We are really blessed that although our kids don't have cousins living next door or one town over from us, our children do have more opportunities than most to build strong friendships with their cousins. And thankfully this summer we've had, and will have many opportunities for all the cousins to get together and play!
Father's Day weekend Mary Ann and her family came for a quick Friday/Saturday visit. Uncle Matthew taught Sam and Emily the fundamentals of rugby - something they both really enjoyed and took to quickly. A week after Uncle Matthew left a small package arrived for Sam ... a little something that will remain a surprise for his birthday - he will be so excited!! Too bad Parks and Rec doesn't have a Rugby Hobbits team here, so we might be adding a new sport to the family calendar. In addition to playing Rugby and jumping on the trampoline and playing all sorts of pretend games, Diane also let us take over her pool for the afternoon ... swimming, pizza, and ice cream cones ... ahhh summer!
This weekend Elspeth and family arrived for their annual 4th of July visit. Diane invited some longtime family friends to join us for dinner and while the adults visited, the kids took full advantage of Bob and Diane's property.
Diane asked GR to bring some ribs for dinner. Last summer, GR got a smoker for Father's Day and learned to smoke ribs in preparation for entering a ward BBQ contest at the end of June. He worked very hard learning to get the temperature just right and how long to smoke them, and tested numerous recipes ... I was only allowed to taste the first few rounds of recipes - most of them terrible - because I was one of the judges. His hard work and determination paid off and he won the contest by 1 point.
Unfortunately, it's been a victory many have felt was undeserved and make it known every chance they get - still. Diane (his mom) and I were both two of the four judges, and they question our ability to be impartial. Nevermind the fact that it was a double blind contest and we had no idea who's meat we were eating, or that another contestant used the same sauce GR used, or that we (Diane and I) were never allowed to taste the recipe he choose to use until judging time, or that there were some really, really, terrible ribs entered into that contest, or that I liked another contestants ribs better than GR's ... This year, they are having the same contest at the end of July, and I have been persuaded to enter, although I've requested a thorough search of the judges genealogy be done to insure we have no ties to any of them.
Anyway, Saturday we tested two new recipes for the contest and the results were quite surprising. The "safe" recipe was dull and boring, and the "experimental" recipe we were worried would be way to hot and spicy, was our hands down favorite, although we're thinking it might be a little too non-traditional for the judges, so GR and I are still testing.
Last week on the 18th, the kids and I finally made it to the summer concerts in the park, a city tradition for the last 100 years. We've been coming (some summers more than others) since the girls were toddlers, and last year I don't think we didn't miss a single concert. We won't make every concert this summer, but we'll make at least a few of our favorites.
A simple picnic supper (large hoaggies from the deli - not fancy but very yummy, and cheap - $6 each ... two was more than enough for four adults and four kids; fresh strawberries; Pringles and pink lemonade), followed by homemade ice cream from our favorite ice cream shop, and a relaxing hour of listening to the band and chatting, while the kids play in the field behind us. Summer doesn't get better than this!
Here are pictures from tonights children's concert ... next week, is their patriotic concert, of course, and we'll have cousins in town to share the fun with!
You are now officially invited to join the festivities at Bob and Diane's on the 4th. Email me if you need directions and feel free to bring family and friends.
Per our usual rules.
- Please do not bring your own fireworks or sparklers or anything that requires a lighter - we'll have plenty of that on hand, I promise. Instead, slip GR a five dollar bill and call it good.
- Keep track of your children at all times. The crowd gets bigger and bigger each year and we do not want little ones or big ones to get hurt. Especially during sparkler time and once the big show starts.
- I will continue to provide all the ice cream and root beer. I wonder how many we'll make this year. Last year we did 144 ... You're welcome to offer to bring one or the other, but I will decline the offer. Too many things happen last minute and I don't want to count on your box or 2-liter and have it not show. Instead, if you're really set on wanting to help, bring me a a dollar or two to cover the cost of a box or 2-liter, and we'll call it good.
UPDATE Glitch #4: So the saga with my ZUNE is nearly over ... I hope. Here's where GR and I differ. Two weeks ago he would have mailed off the ZUNE and paid whatever it cost to have it fixed ... I ...
- After calling the credit card company and learning they can only look at our records for the past 60 days, have GR look up the credit card activity for last summer online, determining that he purchased the ZUNE at ToysRUs on 6/25/07! We're in luck it's still under warranty!!
- Called ZUNE to say, the item is under warranty and purchased on 6/25/07, I have a credit card statement showing the date of purchase, store location with a transaction number. Not good enough. Must show purchase information stating that the charge was for a ZUNE device. They suggest calling the credit card company to obtain a proof of purchase stating the above.
- Called the local ToysRUs store to see if they could print a receipt for me ... assistant manager could only access last 90 days, store manager was out of the office for the next few days at another store opening and he MIGHT be able to ... call back in a few days to talk with him.
- Called the credit card company to confirm that there was no way for them to itemize a previous purchase, or confirm proof of purchase of a ZUNE on the ToysRUs transaction. (This amazes me. In the age of technology, where a consumers buying habits are tracked with such detail and accuracy that you get junk mail tailored to your specific interests and buying habits, my own credit card company doesn't know/care what I'm purchasing, just where and how much I'm spending.)
- Called ToysRUs 1-800 customer service to see if they could access the receipt. Filed a claim and obtained a case number ... was told they would see what they could do (but not to get my hopes up) and get back with me in 72 hours. They called back, obtained more information from me about my case. Another customer service rep called this week to say they found the itemized receipt and would mail me a copy. I should have it by Friday!!
I am so excited - $109.95 saved. I'm now reading, at a snails pace, a borrowed print copy of Harry Potter and the Gobblet of Fire. The CD's were checked out of the library when I stopped in on Saturday, and I didn't want to mess with cassette tapes.
Glitch #5: I neglected to mention that Alexander decided to dunk (read fully submerge multiple times) my cellphone in his milk at lunch a few weeks ago. It took a little over a week to remove all the milk and milk fat residue from the buttons, battery and charger connection. But it now seems to be back in working order.
... but the eyes were too late.
June hasn't been kind to us on the technology end of things.
Glitch #1:
It all started with me inadvertently deleting ALL the pictures in our MY PICTURES folder. Before leaving for St. Louis Memorial Day weekend I hooked up my Zune to sync it with all the latest CD's I'd ripped from the library, etc. for the kids to listen to in the car, a few new audio books, etc. It'd been months and months since I'd hooked it up to the PC, and consequently had a few updates that needed to run. In the process, it downloaded the entire MY PICTURES folder to my Zune.
I should explain that our MY PICTURES folder is HUGE. It currently holds all the pictures we've taken from 2005-2008, in addition to all edited photos for printing, digital picture frames that the Grandma's both have, etc. And since we average 5-8,000 pictures per year, sigh, it was way more than I needed on my Zune and a huge loss when they all disappeared, despite my best efforts to make sure that the process I used in deleting the photos wasn't deleting them from the PC, just the Zune.
Thankfully, GR was able to recover about 80% of the lost pictures, but the program he used recovered every single, possible .JPG, not just those that resided in the MY PICTURES FOLDER. So I now have a huge organizational project on my to-do list.
Glitch #2:
We have a small file server to hold all our documents, pictures, music and video files, etc. Well the little black box that allows the file server and the desktop to talk to one another decided to die Friday night, just as GR was preparing to leave for Seattle for a few days. All the information is there and fine, we just can't access it ...
Glitch #3:
When GR headed to Seattle he took the only mini USB to USB cord I know of in the house ... the only cord I know of to use to download pictures from the camera to the PC. No Pictures means no blog posts, for this girl. When he called from the airport to say his flights were all on time, he said he lost the cord in the hotel .... ... but an hour or so before he walked in the door I found a spare in the mass of wires under the PC!! Ahhh PICTURES. Not a lot of pictures, but some pictures. I can finally blog again.
Glitch #4:
As a result of all the picture mayhem, the ZUNE is now in need of repair. The port at the bottom of the devise that allows it to charge, connect to the PC, Car Radio, etc. got damaged thanks to a damaged cord that needed to be "forcibly" removed? I'm now in the process of trying to figure out exactly when GR gave it to me last summer and obtain the proof of purchase needed to determine if it is still under warranty ... let's hope it was an anniversary (etc.) gift, and not a mother's day (etc.) gift.
My "dead" ZUNE left me in the middle of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ... around chapter 16 or so, GR suggested I start reading the book, but he's lent it out, so I'm thinking I'll check the CDs out at the library instead of waiting for all the above glitches to resolve themselves so I can access the remaining HP MP3 files and download them to his ZUNE.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
One of the great things about living in Kansas is that just about anywhere you choose to live has 'rural' country close by. Consequently, we have lots of great farms to visit to pick our own produce if we so choose. The last time we went strawberry picking as when I was pregnant with Sam ... what is it about me going strawberry picking 8 months pregnant. Thankfully the weather was beautiful, with a great breeze! The kids and I picked 16 pounds of berries ... 3 ice cream buckets full! Actually, Rebecca, Emily, Sam and I picked berries, Alex ate them, nearly as fast as we picked them.
Monday, June 9, 2008
I didn't have time to make jam last week, so Wednesday night GR and I spent a good 2 hours hulling and dicing strawberries. We enjoyed a huge bowl of berries for breakfast and lunch Thursday, and the rest went into the freezer, waiting to be made into jam.
I prefer cooked jam, and I'm loving the new "no sugar" needed pectin that is now available. I opt to use a little sugar in the recipe to help preserve the jam, but it's so nice to be able to make a recipe of jam with only 2 cups of sugar.
So while Alex napped, the rest of the kids, helped me mash the berries ... cook the mixture on the stove ... and then listen for the satisfying sound of the lids popping. We ended up with 11 pints and four 8 oz. jars. Not bad for a days work. And it tastes soo good on all our homemade bread!
Wishing our very special Papa; Favorite Uncles - Chris, Joe and Matthew; Great Uncles - Ivan, Mike, Carl, Reed, and Mack; Grandpa's Art and Bob; and Great Grandfather lots of love and hugs and kisses from four adoring fans on this Father's Day.
ETA: GR left for Seattle this morning at 4am. The kids were very sad to hear that Papa wouldn't be at church to hear them sing "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home." My solution was to call him on my cell phone as the kids walked up to the front of the chapel to sing and pray that he could hear them. Unfortunately, Alex dunked my cell phone in milk a few days before and my phone has not worked very consistently since. Although it connected with his cell phone, he finally confessed to me (as far as the kids are concerned, Papa heard them loud and clear!) he couldn't hear a thing! Dang - I thought it was the perfect solution, and it would have been, if my phone wasn't clogged with dried whole milk.
The summer has started off with lots of activity - some expected and some unexpected, so it's going to take me a bit to get caught up and blog about all of our exciting adventures. So in the mean time, I thought some of you might like to check out this online auction on eBay.
Last Fall Heather contributed a few things to the first Craft for China charity auction and when she decided to join again this Spring, I decided to join her. Friday before heading out to spend the holiday weekend in St. Louis with my parents, I mailed off three mini quilts (made from donated fabric scraps and left over materials I had on hand) and one burp cloth bundle for the auction. I am particularly pleased with the free motion quilting I did on this quilt, and love the yo-yo embellishment's on this quilt (and people have actually started bidding on this one!!)
Hopefully my contributions will help bring the charity a few extra dollars. There are some amazing handmade things contributed by very talented artists. If you're looking to do a little early Christmas shopping, consider bidding on some of these items, and let your money do double duty!
Today was the very last day of school - where has the year gone! I hadn't realized how much the girls had grown up this school year until I pulled up the picture I took on the first day of school and compared it to the picture I took this morning.
You might recall that as their end of the year thank you to their teachers they wanted to give them a crocheted dish cloth and a loaf of homemade bread. Last week I ran out of flour and the next bag in the rotation was a 10lb bag ... way more than will ever fit in my counter canister. And so, with no bread in the house, lots and lots of flour on my hands, and a light schedule for the week, I decided to finally try my hand at making bread. Bread making is something I've wanted to learn how to do but have always thought took too long or was too tedious for me to deal with ... and really I guess both are true.
I guess my first real attempt was actually a couple of weeks ago - don't exactly remember why I made it but it was a bit of a disaster ... it tasted okay, but I ended up with two very flat tiny loaves ... I think I exhausted my yeast and my beautifully mounded loaves totally deflated in the hot oven. So with my freshly opened bag of flour I tried this recipe from the Pillsbury cookbook again ... it turned out better this time, but it was still dense and small.
So I turned to my mothers roll recipe which can also be used to make bread ... her Egg Rich Bread. It did yield a larger (higher) loaf and I liked the over all texture and flavor better, but the crust was hard - almost like I'd over baked it.
Last Thursday, Sam and I, used this same recipe of my mom's to make loaves for each of his preschool teachers ... he did the measuring, the stirring, the mixing and the kneading. The loaves turned out beautifully, but again the crust seemed over baked.
Yesterday I took turns with each of the girls and helped them make their loaves for their teachers. They both did a fantastic job, but I realized with them in school, it's been a very long time since I've done any kind of baking with either of them. Cooking, yes, baking, not so much. That's what Sam and I mostly do together. The girls were severely out of practice when it came to little things like cracking eggs and even turning on the mixer. They did catch on very quickly to the process of kneading the bread dough and gained a good appreciation for how much work it takes!
Their dough turned out beautifully and rose perfectly - the best yet! This time I decided to tweak the baking temperature a bit and turn down my oven 15 degrees or so to see if that made a difference in the crust. Each of the girls loaves look beautiful don't they?! Emily's are on the cooling rack, Rebecca's on the counter. I haven't cut into our one extra loaf from this batch yet, but I'm anxious to taste the results of this minor tweaking.
I'm on my second 10lb bag of flour and I'm ready to try a 40/60 whole wheat/white flour bread recipe. I tried one earlier this week that was listed on Mormonchic ... the No Fail Yeast Bread. It makes a lot of bread dough ... a lot of bread dough. So I need to definitely half it for my family (and my mixer). There are a couple of other little quirks about this recipe I need to figure out and perfect ... but it tastes great - light and moist, and makes great cinnamon rolls! So it's definitely one I want to try and make again.
There are a couple of special events at preschool that I always treasure, and yesterday was one of them ... the Mother's tea.
Alex took his nap at Grandma and Grandpa's, and Grandma picked up the girls from school, so I could attend the last 45 minutes of class with Sam. It was so much fun ... he and I got to share some very yummy fruit pizza cookies he had helped to make and pink lemonade. Don't you just love the little bouquet of egg carton flowers - made my Mr. Sam himself! Oh so cute!
The kids prepared a little "guess who I am" game for all the moms. The teachers asked them to fill in the blanks on things like ... my mom is as pretty as _______. She weights _____. Her favorite thing to do is _______. I like to _______ with my mom. You had to read through the answers to see if you could guess which one was talking about you ... I've missed placed Sam's but it was really cute, and I knew it was mine instantly!
My mom is as pretty as a "Mama Whale." (which I've been reassured by the teachers a number of times was meant as a sincere compliment by Sam.)
She weights "230lbs."
Her favorite thing to do is "Watch Martha."
I like to "play Candyland" with my mom.
The art teachers also posted some of the children's best artwork from the year throughout the hallways and great room of the school. Here is Sam with his displayed artwork.
Saturday evening after Becca's baptism, my mom offered to stay with me for a couple of days ... having four cars all heading home in the same direction made it easy to get my Dad home Sunday, and leave my mom with a car so she could get herself home whenever she wanted. I had a couple of days where I was going to need to be in two places at once during the week and jumped at the chance to have her stay and hang out.
We did our usual of testing recipes and shopping, but what we really ended up doing a lot of was creating ...
This week was spirit week at the elementary school and that promoted a couple of projects ...
Coordinating hair accessories to complete the girls matching outfits for "twin" day on Wednesday:
New jammie pants for Becca (made using $2/yd fabric from Wal-mart which I LOVE! - sadly it didn't scan as well as I had hoped, so I don't suspect I'll keep the new banner long) made by my mom and new ponies for Emily - a set for Jammie Day and a set for Soccer.
An entire day was spent with Sam and Grandma Muttie pouring over pictures of marble chases, building and creating run after run, with Alex collecting marbles in his little marble bag.
And a couple of Mother's Day projects for my sister and sister-in-law. More crocheted dish clothes ... I gave each of them a set of three big dishclothes, bottle of anti-bacterial hand soap from B&BW, a CD of some new kids music I found at the library, and these super cute recipe cards.
I'm going to do something similar for the kids teachers as end of the year thank yous - one dishcloth made in the yarn of the child's choosing, paired with a bottle of anti-bacterial hand soap.
My last project for the week, before starting on some customer Etsy orders I've got to get done in the next few days, I had hoped to perfect/figure out in time for Mother's Day but didn't. Paper covered clothes pins.
I saw them on Etsy a few months ago and fell in love with them - you know my paper obsession. Once I found this tutorial a week or so ago and realized I had all the materials I needed, I finally took the plunge and made them Friday morning. I think these would make a really fun and cute Super Saturday craft, although my friend Renee, asked "What do you use them for?" ... okay so she has a point.
So here are some things I've come up with to answer her question ... glue a strong magnet to the back and use it on the fridge to hold notes/pictures/coupons, etc... glue a thumb tack to the back for a cute bulletin board accessory, or use it to hang the children's artwork on an art clothes line - like I do at my house. Right now this little trio of four, are just decoupaged ... waiting for me to decide what to do with them next.
Rebecca's Baptism was a really sweet experience and one I hope she will remember for the rest of her life. I made a little "Baptism Book of Remembrance" for her and I need to encourage her to write down what she remembers from today.
As I mentioned before, she planned out the program ... picked who would take each part of the program, and even made phone calls to ask if individuals could come and participate. She picked "When I am Baptized" and "I am a Child of God" as the opening and closing song.
She invited her primary class, and three of them were able to come, as well as one of her friends from school with her family. Her primary teacher also came, Rebecca had asked her to give a talk on Baptism. Rebecca adores her, and she has a very good way of helping and coaching Rebecca, who can be a bit of a challenge to keep focused and on task in class. One of the traditions of her family, is to make and present a lei when someone is getting baptized. This is the beautiful orchid lei, handmade by her teacher, with flowers shipped from Hawaii. It looked so pretty up against her white dress!
I'm not sure Rebecca will understand the significance of some of today's events until she gets older and has more experience behind her. At least I hope I am able to teach her to recognize and appreciate the significance of the sacrifices of others on her behalf. She was surrounded by family and friend who love her, many of whom had sacrificed in order to support her on this very significant day.
We had a great day celebrating Rebecca's birthday ... I thought I'd share pictures instead of a long drawn out explanation of the day. Tomorrow morning we have soccer games, family coming in town, ribs to smoke, chicken to bake and a baptism for one very excited little girl who is growing up so fast!
Rebecca enjoying her special birthday snack with her class at the end of the day:
The Chocolate Pudding Filled Cupcakes ... I used the Midnight Chocolate Cake Recipe, Jell-O Instant pudding, and then a simple sweetened cream for the "frosting." They turned out perfectly - so yummy! And although I couldn't find a 1-inch biscuit cutter, I did find a cookie cutter that did the job with some help from a trusty stake knife.
Rebecca requested going to a local chain Mexican restaurant we went to as a family a few months back for her Birthday Dinner. I've learned that when choosing the restaurant they want to go to on their birthday, my kids have two criteria ... Will a group of waiters and waitresses, sing Happy Birthday to them, and will they bring you a free yummy birthday treat, if both happen, well than you can be sure they will remember it forever!
Grandma Mum and Grandpa Bob were there, as were Dim, Aunt Suz and Aunt Barb. The food was almost as good as the conversation and company!
After dinner we went to our house for presents, cake and ice cream. Rebecca got some very thoughtful gifts. In the words of Aunt Suz, "It was her dream birthday." Meaning Rebecca got everything she'd wanted at the age of eight ... a beautiful gold locket from Grandma Mum and Grandpa Bob, a bike from Mom and Dad, her very own journal, silver necklace with butterfly charm, new clothes and head bands, and a few other misc items.
Her requested birthday cake ... a layered chocolate cake with cookies and cream ice cream and whole Oreo's on the top.
Phone call from GR this morning:
Guess what?
What?
I'm Employee of the Month!
Really!? For the Pharmacy?
Nope.
The whole hospital?! Really!? Why?! How?!
What do you mean?
The hospital is huge, so many employees, and they noticed you ... that is awesome!
I know it really is, huh!?
Way to go Honey, that is so awesome!!
So what are some of the perks for being Employee of the Month for May AND June?
- A great parking spot,
- $50 gift certificate to the gift shop (promptly handed over to me as my Mother's Day gift!),
- A certificate to have his portrait taken a photo studio so it can be added to the wall of EoM in the cafeteria,
- A duffel bag,
- A reception with cake in the cafeteria on a day of his choosing (the boys and I are planning on attending),
And the perk he's the most excited about ...
- Unlimited free meals in the cafeteria for May and June!
Last month, during Spring Break the girls both went to the eye doctor - a long, long, long overdue visit. We'd gotten reports from the school nurse that both girls had failed eye exams at school ... possibly because of not knowing how to read the charts, possibly because they needed glasses. The pediatrician felt that since his test was basically the same as the schools, we should take them to have their eyes checked by an optometrist. Since this recommendation, Rebecca has had a difficult time reading the board at school and within the last few weeks, has moved up to a single desk near the board so she wouldn't have to move around so much during class.
The Optometrist found that Emily's eyes are prefect, and that Rebecca definitely needed glasses... we got her prescription and she picked out frames she loves. She had definite ideas of what she did and didn't like and we let her make the choice all on her own. She choose some really cute, Kenneth Cole frames in blue - thank goodness for insurance!
They took much longer than they should have to come in (a month!) ... thanks to a lost piece of paper on the frame gals part. So the second we got a call saying they were in and ready to be fitted to her face on the 14th, we raced off to get there before closing time. Last week, on the 23rd the lenses were ready and she and Grandma went to pick them up.
When she got home from picking them up, she walked straight in the door and started showing me how to clean them, and that the gal in the frame shop had to shorten the ear pieces 'cause they were too long, and look at my case mom ... she was SO excited! And they look perfectly natural on her face.
I don't have a single picture of her modeling her real, perfectly fit glasses yet, but I'll do that after school today and post a better, full picture of her sporting her new glasses.
I'm not a huge cake lover, but I do love cupcakes and it seems everyone else is catching the love of cupcakes too, they are so in vogue. There are tons of cupcake blogs and bakeries all over the place. Beautiful little mini-cakes, not too big, not too small. Perfect for every size hands.
A couple of weeks ago the Martha (Stewart) TV Show had a week of cupcakes with a different recipe each day of the week. Such great ideas! Someday I want to try making these Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow and in my dreams I would love to make these Cupcake Pops for a shower or birthday party, but let's be realistic, it will probably never happen! But I do want to purchase this book, Hello Cupcake.
With these segments still fresh in my mind, I got a call yesterday afternoon, asking if I could make refreshments for a baptism happening that night ... the sons of a sister I visit teach. From what everyone understood, no other refreshments were coming ... a little background. It's about 1pm, GR had surprised me by coming home at 12:30 to help relieve me a little bit ... the morning hadn't gone well ... Alex was a loud, squirmy disaster during Library story hour, Sam disappeared for what seemed like forever (5 minutes or more) at the craft store, and I desperately needed a nap in order to keep from falling apart at the seems.
So with additional reinforcements in my court, I said I thought I could bang out two batches of cupcakes for that night. My thought process was this. I figured two batches of cupcakes would yield 48 cupcakes and that attendance would be around that. One cupcake seems like plenty of refreshment, while with cookies, one per person is never enough! Plus they are the perfect "finger food" no plates, no forks, no knife, no dishes, no clean-up needed!
GR and I both agreed that chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting would be well received, and I pulled out my trusty "Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor", settling on Chocolate Midnight Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting.
Chocolate Midnight Cake
1 pkg plain dark chocolate fudge cake mix
1 cup water
1 cup mayonnaise
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake liners with papers or prepare two 9-inch round cake pans with butter and flour.
Place cake mix, water, mayonnaise, eggs and vanilla in a mixing bowl and blend on low speed for 1 minute. Stop machine, scrape down sides and mix for an additional 2-3 minutes on medium. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full or divide between both cake pans. Bake cupcakes for 17 minutes, bake cakes for 28-32 minutes. Allow cakes to cool completely before frosting.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
8 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3-4 tablespoons milk
Place butter, vanilla and 1 cup confectioners' sugar in large mixing bowl. Blend on low until incorporated, 30 seconds. Add remaining confectioners' sugar alternately with 3 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, blending with the mixer on low speed. Add another 1 tablespoon milk if the frosting seems too stiff. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes more.
The other thing I love about cupcakes, is that with one or two simple little extras, or in my case substitutions, your cupcakes can look like they took a lot longer than they really did.
A couple of years ago I got this little decorating tool from my MIL for either Christmas or my Birthday and I have used it for every birthday and school party since. I love using it to frost cupcakes ... for me, frosting cupcakes with a knife is really tedious and time consuming. Swirl on the frosting using one of the star tips and they almost, from a distance at least, look like they came from a bakery. Add a slice of strawberry for color (and cause you had them in the fridge already) and to cover up the fact that your swirl is more of an oval than a circle. And everyone thinks you've done something amazing, when in reality, you didn't - I mean come on, it's a cake mix cupcake, vanilla frosting and a slice of strawberry.
In other cupcake news, apparently Becca saw this segment on Martha earlier this month, and she's now decided that she wants the cupcakes I made last night for the baptism, only filled with pudding, to take to school for her birthday. Filled with pudding?! I guess I'll figure out how to use the filling tip from my little decorating tool kit ... I should probably practice this one before next week, huh?!
We have had beautiful weather for the last couple of days and are expecting rain for the next five days. Last week I started cleaning out flower beds of oak leaves, dead weeds, new weeds, and cutting out dead stocks and branches from the bushes. I filled one yard bag with a small percentage of the work that needs to be done in the back yard, and this morning I filled a second with half or so of what needed to be cleaned out and cleared in the front flower beds.
Alex quickly joined me and Sam did too, once he finally decided to change out of his PJs. I had to go in to answer the phone and the boys continued to play together while I made a quick lunch, swinging and sliding and roaming and digging. At one point Sam came inside to use the bathroom.
Me: "Where's Alexander?"
Sam: "Outside"
Me: "Where?!"
Sam: "At the top of the slide. I told him to wait for me."
And wait he did. I poked my head out the back door and saw Alex very patiently and quietly waiting at the top of the slide for Sam to come back. I grabbed the camera, zoomed all the way in, and start clicking. His face totally lit up when he saw Sam ... pointing and yelling with delight, "Saaaa!" It was such a sweet moment and I was so glad I got to not only see it, but 'capture' it.
For the last month, and longer really, we've been preparing for a very, very important and special day, and it's now less than two weeks away. Eight years we've been teaching and guiding, eight years she's been learning and preparing. We are so proud of Rebecca for making the decision to be baptized. It's something she's been looking forward to all year long and we've seen such a wonderful growth in her as she has thoughtfully planned her baptism. She's considered all the very important people in her life and ways they can participate in different aspects of her special day. We'd love to have as many of you attend as are able!
Bet you didn't know that April is when all the big fireworks distributors start showing off their latests and greatest in pyrotechnics gearing up for the busy summer season of ballgames, and city Independence Day celebrations? Tonight was one of the many shooter schools and catalog demonstrations happening this month in KS and MO. Despite a busy day ... starting with me leaving for Women's Conference in the wee hours of the morning while GR fed, clothed and packed a car for three morning soccer games, then spending a hour and a half at the school carnival that afternoon once I got home from WC, we decided to live life dangerously, armed ourselves with well rested children, McDonald's for dinner, jackets and a good size blanket, and venture out about an hour from home to the middle of nowhere Kansas to meet up with GR's fireworks buddies and watch the demo.
For GR it was exciting to watch huge fireworks ... 2.5", 4", 6", 8", 10" (that's the diameter of the individual shell) and rank them with the children. Rebecca and Dim rated the cakes and decided that there are some really boring cakes out there! And I loved listening to the announcer as he read off the name of each shell before it exploded in the air. Finally learning the names of the fireworks I love ... like Peony, Chrysanthemum and Willow. Sam announced the he really likes Willows and Falling Leaves, and like his mother, loves the ones that whistle! (if you follow the link connected to cake you can read the definition of each of those names if you want to know what they are an sound super knowledge able at your next fireworks show.
ETA: We didn't leave the show until 10pm (the boys crashed well before that with me in the car), and it did make for a very, very, predictable church experience for the boys, which GR and I were prepared for (although looking back, maybe we should have warned the rest of the congregation?), but everyone had a great time and we are always in need of more quality family time and this fit the bill perfectly!
Today is the birthday of one of Rebecca's good friends from school. They became friends the summer between Kindergarten and 1st Grade when they played T-ball together, and were very excited to be in the same 1st and 2nd grade classes. We've had lots of play dates together and I adore her family!
For the last two years Kira's birthday party has been on Sunday ... Sunday birthday parties happen a lot for our kids and it's always a sad day when we get an invitation to a Sunday party. Our solution for Rebecca and Kira is an after school playdate after the party.
When I asked Rebecca what she wanted to give Kira she instantly launched into explaining how Kira loves dinosaurs and that she wanted to make her a dinosaur pillow. Hoping she meant a pillowcase using dinosaur fabric, I asked for more details. No such luck, a pillow in the shape of a dinosaur. I'm a pattern girl, I'm not a make-it-up as you go, pull it out of my head girl by any stretch of the imagination. I need something to go off of.
Softies are hugely popular right now and I thought surely I would be able to find a tutorial or pattern on someone's crafty softie blog somewhere ... and although I found some seriously cute dinosaurs, the one free pattern I finally found was way more complicated than I/we wanted to get.
So I took a deep breath, handed Rebecca a large piece of paper and a pencil and told her to draw a picture of what she wanted for our pattern ... using pictures we found on Etsy and Flickr, and a few of Alex's board books as inspiration, along with the image she had in her head, she drew a great dinosaur. Together we enlarged it and simplified it, all the while praying it would turn out the way she wanted!
She cut out the paper pattern, she ironed the fabric and ironed on the interfacing, she cut out some of the fabric and she also did about half the sewing.
She also helped me turn it right side out and did most of the stuffing before we had to send her to bed. In all we worked on it for about 2-1/2 hours with me finishing up the hand work after she went to bed. She is very excited about giving this to Kira and is just sure Kira will love it ... oh how I hope she's right!
I've been informed that Sam and Alex both want dinosaurs!
A month or so ago, as I stood in the foyer at church for the last 10 minutes of the day, holding a barely awake Alex in my arms, I watched 3-4 young mom's also bouncing babies and toddlers, chatting about their husbands in school and life, etc. And I realized, as an outsider looking in typically does, that to them, I was old. I have four kids, not one, but four; my husband isn't in school and well, I'm not in my 20s...
A little over five years ago, when I was in my 20s, I taught early morning seminary for a semester. I loved it. It was one of the hardest and most challenging callings I've ever had, but I loved it. And although I taught for a much shorter period than I had hoped or intended, ever since I have quietly kept tabs on many of the kids who were in that class. Some I've lost track of, but many are doing well and making something of themselves in the world. They've gone on missions, attended college, and some are even getting married.
In fact, in the last 9 months, four of my "kids" have gotten married.
Friday was the most recent of my seminary students weddings. GR has been asked in the past if he would photograph weddings, and he's quickly turned them all down. It's too much pressure, the event is too important. And you can't retake anything if something goes wrong or you aren't standing in just the right place, etc. Maybe it's because he's known the groom for a very, very long time, or maybe it's because he was one of his young men, I'm not sure, but when asked, he said yes to driving up to Omaha to take wedding pictures.
The kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa and we drove up Thursday night through pouring rain so we could scout out the temple grounds Friday morning for all the perfect picture taking spots. Friday morning when we woke up, it was snowing. The temperatures had dropped at least 20 degrees and the wind chill for the day was in the 20s.
We did the best we could to capture as many shots as peoples exposed arms and toes would stand ... not capturing nearly the number of shots we'd hoped or planned too had the weather been just a little warmer. But GR got some great pictures, despite the freezing drizzle and bitterly cold winds. And it was a beautiful wedding, with a beautiful couple, and brought back lots of sweet memories of our wedding.
Hopefully this doesn't jinks anything. Everyone has new final four T's, and took afternoon naps so they can stay up late and watch the game, Papa is at the Priesthood Session of General Conference (and I've been told all thought a TV is set up in the cultural hall, it won't be turned on until after the closing prayer so they can catch the last few minutes of the 2nd half), and we're minutes from tip off. Deep breath...
Saw a great T-shirt on the news and would love to find it .... KANSAS, Home of North Carolina Basketball.
Note to GR since you weren't present for this picture ... I want the record to show that the children composed this picture, NOT me. And it was composed, and taken in a matter of 5 minutes (only four clicks of the shutter) with no retakes and no yelling.
