Swimming Pool, 4th of July, and Homemade Ice Cream!!

 

Saturday was the big day!  We were able to get the pool set up, and even landscape.  The girls actually braved the frigid water on the first day. Ah- to be young again; it was too cold for Dave and me!  It's great to see the girls taking ownership of the pool...from the landscaping right down to the chemicals.  Lesley has been researching and taking care of keeping the pool water balanced on her own.  Ashley researched plants that would do well in the environment by the pool, then did the majority of the placement and planting on her own.

We're hoping to add more plants over the years.  We like to watch for perennials that don't need much care after planting that are on sale! Ashley found some ornamental grass called Big Twister Rush.  She loved it when she first spotted it, but I wasn't convinced initially.  Now that it is planted, I love it too. It's so unique. The waviness mimics the water, it should do well with the conditions around the pool, and it's deer resistant.  The other plant we used was the tried and true day lily.  A Pardon Me Day Lily to be exact.  Day lilies always do well in this climate.  We have a lot of yellow ones in our landscaping, so it's fun to have some variety with color now.   

We were fortunate to be able to spend some time with family over the holiday weekend.  A few shared meals together helped us to get caught up on each others lives.

 
Little nephews in the pool and playing with the sprinkler, everyone relaxing, visiting, and homemade ice cream...what a nice weekend!


On the fourth, my Dad was hungry for some homemade ice cream, so he showed up to the house with all the fixins' and a brand new ice cream maker for us.  As we listened to the motor, Dad told us stories of how he and his brothers had to crank their ice cream maker by hand when he was a little boy.

Here is the recipe Dad uses.

Bev Troudt's Homemade Ice Cream Recipe

To make 1 gallon:

6 eggs, well beaten
2 Cups sugar, mix well with eggs
1 Tsp. real vanilla
1 pint Cream (or half and half if real cream is too sweet for you)
Fill ice cream maker with milk (about half way to top) mix together all ingredients and plug in machine

Enjoy your sweet treat. 

I'd like to try some healthier recipes, so I went looking for some.

  Check out this link: Healthy Homemade Ice Cream

 Hope you all had a safe and happy 4th!