Blueberries!

Blueberries were never really my favorite thing...  I love blueberry muffins.  And my mom used to make a blueberry cream cheese pie, but other then that, I never really ate blueberries.  Surely not PLAIN and by themselves! 

 

Then I met Josh.  This guy LOVES blueberries.  Eats them by the handfuls.  And now Grady does the same thing.  So we buy them a lot.  (Josh ate a whole pint by himself last week...  all in one day, mind you!)

 

My mother-in-law happens to be the QUEEN of desserts.  Seriously, Faye can make the best desserts known to mankind.  She has apparently been making this blueberry pie for Josh forever and it's his favorite dessert in the whole world.  Now Grady agrees.  Lucky for me, it's super easy to make!  The key is though, you need to make it with fresh, summer blueberries.  Faye and Josh taught me that June/July is the best time for blueberries.  They just taste better...plus, they are cheaper in the summer, too!  I need to make a trip to the farmer's market this week to stock up on those fresh summer blueberries and put lots of them in the freezer so we'll have them later on.  I bet we've made 4 or 5 blueberry pies this summer already!  Grady LOVES to help!  (And of course SNEAK a few blueberries in the process of helping!)

THIS pie and a big glass of milk...  NOTHING better!  :)

 

Here's the recipe in case you want to try it out!

 

Faye's Blueberry Pie

 

Ingredients:

1  9-inch pie shell (not the deep dish kind!)

1/2 c. milk

2 c. fresh blueberries, washed and patted dry

2/3 c. sugar

1/2 stick butter

1/2 c. self-rising flour

 

Directions:

Fill the raw pie shell with blueberries.  Mix flour and sugar together in a bowl.  Spoon this mixture evenly over the blueberries.  Drizzle milk over the top, making a few indentions with a spoon for the milk to run through...but do NOT stir!  Dot the top of the pie with butter.  Place pie on a cookie sheet and make at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour (pie should be golden brown on the top).

 

ENJOY!!!

 

DeeDee and Pete's Birthday Picnic

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU BOTH!

  We Love y'all!

Orange Beach, July 4th

It's been a Fulton family tradition to spend the 4th at Orange Beach for about as long as I can remember (with the exception of a few years when Ivan destroyed the Gulf Coast, or I had an infant at home and didn't get to go).  Josh and Jon couldn't take off the whole week, so Susan, Grady, Vera, and I went down early with my parents on Monday.  I haven't spent a whole week at the beach since I was in college and it was so nice to have more time to spend there.  The weather forecast showed storms all week long, but we managed to get in as much beach time around the rain clouds as we could.  Most showers were just sprinkles and lasted 5 minutes.  There was only one real "wash-out" day. 

DeeDee and Vera on the beach

 

Grady and Pete, working on their first of many sandcastle creations...

He is getting a little more interested in sandcastle building with each beach trip that we go on.  YEA!  Susan, Jenny, and I used to spend hours with my dad doing this! 

 

 

 He also loves the pool more and more!  Maybe we will be ready for swimming lessons by next summer finally!  :)

 

 Little clown...

Next summer, these two grandparents will have THREE grandchildren to play with on the beach!  I cannot wait!!! (And I won't be the one changing diapers on the beach!!!! Vera can be totally potty-trained by then, right???   Wishful thinking! ha ha!)

 

 Miss Vera did really well for her second beach trip.  She still isn't exactly fond of the sand, but she did walk in it a bit and was still all about playing with some buckets and sea shells!

This time around (after the almost-choking incident in May), we were sure to only give her the bigger shells to play with.  All was good!

 Grady's favorite thing to do by far was ride the waves!  I was so proud of him.  He was stung by a jellyfish twice and it didn't scare him away from getting back in the water.  He LOVES the ocean!  :)

 Josh and Jon drove down on Wednesday.  Grady was VERY disappointed that Josh left ladder-ball at home.  Thank goodness, Jon brought bocce ball.  Grady has a new favorite beach game now.  He takes it so serious.  Look at his face in these pictures!  ha!

Vera and her shells again...

 

 

 Working on another sandcastle creation...

 This trip was a little more relaxing than Memorial Day.  Probably because it wasn't so packed into just a few days.  I even got to READ on this trip!  Whooo hoo!  I love watching my kids on the beach.  It wears me out, but it's so worth seeing their faces light up and have so much fun.  I love watching my parents with my kids on the beach. They say it brings back tons of memories for them.  But it does for me as well! 

Grady was pretty sad on Sunday morning when we were packing up to come home.  I really think he would live at the beach if I'd let him.  We've been home two days and he's asked me at least 5 times when we can go back!

So I guess summer is almost officially over...  Kind of sad.

Until next time...

 

 

New Orleans, Day Three

Day Three started off with Café DuMonde and beignets!!!  Grady decided he wasn't too fond of powdered sugar...  Oh well, more for the rest of us!

I could eat this for breakfast every day I think! 

 

We hit the aquarium next.  I think Vera enjoyed it more than the zoo simply because she could get right next to the glass and see things more up close and personal.

After a short rest break, we ventured over to the Audubon Insectarium.  Sorry I didn't get a bunch of pictures here.  But it was really a surprise!  We enjoyed this museum so much!  There was a cute 3D Bug Show, an underground tunnel, and even a bug café with a bug chef.  Josh and I sampled some chocolate chirp cookies, made with crickets...  Hmmm...  interesting, but not something I care to try again.  Of course, brave little Grady wouldn't eat a bite of anything in the bug café!  Surprise, Surprise!  Pops, on the other hand, was still in there once we all left, asking the bug chef all kinds of questions and sampling whatever he had for him to try!  ha!

The highlight was the butterfly exhibit.  Vera's room is decorated in butterflies and she loves them!  So I knew she was going to love this part of the museum.  It was hard to capture them with pictures as they were flying around all over the room.  One landed on Vera's head but we didn't have the camera ready.  She just wanted to reach out and tough them the whole time we were there!  If you visit New Orleans with kids, you should definitely try this place!