Play Date

Our neighbors are now the proud owners of a pygmy goat named Fajita. Nate had a playdate last week & we took a field trip next door to visit the goat.

New Hobby

Sandy has taken up bicycling. For his birthday/Father's Day, we went to see the awesome (and incredibly patient) guys at Golden's Bike Shop. They outfitted him (quite literally) with everything he needs. He's gone riding just about every night after Nate goes to bed and rides about 15 miles. He has his first big ride scheduled for this weekend and is planning 30 miles. I'm so excited he has a new activity that he's so excited and passionate about!

We bought a bike seat & helmet for Nate and went for our first family ride last weekend. Nathan HATED the helmet and screamed so loudly as we were getting it on him & wrestling him into the seat that I thought the neighbors might come out to see if we were beating him. Before we made it to the end of the street, he was laughing & kicking his feet. If this insanely hot weather will cool down a bit, we'll all go out again this weekend. I'm not confident enough to try & put him in the seat by myself yet, so we wait until Sandy is home & we can all go out together.

Biking will be a great family activity & good exercise. I'm sure we'll all enjoy it a lot more when the temperatures aren't in the triple digits anymore.

Adventures in Bread Baking

The urge to bake overcame me this week when I noticed six overripe bananas sitting on the counter. I'd bought flax seed and wheat germ to play around with so I modified my basic banana bread recipe in an attempt to make it healthier.

Banana Bread:

Ingredients
- 3 overripe bananas
- 3/4 cup of brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cup self rising flour
- 1/2 cup wheat germ
- 9 tbsp flax seed
- 5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup of applesauce

Throw everything in the bowl & mix well. Pour batter into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for an hour & ten minutes.

I took a loaf to our play date at the pool on Wednesday and the remnants of a second loaf to our play date on Friday. Very tasty, but if it stayed in the house, I'd eat it all. I know my weaknesses well and carbs top the list.

I also made a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread using this recipe from King Arthur flour. Also very tasty, but a bit more dense than I was looking for in an all the time wheat bread recipe. I'll keep looking.