Scott's Birthday treat!

And my new favorite Summer treat!  You don't even need to use the oven!

It is cold and creamy and heavenly!

Frozen Coconut Key Lime Tart

(original recipe by Lindsey Johnson)  at cafejohnsonia.com

Crust:
9 graham crackers (1 plastic sleeve)
6 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2 Tbsp. brown sugar


Filling:
16 oz. (2 bars) 1/3 less fat cream cheese (also called Neufchâtel)
1 can cream of coconut (such as Coco Lopez)  {if you are having troubles finding it like me...I found it in the alcohol isle ~ though it contains no alcohol ~ can use for mixed drinks and it tastes AWESOME!!!}
1/2 cup heavy cream
juice from 12 key limes, about 1/2 cup (next time I think I'll use a bit less, maybe 1/3 cup...so the coconut shines a little more)
1/4 cup sugar

To make crust:
Process the graham crackers, brown sugar, and shredded coconut in the bowl of a food processor until fine crumbs form. Remove crumbs to a small bowl and add the melted butter. Stir with a fork until all the crumbs are moistened with the butter.

I used a deep dish pie plate...line the bottom with parchment.  Bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 to 15 minutes for a crisper crust, or chill the unbaked crust until ready to fill. {I did bake, but I don't think I will next time.}

To make filling:
Wipe out the bowl of the food processor and add all the ingredients, except the heavy cream. (No need to let the cream cheese soften for this.) Process until everything is incorporated, thick, and creamy. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and scrape the bowl of the food processor with a spatula.
Add the 1/2 cup heavy cream to the food processor and turn on for a few seconds until the cream has thickened. (Be careful not to over-process or it will turn to butter!)
Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture. Taste for sweetness. Pour into the prepared crust.
Freeze the tart for at least 3 hours or overnight. Let it sit for about 10 minutes {or longer depending on how long it's been freezing} before serving for easier slicing.

Sean is no longer a Kindergartner!

And it seems sort of fitting.  Most of the time it's hard to believe your kids are getting so big and so old.  However with Sean, that sorta isn't the case.  Sean has been 5 for about 3 years...well actually he's 6 now, but up til 5, he seemed about 5 for years!  He's always trying to do what Ryan's doing and won't settle for less!  We always laugh when we remember Ryan getting his first bike at 3 years old.  Sean, 13 1/2 months old was beside himself that the bike wasn't his and he wasn't riding it!  And when he finally got his turn he was so happy!  Most just barely 1 year old kids wouldn't care so much about an older sibling's new bike.  Anyhow, he's Graduated Kindergarten and is off to First Grade!

Sean's Kindergarten teacher and class were so great!

Really, I dearly love his teacher Mrs. Foote!  She cares so much for the kids, expects good behavior, teaches them very well, has great classroom behavior systems/rewards, sings with them, has catchy sayings and trained interactions to keep them engaged, and I could go on!  I truly love her so much!  Makes me want Kyle to hurry up and go to Kindergarten so we can have her in our lives for another year!

And we lucked out due to Marilyn's busy life and were able to stay in her time share in Lake Tahoe after the last day of school!  Does it look like this is a picture taken on June 4th?  Yes, we have sweatshirts and winter jackets on!  It was freezing and sprinkling rain on us, but it was still such a fun trip!  We had a blast exploring the waterfall at the top of Emerald Bay...more rocks to wander around on up there than I realized!  And yes, Sean is sort of in this picture.

We expected this waterfall to have crazy amounts of water, but it seemed like it had less water than when we were there 2 years ago same time...but realized with our crazy cold spring, the snow hasn't had a chance to melt yet!

And we enjoyed to pool lots!  The kids were in heaven in this heated pool.  Can't wait for more pool parties this summer! 

Memorial Day Weekend...Santa Cruz Camping!

Santa Cruz!  We love camping in Santa Cruz!  We missed last year and were so sad...and we almost missed this year too!  But we lucked out from friends who had an extra site!  Phew!  This year my mom was in town and was able to come with us and our friends the Wiersdorfs came along to see what this Santa Cruz camping was all about! 

The kids of course couldn't wait to get down to the ocean ~ and ran right in!

They quickly found a sand pit too!

Cade was a pretty good camper ~ for being a crawling kid!  I love camping with newborns, but was really nervous about camping with an 8 month old! 

The dad's dug a great little pit and a trench for ocean water to fill up the pit!

After visiting the Annual Oneil Surf shop parking lot sale we watched the surfers!

So Scott's family has camped in Santa Cruz {New Brighton State Beach} over Memorial Day Weekend for years, since he was pretty young, and so it was funny to find out some of our newer Lincoln friends go too!  Jordan on the top left has been going for years with his family so has carried on the tradition now that he has his own family and they have converted the the Ludlows too!  What's funny is that before we knew them, we could have passed them there before but they have always camped on the other side of the campground! 

Mom and I bundling up in our new sweatshirts from the Oniel shop!

Someone had built a pretty sweet fort and we discovered it was nice and warm with no wind ~ made a great place for lunch!

And as usual, the Lincoln boys played a pickup soccer game!  This time on the beach!  How fun is that?

It did rain one evening, but we got to watch Tangled in our Tent!

On Sunday we had a devotional on the beach!  Grandma read the creation out of the Bible and we talked about our beautiful earth and how Heavenly Father and Jesus created them for us!

Then we talked about Grandpa's current focus word:  HONOR!

{My dad has had focus words for us to talk about ~ usually one word per trip.  The first was Passion, then Focus and now Honor!}  So Grandma wrote HONOR...then Ryan wrote Passion, then Sean wrote "Mom and Dad" because is was our

 12th Anniversary that day!

And Scott wrote:

And since I was holding Cade and being photographer...I made this on the computer!

Love you Scott!!!

For Sunday dinner we had the most amazing Korean Steak ever!  Marinating for 5 days is YUMMO!

Cooked on a fire is YUMMO!!!

~Aunto Jo came for Sunday dinner~ and ~Cade fell in love with watermelon rinds and apple slices!~

{She lives about 20 minutes up the mountain.}

And after we packed the van all up we went down to the beach one last time!

Grandma and the boys made Rapunzel's tower!

We had a great weekend!  So glad we got to share it with my mom and friends!  Scott's parents actually came for Friday evening and Saturday ~ slept in their Sequoia made into a bed ~ so we got to enjoy their company too, but it was too short and somehow I never captured them in any pictures!  Bummer!

End of May: Grandma comes to town!

So my mom came to visit us and her mom.  So the Friday that all my boys took off to their annual Father and Son's Campout...or in our family, "Daddy and Sons" or as Kyle calls it, "Daddy and Campout" Cade and I took off to visit my Grandma and pick up my mom in the Bay Area.  It was fun to have Cade all alone for a while!  He gots lots of attention!  As we were about to leave and had taken Grandma back to her room, my mom picked up one of grandma's baby dolls {all the old ladies like to hold and rock the baby dolls!}  to show Cade.  He made the wierdest noise when it got close to him...almost a cry...but more a wierd shriek...but my mom wondered at first if he was sorta laughing...but knowing his giggles were NOT like that noise, we tried again to see what his reaction would be...well my son was terrified of the baby doll!  We finally realized my mom had a video and took some footage...but by the time we took these videos, he wasn't making the wierd noise anymore...and even by the last video he got brave enough to touch a different doll and then smile!  I think the little one with the pink hat scared him the most. 

Then after the boys came home we took off to their baseball game!

Some people are saying Cade and I look alike...

One of Ryan's creations.  I fail to take pictures of them all...but the are rather impressive!

After church we tool more pictures since I wasn't pleased with me in our last attempt...in my defense I was in a lot of pain {I had a crazy pinched nerve or something in my back/shoulder area that wasn't dulled away by three advils...so if you look back at it, my shoulder is up and I am grimacing.}.

But I LOVE this shot!

Later that day, Kyle wanted to help Grandma shuck corn and he was all business!  Didn't think he'd actually finish the whole thing, but he loved shucking the corn and completely cleaned off a few of them!

Good helper!

Beginning of May: Running, Back to School, Six Flags, etc.

A few things we've been up to:

Our school had an obstacle course set up by Running'school. 

They had so much fun and I was impressed with both of my boys!

Sean's awesome teacher treated the kids to popscicles!

We went to Discovery Kingdom and Sean is finally big enough to ride the Cobra! 
Kyle is now the one waiting to get bigger.  Sean was bummed we didn't make it onto Monsoon Falls since he's big enough for that one, but it was freezing that day and we'll be back!

We've enjoyed some nice baseball games!

And I've made A LOT of cupcakes and whoopie pies this year: orange, lemon, strawberry, cinnamon, etc... My favorites are the cinnamon or "Snickerdoodle" and the orange and lemons.

This boy keeps poking holes in the toes of his cute pjs...so I had to document this cute baby in one of my favorite pjs.

School Open House!  Sean was so excited to show us his classroom and school work!  He's a great little student!  He tries to spell pretty difficult words like, Symetrical or Monarch or other words that his teacher is super impressed by.

 Ryan's class was neat too!  Here is a picture he painted of our family and the family Crest he created. 

I think he the top left and bottom left are what our family does together...eat and play football.  The top right are some flags of our ancestry...which looks like one is Italian...but was supposed to be Irish.  And the bottom left is what his name means...which he was thrilled to find out his name means Little Prince or Little King.  I thought his Crest looked great!