Grateful Prayer | Thankful Heart

End of Year Wrap-up

By Lorraine

End of Year Wrap-up
As the year draws to a close I’m trying to catch up by posting activities and memory-making moments with and for family. It’s been a busy and full couple of months. My heart overflows. Hard to imagine that less than five months ago I had a total hip replacement.Continue Reading

Hawaiian Pasta Salad

By Lorraine

 
Hawaiian Pasta Salad with brightly colored veggies is a perfect summer salad. It is a hearty one too, with cheese tortellini, diced ham, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes and pineapple in a creamy dressing.Hawaiian Pasta Salad, brightly colored with an abundance of crisp veggies makes a perfect summer salad. It is a hearty one too, with the tortellini and diced ham. I served it at a graduation party as a side dish but it would be a great entrée served with crusty bread (and maybe a glass of wine) for a lovely summer supper.Continue Reading

Potato and Ham Soup

By Lorraine

When plans to be out for the day suddenly changed and I found I had nothing pressing to do, I knew immediately what I wanted.  I called my sister and was thrilled she was able to come for a visit. We chatted, caught up on family, laughed and ate a light lunch of potato and Ham Soup while Jared, Abbey, Erin and John popped in and out.

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Welcome baby Joelle Elizabeth

By Lorraine

Big sister Chloe, welcomed the newest member of the family on her birthday.
Baby Joelle Elizabeth not only shares a birthday with her sister, but they are both little leaplings.
Both born February 29th, four years apart.

 Not due until March 17th, Joelle came a little early to join her seven brothers and sisters.
 It doesn’t look like she will be in want of love and hugs anytime soon.
 Joelle came into the world with very dark hair, at the same weight as her momma did (6 lbs. 7 oz.) and looking (in my opinion) much like her momma did at birth. She needed a little encouragement to let out a big cry after birth and still needs to see those bilirubin numbers drop but she is doing just fine. 
A local hospital and paper shared this special leap day birth noting that the delivery doctor is a leap day baby as well 🙂 
We celebrated Chloe’s birthday on the 28th and Caleb turned 8 on March 4th.  PopPop John got to watch Silas play in a soccer tournament and we even had a late winter snow that cleared up by afternoon. 
I wrapped up the week with a special outing to the Philadelphia Flower Show with dear friends.
The theme this year is National Parks and it was all so beautiful!
and… I even managed to get this post prepared!
Happy Sunday, sweet blogging friends!

catching up with family

By Lorraine

Spring days ~ busy days!
April was filled with lots a family activities and get together’s!

 The son of our cousin, Caroline, was married in a lovely wedding.
Caroline, with her family including the newlyweds, Dan & Abbey 
(photo taken from facebook. Tyler Boye Photography)

As is so popular now, they had a photo booth situated in an obscure corner. All I can say is that my sister, John and I got some of the funniest pics ever!  So silly, that Carol made me promise never to share on any social media! Just imagine, John in the center with a crazy hat and over-sized glasses with basically the same expression in every photo and my sister and I making every goofy face we could possibly think of. Oh, my! Each time I look at the photos, I crack up all over again!
(photo taken from Stephanie’s facebook page)
Then there was a christening for our cousin Karen’s grandson, baby Mark.
 Together again with Carol, her daughter, Christine, John and I. Later noticed the framed photo on Karen’s mantle. It is of our daughter, Erin when she was just three year old performing flower girl responsibilities in Karen’s wedding. Such sweet memories!
 There were random, every day moments too.  I caught this scene of, Erin, Jared and Abbey studying in the family room.  Erin is completing her master’s degree, Jared is a high school Junior and Abbey is studying digital animation.

Noah and I went to breakfast one morning and later we did some cooking together.

I even got a pic from Erin as she drove through center city the other day and saw the old Divine Lorraine Hotel. 

 We had a trip to The Pop Shoppe with the kids, celebrated our dear friend’s 91st birthday during Bible study and peeked in as the kids helped Aunt Abbey create a 5-little monkeys video for a class assignment.
Noah went to work with PopPop and learned about nuclear engineering. 
Jared was inducted into his schools Technology Society.
pics with his proud mom and PopPop
Each day that passes, each achievement obtained, each celebration shared, each difficulty acknowledged, each experience learned, each encouraging smile, each laughter and giggle, each conversation, each hug and embrace are all gifts.
“We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary,
small (and yet really not small) gifts.” 
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Gratitude paints little smiley faces on everything it touches.” 
Richelle E. Goodrich
Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year

i am chloe

By Lorraine

can you guess i am
2
by
my antics
my expressions
my spontaneity
my elfish behavior

We went to our daughter’s house Saturday morning to watch the kids while she ran in the Philadelphia 5k Rocky Balboa race
chloe was perfectly 2-years-old
she pulled on an over-sized skirt  
plucked a princess crown on her noggin
and went about the business of being 2
I had the joy of capturing some of her magical moments
the princess and her pop-pop
being sweet
being coy
letting PopPop kiss her cheek
(oh, who can resist those soft cheeks)
being resolute in a stare-down
being vocal about a sibling offence 
being aggrieved
 raider has a special attachment to chloe
she shares her food with him
but only if she wants  
 each child… so unique… overflowing with personality and individual talents 
jammie clad… climbing cherub… crafty keri… chocolate faced… chapped lips…
photobomer…chillin’ sisters… quiet play…
hanging out at their house is truly delightful 
and their mom (with  a friend) braved the chilly morning temps to run a race.  she did it in 9 min 7 sec miles with a 28:22 finish.
what . a . champ!

South Jersey Hot Chefs Cooking Competition

By Lorraine

This is Noah.
And there is a reason he is so happy.
He entered a cooking competition with Peach Melba Trifle and WON!
A $100 gift certificate and a spot on local TV.  He was very excited and very nervous.
If you want to make Peach Melba Trifle too, follow the link for the recipe.
Ukee Washington and Pat Ciarrocchi co-anchor the weekday noon newscast of CBS3 Eyewitness News on KYW-TV
The following is from a local newspaper.
Barrington 9-year-old wins South Jersey Hot Chefs
cooking competition
Barrington 9-year-old wins South Jersey Hot Chefs cooking competition

South Jersey Hot Chefs has found its newest — and most adorable — little chef.

Noah Davidson, 9, has become the newest winner of the SJ Hot Chefs Littlest Chefs online competition with his peach trifle entry. The competition challenged children from all over South Jersey to make their favorite recipe and submit a picture of themselves with their dish.

Noah, of Barrington, won a spot on the SJ Hot Chefs Facebook page and a $100 gift certificate to Anthony’s restaurant in Haddon Heights. His dish will be featured at one of the SJ Hot Chef’s participating restaurants during Farm to Fork week.

“I’m really excited,” Noah said. “I just want to cook.”

Noah Davidson, 9, makes his Peach Trifle in his kitchen. (Photo provided) 

Though the aspiring future chef is happy about his win, Noah originally had doubts about his chance of success in the competition.

“He thought he didn’t have a chance and he was so excited when he heard he won,” said Noah’s mother, Jamie Davidson. “We’re really excited.”

The winning dish, a peach trifle, comes from a family recipe. With a mix of angel food cake, custard, fresh peaches and raspberry preserves, the dish is one of Davidson’s favorite recipes to cook.

“I like it because its my mom-mom’s recipe and it looks really good,” said Noah.

Davidson’s mother said that the recipe is special because of it’s long family history. The trifle is a favorite for Davidson to cook as well as eat and is popular at holiday gatherings.

“We eat [the trifle] at holidays, particularly during Christmas,” said Jamie Davidson. “My mom has been making it since I was little. It’s so good and it looks so pretty in a dish.”

When he is not in the kitchen, Noah enjoys playing sports such as hockey and baseball. His love for cooking began when he was around six years old and has now become one of his favorite past-times.

“He has been interested in cooking for about three years,” said Jamie Davidson. “He watches all of the cooking shows with me and he likes to try every flavor.” 

Cousins Camp ~ Part 3

By Lorraine

~ DAY 4 ~
John took a vacation day on Monday to join us at Sahara Sam’s Oasis Indoor/Outdoor Water Park.
This place is less than 15 minutes from home so we saved travel time and gas mileage plus we qualified for discount tickets using our AAA card.  No one was happier to officially be a senior than John that day as his ticket was FREE!  And, FREE makes him very happy 🙂

 After the girls had their early morning tea on the patio, we all met at the water park and it was off to cross the crocodile flats on swaying lily pads. 
Here Jared convinces his PopPop he will not get drenched along the Lazy River Congo Bongo.
Would you had believed that boy?!?
One of us preferred to stay alert and avoid most of the deluges 😉
 For the kids, getting waterlogged was the goal.
 Silas, the youngest stuck close by Jared who kindly accompanied him throughout the day.
 over and over and over they climbed the steps, hopped into their tubes and zoomed down the winding shoots to be deposited in a pool of water at the bottom
 There are four slides and the kids made use of them all. A 350-feet body slide, Snake Eyes for a single person tube or a double person tube and the Kilimanjaro that is family size.   
 Jared accompanied the girls many times 
And you didn’t think he would let me off the hook, did you?
That first curve was quite jolting so I prayed, relaxed (sort of) and looped and swirled to the bottom.
All of the colorful slides wind around the outside of the building.
We saved a bundle of money by bringing lunch.  There is NO food or drinks allowed to be brought into the park so I packed hoagies I made in the morning, orange slices, chips, cookies and drinks.  We headed to the parking lot to have our tailgate lunch.  Not very elegant but the kids devoured it all, even the ones who usually have small appetites!
After lunch, they wanted to return to the inside park.  Then they saw the awesome wave pool.
After watching some really amazing people on the FlowRider Surfing Simulator, Noah and Ryan wanted to give it a try.  We had to sign a special waiver before they could and we weren’t sure how they would do. We’d been watching a lot of people and it looked quite challenging.
I love their faces of determination as they rode the waves and managed to stay on their boards for the duration!
  It was hard to end the day.
“Just once more on the…. 
just once more?
We stayed to nearly closing.

Strawberry Fruit Roll-ups Recipe

By Lorraine

Noah spent the weekend and since school was canceled for snow, he spent Monday here too.
After he and I shoveled the driveway, sidewalk and steps, and after warming up by the fireplace with hot chocolate, we set out to make a favorite childhood treat.
Abbey and her boyfriend, Ryan made beef jerky with a dehydrator he just bought and encouraged me to try something with it.  Happily, I bought a container of strawberries while shopping this week so we made fruit rolls, also know as fruit leather.  It takes few ingredients to make this chewy snack.  Puree some fruit, dry it out and roll it up.
 It is a great in-the-kitchen with kids project. Noah did it all.
He cut off the strawberry tops and piled the trimmed berries into the blender.
He added honey but I probably wouldn’t if the berries were in season.
He squeezed in the juice of half a fresh lime.
Then pulsed the blender (with just a few pauses while I pressed down the berries with a wooden spoon).
To prevent sticking, I lightly sprayed the dehydrator disk with PAM and wiped away any extra.
Noah poured the puree onto the disk and leveled it with a spatula.
Into the dehydrator for almost 6 hours (the wait was hard) for a healthy, easy to make snack that he loved.
Here is how Noah made
Strawberry Fruit Roll-ups
recipe source: NESCO  

1 pint container fresh strawberries, washed and stems removed
1 Tbs. honey (or Karo syrup), optional
squeeze of lime juice
Add the strawberries, honey and juice to the blender, Cover and pulse/blend until you have a smooth puree. If needed, stop the blender and smash the fruit to the bottom using a wooden spoon before proceeding.
Lightly spray the disk with PAM and wipe away any extra.  Pour the puree onto the disk and level with a spatula.
Place the disk onto the dehydrator; dry at 135 degrees until fruit feels leather-like and is pliable (4-8 hours). Leather is not dry if there are any sticky or soft places. Our leather took 6 hours.
Remove from dehydrator and roll in plastic wrap or parchment paper.  Cut into strips.
Store in a moisture/air tight container.
NOTE: I haven’t tried it but have read you can make fruit leather without a dehydrator.  Pour the puree onto a shallow baking  pan with a silicone pad; bake at the lowest oven temp (140-170) for 6-8 hours until dried.

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