Cooking With Friends...

If you know me, you know that I like to entertain... and I love to cook...

So...  It was super exciting to have Chuck and Allie over for dinner, tonight!  I made my standard favorite, chicken parmesan, with spaghetti, homemade garlic cheese bread, mozzarella sticks, brownie sundaes, and I even picked up a recipe for Italian sodas (which are pretty much going to be a staple at our house from now on, see below).  I think I missed having an oven, even though I was pretty sure I could survive without one.  Thank goodness for good sales and even for delivery guys who recognize that a dented oven drawer is a good reason for a nice discount!

At any rate, the food was good, but hanging out with friends is always great, even if the food stinks (please feel free to ask Russ and Melissa about this, since they got to come over for dinner pre-new stove and had to endure burned scrambled eggs made in a wok.  I promise, I'll have them over for Italian soon).

Looking forward to lots of evenings with Chuck and Allie, sharing old stories and new ones, alike.  And, ya know, it was a nice perk that Allie made herself right at home in our kitchen, because when club soda is spraying in every direction and sprinkles are being liberally spilled on the floor, you know it was a good night!

Phil and Chuck - 

Friends since, pretty much forever:

L.

Dinosaur Camp, Day 3...

... and Caleb's new glasses.

First, the glasses.  I took a few pics.  Caleb is unhappy.  To tell you the truth, I think I am unhappy, too.  Looking through the lenses, myself, they don't seem to do anything to make things more clear - only larger.  This is what Caleb said, and to be honest I just laughed at first, but after taking a peek the lenses seem sort of like poor quality magnifying glasses (you know, the smudgy looking ones you get at the dollar store).  Not sure exactly what to think, but he is holding books just as close as ever and is sitting about an inch away from the computer screen to read.  Something is not right.  I think he's cute, though:

Now, dinosaur camp...

Today we did a lot of the same basic stuff, but we added Dinosaur pizza and dirt cups (Miah called them, "Snake Snacks") to the mix:

We also made fossils, which was a ton of fun:

Movie of the Day: The Land Before Time

Two more days to go and I am running short on ideas.  I did find some dinosaur cookie cutters in a cabinet today...  We'll see...

L.

Dinosaur Camp, Day 2...

I never would have guessed that Dinosaur Camp would be this enthralling!  Ian couldn't even fall asleep last night, the anticipation of dinosaur eggs was so great...

Sure enough, early this morning these guys made their way to the sandbox and buried their eggs:

We started out our day with more dinosaur toast and some dinosaur (ahem... Jell-O) eggs:

Our morning was rounded out by more dinosaur worksheets, drawing dinosaurs, on-line dinosaur information, dinosaur books, dinosaur sponge painting, and... yes... more Dinosaur Train, to fill every transition.  The sponge painting was a definite favorite:

What they really wanted, though, was to find those eggs!  Of course, I covered the sandbox, and the kids had to search for both the dinosaur parents and offspring.  Dinosaurs probably didn't lay their eggs in sand, but... ya know... other creatures do.  They were absolutely thrilled that their dinosaurs had laid nine eggs, and they went to work, carefully... like Paleontologists... to uncover the baby dinosaurs inside.  I had to laugh (just a little), because Caleb got so into this he actually forgot we were working with plastic dinosaurs here.  At one point, he exclaimed, "Mom!  This one's tail is part way out!  It must have already been struggling to hatch!"  Too much fun:   

 

Lunch consisted of Dinosaur Mac and Cheese.  We had some trouble distinguishing the shapes:

And then we polished off day 2 of Dinosaur Camp with a couple of episodes of "Dinosaur Dan".  They loved this and were thoroughly amazed by the combination of live action and animation.  I probably need to find more episodes...

L.

Dinosaur Camp, Day 1...

Seth and Grace left for church camp today.  In an attempt to help Caleb, Ian, and Miah get excited about this week without their oldest siblings, I decided we should have our own camp - specifically, "Dinosaur Camp".  And wow...  they did get excited.

We had a few little mishaps as Seth and Grace left... like Miah's tears that almost could not be stopped because she will miss Grace so much and Ian's request to move into Seth's room while he is gone.  However, Dinosuar Camp is a pretty big hit, so far, so they are coping...

On Day 1, we ate dinosaur toast for breakfast (and limes... long story...  the limes are not going to be a new family favorite).

We did dinosaur worksheets, and learned about dinosaurs on the Internet, and drew dinosaur pictures, and read (very educational... ahem...  OK, maybe not) dinosaur books:

Undoubtedly, the biggest attraction of the day was the dinosaur scavenger hunt, during which each of the kids was allowed to find two dinosaurs, and it didn't really matter in the end, because I set that rule up so that Miah would have a fighting chance, and she found her dinosaurs first, anyway.  It's a good thing we did this in the morning, because the primordial grass has now been mowed:

 

I felt a little sorry for the dinosaurs:

It is our sincere hope that the dinosaurs will reproduce and hide eggs for us to find tomorrow:

Oh, come on... of course there are eggs...  I made them myself:

We have watched more "Dinosaur Train" than I care to admit, and we even snuggled down to watch the Bob the Builder Dinosaur movie.  Since I am amazingly creative, we ate more dinosaur shaped carbohydrates for lunch.  No one seemed to mind.

I think we might survive a week without big siblings, after all...

L.

Happy Fourth...

So...  I really appreciate all of the men and women who have fought for our freedom leading up to, and since, the birth of The United States of America.  I consider myself pretty patriotic, although, if I'm honest I have to admit that this looks a little different, for me, than it used to look.  And that's OK.  Most things do.

At any rate, our Independence Day was spent celebrating in the usual sort of way... primarily with more grilled food than anyone should ever consume and with friends and fireworks to end our night.  And it was good.  I hope everyone out there in my blog reading audience had a magnificent fourth... especially those serving our country.

Here's some pics. of our day:

This guy was King of the Grill today...
Oh... My... Wow...

I forgot to take a picture until he was almost done:

Miah actually fell asleep before the fireworks started...

But she sure was cute:

Waiting for the Show

(Before we moved):

Ian is just so silly...

I promise to try to teach him that it is not appropriate

to shout,"It's a UFO!" 

during the National Anthem...

in the future...

Me and my Babies...

(Minus Seth, who was too busy chatting with friends for this pic.)

And here's everybody:

Happy Fourth!

L.  

Let's Talk About Tacos...

... because, ya know, getting my family's taco orders straight is one of my super powers...

Tonight, the seven of us managed to eat seven different varieties of tacos.  I kid you not.  Here is the photographic evidence:

Seth's Meat Only Tacos (taco meat and pepperoni):

Ian (taco meat, re-fried beans, and cheese):

Caleb (taco meat, re-fried beans, cheese, and pepperoni):

And then, if you want to throw something really fun into the mix,

Grace's combination plate...

(a hard taco with 

taco meat, re-fried beans, cheese, pepperoni, and sour cream

and a soft taco, as well): 

Miah will just go with the soft taco, cut into pieces

(re-fried beans and cheese, with sour cream on the side for dipping):

And man, at this point I'm beat,

so I'll just have mine like Miah's,

except smothered in the sour cream:

 And then there's Phil...

He'd like his with taco meat, peperroni, and multiple kinds of cheese...

melted in the toaster oven:

I was just about ready to declare myself the coolest mom ever until I remembered that no one in this family eats vegetables of any kind on their tacos...  I guess I'll have to keep trying for that coolest mom ever thing...

But seriously...  you should see what we produce on spaghetti night...  And baked potato night?  I have a list that I follow to get the toppings right...

L.

PS  It's been a little slow, today, in the "fun stuff of which to take pictures" department...

And Now...

...  I'm just procrastinating.  Really, I have been all day.  I mean, there were things that I legitimately needed to get done, but there were other things that were less than vital.

Guild auditions for Grace and Caleb were today, and although Grace was disappointed with her first program, she was happy with the second one.  Honestly, it all sounded good to me.  Caleb is always happy.  This, in turn, makes me smile.  Guild wasn't all that time consuming, though, so I decided I'd better throw some more interesting twists into my day.

Anybody out there interested in what we ate at this house today?

Pretty incredible homemade pretzel rolls:

I'd like to call this "reinventing the cheeseburger".

Burgers used to be a staple at our house, but I kind of lost my taste for them over the years.

This one was good:

And how about some pie for dessert?

Left: Fudge Walnut, Right: Chocolate Pecan

The recipe for the pretzel rolls can be found at the following link.  I cheated a little bit and just threw all of the ingredients for the rolls, themselves, into the bread machine on the dough cycle.  Other than that, I followed the directions, mostly:

http://www.mylifeasamrs.com/2012/01/salted-pretzel-rolls.html

Come on, Lisa...  Finish up the final paper and declare it summer vacation already!  Nothing like talking to myself...

L.

How To Make An Artistic Rendering With Visual Cues...

Oh... Cake...

It's another one of those moments when I sure am glad I didn't post the picture of how I'd hoped this would turn out...

However, this is not (by far) the worst cake I've ever made, and I guess I have to cut myself some slack for my first time ever working with fondant.

A note about marshmallow fondant...  It tastes like marshmallow peeps.  This is appropriate for the time of year, I guess, but Phil really hates peeps.  I don't think he's going to eat this cake...

The cake is presently sitting in the refrigerator, awaiting a 3 1/2 hour drive tomorrow.  Just in case it doesn't make it all the way to Grandma's house, there is a back up plan.  Grandma ordered a bakery cake, and I took the pictures I need to prove that I am a somewhat crazy, but awesome, cake baking mom... or at least I try...

After almost 16 years of marriage and now 40 kid's birthdays,

I still haven't figured out how to bake (or cook) without making a huge mess.

The kitchen and I went three rounds (this was round one)

before I gave up and Phil helped me clean:

That's a lot of fondant (more than I needed):

And that's a lot of shortcake

Again... more than I needed...

I sense a theme developing here:

 The cool whip and strawberries inside, just like I planned it:

 And the raspberries and Rice Krispies...

Well, not so much in the plan.

This was the point at which I just started throwing in whatever I could find

Perhaps we could call it Birthday Cake Casserole?

Uh... no:

The finished product...

Not exactly what I was trying to do, but...

When somebody got a sneak peek...

She loved it!

L.