Easter at the Mango's

T-Bob, Thomas, and Ian fixing their dinner plates

Don and Kathy

 We had friends over for dinner.  Always nice to share a meal.

My Dinner Plate

We had a lovely meal.  There was roast beef, ham and cherry sauce, potato casserole, roasted asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce, spinach salad with fresh strawberries and almonds.  It was all so yummy!!!

Daffodils are my favorite flowers!  

Last year, there were daffodils in bloom on the first day of spring.  This year they didn't start blooming until last week.

Isaac

 Sadie and Isaac played with Elizabeth on the front porch.  Sadie loves to play 'babies' and house to the exclusion of everything else.  Elizabeth is looking forward to when she likes to play other things.

Levi, loves fishing!  He spent a lot of the afternoon wetting his line at the pond.

The big kids played kickball with Uncle Dodger/Dad.  Isaac played with Dallas in the middle of the field.  It is so nice to have a big grassy field to play games on.

Paul, went looking for worms to give the fishermen a hand.  

Dad spent the afternoon wearing his Easter clothes and his boots to do his fishing in.  He had a fun afternoon.  We need to clean out some of the fish in our pond so that there is room for the little ones to grow up.  We will do some serious fishing when it is time to plant our corn.  Going to do it Native American style.  

Levi did catch a bunch of fish.  The pond is a fun place to fish as there are lots of fish to catch!

Time for dessert.  T-Bob enjoyed the GF strawberry shortcake that Michelle made as well as the yummy cheese cake that Aunt Anita made.

Mom and Kathy enjoyed the desserts.

Michelle and Elizabeth were enjoying swinging on the tree swing until the rope started breaking.  Time to get a new rope.

Visiting

In the evening, we went to a friend's house who raise sheep.  The children wanted to see the lambs.

Bonita

Lots of little lambs with their mamas!

Sadie was flipping her hair around.  Her hair is really getting dark.  It is almost the same color as Aunt M's was.

Michelle and the kids tramping through the pasture.

Elizabeth climbing on the frame of the new sheep shed.

Levi got a splinter in his hand climbing on the new shed frame.

Our friend, Dee

The lambs were so sweet.

Labor Day 2013

One of the main purposes of my blog posts is to keep family that are far away updated on our lives...
(ie. This is not a profound post.  Just pictures of the latest family event)

My sister and her husband, enjoying the beautiful weather. I really like this picture.

Levi and Ian playing corn hole with their Grandpas.

 Ian

Sadie was tired.  School schedules are in place.

Isaac 

My DH and Dad enjoying some down time.

 Eating in the garage.  It was a cool evening.  All the food was delicious!

The corn on the cob has been delicious this year.

 Michelle's pies were present.  They were soooo good!  One was peach and the other was cherry, made from cherries from our own tree.  They were GF too!

After the little ones left, the older children got in a game of pinochle with Grandma and my DH.  Dad was giving coaching to the beginners.

It was a lovely evening!

Falling Behind

Every year we try and put up some produce in the summer to have on hand for the winter. This year, we are slacking. We haven't gotten any tomatoes canned or much produce frozen. We did do some corn, but about 10% of last year's amount. We didn't have any excess zucchini or cukes. We have been able to keep up with what we planted in the garden, but not any extra.

I did get my order in to the organic farmer who grows my beets for me. The children put up the two plus bushels for me. Joan directed the project and cooked all the beets. Elizabeth and the neighbor girl popped off the skins. They thought it was great fun.

Michelle cut up the beets.

(There was obviously some tasting going on, too)

Mr. Boots filled the containers.
T-Bob and Thomas did help a little too.
The parents were busy with other projects.
Thanks children!
Incidentally, Tuesday night is beet night at the Mango household. Whether you try to wrangle an invitation or avoid one is up to you.

~Mom

Christmas Eve Preparations

The afternoon of Christmas Eve is spent mostly in the kitchen and doing sundry cleaning. The reason for all the cooking is that we must do the meal prep for our Christmas Eve dinner as well as the Christmas Morning Brunch which we serve to our entire family. When we have a big cooking day everyone pitches in to help. Here JoAn is taking care of the Cherry soup which was to be served cold on Christmas morning. (It was really good and looked so pretty. It actually tasted better served hot a couple days later. I will definitely repeat this recipe. It is a good way to use up all the sour cherries in the freezer.)

Thomas worked hard frying up sausage and bacon to go in the quiche we made for Christmas brunch.

JoAn was greasing the pans for the potato casserole we made for brunch. I have worked with the children from the time they were young to be helpful and competent in the kitchen. It is a good family time as well.

T-Bob took a break from his Legos and Bionicles to wash veggies and cut up the broccoli.

I was able to go out to the garden and cut some fresh herbs to use in our shrimp bisque. This is thyme and sage. We also used fresh lemon. It was yummy, even our non-seafood eaters like this. They don't want the shrimp, but they love the soup.

It smells so good as it sits steaming on the stove.

Our friends at a local restaurant made the crab cheesecake for us. It was really tasty as she used baby leeks and lots of big pieces of crab. It was moist and delicious. She made it with the gluten free crumbs in the crust so everybody could eat it (except the dairy-free people).

Michelle set the table and created a simple center piece with cinnamon sticks, a candle, and a place mat.

This is how it looked before most of the food was put on. Our only mishap was with the Elegant Baked fish. Mr. Boots made it and JoAn told him to follow the recipe to the letter. He did. I usually don't on this one. It calls for a TABLESPOON of TABASCO sauce for a pound and a half of fish. That's really hot, as we discovered when we started to eat it. I usually only use about a quarter teaspoon when I make it. Mr. Boots really liked it as he enjoys spicy things. Some of the younger children skipped it. We didn't need tears on Christmas Eve, but we did need lots of beverages to drink. We finished up the meal with homemade ice cream which JoAn mixed up and Mr. Boots ran the ice cream maker.

~Mom

Winter Meat

Mr. Boots was able to harvest two deer this fall. I think he has gotten every deer he has ever shot at. He was pleased this year that he saw so many. He only got shots at two small bucks. He was still happy. A friend from church helped him butcher his deer. Together Mr. Boots and I cut it up into roasts, steaks and meat to grind. Mr. Boots then borrowed Grandpa's grinder and turned the chunks into 'venison burger'. It does give one a different appreciation for food when you process it yourself. Dallas has been enjoying the bones ansd extra parts that we saved for him.
It is good to have a young manly man providing for the family.
~Mom

Elizabeth's Fifth Birthday

Time speeds by so quickly. In this picture Elizabeth is about 18 months old. Today she is five. She is growing so well, inside and out. She is a delight to our family.

Saturday we had Elizabeth's birthday dinner. We chose Saturday as Mr. Boots left to go hunting yesterday and VERY early this morning Mr. Meehling left to fly back to Seattle. We wanted everybody to be here to celebrate. Elizabeth had the special birthday plate and her own goblet.

We enjoyed baked potatoes, steak from our steer, hot homemade applesauce, and scallops in a garlic, spinach cream sauce. A twist on surf and turf. This meal was Elizabeth's choice. I have got to stop raising such 'foodies'.

Everybody really enjoyed the meal.

Michelle made Elizabeth a doll cake. Grandma R. told her how to do it and gave her the doll topper. She did a great job. Elizabeth helped.

Elizabeth was very pleased with how it all turned out.

We are taking the day off school in honor of dear Elizabeth.

~Mom