Month: October 2010

This week is parent/teacher conference week at the kids’ elementary.  That means that Griffin (Finn), who is part time Kindergarten, doesn’t have school at all this week.  Okay, side note:  How ridiculous is this Kindergarten schedule:  all Monday, all Tuesday, every other Wednesday (starting at 10:50 and not the usual 9:25)?  So, he will have gone 11 days without school between last Wednesday and next Monday.  Grr.

Anywho, we are having friends, fellow Halloween lovers, over for Family Home Evening tonight.  Taco Bar.  Yum-O!  Griffin and I decided that since Colleen and Cameron are giving tonight’s lesson that we’d make the treat.  We got the idea from A Little Lovely.  I saw the picture this morning on her blog, but I didn’t read the directions, I just kinda did my own thing.  I’m not patient.  So, this is what Finn and I came up with:

separated Oreos, a sucker stick , some melted chocolate, and another Oreo to make a sandwich.  (I used the cream side of both Oreos to make it a double stuff)

Dip into the white chocolate melts (I found that these work better than white chocolate chips)  I did end up putting all of this in a tall plastic cup so the dipping was more even and went a little faster.  I put the suckers in floral foam then in the freezer for just  a few minutes to quickly dry them.  Remember that “I have no patience” comment?  Yeah, I didn’t want to work with dripping suckers.

I added the ‘bandages’ with a decorative tip and a frosting bag.  Then I dipped mini chocolate chips in the frosting and added them for ‘eyes’.

Standing in floral foam.

Love how this one surprised me with a mouth!

  Siamese Twins!

The whole fam damily.  Even our one-eyed creation, who Griffin loved so . . .

we gored him up a little bit.  🙂

I couldn’t let the other halves of the Oreos go to waste so I put peanut butter in between them.  I was going to dip them as well, but I ran out of melts.  🙁  Next time! 

6 o’clock can’t come soon enough . . .

Ladybugs like the color yellow.  My house is yellow.  Therefore, my house has ladypox.

There are *hundreds* of them!!!!

I took Atalie and Griffin to the bus stop yesterday and for some reason I started craving pumpkin.  Pumpkin bread, pumpkin cupcakes with chocolate chips, pumpkin pie, pumpkin hot chocolate, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin pudding . . . you get the idea.  So, even though I told Greg I was going to go ‘straight back home’ after the bus stop, I made a side trip to Albertson’s.  I grabbed 2 large cans of pumpkin because I didn’t know what the heck I was going to end up making when I got home.  Again, I got sidetracked and also grabbed some Jelly Bellies.  Pear, Berry Cherry, Watermelon, and Tangerine.  For this:

Then, walking down another isle, I saw a box of Mini Nilla Wafers.  {can you hear angels singing?}  I put a box in my basket.  As I was headed to the checkout I remembered a post I saw on a blog somewhere (sorry, I wish I could remember who you are so I could give you credit) and decided to try my hand at the cute and yummy treat they had made.  Back down the isles for some Hershey’s kisses and some dark chocolate frosting.  Yummy!  Oh, had to grab a couple of boxes of yellow cake mix that were on sale – – – you always need those on hand.   (are you catching on to my ADD here?  I swear, you can’t send me anywhere!)  Finally, with all my goodies, I headed home.

I ended up starting with the acorn treats I had seen on the blog.  Take your Kisses and unwrap them.  Then line up your Mini Nillas and make ‘acorn tops’ with the dark chocolate frosting.  (okay, she didn’t do that part, she just put the Kisses and Nillas together with the frosting without the detail, but I wanted more chocolate) and this is what you’ve got:

Do you see where I’m going with this?  I thought you did.  Now put the two pieces together with chocolate frosting and you have:

One is the loneliest number.  So . . .

I got tired of the acorns though, but not tired of the Nilla Wafers or dark chocolate so I sandwiched them together and dipped them in some melted chocolate chips.

Hello my bite-sized delights!

How about some accessories?

You know what?  I never did get around to making anything pumpkin.

Today is an awesome day.  For more than one reason.  10-10-10 only comes around every hundred years, so that is pretty exciting right?  I won’t live to see it happen again so, YAY!

Another really neat thing about today isn’t just the date, it’s what happened today that makes it special, and will forever stand out in my mind.  Today my Keegan passed the sacrament in church for the first time!  He has had the priesthood since he turned 12 in August, but because of vacations, sicknesses, and conferences today was the day that he got to practice one of his special gifts.  Not only that, but Greg and Cameron passed the sacrament with him so I celebrated 3 preisthood holders fulfilling one of their awesome duties in one day.  My wife/mommy heart was so full I could barely contain myself.  Okay, truth be told, I didn’t.  I wept.

I am so happy and feel blessed that I have the priesthood in my home and that my boys are worthy to hold this special and sacred calling.  If you aren’t a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and have no clue what I’m talking about, that’s okay.  The only thing that you truly need to understand is that this is a wonderful milestone. 

10-10-10 (the date)-3 (priesthood holders in my home that passed the sacrament today)-1 (proud wife/mom)

It’s no secret that I love baked goods.  When I found Bakerella online I was in total and complete awe.  I mean look at this:

Those, my friends, are heaven on a stick.  Basically you bake a cake, when the cake cools you crumble it up into a bowl and mix it with 1/2-3/4 of a can of frosting.  Refrigerate them, shape them, put them on a stick, then dip them into melted chocolate (or those candy melts for different colors).  I try to eat them in more than one bite, you know, to savor them.  But that only happens on the first one.  Any that I eat after that go down in one bite.  Disgraceful.  Our favorite combination is lemon cake with lemon frosting.  Thank goodness my computer is drool proof.

A couple of weeks ago I heard that Bakerella was going on a book signing tour and her second stop would be the Williams-Sanoma in  Bellevue, WA.  A mere 35 minutes away from me.  My old stomping grounds.  SO SUPER EXCITING!!!  Greg took the day off so we could go together, then spend the day putzing around.  He knew how fun book signings could be, he stood in line at a Costco to get a book signed by someone he looks up to, Alton Brown.  We love Alton.  I was glad that Greg did take the day off because unexpectedly we had a tag-along.  Griffin still wasn’t feeling well so he made the trip with us.

I was number 33 in line.  As we waited the staff of W-S would bring out samples of pecan pumpkin bars.  Sinful.  Evil people.  Bring out more, please!  At noon we were all rounded up into the store for 20 minutes of Q&A with Bakerella.

It was a small store, with other people there to actually shop and there were a lot of us gawkers, and Bakerella is short.  Thankfully Greg had the camera and was able to take good pictures.  She faced his direction a lot answering questions.  Even though there was only one person between me and her that one person was large.  Large people should be in back.  Just a thought.  Angie, Bakerella, brought her own photographer that kept snapping pictures, and the people who worked at W-S took pictures too.  I hope that I am in one of them since I was so close.  After the 20 minutes or so we were all told to go back outside the store in the order we were given and we would be brought back in for the signing 12 at a time.  Greg had been so great keeping Griffin happy.  They found the ship to play on, and Godiva chocolate.  Griffin brought back a wrapper from a free sample there, handed it to me and said, “scrapbook this.”  Okie dokie then my little memory keeper!  When it got to be my turn to go in the store Griffin wanted to have his picture taken with Bakerella too.  So . . .

Then I quickly shoved him to the side and said, “Alright, it’s mommy’s turn!”  Bakerella was gracious enough to allow me another picture with just she and I.  And, the fact that I literally pushed my child away for another picture made her laugh.  It sounds mean, but this was supposed to be my thing! 

Thank you Bakerella for being so inspiring.  Your story and experiences amaze me and your humility warms my soul.  Your creation of Cake Pops is genius and I appreciate the simple process of such a wonderful and versatile dessert.  My kids from 6-16 love them, and my friends from . . . well, I’m not going to tell you their ages, also love them.

Thank you Greg for taking the day off to spend it with me at a book signing.  I know that you  had fun as well, but it was really nice to spend that crazy time with you.  And lunch, back at the place where we had our first date (even though it was after the fact that we remembered), and driving around to all the places we used to hang out in.  You are the best friend ever.

And thank you Griffin.  You were such a trooper.  You totally deserved that Star Wars Leggo set we bought you.  And the $10 chocolate covered Oreos from Godiva (thank you for sharing), and the lunch at Red Robin with the blue balloon.  It’s not just any kid that would play along with his parents crazy whims.  You were spoiled because you help us spoil ourselves and you didn’t complain about the line being long or not liking where we were or that you were hungry or tired.  And you could have completely complained about all of that because I know you weren’t feeling well still.  So I thank you again.

Now, everyone, go buy the book or visit www.bakerella.com and go make some Cake Pops!  You will be addicted!

This is my Cutco Spreader. And this is my caution to all Cutco owners who love to use their spreader as much as I do (especially for PB&J):  DO NOT PUT THE SPREADER IN YOUR MOUTH AND PULL IT OUT TO GET ALL OF THE EXTRA YUMMINESS OFF OF IT!!!!  You will be tempted, but just put the spreader down and leave it.  I don’t know if you can see clearly or not, but there is a serrated edge on one side.  Note: THAT SERRATED EDGE *WILL* CUT YOUR MOUTH AS YOU SLIDE IT OUT.  And it will hurt.  Trust me.

You have been warned.

I know, many of you could care less, but this is a monumnetal event in our family!  When Colleen was just three she and I shared a strawberry Nutri-Grain bar for breakfast.  Not 30 minutes later she was turning all sorts of red with bumps and hives flaring all over.  AND she was swelling to boot.  Of course I woke Greg up, who has just come home from a long early morning of delivering newspapers (not a time in our lives that we like to reflect on, but it paid the bills) and asked him what to do.  Well, take her to the ER!  Greg stayed home with a very new born Cameron while I took Colleen in.  I was told that Colleen was allergic to nuts and berries that day and have avoided both ever since.  Well, with her anyway.  Her allergy wasn’t so bad that we had to avoid the foods completely, she just couldn’t ingest them.  Every year we would deal with all sorts of paperwork for the schools to make sure they knew of her allergy and made sure that Epi Pens were everywhere that she would visit.  School, home, both grandparents’ homes, and an extra for travel.  Yeah, insurance doesn’t like to cover all those, trust me.

So Colleen is a junior in high school and I’m tired of the school breathing down my neck about getting the paperwork turned in, the doctor visits, the whole rig-a-ma-rol.  So, I make an appointment to get Colleen tested again to see exactly what she is allergic to.  An appointment with an allergy specialist no less.  I’m not messing around.  Colleen is terrified of needles so I had to put mommy blinders on and not listen to her and focus on the greater good.  I had Greg take her to the appointment.  Did you think I was going to go watch my baby be poked?  Crazy.  Test comes back that she is allergy free!  She is told to take the things she thought she was allergic to and rub it on her arm first.  If there is no rash or reaction then to rub it against her lips.  If, again, there is no reaction then to go ahead and eat it.  With an adult and an Epi Pen nearby.  Colleen decided to go for strawberries first.  Who could blame her?  We have 74 strawberry plants in our garden that are still overloaded with fruit.  We’re eating them in front of her, and making freezer jam out of them.  We’re in strawberry heaven, while she has been an onlooker.  Sad. 

Here is the process:

Unfortunately the first one she ate was a sour one.  Thus the strange look on her face.  I can report, proudly, that Colleen really likes strawberries!  She has been out to the garden and picked a lot herself, took them as a snack this past weekend to an overnight choir retreat, and she has figured out how to tell the sour ones from the sweet.  I am giving a big heavy sigh of relief.  Ahhhhh.

Next test, nuts . . .