Robots, sunflowers and running – oh my! This feels like the last week of summer to me. Not because it’s going to suddenly get cold but because this week I have BlogHer (THIS WEEK) and then adjusting to a new life with E on shift work (7 days a week, 12 hours a day, no days off). So there won’t be very many more boat trips or family zoo days or…well jeez, now I’m depressed. I guess I’ll have to just spend as much time at the lake as possible before the gorgeous New England fall hits. (And you know I’ve had a pretty good summer if I’m thinking about fall in a pleasant way.)

Sunday:

Robot Evan is fueled by milk and hummus

Caroline didn’t really understand the concept of all the presents being for someone else

The pink ones were the best, but the salted caramel weren’t bath either

Monday:

New favorite way to get 15 minutes of silence

Scoping out the frozen desserts at BJ’s

Still recovering from the weekend

Tuesday:

Library play time

Sunflowers

The track has lights but isn’t lit. I don’t know where I’m going to run once it gets dark at 5 pm.

Wednesday:

Too cool for school

Improvised dinner ended up being a hit

Turns out Caroline is perfectly happy to look at her OWN face on my phone, she doesn’t need to see other babies

Thursday:

We discovered Imagination Movers and she is obsesssssed

For today’s episode of musical beds, Caroline chose Evan’s

I dropped my kids off at a friend’s house which meant she was babysitting SIX KIDS all afternoon (ONE was hers). I owe her a bottle of wine.

Friday:

Zoo navigator

Pretending to be a penguin at the penguin exhibit

Evening run

Saturday:

Buckets are so hot right now

She’s so fashionable she wears my heels to bed

Couch naps for everyone!

Tomorrow we’re going out on the boat, Monday is packing and cleaning, Tuesday I pick up my mother-in-law and then Wenesday is NYC! I’m sorry sorry sorry that I can’t stop talking about it. I realize almost no one cares, unless they are going too. I also realize BlogHer is not the be-all end-all of blogging, or conferences, or anything at all, but it’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement and hype. Bear with me one more week and I promise it will be all gingers all the time.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

We are super busy but it’s all self-imposed business, the kind where we don’t have time to go grocery because we were at the zoo all morning and the playground all afternoon. Then I’m up too late at night putting away laundry blogging and watching The Walking Dead but I’m so exhausted when I do fall asleep I sleep like a log and wake up to a 3 year old begging to go to the zoo and the playground again. It’s not so bad, is what I’m saying.

Sunday:

I was trying to take a picture of my cute dress and Caroline decided to crawl back up the way she came out. NO.

Hot and sweaty walk to church

She’s wondering what kind of terrible mother doesn’t provide air conditioning

Monday:

Naughty? Who’s being naughty?

The nice aquarium volunteer helped Evan touch a starfish…and Evan ripped it’s leg off.

Really excited to be at BJ’s.

Tuesday:

<3 <3 <3

He REALLY likes peanut butter and honey sandwiches

I LOVE having a track I can walk to for C25K

Wednesday:

Er’ybody relax! I found the sequins!

REALLY EXCITED about the tiny plums

Back-to-back reading

Thursday:

I think Ken has something to tell his parents.

Sleeeeeeeepy face

POOR CHOICES

Hard core running in the dark.

Friday:

My kids get SO EXCITED over other people’s toys

Howdy!

Crazy old house wallpaper

Saturday:

Boxcar Children

BLT & onion rings = Vacation Food

It was a train-tastic day.

Tomorrow is Evan’s (forced) best friend Reid’s birthday. It’s robot themed, so we’re staying up tonight making robots out of boxes and melting crayons into little silicone molds. It’s going to be pretty low key but still SUPER cute. Then we head back to Connecticut for another super awesome week of summer fun. I LOVE YOU JULY.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

I apologize for my pictures this week – if you are currently stuck in an office you are going to HATE me.

Sunday:

On my way Mommy!

What, don’t you grow trees in your gutters?

Buy these.

Monday:

5 am means iPhone in bed because Mommy is NOT getting up

I had to wake her up at 9 am. She was not amused.

More straw cup stealing

Tuesday:

Getting a little blogging done while we wait for the car to be fixed

Very pleased with her stool climbing skills

Couch naps FTW

Wednesday:

Billion degrees at the rest stop

Car full o’babies

Swing break at MorMor and Bumpas house

Thursday:

Beach House!

Candy counter at the Piggly Wiggly. I miss the South.

Sitting on the floor of the Piggly Wiggly. I miss the South.

Friday:

Even in the beach house, Jake is the favorite.

Farmer’s Market acquisitions: Tomatoes, Peaches, Blackberries

Look Mommy! A gorgeous beach all for me!

Saturday:

Hello Charleston!

DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT those motorcycles

Wild Wings, you make my heart sing.

We’re at the beach for a few more days with no plans besides an adorable kid photo shoot and drinking/eating ALL THE THINGS. Right now on the counter is homemade chocolate cake with chocolate icing, homemade carrot cake with cream cheese coconut icing, a sour cherry pie and maple bourbon bacon ice cream. And that’s just dessert. Then we’ll go visit my parents and do grandparent-type stuff and then home for some MORE family visiting and eating. Obviously my life is really hard.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

This week’s photos are a little Caroline heavy, but since Evan refuses to hold still long enough for me to take his picture anymore it’s his own fault if someday he looks back at the blog and wonders if I loved his sister more. Not MORE, honey. She’s just EASIER.

Sunday:

“Watering” the flowers. Poor Caroline is already mad she can’t pee standing up.

NO NAP, MOMMY. I’M NOT TIRED.

That’s the face I make when I watch Mythbusters too.

Monday:

Wonder baby on her Wonder Pony.

Whee! Really high!!

Bubbles bubbles bubbles bubbles bubbles

Tuesday:

Fell asleep at 7 am on Daddy’s iPhone

Peek a boo!

SLIIIIIIIIIDE!

Wednesday:

What do you mean I’m doing it wrong?

She ate almost this entire container in the car on the way home.

TORTURE! TORTURE! SOMEONE CALL CPS!

Thursday:

Sup?

I’ve got a plan! And what’s the plan? JAM!

Ughhhhhhhhh THIS is why every town in Connecticut has their own stuff. The highways suck.

Friday:

Feeding the ducks, adorably.

Cherry berry chiller. WELL DONE McDonald’s.

Who says I need a nap?

Saturday:

SUPER HAPPY GOOD FUN TIMES down at waterfront park

Amistad! (Missing a mast, since it wouldn’t fit under the river on the bridge)

This is the only mobile bell casting company in the country! I got a piece of the mold they used to cast the bell!

And THEN we spent the afternoon hanging out at a friend’s super swanky marina pool and grilling on their sailboat. I have a pretty impressive sunburn. My kids are totally passed out. Tomorrow for Father’s Day I’m making pancakes and bacon and then mowing the lawn while my husband takes a nap. I’ll wear sunscreen.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

For Christmas, my uncle always sends me a really generous Williams-Sonoma gift card. It takes me WEEKS to decide what to buy with it, since Williams-Sonoma is pretty much my favorite store on the planet. Sometimes I blow the whole thing on something huge, like my KitchenAid mixer and sometimes I break it up into a bunch of small but useful things, like the year I got a strawberry huller and some treats and some spatulas and the best kitchen tool ever. This past year I split it between a grill tray and an ice cream maker – the Cuisinart Stainless-Steel 2 Quart Ice Cream Maker to be exact (Five stars! Highly recommend!)

And then I let it sit in my basement for 5 months, waiting for ice cream weather. Once the warm weather arrived, I spent hours online looking for the best, most delicious, most complicated ice cream and gelato and frozen yogurt and sorbet recipes. But in the end, it turns out EASY and ON-HAND beats fanciest every time so I’ve perfected a recipe for turning whatever-the-heck you have in your fridge into delicious, refreshing sorbet.

When I say juice, I literally mean any kind of juice. Grape, pineapple, cherry, whatever. You could make carrot sorbet if you wanted to, although that’s not really my cup of tea. TEA is more like my cup of tea, since the Sweet Tea Sorbet I made barely got photographed before I shoved it all into my face.

Here are a few of the kinds I made in the past week:

Newman's Own Orange Mango Tango Juice

Stop & Shop Ruby Red Grapefruit 100% Juice

V8 Fusion Pomegranate Blueberry Juice (hidden veggies!)

Market Pantry (Target) Sweet Tea

Welch's White Grape Peach Mango Juice

Are you ready for the recipe yet? Gentlemen, start your ice cream makers!

Sorbet:

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons lemon zest

Put the water and the sugar in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is all dissolved, then simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer syrup to a container and refrigerate until cold*. Zest a lemon – use a vegetable peeler if you don’t have a zester and chop up the zest a little. Then cut the lemon in half and squeeze out all the juice. Add the lemon juice and zest to your syrup. Once everything is cold, pour the syrup/lemon mix and the 1 1/2 cups juice into your ice cream maker**. Following your machine’s instructions, let it churn until it’s frozen (mine takes about 25 minutes). Eat as is – it will be a little soft – or transfer to an airtight container and freeze for a couple hours until it’s more like store-bought sorbet. SO GOOD. Don’t forget to put your ice cream maker bowl back in the freezer to make more tomorrow.

*Look, you just made simple syrup! You can make it in larger batches using the same 1/1 sugar/water ratio and keep it on hand for more sorbet or other delicious things like a blueberry gin gimlet or sparkling lemonade.

**This is SO SUPER EASY with an ice cream maker, but if you don’t have one you can just pour everything into a large flat baking dish. Put it in the freezer and let it freeze, scraping the top occasionally to make it fluffier. The end result will be a little icier than with the ice cream maker but it’s still delicious! If you want a softer finished product (like a Rita’s Water Ice) pulse it in a blender or food processor for a few seconds after it’s frozen. Eat immediately and enjoy!

I’ve practically broken my arm patting myself on the back for this recipe. I love the fact that I can make any possible flavor of sorbet with minimal effort. I love the little bits of lemon zest to even out the sweetness. I love that it’s fat free. And I love that I can bribe my kids to do pretty much anything for a spoonful – and they have no idea it’s practically the same juice they can get any old time.

Suggestions and variations:
If you don’t like lemon, use some other citrus. If you don’t like citrus, leave it out.
If you want a less-sweet sorbet, use 1/2 cup simple syrup and 1/2 cup water.
If you don’t have juice, use pureed fruit and/or squeeze your own.
Top with fresh or frozen berries (duh).
Blend it with tequila or rum for a delicious frozen drink.

p.s. After my super home-made food photography shoot on Saturday, I had three adorable little dishes of sorbet just sitting on my counter melting. Obviously I had to fix that problem immediately.

Get in my belly! The blueberry-white grape was especially delicious together.