Elderberry Pie

Here is a recipe for a delicious "wild" berry pie! Harvested from our very own Elderberry bush, Faith made this pie for our friend Mr. Reiche who says that his mother used to make the best Elderberry pie. For those who like seedy things...this was a yummy treat!

4 cups ripe Elderberries*

1cup Sugar

1 Tbs Vinegar

1/4 tsp Salt

4 Tbs Corn Starch

Combine first 4 ingredients in sauce pan. Bring to boil being careful not so scorch.

Mix Corn Starch in a little water and add to berry mixture. Cook, stirring constantly until desired thickness. Pour into prepared bottom crust and dot with butter. Put on top crust or lattice.

Bake at 375 for approx. 45 min or until brown and berries are bubbling.

NOTE - It is a good idea to put a pan under the pie while it bakes as it might bubble over.

*CAUTION : Do not eat raw/fresh Elderberries. They are very toxic and can only be consumed when heated.

The McChickens have arrived!

At 5:45 AM this morning we got the long waited for phone call from the post office that our chicks had arrived! Born early Wednesday morning, Faith has been on pins and needles waiting and getting everything ready for their coming.

So bright and early (maybe a little too early for a lot of us after staying up late watching the Olympics) on this Saturday morning the Sauve family embarked on a new adventure!

The cutest little fluff balls!

Ten(5 girls and 5 boys) Rhode Island Reds, 6 Barred Rocks and 5 Buff Orpingtons!

Sleepy little rooster!

At the Lake with Family

Friday afternoon/evening was spent over in Port Huron visiting with Grandparents and A. Carmen and U. Tim before G&G left for Florida Monday. We headed over to the lake just above the river and ate supper, the guys(minus Josh who was up in the U.P.) threw a ball around and us girls walked the beach enjoying the warm sand and beautiful water sky scenery...Oh, and of course took pictures! This time I wanted to get some of myself, so I had several helpers as Aunt Carmen took the pictures of us girls, and Christianna and Josiah took pictures of me. Thanks guys!

The oldest Light House in Michigan!







Sisters/twins



Loving the Sunshine!

Sisters. Yes, we did jump off but sorry can't show those pictures! =P


This picture makes me think of angels.


I could barely drag Josiah away from the beach! He loves to look for rocks, shells and just play in the water!


Praise God that Grandpa and Grandma had a safe and enjoyable trip home! Love you two!


Afterwards we headed down to Vantage Point along the river to enjoy some ice cream. Thanks Grandma!






More pictures over at my Photo Blog.

The Battle of the Gigantimous Tomato!

Lego battle scene on the kitchen counter.

Josiah setting up Tomato mountain.

The dark knights

It's hard to really see it, but the large tomato that the horse is standing on is the size of three of my fists put together! HUGE!!! It made for some great sandwiches though. =)

Nature walk at the Santuary with friends.

Giant Swallow Tail


Checking out things on the collection table.








Cleavers are so much fun!





John and Scott


Anna

Lydia and Emily.

Back up and Running again!

Well we resolved the picture problem and hopefully now I can catch you all up on what we have
been doing...stay tuned!

~Grace

More Pictures or No Pictures...

...That is the question!
Due to gobs and globs of pictures that I post on our blog, we are now out of photo storage space!!! Ahhhh!!!
Ok so Blogger has this ridiculous set up with Picasa that every picture that I post is saved onto a web album and if I delete it off of that album, it is then deleted off of the blog. Ridiculous!
So we have a dilemma. To PAY for more space...or start another blog....or link off of another photo site (if that would even work).

Therefore, until we can figure out what to do (Prayerfully decide), I will not be able to post any more pictures on this blog.

Until further notice....

The very frustrated and distraught Blog Mistress

The end of Softball Season- 2008

Monday was the last Softball game for Josh and Dad. It was greatly anticipated with excitement and yet with regret that the season was over. Though this was the last game and we were unbeaten for the whole season, God determined that this would be our humility game and we closed out the series 14-1-1. Ending as the #1 team in the league of Church teams, Josh and Dad were very grateful to be able to play with the Baptiste Church of Hadley team and Lord willing, look forward to playing next year! To God be all the glory!

Family Reunion - 2008

Saturday was our long planned for annual family reunion. It was held at our house and even though about half of all who said they were coming did not show up and it did eventually rain, it turned out to be one of the best ever reunions and I think every one had a wonderful and enjoyable time!

The matriarchs and their spouses.

The day started out beautiful!

Grandma and Grandpa Learned.

L-R, Aunt Clarabel, Aunt Elsie (Uncle Teds wife), and Aunt Myrt.

Faith and Josh.

Lunch time!

Mr. Ostrander kindly provided this tarp to help shade our eating area!

After lunch we had the different generations gather together for a quiz time.

The second generation met to talk about the future of the reunions.

The third generation had a short quiz/ice breaker and then we got into the games!

I don't have any pictures of us young people playing water balloon volleyball since I was participating, but here are some of the "grown ups" trying their skills at soaking each other! LOL! It was pretty funny to watch!

Zoey enjoying the game from the play scape deck.

Two balloons! When the younger generation was playing we actually had two balloons collide in mid-air! We were so surprised, no one moved and they both fell to the ground!

The spectators.

2008 picture!

Our cousin Kelly brought a friend. She fit in like one of the family, helped out by taking the family picture and threw her share of water balloons! I'm glad you came Catie! It was fun getting to know you!

After pictures it started to rain. Really hard! After it let up some people left, but since it was still the early afternoon everyone else hung around so we decided to have a water balloon toss...

...and it ended up with a war!

Thankfully Adam was nice and didn't pop the balloon over his sisters head! =)

It was a great day spent with family and we hope to see more of you all next year!

~Grace