The Breakfast of Jedi

Summer vacation has begun, and breakfasts will never be the same in the Pennington home.  We decided to test out the Starwars pancake molds from William Sonoma that Auntie Jenny sent our way.  The recipe was so good, I thought I would include it here for you all to try!

Starwars Pancakes: 2 eggs, 2 cups flour, sifted, 3 Tbs. sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. salt, 2 1/2 cups buttermilk, 4 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted, 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract, 1-2 Tbs. vegetable oil.

In a bowl, using an electric mixer or a handheld whisk, beat the eggs on med. speed until frothy.  Add remaining ingredients.  Stir just until batter is smooth and no lumps of flour remain; do not overmix.  Thanks Williams-Sonoma for this yummy recipe!

The thing that saved the day and made these pancakes possible is this batter pourer also from Williams-Sonoma.  You can pour the batter in on the bottom and then squeeze the batter out in perfect amounts to all the parts of the pancake mold.  The storm-trooper was the toughest!  He was definitely the bad guy of the morning.  But we had fun.  Look, Reagan even dressed for the part in his Starwars shirt!

By the way, that is a Jedi "HeeYaw!" light-saber-fork- face...

Is it bad to start off the day eating Darth Vader?

Can this give small children nightmares?  Hope not!  Enjoy the recipe ... and may the Syrup be with you!

Coming to the breakfast table near you... STARWARS!

How much fun is this!  To celebrate summer vacation ... we are going to be having Starwars pancakes tomorrow morning!  We might just have to make some starwars cookies, too!  Thanks to a care package from Auntie Jenny and the cookie cutters from Papa ... we are set to have an exciting start to our summer vacation! 

More pictures to come ... as the pancakes will be colored!

Sailing the High Seas ...

Here is the ferry leaving the Kingston dock heading to Edmonds.  We were able to capture it from a boat!  Our friends invited us along for the opening of sailing season.  Our parade of boats, comprised of the boats from the Kingston yacht club, made a loop down to Jefferson Point to celebrate the opening of boating season.  What a beautiful day!!!

The parade of boats can be seen trailing behind us with the ferry on its own course.  I could definitely get used to this boating thing!  Reagan liked walking around the boat because he thought he was "surfing".  Poor kid, it will be the closest he will get to surfing for awhile...

Doesn't he look like he does this all the time -- the look of confidence and almost boredom?  I wish I could pull off that look.  When I am doing something new I wear a sappy grin like a kid in the candy  store for the first time.

Gaming takes on a new meaning.

On Monday we headed to the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim, (pronounced Squim).  We brought my mom along to check out some new places in the area.  We saw Kodiak bears, bald eagles, llamas, peacocks... you name it!  This place started out as a farm where the animals used in Disney movies were housed after the filming had ended.  They have pictures of Walt Disney here as well as old movie posters for the many animal movies Disney produced during the 1950's-1970's. 

I thought this guy had such a sweet face.  There is actually another bear beneath him!

This place is like no other ... We bought 3 loaves of wheat bread before driving through so that we could have the all-American experience of feeding such animals as the American bison! 

The highlight of the day was the near heart attack I received.  While my dearest husband was so diligently focusing on taking this amazing photo of this animal standing blocking our way ... (he was actually creating a diversion for his buddy), a HUGE bison had quietly come from the rear to my side of the car.  My window was completely down when I heard a snort coming from my elbow.  As I turned I was greeted by a head in my window with a tongue looking for more bread.  I screamed, jumped and somehow knocked the car our of gear.  My mom, behind me, screamed, too.  I couldn't roll up my window because his head was in the car.  My mom came to the rescue with a quick piece of bread inched out of her cracked window.  Scott deftly moved the car into gear ... and we were able to move away before my arm was mistaken for whole wheat bread.

Everyone had a great laugh at my expense ... even me!

Birthday at the beach

We headed up to the beach to try out a new kite Scott received for his birthday.  We were excited to see the amount of wind we had at home.  By the time we got to the beach, the Sound was calm as no other.  Even Reagan's kite was hard to fly.  Hmm.  At least we soaked in a little sun and took some fun pictures!

The cake I made actually looked like a birthday cake, can you believe it?!  Scott had requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting -- and that is what he got!  Look at all those candles!