The Birthday's

The first 5 photos were taken at the kids birthday party by my great friend Janine of Studio 16 portraits! She does an amazing job, and I love everything that she does. She is an wonderful friend, photographer, mom, and an all around fantastic person!

Happy 3rd Birthday my big boy!!

L and his fishing pole. He looks like he knows what he is doing already!

Happy 2nd Birthday D!!!

D's birthday cup cakes

Let me see if I can catch up here! Both kids had a fantastic party. All their friends and family were there, and they got some really fun presents. On D's actual birthday, Adam took the day off. Good thing since we had found a house and came to hand in the application for it. We had pizza for dinner and then I made Blues Clues cup cakes. I got her a Melissa and Doug Birthday cake wooden play set. She thought it was the best thing in the world. L was jealous the entire day, but we just kept explaining to him that his birthday was Saturday and then it would be his turn. I always knew it was fun to have the kids birthday's so close, but this was the first year that I realized that there will be jealousy that week!

L's birthday we headed as a family over to a art fair in a park and then headed over to an environment fair in a different park. He had a great time exploring with daddy at all the parks. We headed home that night for a special dinner and had Nemo cup cakes. We got him a Cars fishing pole. Daddy was more excited about it then he was I think!

The very next day was Father's Day! Talk about a very busy week!!! We got Daddy a fishing pole too, and I took pictures of the kids as part of a annual tradition! We went to the in-laws house for a nice little cookout.

Boy we packed a ton in that week!

Sesame Street Live

These next few posts, the pictures are not very good quality and they are from the beginning of May. The reason is because the kids and I went to Sesame Street Live with my mom and I forgot the digital camera! So I headed to Walgreens and picked up a disposable one. Needless to say I just finished the camera and got it developed.

Sesame Street Live was great! The kids had a blast, Grammy bought them lunch before hand, t-shirts, and a program to remember it by. I picked up some popcorn for all of us to share, and L ate the entire small box himself. He loves popcorn!

The characters during the show. Our seats were pretty close!

L munching on popcorn, and sitting on Grammy's arm rest to see.

D was totally mesmerized! She LOVED it!

Doesn't she look so grown up here???

Answers to Adam's birthday crossword puzzle

So to all of you that don't know us in real life this post is going to be confusing. But for all of you that do know us, you may already know these answers. I made Adam, with the help of our friends and family, a crossword puzzle that has clues that spans his entire 30 years. It was a ton of fun, and he really enjoyed it. So here are the answers....

Across
3.cowboy boots
4.hooch
8.simon stimpson
10.sandals
11. potato
12. prep master
15.fully functional
19.breathing
20. dauphin island
22.mustache top hat
23.popeye
24.remus
26.fewer
29.staple
30.colman clark
31.gatlinburg
33.voss
34.finger
37.smile
39. rainbow bright
42.highlander
43.navy pier
44.blue
47.morphine
50. pumpkin
54.haycrafts
56.frommage
57.boots
58.assiram
59.hoot
60.sanctuary
61.cable


Down
1. bob the builder
2. bosco
5. banana
6.you
7.claytons
9.station wagon
13.enter the dragon
14.tiberius
16.lincoln logs
17.max johnson
18.shower
21.fists of fury
22.mumbles
25.hal higdon
27.earthworm jim
28.belt
32.goldie hawn
35.pool
36.charlie
39.bailing hay
40.thumb
41.hair cut
45.pensacola
46.apples
48.scotland
49.biscuit
51.indy
52.karnov
53.tuesday
55.miagia

12 layer Jello

My sister in law is getting married this up coming Saturday and her shower was just a few weeks ago. At her shower my aunt (in law?) had this amazing looking jello. There were all these little layers upon layers. It was beautiful! I knew immediately that I needed to try to make it. It was kind of a joke around the room that I would be the one to try and I said that I was going to try to make it for Easter dinner. Well, I did it! I found many recipes online but this is really the one that I used. I got it on this blog, but I changed it a little.

12 Layer Jello

6 boxes sugar free/fat free jello (grape, blue raspberry, lime, lemon, orange, and cherry)
2 cans of sweetened condensed milk.

Dissolve 1 box jello with 1 cup boiling water. Reserve 1/2 cup mixture. Pour 1/2 cup into 9x13 inch pan, then chill to set. Mix 1/3 cup milk with 1/2 cup jello mixture. Pour on top. Chill and repeat. (Begin with yogurt mixture on bottom of pan.)

Next time I wont use 1/3 cup, I will probably use 1/4 cup. It made the layers a little too thick compared to the other layers.


It was yummy, and easier to make then I thought it would be. Each layer chilled for about 20 min, and the whole process took about 3 hours. Yes, that seems like a long time, but remember that you don't have to stand next to the fridge the entire time.

Everyone seemed to like it. One brother in law actually thought it tasted like Fruit stripe gum. The kids and I ate all the leftovers! Yum!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Adam's 30th birthday! I have been teasing him that he is my old man now since I won't be 30 until November. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, whether that was a party, going out, presents, special cooked dinner, and he said that he just wanted to stay home with his family. Now I don't know about you, but I want a party (hint, hint Adam ;-). What I did do was put together a huge crossword puzzle with the help of his family and friends for him. They sent me the clues and answers and I put it all together. I will be posting the answers to that puzzle for some of our friends that live far away later on in the week. But for today we got him a water bottle from Walgreens, a bag of nice loose leaf tea, and a pumpkin pie. He asked for the pumpkin pie and he wanted it from a bakery. Now at first I felt insulted, mainly because he didn't want me to make the pie, and then I was relieved. I wanted to make him a fun cool cake instead. By the way, he is determined to eat the entire pie himself throughout the day. Stay tuned for how that goes!


I found this really neat cake online and just knew that I had to make that for him! When we started dating we were too poor to actually go anywhere (gee, somethings never change!), and we would go to the arcade and mini golf. He LOVED Ms. Pac-man and would play that all day. It has kinda become a joke in our house that I think he loves her more than me. So when I saw a Pac-man cake I had to try it. Now keep in mind that I have not taken any cake decorating classes nor have I really done any piping at all.

Here it is! The ghosts, cherries, and Ms. Pac-Man are all rolled out Starburst or Jolly Rancher chewy candies. The dots are peanut m&m's and skittles!

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I really feel that with my knowledge it is darn good!

Cool Rainbow cake

A friend of mine on Facebook made this totally awesome rainbow cake with her girls last week. Well as soon as I saw the picture I just knew that I needed to make it. I was asked to bring something to the party on Saturday, so I made this.


All it takes is 2 cake mixes, the ingredients the mix calls for, and the gel food coloring.

Mix up the cake mixes and split into 6 bowls. I used the leftover pie plates from this.

Color the 6 bowls red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Remember roygbiv?

The first pan I started with red and layered up to purple, and the second pan was the opposite.

I frosted the outside with a nice sky blue, while in between the layers was white. Looks pretty neat when cut into!

I did have some batter left over so we made some 2 layered cupcakes and frosted them with the leftover white frosting. Yummy!!

Indoor fun!

We went to a play date at my friend Sarah's house this morning. She had a large bowl of play-doh and play-doh paraphernalia sitting on her kitchen table. Some of the kids saw this and climbed up to the table to explore. Right there were my kids. They have gotten to play with the stuff in the past but it always ends with them eating it. But today was different! They loved it and had a blast. So it was time to pull out the stuff I bought. I had gotten this really great organic brand from our health food store, which unfortunately went out of business, on sale. It's called Over the Rain Dough and I love it! We took it out right after naps and I think it went well. I got out some of my easier to use cookie cutters and plastic knives. They worked fantastic!

D playing with a gingerbread man we made.

L working what looks like a pile of poop

My shapes. I had a blast!

Over the Rain Dough, this was mint, peach, and cinnamon scent

What fun!

Hurray, a project that wasn't a huge mess!

Free Giveaway!!!

Just a reminder, to enter in the contest please leave a comment on that post telling me what your favorite post has been and please do it before April 4 at midnight eastern time! Good luck, and I'm getting some ideas on what the prize may be!

Free Giveaway!!!

In honor of getting 2,000 hits on my blog (WOW!) I am having a giveaway. Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment with what your favorite post has been.

2. Get another chance to win by posting about it on your blog, and don't forget to let me know.

3. Get another extra chance by becoming a follower. (if you already are one, you still get that extra chance!)

Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you please!!

The prize could be anything! It may be something handmade or it may be something that is laying around my house. I will announce what the prize is on the day I announce the winner.

You have until April 4 at midnight eastern time to enter!!


Thanks again to all those people that read my blog.

The April Calendar

Okay so here goes April. I know that more things will come up and I will up date this as they do!

1-playdate at chocolate cafe
2-
3-couple's night for fondue @chocolate cafe
4-april birthday party
5-easter egg hunt
6-playdate at Sarah's bringing canned goods to donate
7-national no housework day
-visit carrie and the girls
-organizers meeting at Yesterdays
8-walking playdate at Notre Dame
9-soccer zone
10-national grilled cheese family dinner
11-Mom's night out
12-easter
13-mall playdate
14-rum village park playdate
15-scrapbooking @pages in time
16-pajama playdate
-book club
17-McDonalds for lunch
18-healthy kids day at YMCA
19-Adam's birthday
-mom's shopping trip
20-book club?
21-visit mom
22-earth day
-walking at Notre Dame
23-used book exchange
24-picnic at Potawnami park
25-Beth's wedding
-March of Dimes
-Arbor day
26-Kite day at St. Pats Park
27-bike parade
28-Mom's night out movie and drinks
29-visit mom
30-national oatmeal cookie day playdate

A picture update

Wow, I'm on a role today! 3 posts and I'm planning one more about a yummy recipe. We have been super busy these last few weeks. We went to a Beer Night party with the mom's group, had a mom's shopping and lunch day, I got to go out with my friends for dinner and a drink, we had a Dr. Suess birthday party, and a whole bunch more.

The kids at the beer party. They all got on a computer chair and watched Baby Einstein.

D wearing mommy's heels

The moms on our shopping trip.

My biking kids. Can you tell we are ready for spring?

And now my firefighters in no pants. Cause that's how we put out fires, what about you?

Day 21: Paper printing

Today Adam and I printed our own paper using just food coloring and shaving cream. We did this once before to try out when he was teaching art at an elementary school. It was a blast since we knew what we were doing this time around. We just sprayed the cream in a large roasting pan, drizzled the food coloring over the top and used toothpicks to mix it around. Great fun! We made a few different prints, and then mixed all the colors up to give us a background color and did it all over again. Then we got silly and made prints of our hands. I've also included pictures of the other things we did (advent calendar and the tree with the paper chain!)

The first step

The process

Some of the papers

A close up

The hand shot

Adam and I being silly

My hand after washing



The tree with the paper chain

The advent calendar that we made

Day 23 and 22

So I told you that I would let you know what Adam and I do for all the 25 days of Christmas. Sorry that I haven't updated in a couple of days, but with 2 sick kids, and dying car, and running out to my mom's I didn't really have time.

Day 23
Adam came up with this crazy idea to stand in the middle of the room, in front of each other, and try to stare at each other for at least 5 min. And if we looked away and it wasn't 5 min yet then we had to do it all over again. Well we lasted 12 min 4 seconds. It was silly, and crazy, and I realized his beard it lopsided and he realized my glasses are lopsided. I also noticed that he is getting little lines at the outside corners of his eyes. It's cute, and makes him look distinguished!

Day 22
Nothing to creative today. We actually washed dishes together. I scrubbed and he rinsed and stacked. Until I started to tease him about something (I don't even remember what), and he cleaned the cat's litter box. But still it was time spent together and doing something together. It has been fun!!


I did attempt to make pumpkin muffins with both kids. I brought both the high chairs into the kitchen with me, and if you have seen my kitchen you know that there wasn't much room left after that! I read them the list of ingredients and they helped me by repeating what I needed. They helped put the liners in the pan, and helped me count the ingredients out. The muffins turned out fantastic!! I used this recipe but used whole wheat flour, and just 1/4 cup raisins (I don't like them, but still wanted to make "healthy" muffins), and used mini chocolate chips since I had those in the house. Silly me I forgot to take pictures! Next time!

Our 25 days of Christmas!

So the hubby and I were flipping channels the other day and caught a couple on Oprah saying that for the 12 days of Christmas they make sure they do things together whether that be a date night out or staying in and baking cookies together. Adam looked at me and said that he thinks we should do a project together every day until Christmas. We may have to get creative some days, but I think it sounds like fun. So far we made a paper chain for the tree, an advent calendar for the kids out of paper, and a pumpkin pie. We actually missed yesterday and started this a few days early.

We missed yesterday because in the morning when we went to take him to work the car was dead. We have been having a problem with the car starting on wet days because the distributor cap and rotor need to be replaced, and so with all the cranking on the battery to get it going, it drains the battery. So Adam rode his bike to work in the snow/sleet weather, had his brother pick him up from work, and they took the battery to Wal-mart (where we bought it). They said that it will hold a charge and that they will recharge it, the only thing was that they were closing and he needed to go back this morning! So home they came, Adam had to walk to his sister's house this morning at 6:30 in the snow, borrow her car, head to Wal-Mart, to find out they didn't charge the stupid thing, wait 30 min. for them to do it, come home and head to work. Luckily he did stick the battery in the car and thankfully it does work now. He will pick up a distributor cap and rotor tonight and hopefully install them this week.

Sorry to get off topic, but that is why we missed last night. On top of all that, both kids came down with a horrible cold! What a start to the week! As soon as I take pictures of the things we did already I will post them, and every day I will try to post what we did for the 25 days of Christmas!

first snow!

So it was the first good snow fall here of the year! L has been so excited to wake up 2 days in a row to see it snowing! So we took Adam to work, headed over to the library, and after lunch went outside to play. L has been asking to play outside now for days so I just had to. I got them all bundled up and even dug out the old sled from last year. Well, we need a bigger sled. The kids barely fit on it, but they still had fun with mommy pulling them around on it. I was worried though because D's foot kept getting caught under the sled so we stopped. They tried to build Frosty, but the bowl holding the snow dumped over and spilled it all out. They did make snow angels. L's turned out great and he really liked it, D's just looks like a blob, and she was not having fun!! It was time to go inside when D's mitten fell off and she got too cold. Trust me, she let us know!

Getting ready to go out!

First time on the sled

Hold on tight!

Picking up snow for Frosty

The making of Frosty

Mommy

Look ma, no hands!

L's snow angel

D's snow blob

Zoo Boo!

So sorry that I haven't been on in awhile, but with everyone coming down with yet another cold/flu, and all the Halloween fun it has been hard to post about everything! Last weekend the local zoo held a zoo boo, and because we have a membership it was totally free. So the kids got a trial run in the costumes that I put together. L was super L with the power to rock, and D was a pretty in pink fairy princess. The costumes were super easy because I used clothing that they already had, or borrowed from family. I did make L's sign on his shirt and his cape, and D was easy, I didn't have to make anything. Now the only problem is I don't have a costume. Adam is going as Super Dad! Back to the zoo boo, tons of local companies set up tables and gave out shit tons of candy and other goodies. It was awesome! And the cool thing was that the whole zoo was decorated with carved pumpkins. L totally got the hang of saying trick or treat and thank you. He was really really excited about the candy, the only thing is that he won't get most of it. D did say trick or treat maybe twice, and thank you a few times, but that's good since she rarely talks in public. For Halloween night we will take the kids to the university to visit friends and family, and then we will go just around the block that we live on. It won't be a huge night for the kids, but we will still have fun. We did take the kids to Borders for a kids costume party, but it was more for older kids. And I'm sick of everyone asking if L is Captian Underpants! Oh well!! I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!


Please ignore the messy house. The kids were being crazy that day!!