Trees, Pancake Mix, and Slugs

The most exciting thing that happened this last week according to Spencer is that he learned how to climb the tree in the front yard. We have a little rule in our house that if you can't climb a tree yourself, no one can help you up. So for two or so years Spencer has been watching everyone else climb this tree and now he finally can too. It took two tries to help him find a non-dangerous way down and boy is he enjoying a new freedom.Abbie was my awesome helper making a 6 gallons of pancake mix for the credit union's annual meeting. I'm not a huge pancake person myself but Ken and the kids have pancakes at least three times a week. Let us know if you try the recipe!

Pancake Mix
10 cups flour (We actually do 5 cups white, 4 cups wheat and 1 cup cornmeal)
2 1/2 cups instant dry milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup baking powder
2 Tbsp. salt

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Perfect Pancakes
1 cup water
1 egg
3 Tbsp. oil
1 1/2 cups pancake mix

Combine water, egg and oil. Add pancake mix stirring until almost smooth. Let sit 5 minutes (if you have extra time or are waiting for you griddle to heat up.) Cook on heated griddle. Makes about 10 pancakes.

A few of the family have preferences as far as toppings go. Ken likes canned pears on his; Jessie and Spencer always have just syrup; Mark has butter and whatever else he can find (syrup, jam, etc); Abbie always has applesauce or jam.
Jessie sometimes refers to herself as the bug lady. After homework one day last week she was out catching slugs from under some rocks for a friend's bug jar. For herself she caught a couple centipedes.This week Abbie asked if she could try to paint her nails herself. She did a pretty stinkin' good job for a first try. I only had to completely wipe off one finger that was covered in polish. Ken didn't notice this time, but Spencer got the polish with green sparkles in it.

I wanted to try out the remote I got for the camera on Mother's Day and since we were all decked out in our helmets ready for a ride I thought that was a great opportunity. Well, it didn't work unfortunately and so we just ended up using the timer and I had to run back to get in the picture. We had Ken kneel down this time so I didn't feel so short.
After the CU's annul meeting was over Ken took Spencer and Abbie to exchange the remote. But before they left the store Spencer took this picture of himself just to make sure teh new one really worked.