197/365 - Friday Night Fruit Surprise

Marley usually comes over on Friday night with some agenda (!?!). Tonight she brought over some blackberries that they picked today in their yard. She said she wanted to make "Fruit Surprise." She decided that we would be on a cooking show, hence the stuffed animal (and one live animal) audience. They must watch a lot of cooking shows at the Gonsalves' because she had the whole thing down pat. She sounded exactly like a cooking show host. I was Vanessa, the assistant.

This was the finished product - cooked apples (with food coloring), honey and sugar sauce, and cooked raspberries.



Paul was the "famous food critic."





He said it was very good, "the best I ever had" which meant we won the cooking contest!



After the cooking contest was over, we all got to enjoy (it was a little scary looking but was actually pretty good)!




On another note, I have been trying to get Marley to read some of the many kids' books that we have in Kristen's old room. There are old books from me, Paul, Kris, and Mark. When she was little, I used to read her a lot of them and, even though she is an avid reader, she has never really seemed interested in reading any of these books. I have tried to come up with some "incentives", but tonight Marley came up with a challenge. She said, "If I read all the books in a year, would you give me $3.00?" I said, "If you read all those books in a year, I'll give you $10.00." (Still pretty cheap in my estimation.)

This is a picture of the books. What do you think? Do you think she can do it by next July 16th?




P.S. Don't mind the huge pointed thing covered with a sheet - it's just my fully decorated Christmas tree LOL!!