Our New Favorite Game

Sunday, 19 March 2006

On a shopping trip to find fun, small, flat Easter things to send my nieces in Lebanon, Samuel found a can of Pick-Up Sticks in Targets $1 bins and insisted on taking them home with us. Grandpa taught the children the finer points of the game, and with minimal lenience, they became VERY good players!

Here Sam and Grandpa discuss strategy:


And in this later game, Sam has just successfully rolled a stick off the pile, for yet another point.

Turning 20-something

Saturday, 18 March 2006

Yesterday after getting everyone from school we packed up the car and headed for old homestead in StL. My sisters was going to be home for the weekend to celebrate her birthday and with the upcoming week being Spring Break for the girls, GR and I both felt it was a great time to head to see the other grandparents. The kids haven't been to see my parents at their house since Thanksgiving, which seems unforgivable. The drive went beautifully - we only had to stop once at my favorite gas station (which let me down this time... Columbia was a good $.10 cheaper/gallon) where we filled up on gasoline and Wendy's, allowing us to pull into the drive way shortly before 9pm... we made excellent time.

Today was filled with preparations for Suzanne's birthday celebrations. Daddy took Rebecca and Sam to the grocery store to purchase supplies for weekend meals and a birthday cake. Rebecca went around the store with her clipboard, paper and pen and wrote down all the different items Grandpa put into the shopping cart, and helped him purchase just the right kind of bagels. Emily, Mom and I went present shopping, I'd seen some clothes that I thought Suz would like... Mom and I purchased three skirts, a shirt, and blazer ... and .... Suz liked all of them! This is a definite first. Sadly we'll have to rely on her blog for a photo showing of the purchases.

Suz asked for a chocolate cake ... Mom and I didn't find exactly what we were looking for by way of a recipe, but the recipe we did use from an old Sothern Living cookbook was really, really yummy (I’ll include the recipe at the bottom)! The kids helped Grandpa decorate the breakfast room with balloons and a Barb inspired "Happy Birthday Suz" sign. And we went to Longhorn for dinner - double yum!

Here are pictures of the festivities:




Milk Chocolate Bar Cake

1 (18.25 oz.) pkg Swiss Chocolate cake mix
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
10 (1.5 oz.) milk chocolate candy bars with almonds*, divided
1 (12oz.) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Prepare cake batter according to package directions. Pour batter into three greased and floured 8-inch round cake pans. Bake at 325°F for 20-25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool layers in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.

Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and granulated sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until mixture is creamy. Chop 8 candy bars (*we used plan chocolate bars) finely, Fold cream cheese mixture and chopped candy into whipped topping.

Spread icing between layers and on top and sides of cake. Chop remaning 2 candy bars. Sprinkle half on chopped candy bars over cake. Press reamining chopped candy along bottom edge of cake. Store in refridgerator.

*Everyone loved the cake, but we discovered we liked it a bit more the second day, once the chocolate bar pieces had a chance to soften a bit in the icing.

St. Pat's Day

Friday, 17 March 2006

This morning everyone dressed in their greenest green. Sam wore his green Jayhawk t-shirt, Emily wore her mint green pants with coordinating shirt, and Rebecca wore jeans and her green t-shirt. Emily and Rebecca both wore their shamrock, green charm bracelets.

After taking Emily to preschool, Sam and I went downtown to experience 20 minutes of the parade... by a stroke of amazing luck we actually found a parking spot just as the parade was starting... Sam sat on my shoulder so he could see - and enjoyed every bit of it.

We then raced to the Elementary school to take Becca her green fruit ... kiwi, green grapes, honey dew melon chuncks, the greenist golden delicious apples I could find, and green fruit dip.