Happy Birthday Hubby!

My 40 and sporty hubby celebrated his birthday over Memorial Day weekend.  It was a great weekend full of golf, a trip to Cabellas, and yummy Red Velvet Cake.

Puppy Smiles

I love these two puppy faces! They just know how to cheer a girl up!

Back from the Abyss - Benches, Bikes and Bubbles

I'm back from the blogging abyss.  I'm not sure what has happened in the last month or two but blogging has been far from my mind! I'm getting behind on unloading my camera so have a ton of pictures to share and am going to slowly work my way through them.

I'm not sure when this visit to the park was, a month or so ago I guess.  Tri-Cities weather has been rainy and spring-like.  Debbie took the kids to an art class at CBC and we met them at the park later to enjoy one of few days we've had of sunshine this spring.

Which one is the thinker?

Isabella has been riding her bike 'real fast' this spring.  She says, "Ready, Settie, Go!"  On this day, Kennedy was giving her the red-light green-light and blowing bubbles for her to blast through. 

Everybody Dance Now!

We are so excited to see everyone in June for dance recital weekend!  Kennedy is really excited for everyone to see the hard work she has put in on her hip-hop and jazz routines.  Isabella not only practices her moves at dance, but also on the Wii.  This video is from her Aunt Heidi's house and I just wanted ya'll to see how much improved her moves have gotten.  We've come a long way from Beyonce, baby!

Popcorn Perfection!

We have it!  The perfect recipe for move night!  Debbie has been on a mission for us and one of her friends brought the final and very important ingredient for our popcorn perfection:

We do NOT count calories on movie night or think about arterial blockages we might be developing from eating our perfectly popped and seasoned kernels.  It is too Y-U-M-M-Y to worry about all that!  Check out this perfect buttery glow:

Easter Weekend

We were with the girls Easter weekend and it was a busy one.  Kennedy and I went to Shane's Gramma Bruce's to learn to make cinnamon buns for Easter brunch at Don & Debbie's house.  I learned alot of great tips (and got to use my new mixer - yay!) and Kennedy got to spend some special time with her great-gramma, who I also enjoy.  She is a special lady. 

We made homemade pie crust for her pumpkin pies

Kennedy got to roll out dough for her pan of cinnamon buns - she wasn't too excited when she saw the size of this rolling pin :)  But apparently this rolling pin has been around for a LONG while and is a special part of kids cooking with their Gramma Bruce.  I thought it was adorable!

Her finished pan of cinnamon goodness (they were so delicious, this pan got eaten before Easter brunch!)

So who knew this cookbook was so amazing? I remember Mom using this cookbook seemingly for everything. 

I bought myself the newer version of this book when I got out of college thinking it must be "T-H-E" book to have.  Shane's Gramma Bruce used her (older) version of Mom's BHG cookbook to make cinnamon buns. It had the same worn look, pages ripped out but stuffed back in place, stains on the pages of recipes commonly used, a few pieces of paper with extra recipes tucked here and there, all signs of a cookbook well used.  

The cover may change but the recipes apparently don't.

Maybe this won't come as a shock to you, but I have barely opened that book since I bought it. Until now I declare!  In fact, I used it Easter weekend.  I would like to say I'm high on culinary ambition but that would be a HUGE stretch, so I'm going to say I'm mediocre on culinary ambition and low on culinary confidence.  I was shocked and AMAZED to see that the recipe for hard-boiling eggs could be found in this cookbook.  How hard can boiling eggs be?  Not very apparently, but I just wanted to double check to make sure I somehow didn't mess up the girls' Easter eggs for decorating.  No wonder this cookbook has stood the test of time - it has it all!


Just one more shout out to the neighbors immediately next door - the same ones who sang us Christmas carols on our front porch in Russian at midnight on Christmas morning.  One of the kids brought this dessert surprise over to say Happy Easter...was that thoughtful or what?
 

It was a very sweet gesture and very happy cake decorating!

After successful hard-boiling of eggs (minus one that I broke dropping it in the pot - Shane so kindly showed me how to drop them in with a spoon - what would I do without him - seriously), the girls were excited to dig in and get their fingers dirty. 

Decorating has changed since I was a kid - you now longer just drop an egg in a cup of dye.  They have tie-dye kits and sticker kits and sponge paint kits, and glitter and special crayons; it is really crafty now.

Check out these beauts!

Love Potion

Breaking news! Due to popular demand, Love Potion will be available in quart size containers all year round now!!!  But only available by the scoop in February as their Flavor of the Month.  This required me to promptly by two quarts for dessert tonight and it absolutely made my day!