A Cool Idea for a Hot Summer Dinner!

Searching for something new to have for dinner the other night I came across an idea for meatloaf on the grill! I read trough it and thought it was such a great way to have a home cooked, "comfort food" supper without heating up the kitchen!

Everyone has their own meatloaf recipe... but this is ours, all the kids and Daddy eat it! So it gets 5 stars!!!!!

"Grilled" Turkey Meatloaf

• 1 pound ground turkey (or beef, we switch back and forth depending on what we have)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 grated cheese (we use parm or cheddar or both)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1 cup ketchup (any tomato sauce will work but we like the little bit of sweetness the ketchup adds)
• 2-4 Tablespoons BBQ sauce (for the top)

Pre-heat your grill to medium heat. Mix all ingredients (except BBQ sauce) in a large bowl, I use my hands for this because it seems to be faster and easier to feel for any lumps. Once everything is combined press it into a glass pie plate and top with BBQ sauce. When your grill is ready set the pie plate on a cookie sheet in the grill and close the lid. It will take about 30 minutes for the meatloaf to cook. Watch the heat so it doesn't get too high, I found that I had to turn off all but one burner to maintain medium heat.

The kids were not sure about this at first, I think because it looked different from the usual. I told Emmy that it was just a giant burger and she said "Oh! I love burger" and ended up having seconds! We all really enjoyed it and the way our kitchen was still cool! We will definitely make it this way again!!

We also have discovered how much we like ground turkey in our meatloaf (and lots of other things) instead of ground beef. It gives it a really nice flavor! You must try it if you haven't yet!


Enjoy more great recipes at the Grocery Cart Challenge recipe swap and Foodie Friday!

Up, up, and away!

We had a great time the other night at the Balloons Over the Valley event in North Conway. There were not a lot of balloons (maybe 6 or 8) but it was a magical experience for the kids who had never seen them!

These first pics were taken on our way there in the fields by our house!

Once we arrived in the park there were three big balloons set up to give tethered rides. We took these photo opportunity's from a picnic table at the train station.

Then came the silly faces!

Next we met up with a couple of celebrity's!

We were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset too! I only wish there had been a balloon in the middle not the traffic light!

We had to wait an hour or so for nightfall when several of the balloons were going to be lit up in the park. So the natural thing to do was of course... have ice cream! Here are our happy and full of energy and ice cream kido's with Dad after enjoying their treat! I opted out of ice cream and decided to have a dessert crepe at Crepe's Ooh La La. Lemon and sugar on a giant crepe! Yum!!

Finally it was time for the "Balloon Glow" that we were anxiously awaiting! Here is a pic before...

...and after they turned on the "power"!

There were four balloons in all! Every few minutes the would count to three and they all would "glow" at the same time! These pics just don't do justice to how pretty they were!

I didn't know at the time of taking these pics that Ethan was actually the one turning the gas on in the checked balloon to the right! A boy about his age asked him if he wanted to hop in the basket with him and light up the balloon!

Soon it was time to pack these giants up! They make it look so easy!! First they let all the air out and lay it on it's side.

Then with a little bit of help they squeeze all the extra air out!

After the air is out everyone holds the balloon as it is stuffed into a giant duffel bag.

Ethan was a little small for this job so he decided to hold it up with his head!

The kids helping also got to periodically jump onto the bag to squeeze out every last bit of air possible!

We had a great time and are now officially hooked on balloons! Mollie and Emmy both say to me each day "can we go see the balloons?"

Here is a list of some Balloon Festivals coming up this summer in New England for any of you who may also be hooked or just want to see them for yourself!

Quechee Hot Air Balloon Festival Quechee VT- June 18th-20th

Spirit in America Hot Air Balloon Festival Old Orchard Beach ME- June 24th-27th

Hillsborough Balloon Festival Hillsborough NH July 8th-11th

Stoweflake Balloon Festival Stowe VT- July 9th-11th

Green River Festival Greenville MA- July 17th-18th

Pittsfield NH Hot Air Balloon Rally- August 6th-8th

Great Falls Balloon Festival Lewiston/Auburn ME- August 20th -22nd

Plainville Hot Air Balloon Festival Plainville CT- August 28th-30th

Adirondack Balloon Festival Glens Falls NY- September 23rd-26th

Ethan Turns 8!!

Our little Ethan (who is not so little anymore) turned 8 on Saturday! I tried to find an old pic of him to post but in every one he is making a crazy face or doing something crazy! That's just how he is, the family jokester, always turning everything into FUN! This pic is of him just after becoming a big brother for the first time, he had just turned 4! He looks so happy and proud to finally be bigger than someone!

I couldn't leave out one of the silly pics! This is Ethan at 6, trying on uncle Phil's fireman helmet at a field trip we did to the fire station.

He has grown so much! More responsible but still always looking for some way to turn everything into fun! We had a very small birthday for him this year. He picked two friends to sleep over and enjoy the day with him. He got a bunch of new water and beach toy's.

This is the one he has been enjoying the most! A super water blaster! It shoots up to 20 or 30 feet (I can't remember exactly)! He also got some hot wheels and a new fishing pole from Nana and Bumpa!

The big surprise of the day was this:

Thanks to Auntie Sarah and Uncle Zack it was set up with water in it when the kids arrived. They took the kids to their house to play Wii while Daddy worked hard to get it set up! When they arrived Ethan just kept saying "What! What! What!?"Unfortunately setting up didn't quite go as planned. Daddy had a great idea of filling the pool from the brook (instead of draining our well) and rented a pump to get the job done. After setting it all up and lugging the pump down the steep embankment to the brook he realized it was too small to pump the water all the way up the hill! So everything had to come back up the hill and back to the rental place to exchange it for a bigger one! This time it worked! Only the pool was not level so we had to drain it and called in a favor for a load of sand. We worked along with Papa, Mimi, Auntie Sarah and Uncle Zack into the night to get the sand spread and the pool in position.
In the morning it was ready to fill! But we woke to a crazy thunder and lightning storm!! It finally stopped and then the pool was filled! The kids were so anxious to get in that they went for a quick dip before we added any chemicals. And I do mean quick! The water was only a little over 50 degrees! I think they were shivering and blue before they even got in!

We don't have any kids in the pool pics yet but I will post some soon!

It was a birthday adventure!
Happy Birthday to our littlest boy! We love YOU!!

Portland Head Light

Our homeschool group got the privilege of touring the Portland Head Light, one of the most photographed light houses ever. The tour was set up with some really nice men from the coast guard who took time out of their busy day to give our group an amazing experience! Thanks so much to the Thornes for setting this up, we had such a great time!! Here is the front of the lighthouse keepers home...now a museum.

When we started the tour we leaned about the shipwreck of the Annie G. Maguire on this very rock. The lighthouse keeper helped the stranded people by using a ladder to make a bridge! You can't see in this pic but there is a huge drop off between the kids and the sign.

We then learned how all the lighhouses in the area work together to warn boats about the dangerous rocks. The first pic is of the fog horn system which is so loud that they wouldn't let the kids go near it to protect their ears in case it went off. The black bump at the top of the lighthouse is on of the ways the lighthouses communicate with each other.



It was great to have my mom with us! She helped me so much with the kids and she loves the ocean and lighthouses so it was a great field trip for her too!
















A group pic:


We then headed into the lighthouse! This pic is in the stair well at one of the little keyhole windows on the way up.



The stair well as you can imagin is a huge spiral! 79 steps in all!! It was very steep and intimidating! We all made our way to the top except for James who wanted nothing to do with the stairs! This pic is at the top looking down.

This is the little door that leads to the catwalk at the top of the lighthouse.

Here is the view from the top! I was a chicken so I passed the camera off to one of the braver sole's that ventured all the way around (thanks Cindy).



We also got to peak our heads up into the top where the light is. It is spinning all the time so we couldn't go all the way.





Safe at the bottom again, the kids pose in front of one of the old warning bells that they used before they had the fog horn system.

We then went into the museum. Here James is standing in front of a model of how the light house has changed through the years. It was first built at the time of George Washington! He was the one who commissioned this lighthouse into existence!


One of the many lights that was used through the years. The glass was cut just right so that only a very small light would look much bigger!


We also got to visit the Whistle House. This is where they house all the electronics that make the horn and other instruments work. In this pic he is showing us an old light and horn system.

Ethan checking himself out in one of the old mirrors used on the light.

On the way back to the car the kids wanted to pose with this old bell...

...and this old cannon used when this area was a military base.

After a picnic lunch at Mrs. Thornes parents house we walked a little ways to the beach! This was one of the beautiful homes in the area.

I didn't realize we would be ocean swimming in MAY so the kids didn't have their suits! They went in anyway!! My feet felt numb just standing in the water for only a few minutes! Oh to be a kid again!!! To their credit it was really HOT and the water was refreshing!


They also had a great time playing in the sand!


I'm guessing they needed to warm their blood back up and sitting in the warm sand was just the thing!

The little girls had a great time building sand castles!


Their masterpiece was this castle with a seaweed moat!


Mollie was not sure about the ocean waves! She held tight to Mimi's hand for a long time not wanting to get too close! After a while she warmed up. At one point not noticing Mimi was gone she grabbed the closest hand to her (Mrs. Jette)! Too cute! Thanks for being the standby!

After the beach we changed and then explored a couple of the old buildings near the lighthouse that were used when Fort Williams was a very active military base! The boy's could have played for hours there I think!
We then headed off the the Maine Mall for a long anticipated trip the the Build A Bear Factory! Mimi had been promising a trip there soon and we thought this would be a fun ending to our exciting day! I wish I had brought the camera into the store! They had such a great time choosing and stuffing their bears (a dog and a cat too). Thanks Mimi!!
It was such a fun trip! We can't wait to go back!