Liam turns 7!

Yesterday was Liam's birthday.  He turned 7 years old!

Here are some things about him:

favorite color is blue, green, purple and pink . favorite food is mashed potatoes . likes to collect pokemon cards . enjoys his break dancing class . loves to play with his best friend, George . likes to look sharp/dapper and tuck in his shirts . very good at imaginitve play . get frustrated when he can't do somthing well the first time (we're working on being patient with himself and understanding that some things take a lot of practice) . enjoys school and excited to be a second-grader! . Learning to be more independent and do things for himself- like make his own lunch . loves the Diary of a Minecraft Zombie books . Always carrying around (and losing) his favorite things (currently his fidget spinner and pokemon cards) . Enjoying drawing more and more . favorite activity is playing with friends . favorite subject in school is math . loves his elephant blankie . wants things to be fair (for him) . Such a sweetheart!

We love you, Liam!  Happy birthday!

For Liam's birthday, he got to open presents before Daddy went to work so that he could play with his new things all day.  He went to his best friend's house, and then chose Leatherby's for dinner so he could get his own banana split!

Liam an Reese got a split and shared with Mama and Daddy, but both of them at too much ice cream and got sick.  I felt bad for them, but at the same time I felt like this was a good lesson- there IS such a thing as too much dessert!

About a week later, We had Ice cream cake with the Fabers.  Liam asked for a pokeball ice cream cake, so I joked that instead of singing "Happy Birthday" we were going to sing the entire original Pokemon song.  My siblings thought this was a great idea, so that's what we did!  My family is so nerdy-cool!

More Stuff

Some Summer Fun

Made hats at the Uta Arts Festival

And found an R2-D2 statute, hand made

Oh, and I want to give a shoutout to my favorite Artist we found there.  I'm going to get some of his paintings when I'm ready to decorate our family room:

This is Bernadette.  She's having a bad hair day. 

The artist is Richard Lorenz and his paintings remind me of the whimsical James Christensen paintings we had in my childhood home. And They are so fun!

We went swimming

With friends

And to a Real Monarchs Soccer game

Which, by the way, was intense and awesome

We played with cousins

South Carolina

Our first activity of summer break was to fly to South Carolina and spend the week in a house by the beach with family

We visited a lighthouse

We got photos on the beach

We played with cousins

And make shapes in the sand

We stopped at an East coast frozen custard joint

We went to live music in the park, where we also got balloon animals (or swords) and face paint.

We played with Gramma and Grampa

And did a lot of driving...

And flying

And had a blast!

Stuff

Reese and Liam both entered their first science fair this school year.

Liam wanted to do an experiment on rocks and crystals, so we did some research and visited different locations to get different kinds of rocks. Then we cracked them open to see what was inside.

Reese did an experiment to find out why there was always a puddle of water around her cup when she left it out on the table.  Her research indicated that water in the air can turn to liquid water if the temperature changes, so we set up an experiment to see if we could get the water to condense around her cup.

She did awesome!

Summer time E Z Bake oven brownies

We're into making our own mixes so we don't have to buy them.

And they turned out great!

Liam is taking break dancing

And seems to really like it!

I like that they are teaching him the history as well as the moves.

Chocolate Mousse Pie

Happy 4th!  What's more American than apple pie?  Chocolate everything.  We American's have a corner on what I affectionately call the "cheap chocolate" market. So I'm sneaky and add in extra cocoa to my chocolate confections to make them even more chocolatey.

I always make apple pie when I bake for Independence Day, but the most popular at Heath family gatherings is the chocolate pie.  So I make two of those. And now you can, too.

Anna’s Chocolate Mousse Pie

Ingredients

2 prepared 8-inch chocolate cookie pie crusts*

1 tbsp unflavored gelatin

3 tbsp cold water

1/2 cup boiling hot chocolate (any desired flavor)

Pinch salt

¾ cup sugar

3-4 tbsp cocoa powder (3 for regular, 4 for dark chocolate pie.  I use 4.)

2 c heavy cream, very cold

2 tsp vanilla

Method

1. Prep a mixing bowl and beaters by placing in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.  Chill cookie pie crusts in refrigerator as filling is being prepared.

2. In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over cold water; stir and let stand 1 minute to soften.  Add hot chocolate and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved.  Let stand to cool.  (Alternately, refrigerate just until cool, but not gelled.) Mix in salt.

3. In chilled mixing bowl, stir together sugar and cocoa powder.  Add heavy cream.  Beat at medium speed until stiff peaks form.  Gradually pour in cooled gelatin mixture and vanilla, beating continuously at high speed until well-blended and soft peaks form.

4. Spoon into chocolate cookie pie crusts and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until firm enough to serve.

Makes 2 pies.

* You can use store-bought crust, but I  like to make my own and then I can garnish the top of the pie with leftover cookie crumbs.