Fridays only. What? Yep he is that disciplined. I have gotten him to lighten up a little but he’s still pretty good. There are plenty of nights I’m eating my cookie or bar by myself.

I thought it would be fun to share some recipes. Most of them are cookie and bar recipes that have come from my family and friends over the years. I am going to try and post these recipes on Fridays. Maybe I’ll do it every week or maybe every other week. And from time to time I may even share a favorite dinner recipe.

So lets get started on Recipe InSeitz.

Old Time Chocolate Chip Cookies:

There is a little story behind these cookies before I share the recipe. Growing up like I said we baked a lot at my house. My friends would come over and they’d help bake with us too. After baking cookies one day my friend Jenny asked for the recipe. I wrote it down for her and she’s had it ever since. While visiting her last summer she started to talk about how she still loves the choc chip cookie recipe that she got from us so many years ago and now makes the cookies for her own family all the time. I had completely forgotten about this recipe. I had been making another choc chip cookie recipe over the years that is amazing that I’ll share next week. Anyway I didn’t have the one Jenny was talking about anymore. I asked her to re-share the recipe and I forgot how yummy they are! I can’t believe I had lost this recipe for so long. Thanks Jen for resurrecting this oldie but a goodie!

So I now call these Old (New) Time Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 cup butter

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

*cream these together and add:

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 ½ cup oatmeal

1 ½ cup flour

1 cup chocolate chips

Bake at 350 for 10 min.

G & G Sikkema Visit

Grandpa and Grandma Sikkema came to visit for a few days this week. 

Maya had a great time with Grandpa pushing her in the stroller around the neighborhood. (She doesn't like to stay in the stroller for me whenever I want her to be in it.)

 He also pushed her in the swing at the park.

Maya was also interested in learning how to sew from Grandma. 

(I don't sew and needed some pants hemmed.)

We went for bagels one morning. Grandpa loves a good bagel and coffee. Maya is into wearing her sun glasses...inside. She is sporting them while eating breakfast.

We went out for BBQ one night. Maya was enjoying a left over corn muffin when we got home. I guess she didn't eat enough at the resturant.  I think Grandpa wanted to sneak a taste too.

We had a fun time and are always sad when they leave. Sure wished they lived closer!

Flowers

I did not inherit my mother’s green thumb but I do have a few planters that I do each summer. This year I was a little behind and didn’t get things planted until mid June. Usually I do it at the end of May. The good thing about waiting so long is that I got a great deal on all my annuals! Every time we are outside Maya loves to smell the flowers.

4th of July

We started the day off at Brueggers a local bagel shop. We usually go on Saturday mornings but we haven’t been able to go the last month or so. Maya loves to go to the counter and get a sticker. 

On the way home we came across this in someone’s front yard. Wow! These people really love the lawn decorations. 

Below are the only 4^th of July decorations we have at our house. Maya made them in one of her summer preschool classes. Notice the flag is backwards but that’s how she wanted to make it.

This afternoon we went to a BBQ and had a great time! Maya was able to play with some of her friends and we were able to enjoy some fine quality food and fellowship - as Joel would say.

 Playing in the pool. Maya loved that it had a slide into the water! The other kiddos were playing in the sprinkler right next to her but she wasn't so sure about that. She preferred the pool.

Getting ready to go down the big slide.

Lots of time was spent in the cozy coupe!

 

First freezie pop and Grant was showing her how to eat it. Most of it ended up on her shirt.

 

It was a crazy hot afternoon/evening but we had a fun time hanging out!

Wading Pool

Milwaukee has tons of free little wading pools through out the city and we are lucky that two of them are pretty close to our house. I didn’t take Maya last year because she was too little but this year she is just the perfect age for it. The only bad thing is they are open at all different times and it’s usually during lunch or nap time for us. I think they do this on purpose so they don’t get millions of kids all at once. And wouldn’t you know we were the only ones there today from 11-12. So crazy! It was one of the hottest days of the year! Maya calls it “bath” instead of a pool and she loves splashing, throwing her ball around, and getting all wet. She only tipped over once head first but she recovered gracefully and went along playing just fine. So thankful for free wading pools especially during this hot summer!