What Don't I Hate?

Recipe Roulette ~ Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

2012-02-07T21:32:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite cakes to bake is pineapple upside cake, it is a classic sweet and simple dessert. When I was flipping through the recipe roulette notebook today browsing for a recipe to try, everything seemed to fancy or to much effort for me to feel like making until I ran across the recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes. The recipe is almost identical to my regular cake recipe except you use crushed or pineapple tidbits and cupcake pans instead of a sheet cake pan.

Ingredients ~1 Duncan Hines Pineapple Supreme Cake Mix
Oil and Eggs amount called for on box
Pineapple Juice in place of water, use amount on box
Can of Pineapple Tidbits or Crushed Pineapple
1 1/2 Cups of light Brown Sugar
1 Stick Melted Butter
Maraschino Cherries

Mix the cake as directed on the box. Substitute the pineapple juice from the canned pineapple in place of water. I needed to add some water to make up the difference in the amount called for. Melt butter. Spray cupcake pan with cooking spray. Do not use paper liners.

Place one teaspoon of melted butter in the bottom of each cup of the pan. Add one tablespoon of brown sugar on top of the melted butter. Place one cherry half in the center.

Scatter pineapple around the cherry to form a circle.

Add cake mix on top of the pineapple. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until cupcakes are cooked.

Have your kitchen helper put on an impromptu dance recital to help pass the time.

Let pan cool on wire rack for 5 minutes or until tops are cool to touch. Run a knife along the inside edge.

Invert cupcake pan on cooling rack. If any of the brown sugar and pineapple stay behind in pan, just scrape it out and lay on top of cupcake.

Wait as long as you can, then offer to split one with your kitchen helper to taste test.

Be prepared to get the evil eye from said helper when you have to tell her no more until after dinner when she asks for another one.

This recipe will now have a permanent spot in the notebook.
:)

Recipe Roulette ~ Shortcut Chicken Manicotti

2012-02-06T21:42:00.001-05:00

This recipe came from a 2008 Kraft food and family magazine which really made me realize that I am a recipe hoarder. Four years and I am just now getting around to trying this recipe. I have gotten a lot of recipes from the Kraft magazines and also their website. They are usually fairly simple and easy to follow recipes and generally contain ingredients that are fairly easy to come by. I will say that this recipe almost didn't happen when I had to go to two grocery stores to find manicotti noodles. Harris Teeter is my store of choice but they totally failed me when I went and was informed that they stopped selling them a little over a month ago. Argh! Fortunately the Food Lion around the corner had what I needed.

Ingredients used ~ 1 can cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 cup water
8oz Velveeta
2 cups frozen broccoli florets
12 manicotti shells
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch strips
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
Italian Seasoning, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper

One thing that is good about the Kraft website is there is always lots of reviews of their recipes. They post all of the reviews, good and bad. Before I started cooking this I looked online and read some of the reviews and I'm glad I did. The original recipe did not call for any seasoning of the chicken, which after reading several reviews it seemed like something was needed to spice it up a little. I took the suggestion of one of the reviews and seasoned the chicken with some Italian seasoning, garlic powder and a dash of black pepper. After cutting up the chicken I just threw it in a bowl and threw spices in and mixed until they were pretty evenly coated.

After prepping the chicken, mix the soup, Velveeta, and water in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in microwave for 3-4 minutes stirring halfway through until cheese is melted. Pour 1/3 of sauce in 9x13 inch baking dish. Set aside. Add broccoli to remaining soup mixture.

Stuff pasta with chicken strips; place in baking dish

Cover completely with remaining soup mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese. Cover tightly with foil. Bake 45-50 minutes or until pasta is tender and chicken is cooked through.

Makes 4 servings, 3 stuffed manicotti each.

Hubby and I both enjoyed this meal. It was fairly simple to make, but I must admit that I had a total brain fart while making it. If you'll notice the written recipe says to add the broccoli to remaining sauce before cooking. I totally forgot that step and remembered with about 8 minutes left on the clock. I decided the easiest way correct that was to quick steam in the microwave and serve on top. I actually think that may have worked out in my favor I'm not sure there would have been enough sauce to cook it adequately.
Since this recipe is now a keeper I will however make a notation that next time beside remembering to add the broccoli before cooking I think it really does need just a tad bit more sauce, which could easily be done by adding another can of soup and a tad bit more water. ( I had already doubled the amount of Velveeta that the original recipe called for ;) ) Hopefully the leftovers will be tasty. Hubby and I will both be testing that out for lunch tomorrow.
:)

Airlie Gardens

2012-02-05T21:43:00.000-05:00

Even though it was a yucky dreary Sunday there is nothing I love more than getting something for free. Today was local resident free day at Airlie Gardens. Airlie is a 67 acre collection of gardens along Bradley Creek near the Intercoastal Waterway here in town. So I decided that it would be a good way to get my walking in and interesting enough that I could convince hubby and little one to join me. There is only so many laps around the neighborhood park that they are willing to go on before they get bored and start thinking of excuses not to join me.

Because of the weather we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves. It was just us and the geese.

It was all I could do to get her to hold still for a picture she really was way more interested in the geese but I had to get a picture of all the daffodils. It is so unusual for them to be blooming at this time of year. They are blooming about a month early this year. Love them!

One of the more interesting things at the garden is The Bottle Chapel, it is made with over 4,000 bottles.

A few of the bottles had water trapped in them. This one looked like it was intentionally filled and them cemented into place, although my mother who on occasion works at the garden told me that when it was built all the bottles were indeed completely empty.

Mrs Butterworth, LOL!

Little one is just big enough to hide my HUGE pregnant belly, so I agreed to let hubby take one quick photo.

There was a trellis made out of these beautiful butterflies, I told hubby that I would like one of these in the garden of the next house.

I also really loved this fountain.

Adventuring.

Watching flower petals float in the water as she threw them in one by one.

Another flower that normally doesn't bloom here this early that we were surprised to see was this pretty azalea. Airlie has a collection of 100,000 azalea and lots of them looked like they were covered in buds and almost ready to bloom. It will be interesting to see if this mild winter continues, it would be sad if a long cold snap ruins the blooms.

By the time we made it around the garden it had really turned gross out. The temperature had dropped and it was really starting to get misty. Little one asked if we could go back when it was warm and sunny, so I guess she was interested enough to see more. If this spring like weather continues I wouldn't mind going back myself just to see the azaleas in full bloom which I'm sure is spectacular. Maybe even worth paying to get in! :)

This old house

2012-02-03T15:29:00.001-05:00

Hubby and I have been house hunting since we moved here in August. It has been both an exciting and extremely frustrating process. We have made several offers on different houses only to be beat out by someone else by an hours time or just having our offer turned down by the bank. We have been mainly shopping short sales and foreclosures so needless to say some of the properties we have been looking at weren't even livable. My mother refers to one of her favorites as the "poop house" if that gives you any indication of what we have seen.

Not to jinx ourselves but I am excited to say that we have come to an agreement with a bank and have an actual closing date set for a house that hubby and I will here after refer to as "this old house"...

It was built in 1961. Holy sh*t it's 50 years old!

It has a Brady bunch feel to it! Here is a sneak peak of the den, gotta love some wood paneling!

The selling point for little one was the flowers in the yard and that it has stairs. For some reason she thinks having stairs makes a house super cool!
I joke about the house but am really super excited about it. It is on over half an acre of land, in a convenient location, walking distance to a really cool park and aside from the 1961 bathrooms that are quite hideous it is totally livable. This house is definitely a project house but I think it will be a fun adventure. I can't wait to start busting the peach bathroom tile up! Our April closing date can't come fast enough, so stay tuned for more on "this old house".

In other news, little one was super excited to show off her super star student sticker she earned at school today. She really seems to be enjoying her new school. I'm enjoying the fact that now when you ask her what she did at school she says she played and learned! Awesome!

Happy Friday!

Recipe Roulette ~ Cheesy Chicken Rotini

2012-01-31T13:56:00.000-05:00

This was a recipe that apparently looked so good that I had 3 copies of it in my recipe notebook. I felt like I had actually tried it before but really couldn't remember if I had or not, sad but true! Since I couldn't remember and it was taking up 3 pages having 3 copies
I figured it was a good recipe decide once and for all if it was a keeper. It also helped that I had all of the ingredients on hand.

So here goes...

Cheesy Chicken Rotini

Ingredients 1- 1 1/2lb boneless chicken breast cut into 1 inch pieces, 2 cups water, 3 cups rotini pasta, 1 16 0z frozen broccoli ( the recipe actually calls for cauliflower, carrot, broccoli blend but neither hubby nor I like cauliflower), 1 can Ro*tel undrained, 1/2 lb Velveeta cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Cook chicken in large skillet sprayed with cooking spray on med-high 5 minutes or until no longer pink. Stir in water and bring to a boil.

once water is boiling stir in pasta, cover and simmer on med- low heat for 10 minutes or until pasta is tender

add remaining ingredients, stir. Cook covered or until Velveeta is completely melted and vegetables are crisp tender, stirring frequently.

I got slack with my picture taking towards the end so this is not a great shot of the finished product.

I will be keeping this recipe but only copy, after a few bites hubby said we had indeed eaten it before and it did taste familiar. Next time I will use a different brand broccoli florets because the bag I had was more like broccoli spears, and to big of pieces for this particular dish. Fortunately I had let the bag sit on the counter while prepping so it was slightly thawed otherwise they would not have cooked by the time the cheese melted. The cheese sauce was nice and creamy and with the ro*tel had enough flavor to make it seem more than just a mac and cheese with chicken and veggies mixed in. This is an easy 1 pot simple dish for nights that your just not that into cooking.

It's a Keeper!

2012-01-30T11:42:00.000-05:00

In continuation of my recipe roulette and because for a few more weeks I can still use being pregnant as an excuse for eating super fattening things with no remorse I decided to try a recipe for Double Chocolate Cheesecake. I had 9 taste testers including myself and it was an unanimous decision that this recipe is a keeper! I will warn you that this is not a recipe you want to make if you do not have several people to share with as it could be easy to devour the whole thing yourself and your waistline would definitely pay the price.

Two of my favorite things are the main ingredients. :) You will need 8oz semi sweet chocolate. (a whole box)
Soften four 8 oz blocks of cream cheese.

For crust 1 1/2 cups crushed chocolate sandwich cookies, I used 20 oreos.

Mix crushed cookies with 2 tbsp melted butter and pat into bottom of 9 inch spring form pan. A perfect job for little helper hands. Bake crust for 10 minutes in preheated 325 degree oven.

While crust is baking beat softened cream cheese, 1 cup granulated sugar, 2 tbsp flour, 1 tsp vanilla until well blended. Melt chocolate, cool slightly.

I always use the microwave to melt my chocolate by following the instructions on the box After cooling slightly mix into to cream cheese mixture..

Let helper clean the bowl.

After mixing in the chocolate you will need 4 room temperature eggs. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing on low speed until just blended.

After the eggs were added it had a very mousse like consistency and smelled delicious. Pour over baked crust. Bake 55-60 minutes or until center is almost set.

Fresh from the oven, yummy! Cool before removing rim of pan, I ran a knife around the edge to loosen it it.

Somehow while cooling a Grand Canyon of cracks formed but it popped right out of the pan.

Enjoy!

In non cooking related news, I have to give props to Canon Camera Service. Several months ago I dropped my camera and busted the lens. I have two lenses for the camera so I just used the other one to take my pics. Which was fine except for my spare lens is a telephoto lens so for any close up shots I needed to stand 10 feet away. When sister came to visit in Novemeber she left me her lens to borrow until I got mine fixed, which was great as it is the same exact lens as my broken one, although it just made me procrastinate even more.

Last week I finally made the efforrt to pack up the broken lens and send it off. I mailed it out snail mail late monday afternoon and canon emailed me wednesday afternoon with an estimate for repair. After authorizing the repair I had my lens back in my hands good as new Saturday morning. What a speedy turn around!

Here is the first test shot with it.

Little one ws thrilled that I was interupting her Saturday morning cartoons to test it as you can tell. I was estactic that it was back in working order. :)

Under theWeather

2012-01-20T11:25:00.000-05:00

I had such high hopes for continuing the recipe roulette this week but that went completely out the window when little one came down with a nasty bug. So instead of hitting the grocery store for lots of fun ingredients, little one hit the floor and I made myself comfy on the couch.

On the upside I managed to work my way through the last 20 magazines that have been cluttering up my coffee table. I did find about 30 more recipes to put in the note book to try once things get back on track.

Sadly it took little one the entire week to recover. She felt so bad that she actually took an afternoon nap on the couch. I can't remember when she last took a nap.

I did send her back to school this morning, she has been fever free for about 36 hours. Unfortunately it seems that her cold decided to become my friend, I have been trying to will it away for 2 days now. I have gone into full blown cleaning mode to try to rid the house of any remaining germs.

Hopefully with the upcoming weekend to recover recipe roulette can get back on track. There are so many recipes that look delicious, I just need my sense of smell and taste to return so I can enjoy them.

Recipe Roulette

2012-01-10T22:49:00.000-05:00

Last weeks new years task of sifting through a years worth of old magazines left me with a huge stack or recipes that looked worthy of trying. I have for several years cut recipes out and shoved them in two different notebooks. One for desserts and sweets and the other for random entrees and side dishes. The notebooks are now overflowing with recipes that I have yet to try. I have a bad habit of getting in a cooking rut where I will find a few super yummy things and then cook them over and over again. In order to make room for the gigantic stack of new recipes I need to eliminate some of the old. I am determined to try at least 3 new recipes each week.
So first up in the love it or leave it recipe roulette is...

Caramel Chocolate Chip Bars

the recipe was from duncan hines website, has been in the book for approx. 2 years. Caramel cake mix is not sold at all grocery stores so I just recently ran across it at our local Food Lion.

Recipe is : 2 large eggs
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
6 tbsp. butter softened
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 caramel cake mix

Mix all ingredients together, stirring in chips last. It becomes a thick cookie dough type batter.

Spread in greased 13x9 pan and bake for 24-27 minutes in preheated 375 degree oven or until toothpick in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan.

Share a sample with chef's helper, who says "YUMMY, can I have more?" But she is willing to wait when I determine that it would be better with the suggested chocolate frosting added to it.

It was worth the wait after I whip up some homemade chocolate icing and let her lick the spatula.

The finished product.

This recipe although tasty will not be a keeper. It was really the frosting that made it super yummy and it is a standard icing recipe I use all the time, not the store bought icing the actual recipe suggested. The caramel cake mix was somewhat bland, nothing spectacular.

Moving on to new recipe number two...

Hearty Chicken Tortilla Soup

Brown 1 lb of chicken cut in pieces in sauce pot sprayed with vegetable cooking spray.

Add 3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup rice
1 tsp ground cumin
Heat to boil, cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes.

Stir in 1 can Mexicorn
1 cup salsa
1 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp lime juice
Heat Through

To make Crisp Tortilla Strips, cut 4 corn tortillas into thin strips, place on baking sheet, spray with vegetable cooking spray.
Bake in preheated 425 oven for 10 minutes or until golden.

I served with an additional garnish of shredded cheddar cheese.

This recipe was a definite keeper, hubby and I both enjoyed it. It definitely lives up to its name of being a hearty soup. If I was serving more than the two of us, I would most likely make more of the tortilla strips as we both enjoyed dipping those and scooping up the rice and corn with them and finished off all of them. I will be whipping up some more to eat with my leftover soup lunch tomorrow.

All in all not a bad day in the kitchen. One keeper is not bad. The other recipe is good but just not worthy of a spot in the notebook. I'm not sure what recipes are up next, I figure it is safest to do both a dessert and entree in the same day, that way if one totally sucks hopefully the other one makes up for it!

Date Night

2012-01-09T14:58:00.000-05:00

For Christmas one of hubby's bosses gifted him with a gift certificate for a fancy restaurant named Manna here in town. I love to eat fancy food I just hate to pay for it. The guilt of a hundred dollar meal always gets to me. In the back of my mind I always think about the weeks worth of groceries I could have bought with that much money. So needless to say it was a super nice treat to drop the little one off at the grandparents and have a nice quiet expensive dinner out on someone else's dime.

Manna is a very small restaurant in downtown Wilmington. I stole this picture off their website but I swear it was taken from the table we sat at, which was in the front window. There is a pretty bar, but I think it's kind of frowned upon for the pregnant lady to hang out there so we skipped right to dinner. ;)

Hubby and I started with a super delish smoked prawn appitizer, I could have easily eaten about 20 of those prawn but alas it only came with two!

For my entree I had a grouper dish that was very yummy and hubby had porkshank. Neither of us shared our meals, so his must have been good because he didn't even offer one bite. There was nothing but a pile of bones left on his plate as evidence that there had at one time been a meal there.

For dessert we had something that included the words chocolate cake, ganache, passion fruit ice cream, etc. Needless to say it was gone shortly after arriving at the table, YUM!

Our short date night was a delicous treat! It will probably be a long time before we can have a nice dinner like again,

since we will soon be bribing the grands to take on not just one kiddo but two! :)

New Recipe and a New School

2012-01-06T16:52:00.000-05:00

So due to a friends new obsession with Pinterest and my weakness for desserts I was compelled to try a new recipe this week. She posted a picture of a pie on her blog and overwhelmed by the power of suggestion I printed the recipe out and ran to the grocery for all the ingredients. The fact that the pie only contains 3 ingredients made it all the easier to give in.

So here it is Butterfinger Pie...

The recipe called for 6 full size bars, I used about 20 snack size.

1 8oz. cream cheese, softened.

A 12oz container of cool whip (they don't make that size anymore so I guesstimated out of 16oz container)

1 graham cracker crust

Combine all of the ingredients and put in crust and there you have it. Ouila!

Pie needs to be refrigerated for at least a few hours before serving.

All in all for a quick simple dessert its not that bad. I have managed to eat my way through it without complaint but I think I would prefer a peanut butter pie if I was going to go to the effort which is only 1 ingredient more. :)

In other news little one started back to school this week at her new school. She goes Mon, Wed and Friday mornings and was very excited about the fact that she gets to eat her lunch there with the other kids, as this school has extended hours. She seems to really love it already. I love that it is definitely more academic then her previous school. Today I received this month's curriculum and was impressed to see that in addition to their daily reading lessons they will be learning about such cool things as

fossils and rocks, Thomas Edison, Anarctica and one of my all time favorites...

This image stolen from some random website, Thanks!

Vincent Van Gogh and his painting Starry Night!

I hope that her enjoyment of school continues, I know I'm enjoying the 12 hours a week she's there :)

It's Been 6 months, Oops!

2012-01-02T10:43:00.000-05:00

So it's been a while since I've blogged. I know of a thousand excuses I could use pregnancy, moving , chasing around a preschooler, holidays, yada yada but honestly I got slack. :)

Since it's the new year I thought what better time to get motivated to start blogging again. This upcoming year already looks to be an exciting one with the new addition due in February and the continued house hunting. Which eventually means another fun and exciting move to look forward to. I should have lots to update you all on but in the meantime I must get back to my new year's must do list which includes such fun things as unburying my desk and going through a years worth of unread magazines. Whoohoo!

Bed side table redo...

2011-06-20T09:14:00.000-04:00

We have recently been redecorating the little one's bedroom because she is no longer in her toddler bed but is now in her " big girl bed". One of hubby's co workers was nice enough to gift us with a really cute twin bed frame that hubby fixed up and painted. Our dilemma became what to do for a nightstand. I had an extra bed side table that had been residing in a closet in the guest room...

Not exactly what I had in mind to go in a little girl's room but it was already paid for which made it perfect! It was my intention just to paint it white to match the bed frame and book case. Hubby fortunately had another plan in mind...

After hubby was finished it doesn't even look like the same table. He cut down the base and top of it and flipped the drawer fronts and changed the hardware.

The drawer pulls are perfect! The lavender petals match her rug and her new bedspread without being to over the top cutesie!

I have to admit it is really nice to have a hubby who knows his way around a power tool and isn't afraid to pick out little flower drawer pulls!

It's Freakin Hot!

2011-06-06T14:41:00.000-04:00

Even the squirrels think it's to hot to do anything outside!

Caught this little guy resting on the fence the other day.

A Busy Month Recap and the Princess Cake Debacle...

2011-05-11T14:46:00.000-04:00

April was a crazy month for us which is why it has taken until almost mid may for me to blog. So I decided that it would be easiest to recap by going back through and picking some of my favorite photos from the month.

For my birthday hubby got me my favorite Dairy Queen ice cream cake and a sweet new zoom lens for my camera.

Little one came down with a nasty virus the week before her birthday, which involeved a Friday afternoon trip to the doctors. It took three people to hold her down so the doctor could tell us that her ears were fine and it was a virus. Hubby and I both got colds thanks to her. :)

One of my sister's came for a visit to help with little one's 3rd birthday.

We went on a beach adventure while she was here. Here is little one recreating a scene from the movie The Birds.

We also let her white trash it up at the beach by letting her go in the water in her undies. Who would have thought she would want to swim with the water temp only in the 60s?

The birthday cake for little one's party was quite the adventure. She had specifically requested a pink princess cake. I refused to pay $50 for the grocery store version, so instead I spent probably about that much to make it. ;) Sister and I thought it would be best to make a practice cake. I went to the craft store and bought the Wilton Wonder Cake mold but neglected to read the instructions fully. I read the part that said use a two layer cake mix. What I did not read was the fact it said you may need 1- 2 two layer cake mixes ! Oops!

Good thing we did the practice cake! The first cake seemed teeny tiny!

The second cake was perfect!
Sister had recently taken a cake decorating classand managed to bust out with this...

A perfect princess cake! Totally the cake I always wanted when I was little.

I will say that the practice cake was a great idea except my waistline paid the price!
It looked a lot like our little princess shown here modeling her new princess dress.

The birthday party was a big success even though it poured down rain. The kids still enjoyed the princess jump castle

and an indoor picnic.

Hubby and I gave her a big girl bike, which at first she seemed excited about but now is refusing to touch it. Go figure.

Maybe in a few weeks she will decide that she is ready to try it again.

I will end this post with a picture of one of the four beautiful flowers my wonderful little old lady nieghbor gave to me.

She has the most randow assortment of flowering things in her yard which she loves to share.

Lucky me!

It Was A One Ring Circus...

2011-04-05T14:04:00.000-04:00

The last circus I went to was over 20 years ago. My parents took us to see the Ringling Bros. Three Ring Circus. I remember it being pretty awesome, especially when they shot the man out of the cannon and he landed in the audience, Oops!
The Cole Brother Circus was in town over the weekend. Hubby convinced me that we really needed to take the little one to go see it. So Sunday afternoon we headed over to the fairgrounds to check it out.
Cole Brother's is a very small circus. The girl that sold us our tickets and the girl that showed us to our seats were both in the show as acrobats. It is most definitely a one ring circus.
Our seats were fantastic, we sat in the second row, I almost felt like I could pet these guys we were so close!
Meow!

Munchkin was mesmerized by all of the action!

Somehow I doubt that any of my cats would do this trick.

I'll just turn my head while you bite his arm off!

In addition to the tiger's they also had trained horses, camels and

PINK poodles!

There also were lots of humans trained to do tricks as well :)

I wouldn't want this big guy sitting in my lap.

The finale of the show for us was the elephants.

We left shortly after because the motorcycles roared into the tent and little one said she had had enough. The one thing she truly dislikes is the noise of loud motorcycles. Can you blame her?

All in all it was a good first circus experience for her, hubby and I enjoyed it too.

Damn Rosalina Sale, Makes Money Fly Out of My Wallet...

2011-03-31T11:52:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of the semi annual Rosalina sale. I had just about forgotten about it until a friend called yesterday to see if I was going. Thanks so much Melissa, I really would have been better off with out the reminder! :)

Even though little one didn't really need anything, I thought we would just go and window shop...

Here is little one showing off a new dress.

Cute red and white polka dots with green smocked design. Thought it could make a cute holiday season dress for next year but it is not so festive that it can't be worn now.

Could not pass up this cute top and pants for this summer.

Love the precious flower embroidery!

There was no way I was leaving this dress on the rack. Little one loves it too!

LOVE the little octopus and the pink polka dots!

I was in the middle of checking out when I turned around and saw this dress. It is so different from the usual smocked things that I had to have it too. Who doesn't love butterfly and flower fabric?

I also bought the little one two super cute outfits for her dolls. She is getting old enough now that she likes to change her baby doll clothes so for 2 bucks an outfit it was something cute to keep her entertained while I shopped.

Somehow my intention of looking and not buying didn't happen, damn you Rosalina for having such cute stuff this time.

Poor Kitty and Springtime Fun...

2011-03-18T20:07:00.000-04:00

I will start this post with an introduction of my one my outdoor kitties.

Introducing #Two aka TuTu.

Tutu is one of the three outdoor kitties that reside in my yard. He is a sweet but skittish kitty whom over the last 4 years of living here has become one of my favorites. Since trapping him and having him neutered he has slowly come around and will even let little one hug and pet him as long as there is no attempt made to pick him up. That is a big no no. There originally were 5 kitties outside, which is why his name is #Two. At the time I couldn't be bothered coming up with that many names for cats we didn't really own. Now that the three are members of the family I have unfortunately taken over their medical care. Can you hear Hubby cursing about the bills for cat food and the vet?

Unfortunately Tutu required a short trip to the vet yesterday. When he came round the evening before I noticed a gaping hole in his side that did not look great. So off to the vet he went first thing yesterday morning. Taking Tutu to the vet is an experience in and of itself. When I had him neutered I wasn't even sure which cat he was I scooped up the first cat that came for breakfast and threw him in the carrier. When it came time to get him out to do the surgery he flipped out and it took 4 people and a huge comforter to get him confined for anesthesia. Lesson learned for sure. Now he gets dumped directly out of the carrier straight into the induction chamber (fish tank used to gas down a kitty) works great!

Poor guy was really pissed when he woke up and realized he looked like this...

He was shaved that much to make sure that he didn't have more than one hole. I was worried about it being a possible bite would from our friendly opossum or raccoon that stop by on occasion. He is now the laughing stock of the neighborhood with his cool alternative haircut and almost 48 hours later the other 2 kitties are still hissing at him. Poor guy!

Spring has sprung at our house so last weekend I planted a few things.

I still feel like we may get one more cold snap so I haven't gone hog wild yet.

The little one helped me.

I caught her drinking the drops of water out of the flowers after watering.

Silly girl!

Here she proudly shows off her favorite!

I hope that Spring has found it's way to all of your houses!

My kid's happy and she knows it...

2011-03-18T18:10:00.000-04:00

Especially when she thinks no one is watching...

TGIF!

Heels, Hearts and The Death of the Ch-Ch-Ch- Chia...

2011-03-07T15:12:00.000-05:00

Had fun doing these cookies for a friend last week.

It was a bridal shower for a bride who loves shoes.

Happy red heels.

A little added romance -cute red and purple hearts.

It was the first time I have had a chance to use my new little heart cookie cutter. I had intended on making valentine's cookies with them but unfortunately the day came and went without the time to bake them. I think they turned out really well. I will have to plan a little better for valentine's next year.

I am finally saying goodbye to any and all hope that I may have had that my Chia Kitty

was going to grow as advertised. If you look close you can see the MOLD!

I'm not sure where I went wrong other than forgetting twice to water it I followed the instructions exactly. Such a sad Kitty.

On the upside I think it will make a great addtion to my yard.We have several kitties that hang out so why not one more? At least this one won't pee and poop in the shrubs.

Random Craft and Cats...

2011-02-18T15:44:00.000-05:00

Little one and I did some random crafting yesterday. We made about a half dozen pinecone bird feeders for our yard. It was a fun and easy project that took very little time at all. The hardest part was keeping the little one from eating all of the peanut butter.

Not only have several birds already sampled them but the dog got a taste as well. Apparently, I hung one a wee bit too low as I caught her out in the back yard with the remains of one. Oops!

The backyard has now become popular not only with the birds and pinecone eating dogs but also with our outdoor kitties. For the past few years they have spent the majority of their time on our front porch, but more and more I am finding them sunning and also pooping (ARGH!!) in the backyard and back stoop. The dog loves it as she enjoys eating their scooby snacks aka cat shit but our indoor kitty is not so sure that she likes them infringing on her space and privacy.

"I think that we have a peeping tom!" she says.

"Oh my mistake he's neutered!"

Hee Hee! Sorry. A little bit of bad veterinary humor.

Happy Friday!

Ch Ch Ch Chia Kitty Update...

2011-02-17T14:34:00.000-05:00

So it has been about 9 days since I planted the Chia Kitty and sad to say but it looks like Kitty has the mange.

I thought by now she would look more like this...

Instead she looks more like this...

Yikes! Even with faithful watering and misting at the same time every day, her coat is just not what I had imagined it would be. It is very thin and scraggly looking and in some places it looks like the seeds aren't going to sprout. Poor kitty, maybe in a few more days she will look more like she was supposed to but I'm guessing that the kitty on the box was wearing a wig!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T10:32:00.000-05:00

Good thing it's non-toxic and the tale of Little Miss NO!

2011-02-12T14:58:00.001-05:00

Little one really enjoys drawing so I picked her up a set of markers at Walmart the other day. It is still to cold to play outside so I have been forced to branch out on my indoor play ideas. Since the couch incident I generally try to steer clear of anything that can make a mess inside the house. Outside messes, fine. Inside messes, not so much. I noticed that she came home with some pictures done in marker from school so I thought, why not?

So here is the little artist...

And here is the reason I bought non toxic completely washable markers....

YUM!

( In my own defense, I was cooking dinner and hubby was in charge! He swear's he looked away for only a moment...)

In other news we have been having a lot of visits from a little girl I like to call Little Miss NO!!! She very closely resembles our little one but has an attitude that makes you really want to put her in a box and send her back!

In her debut pictorial...

Screaming NO! I won't take off my shoes!

The angry heading to time out look, still hasn't taken off the shoes...

The I'm sad from being in time out but still not taking off the shoes look...

Hopefully it's just a stage and she will go back to being the sweet little girl she usually is. Although I think I can hear my mother's laughter now as she thinks to herself "This is only the beginning and payback is such a bitch!"

One last random thing to end this post...

For Christmas hubby and the little one gifted me with a Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Pet! After all the years I have made fun off, laughed at their commercials and sang their jingle I have never actually seen in person or tried a Chia pet. Introducing my newest pet, Chia Kitty!

This is her first picture after being freshly seeded a few days ago. It is a lot smaller than the box and the commercial make you think it is. It has started sprouting already so it will be interesting to see if I can keep it alive long enough for the coat to fill in. Will post more pics as it grows.

Meow!

2011-02-05T19:43:00.001-05:00

I figure when Hubby mentions how out of date the blog is it's time to do a new post! We really have had no excitement around here lately unless you count potty training and a flu like virus as excitement. The little one is doing really well with the potty training (knock on wood!) it has been several days without an accident. We were housebound for almost 10 days while she was sick with a nasty virus that ran rampant through the preschool. I was thrilled when she recovered enough to go back to school on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, the weather outside is not cooperating with our desire to be out of the house. So what better way to celebrate a healthy kid but by taking her out and exposing her to more kids and germs with a trip to the aquarium on a nasty Saturday morning.

The normally gorgeous view of the bridge from the aquarium looked really strange with half the bridge gone in a haze of fog.

Jaws theme song starting now...

The little one really enjoys the aquarium and always especially loves the camping exhibit they have there. Gross but cool, we saw two barn owls feeding their baby a dead mouse in this exhibit. Here she is warming herself by the campfire.

Here's a little video clip of the little one getting friendly with the fish...

This next fine video is a test video. I am trying to learn how to use the Flip video editing software...

Hopefully the weather will improve and we be able to head outside tomorrow!

Happy MLK Day...

2011-01-17T14:44:00.000-05:00

If only someone gave me a prince everytime I pooped on the potty...

2011-01-14T14:54:00.000-05:00

For the past week or so we have been in full on potty training mode around here. whoohoo.

Can't you just here the excitement in my voice?

We have been on potty hiatus for over a month after a few previous failed attempts. I decided it was time to just bite the bullet and throw little one in some princess panties and go for it! Since we had a week off from school and it was to cold to go anywhere I thought it would be the perfect time to get started.

The first two days were sheer torture and a true test of my patience level.

Somehow on the third day she finally quit peeing every 5 minutes! YEA!!!

Now that the pee is under control we are working on the 2nd issue.

Yup, for some reason the little one really is against pooping in the potty. Here she is telling me "No momma, I don't want to poop in the potty!"

With that adorable little face it is hard to argue with her but the task of scrubbing poop from panties is not high on my list of favorite things to do.

So we have resorted to flat out bribery!

After two days of holding it hubby managed to get her on the potty just in time.

The reward, Snow White.

We have been putting a new toy just out of her reach in her bathroom. Every time she willingly goes the prize is all hers!

It took several days and a lot of talking it up but finally the prince was all hers!

Bribery! An awesome tool. A prince for a poop!

Next up, his loyal steed!

A poop for a pony!

Not a bad deal if you ask me...

A Look Back...

2011-01-01T15:58:00.000-05:00

Here is a look back with some of my favorite photos and videos from 2010...

January

SOCK MONKEY'S

February

SNOW!!!!

Never thought I would see 5 inches of snow in the low country of South Carolina!
What a treat!

March

Finally managed to get the kid's hair into pigtails! No more Pebbles Flintstone look!

(slow month for excitement but what a cutie!)

April

Little one turns 2!
This month gets 2 photos only because I couldn't decide.

The look on her face when the candles are blown out is too hysterical!
Such shock and dismay...

May

The beginning of beach days, just warm enough for bucket water.

June

Time to bust out the new kiddie pool and white trash it up in the driveway!

(not pictured -lounge chairs, beer, mike's hard lemonade and beach umbrella!)

July

Paddle boarding!

August

The dog days of summer

September

School started and the little one finally went down the big slide all by herself!

October

First camping/ canoe trip with the little one and Halloween!!!

November

Fall in full force.

December

The holidays were a very exciting and busy time this year. We are glad that we survived!

Happy New Year's!

Can't wait to see what 2011 brings!

At least this year she didn't try to backhand Santa...

2010-12-18T17:01:00.001-05:00

To refresh your memories:

2009 Edition-

Santa got lucky he wasn't wounded in the fight to get off his lap!

2010 edition - The deer in headlights look!

Hubby took the little one to visit Santa this morning, he said she even was brave enough to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. Maybe next year we might even get a smile!

Playing Santa is tough work....

2010-12-15T14:30:00.000-05:00

So this morning I went to Target and bought this

a 70 piece wooden train set. It's a good thing I did because when I picked the little one up from school this was in her school bag...

At school this morning the teachers asked each child what they wanted Santa to bring and then wrote it on each of their drawings. Notice her drawing says Choo choo train!

What little girl doesn't want a train set?!

Hubby and I had discussed the train as a possibility a month ago and decided to hold off on it until her birthday because we know what else she is already getting. Santa is hooking her up! But because she has mentioned it many times and because this is the first year that she is starting to understand Santa and Christmas...

Total sucker I am, I know!

Nearly froze my a** off, all for some freaking dresses...

2010-12-08T14:51:00.000-05:00

This morning I really questioned my sanity as I was standing in frigid temperatures waiting to pay for my armful of little girl dresses. Had I really gone out in 25 degree temperatures to an outdoor tent sale to buy dresses for my 2 year old? Why yes, yes I had! Even though my eyes were watering from our record breaking cold temps, I managed to find a few cute things.

Crabs! Love the ruffled shorts!

Noah's Ark

Strawberries!

Pretty pink and white.

Love the ric rac trim on the angel sleeves and the flower material on this one.

It was nice to go to the sale while the little one was at school instead of dragging her with me as I normally would but I'm not sure it was worth freezing my ass off.

While at the craft store the other day I ran across this...

a Wilton cookie press for $6. I remember my mom having a cookie press and loving the cookies she made with it so for that bargain price I couldn't resist.

I used the recipe on the side of the box and they were super yummy! Due to some operator error some of them were a little misshapen but they still tasted good!

Next week begins the real Christmas baking these were just to tide me over!

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

2010-11-30T15:22:00.000-05:00

We busted out the Christmas decorations this weekend, since hubby was home and looking for some kind of project . I consider getting the boxes out of the attic a major project, you have to climb up a tall ladder and crawl around on insulation and try not to fall through the ceiling.

We do an artificial tree, we have pets and a kid, regular house plants are a chore who can be bothered to taking care of tree that drops needles and has to be watered? Not I.

Last year we made life even easier by buying a pre lit tree. No more hassling with the tangled strands of lights, its 5 minutes to set up, love it!

This is the first year that the little one has shown much interest which has made it more fun for us grown ups. She had a great time helping to decorate the tree.

Figuring out how to make the pooh bear ornament talk by pushing the button on it.

Playing with some of the decorations.

There were several ornaments that she had a hard time giving up to put on the tree. After a little convincing we managed to get all of them on the tree except for one a wooden rocking horse that she has really enjoyed playing with.

We will start doing the Elf on the Shelf tomorrow, which I am excited about. I have mentally figured out already at least 10 good spot to sit him where the little one can't reach him but can still see him. I may regret starting it this far away from Christmas but we can always start later next year. It will only be 24 consecutive days of reading it...

I hope you all had a great turkey day, I unfortunately didn't realize that my camera battery was dead so I didn't get a single photos which means no turkey day blog post! We had a yummy meal with the inlaws, where I ate way too many desserts. It was nice not to have to cook the big meal this year, I do however have to post a pic of the wonderful turkey dress that my very talented sister made for the little one!

It was absolutely precious on and we got many compliments. Thank you sister!

A Quick Update....

2010-11-15T14:24:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update, while I have a few minutes to spare. The little one is down for the count with a cold that started on Saturday, so it was unfortunately a snot filled weekend! The little one was at least feeling well enough to play outside for a little while. Hubby made a wonderful little door for her playhouse that matches the style of our front door.

It is really cute and the little one loves to open and close it and invite you to come in.

He also put together a child size picnic table, which we have already had tea party and snacks at several times already.

Last week we went and checked out a new park in N. Charleston. It is right on the river and has a beautiful view. The little one enjoyed the playground as it a more modern one than we normally go to.

Here she is spinning wildly in a personal size tea cup?

Climbing high!

Here she is checking out some sculpture. They had several really neat pieces there.

The two headed donkey was her favorite. I think she was thinking to hell with this little fence I want to ride on it!

I have to agree it would have been pretty cool to sit on!

This park has a beautiful walking path that runs right along the river and over some of the marsh grass.

Next time, I think we will pack a picnic lunch so we can stay longer and enjoy the boats going by.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Family Fun! (and I really mean it!)

2010-11-04T20:04:00.000-04:00

We had an action packed few days here over the last weekend. My whole family came to town for a visit, it had been almost a year and a half since we were all in same the same place. So we crammed a few short days full of activities. Our first stop was the fair where we all overindulged on fair food and fun.

The little one enjoyed her first taste of cotton candy. At first she was a little unsure what to do with it but once she realized it was such yummy and sticky goodness she wolfed it down!

Daddy rode on the train ride with her. She loved when it sped up slightly going around the corners of the track.

The merry go round is always a favorite!

I chose the swings for my ride. You can just make me out in the picture,

I'm the one laughing like a crazy person!

After the rides we decided it would be fun to try some games...

We all took a whack at it but came up short!

The little one fared better at the kids games and came home with a dolphin and a light saber, I brought home a caramel candy apple. YUM!
After all of the fair excitement, we awoke the next morning and got started on our pumpkin carving. I had arranged for several friends to stop by to judge our contest.

Here are my sisters working very hard. Look at the concentration on those faces!

During the carving, we had to stop for an impromptu first haircut for the little one. Unfortunately while playing with the cat's mouse toy she somehow managed to get her hair wrapped around his little wheels. Ouch! A few strands clipped and she was free with out much evidence of her hair being cut, whew!

We worked up an appetite carving so we went to lunch at one of our favorite places - Taco Boy! They have the best food and margarita's. The waitress was kind enough to share some leftover tattoos from their raging Halloween party the night before. Here is Auntie and the little one showing them off. 5 days later the tattoo is still looking as good as when we put it on. Thinking I may need to get some baby oil to get it off, before the preschool thinks I've had her tattooed!

Our next stop was to visit the Angel Oak. If you are ever in the area it is something to see. It is a beautiful live oak tree that is thought to be approx. 1500 years old.

Here the little one admires it's enormity.

We look teeny compared to the tree as we walk under the canopy.

It is a great place to take pictures too, as sister and brother in law demonstrate below.

After all of that excitement it was almost time for Halloween fun!

The little one shows off her costume.

Here we are all dress in our snazzy Halloween shirts! ;)

My mom brought this festive bread from a bakery near where they live.

They also do bunnies for Easter.

My sister brought these adorable cups named Pick Your Nose cups, which we had a great time trying out. No one had the heart to tell the little one her nose was on upside down.

After dinner we went to a few neighbors houses to trick or trick, the little one was exhausted by this time so it was a quick trip around our block. Here our all of pumpkins lit up. Don't they look festive?

And the winner was...(drum roll please)... Ms South Carolina! Here she is showing off her prize pumpkin trophy! We are all so proud!

It was great to have the family here. Hopefully it won't be so long before our next action packed time together! :)

Playdate Fun...

2010-10-19T11:48:00.000-04:00

The little one and I had the pleasure of going with some friends to Cypress Gardens on Friday for a playdate. It was a beautiful day to be outside and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Saw this in their butterfly building and thought it was especially cool. It is a butterfly in a cocoon that is just about ready to hatch.

The little one's investigating a giant spider web.

Help! An alligator is eating me!

Taking turns in the swing

Look at all of these HUGE fish!

The girls showing off their fashionable life jackets.

The little one's discussing whether or not the mommies are capable of paddling them...

We did indeed successfully paddle them around for a few minutes, with only one small tree incident. It just came out of no where and ran right into our row boat!

A Little Halloween Preview...

2010-10-12T13:59:00.000-04:00

This morning a little giraffe and I went to pick out our pumpkins. It was a little more challenging than previous years because now she wants to pick up ALL of the pumpkins to see if they are indeed the perfect pumpkin! We found several great ones but only two perfect ones came home with us, I will be making a separate trip to round up the rest of the pumpkins for our 2nd annual family pumpkin carving contest. So if any of my family is reading this - place your pumpkin specification order with me ASAP! Otherwise you may get the pumpkin of my choice which may or may not help your possibly winning design!

Last blooms of the year...

2010-10-08T14:42:00.001-04:00

Even though summer ended officially a week or so ago I was still pleased to walk out in the yard and find a few last summer blooms.

My roses have never truly recovered from their transplant two years ago, so any blooms from them are are pleasant surprise.

Hubby gave me the hibiscus this year for mother's day and it did great for its first season in the yard. I wasn't expecting any more blooms this year so when this sprung out from the top it was a very pleasant surprise.

The inpatients are still in full bloom, which the little one loves. They are her favorite to pick. I love them to because they come back every year here. They even come back in colors I never planted which is pretty cool, I think the birds must import them for us. :)

Even though I hate cold weather I am ready for the change in season. It's just about cold enough to light a fire in the outside fireplace and roast some marshmallows, my favorite!

Happy Friday!

A Working Vacation...

2010-10-06T14:37:00.001-04:00

I have been working up to getting this post done for almost 3 days but due to an influx of laundry and cleaning post vacay I am a little behind. Hubby had taken a few days off from work so we had a nice 4 day weekend where neither of us had to work so we thought we would go on a nice little vacation. After much debate (meaning I couldn't make up my mind, damn expedia for having to many choices and traveler reviews!) we opted to go camping in the mountains with some close friends and their 2 boys.

We had not been camping in almost 8 years so after dusting off the camping gear and upgrading our air mattress (I'm too old to be sleeping that close to the ground ) off we went...

We had booked a hotel to stay in the first night as we were not meeting our friends until Friday morning. Hubby had picked the hotel for us because I couldn't decide. It was the only 3 star or more he could find in the area so he says and it got good reviews from recent online postings...

Check out our lovely mountain view...

What? Is that a fence you see not a gorgeous mountain view?

The MOTEL was really not bad. It was clean enough and the little one had a great time turning the dial on the in room microwave a million times but I am a self admitted hotel snob and prefer something a little less Bates motel and a little more Ritz-Carlton.

The next day we drove the rest of the way up and met up with our friends. Here is hubby showing off the first official beverage of the canoe trip.

We paddled over the course of two days which totaled almost 18 miles and lots of empty beer cans!

Friday and Saturday nights we camped in the cold. The temps got down in the lower 40s .

Fortunately having camped here before we knew to bring plenty of fire wood and alcohol to keep us warm!

Below is the view from our campsite, it is so nice to fall asleep and wake to the sound of the river going over the rocks. Very peaceful sleep.

Here is hubby and the little one warming up by the fire the first morning. Once the fog burned off it turned into a beautiful sunny day on the river.

It amazes me that all three kids were still smiling after a long day on the river.

Here we all are the last morning.

Going camping is more of a working vacation since there is definitely no cocktail waitress to bring me another drink and the fact that I'm sleeping in a tent with probably several spiders but it was still fun and I have to admit I'm ready to go back again sooner rather than later.

Day 2...

2010-09-15T14:13:00.000-04:00

Today was the second day of mother's morning out. Since the first day didn't go so hot we were unsure what to expect today. Since I picked her up on Monday we have really been talking to her about how cool school is and how much fun it is and how she would meet new friends. I guess it worked because she stayed the whole morning and her teachers said she did great! ( I'm pretty sure they weren't lying to me to be nice, it is a church school after all!)

Tucked in her bag was this morning's art project, too cute!

She was very proud to show me her awesome coloring skills!

For a special treat for staying we had lunch at her favorite place - McDonald's!!!!

I think she has already had a big boost of confidence in going to school because she hopped right on in the playground there with no hesitation to play with all of the other kids. Normally I would have to crawl all through the nasty play equipment with her!

Here she is beaming with delight from the top!

I hope that it continues to go well and so does my house, I managed to get the whole place vacuumed and dusted as well as doing 2 loads of laundry and the dishes! Whoohoo!

Mother's Morning Out?...

2010-09-13T20:13:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of the mother's morning out program I had signed the little one up for. It is at a church 2 blocks from our house. We have been talking it up to the little one for over a month now. She seemed really excited about going .

Here she is doing her I'm going to school dance this morning!

Here she is hopping in the stroller to walk to school.

And here she is pushing her bun bun to school in the stroller.

Can't you just tell how excited she was?

Unfortunately, all of that excitement and happiness wore off immediately upon me dropping her off. Not pictured is the tearful face I saw after the school called about an hour later to tell me she hadn't stopped crying and would I come to pick her up?! So much for my high hopes that she would instantly love it and that I would have 3 glorious hours twice a week to myself!

I am hoping that Wednesday will go better and that she might stay at least for an hour and a half!

Happy Monday!

Surprise! and the case of the forgotten potatoes!

2010-09-07T14:36:00.000-04:00

For the three day holiday weekend we decided to go and spend some time with my folks for mom's birthday. As a special surprise one of my sister's flew in.

Can you see the surprise on mom's face?

While we were visiting we visited a park close by that the little one enjoys.

The slides were fun until mommy got road rash on her elbow from the slide!

The little one of course enjoyed the swings, it is hard to convince her that the other playground equipment can be equally as fun.

We also went to the pool in mom's neighborhood. Which was a real treat for the little one, who has only been in a pool a handful of times.

Unfortunately she found the water to be more refreshing than the ocean, which is her usual swimming spot.

We all had a grand time playing around with her little float, it made a great necklace for sister and a wonderful chin rest for me.

Mom found it to be a wonderful seat, once she was able to get it under her!

Caught her just as she was making her first attempt at hopping on it! Nice!

We also hit up some of my our favorite places to eat. Lunch at J. Michael's Philly Deli and dinner from Smithfield's , Awesome! J. Michael's Deli has the best cheese steaks and Smithfield's has the most wonderful BBQ, since moving away from Wilmington, hubby and I have found nothing that even compares to either place. Sad to say, but years ago it was their cheesesteaks that broke me of being a vegetarian, I just couldn't resist the yummy goodness of it! The cheese, the meat! I'm drooling just thinking about it!

We also ate several meals at mom's house which brings me to the case of the forgotten potatoes. Mom makes a really yummy dish we call a potato volcano. It is smooth and creamy mashed potatoes baked with lots of cheese and butter. Unfortunatly the meal it was intended to go with came and went before she realized it was still happily baking away in the oven. Ooops! Although I was already stuffed full, I did have a small dish of it, yum!

So the plan was to have it the next night with supper, we would just reheat and enjoy!

Unfortuntaly, it wasn't until after we had all scarfed down our

Elmo birthday cupcakes and a full meal that mom came to the realization that, D'oh!

We had totally forgotten the potatoes in the oven, again! By this time they could have been used as a nice doorstop because the cheese was so very hard and crusty, so out to the trash they went! Which was a total shame because the little bit I ate when they were fresh out of the oven the first time was delish!

It was fun to get out of town for a few days. It wore the little one completely out. Here she is napping at Grandma's in her special princess tent. She thought she was hot stuff because it came with its very own pink flashlight!

Hope ya'll has a great holiday weekend, i'm off to tackle the mountain of laundry that goes along with a roadtrip out of town!

Not The Most Talkative But Oh So Entertaining...

2010-09-02T16:14:00.001-04:00

Today we had the pleasure of having one of the little one's friends over for playtime and lunch. I have to say it was one of the most entertaining lunch dates I have had in some time. Granted, I don't get out much but that is a story for another day. So if you have a minute to spare check out the video excerpts from my lunch with two toddlers. I bet it may even make you laugh or at least crack a smile. :)

I'm sorry I thought this was a jungle-gym...

2010-08-26T13:25:00.000-04:00

The last two mornings I have caught the little one playing with her kitchen set in a new and exciting way.

Who said kitchens were just for cooking?

The sink also makes for a comfy chair while cooking.

Somehow I don't think that standing in the sink is recommended but it sure is much easier to reach things stacked up top!

"Total Score" Moment and then a Total "Oh Shit" Moment...

2010-08-18T16:14:00.000-04:00

On the way to the grocery this morning a beautiful claw foot sofa caught my eye as it sat outside a consignment shop that is going out of business. I thought about stopping but then decided probably not a good idea, i didn't really need it. On the way home passed it again and thought, maybe I should stop and check the price. I was in a hurry to get home to put away the groceries that were melting away in the car so I opted not to. I got home and realized that the bagger at the store had neglected to put part of my order in the cart so off we went to retrieve it from the store. Therefore, I had to pass that beautiful sofa again. Needless to say on the 4th trip past I couldn't help myself and pulled in. I have always loved the look of this kind of sofa. She had a price on it that was reasonable but not what I wanted to pay so I offered her half. After a few minutes of bargaining we agreed on a price we both thought was fair and low and behold I am now the proud owner of a recently refurbished claw foot sofa! YEA! Total Score!

The shop owner told me she had purchased it at the estate sale of the mother of Marshall Tucker who is the front man for the Marshall Tucker band. So it does have a little back story to it, which is always interesting with any piece of old furniture.

After getting it home I went to decide where to put it when I noticed on one of the other couches we have, a small stub of red crayon. I thought "I should pick that up before it makes a mess" and that is when I noticed this...

Can't see it well? Let me show you a close up...

"Oh Shit!" I was a little late on my thought of not having a mess on my couch! The little one had taken red crayon to my cream colored couch! I'm not sure when she decide to be an artist on my couch, but she did own up to it when I called her in the room to ask her about it.

" Did you do this?" I asked "yes Mommy" she replied. "That is bad, you were a bad girl!" I scolded as she burst into tears! Hopefully lesson learned by both of us. For me, I need to keep a closer eye on the crayons for her it is to not draw on mommy's sofa!

Here she is shortly after the crayon incident went down.Still with a few tears in her eyes, she agreed to one photo. Not the best moment for a photo shoot but I really wanted to get a picture of her in her new dress, to show off to you all, that her very talented aunt just whipped up and sent to her!

It is too precious! Thanks sister! I hope to get some better pics of it when we are in a better mood and I am done washing crayon off my sofa! :)

Princess cookies for a princess party....

2010-08-17T20:41:00.000-04:00

A girlfriend of mine had a princess themed birthday party for her little girl and had asked me to make some princess themed cookies for the event. Here is what I came up with. I think they turned out really well and I look forward to making them again for my own little princess.

Large tiaras - pink glaze with purple and pink sprinkles with sugar pearls

Small tiaras - purple glaze with purple sprinkles and sugar pearls

Princess Castles - Pink glaze and pink sprinkles

Princess slippers - light red glaze with red frosting and sugar pearls

I always forget how time consuming decorating these little suckers are, my only regret was that I didn't start earlier in the day as I was up until after 10pm finishing them! The small cookie cutters came from Michael's Arts and Craft store for $3. What a bargain and so cute! They will also make good sandwich shapes for the little one's PB&J's as she won't eat a plain sandwich, they must be cut into cute shapes!

Top Chef?

2010-08-10T13:43:00.001-04:00

Peaked into the little one's room the other morning and found that she was in her kitchen cooking up a gourmet meal or rather soup of baby doll!

She even threw in a little lemon to add some flavor.

Which dull plastic knife would you like me to cut your head off with?

Maybe this dish needs a little more seasoning, how about a little pepper or salt?

I think I will just zap you in the microwave. That will be faster!

It may be time...

2010-07-27T14:20:00.000-04:00

I think the time has come to officially start potty training. A few months ago the little one seemed interested and after two successful pee pee's in the potty she decided she was through with it and refused to go near the potty again. Last night after bath she insisted that she wanted to "practice" on the potty, and she successfully did so. As a reward she got a tattoo, which she was thrilled about. Today we have tried the potty a few times but the only progress we made was a big puddle on the floor! She seems excited at the the prospect of receiving a tattoo or sticker as reward but at this point I think I'm the one who needs to step it up. I have been dragging my feet because when you are on the go, diapers are a hell of a lot easier, but at this point if I don't get on it we may miss the window of opportunity.

If anything I have this cute photo to blackmail her with when she gets older, nothing like threatening to show it to her future prom date!

Mid Month Recap...

2010-07-15T15:45:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that we are already halfway through the month of July. We have been so busy this month the days have flown by. I will start this recap by showing off our kitchen update.

Before photo: Standard granite back splash with lovely stains on the painted wall behind sink and stove. We have repainted that wall several times but some stains just bleed right through. Yuck!

The halfway point, hubby is working super hard!

The finished product! I'm in love! It is so nice that now when I boil over spaghetti sauce and it splatters on the wall I can just wipe it away!

The black splash ties in with the counter tops and cabinets wonderfully and it has really brightened up the kitchen.

In between tiling and grouting I did manage to get hubby out of the house for a little 4th of July celebrating. We met up with some friends and their kiddos to start the holiday weekend. Our city has a little celebration in the center of town that we checked out.

Here is the little one giving the chick fil a moo cow a bi high five!

We also overran a very small burger place in town. They were not expecting a big crowd having just opened a few days earlier. 6 adults and 5 kids really filled the restaurant.

We were all starved, our new friend Addison was so hungry she decided to taste the pepper! Yum!

Amelia wondered if the food would ever arrive?

Chris was just wishing the restaurant had more than 1 high chair!

The food did finally arrive and it was yummy. Hubby decide to test the chili cheeseburger which arrived looking quite dangerous but was apparently very yummy because the next time I looked at his plate it was completely gone!

The next evening we ventured out to see the fireworks at the last minute. Which worked out great because we were far enough away to see them but not have all of the loud noise. We were worried how the little one would react but she was mesmerized!

We celebrated hubby's birthday last week. My folks drove in to drop off my sister who was visiting from Minnesota. Mom brought these festive Thomas the train cupcakes to celebrate with. Too cute and way too yummy!

Hubby was excited to be the proud recipient of a Handy Manny toy boat set complete with a miniature "Turner" the tool.

Also to celebrate hubby's birthday and also my sister's recent birthday I had planned for a baby sitter (thanks Amanda!) to come so we could go paddle boarding! I rented two paddle boards and a kayak for us to play around with. We had a ball! None of us had ever tried paddle boarding before but I think we all did really well for beginners. Here is hubby catching a wave. We had a good laugh after having the picture's developed because the waves really did seem bigger when we out there but looked like tiny ripples in the pics!

Here is sister looking professional...

Until she dropped her paddle. Hubby luckily was able to quickly retrieve it!

Here I am in the kayak, which I totally fell in love with. We actually own a kayak but it is a sit inside kind and is not nearly as comfortable or easy to use.

While sister was visiting, not only did she completely entertain the little one but she completed an awesome dress for the little one! Here she is looking completely frustrated by my sewing machine which was on the fritz.

The dress is fantastic. She got the pattern from a book, written by a friend of hers, called One-Yard Wonders. Here the little one models it while holding another gift from her aunt "Fred" the wiggly worm.

While my sister was here we had the opportunity to take the little one to meet some horses. I had inquired to a local boarding farm about when it would be age appropriate for her to ride since she is fascinated with horses and cows and was offered the chance to come out and meet some horses. Little one got to pet, brush and feed treats to 2 different horses. She had a great time and didn't seem the slightest bit worried about being next to such a large animal. I hope to take her back to visit again soon.

Well that about wraps up the first part of the month, we have been having a lot of fun and look forward to seeing what the next few weeks may bring. Hopefully we can sneak in lots of beach days! :)

New Recipes...

2010-06-25T15:00:00.000-04:00

Here is a little taste of what has been coming out of the kitchen around here lately.

I had been dying to try this recipe I had for a creamy- vanilla raspberry pavlova for some time and I finally made the effort . It was well worth the effort because it was super yummy! I used a simple recipe that I found in one of the Kraft food magazines. The hardest thing about this recipe is the wait time as the meringue cooks for an hour and a half.

The picture doesn't really do it justice. It is a melt in your mouth dessert perfect for the warm weather. I think it would be good with any type of berry. I'll just have to force myself to make it again so that I can try it with blueberries!

Another new recipe that I recently cooked is actually an appetizer. I had puff pastry on hand and was not in the mood to cook much for dinner one evening so I though and appetizer and salad would be enough to satisfy hubby. The full recipe is here.

The picture version follows...

Take thawed puff pastry and roll out as thin as you can creating a 10 x 14 rectangle. Cut in half. Brush with egg white and water mixture.

Coat one piece with grated Parmesan cheese and dried red pepper.

Layer on thin sliced ham. I used Boar's Head tavern ham because that was what we had handy.

Cover with other half of puff pastry. Roll to seal.

Roll up like a jelly roll.

Slice into 24 pieces. Cook on parchment paper until lightly browned.

Enjoy! The recipe says it makes 12 servings of 2 pieces each serving. Hubby and I ate all of them in one sitting with a salad. (Not sure I should share that fact!). They would make a great appetizer as the recipe says they are served well at room temp so you could prepare ahead. I wouldn't know what they tasted like at that temperature because none of them had a chance to cool that long. :)

I have been wanting to make some oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies so that is on this weekends agenda as well as getting started on painting the guest room! I think I will make the cookies first so I can motivate myself with the cookies to paint the room!

Makes Me Feel Smart...

2010-06-17T15:54:00.001-04:00

Can you spot the misspelled word?

Someone needs to use the spell check!

Happenings...

2010-06-16T14:04:00.000-04:00

Since the weather is warm I have a hard time making myself sit in front of the computer long enough to do more than check my email, so this post may be a little all over the place.

I had forgotten that I never posted finished pictures of the little one's new playhouse. Hubby painted it pink and put a metal roof on it. It turned out super cute!

My neighbor bartered with us for hubby to do some work at their house in trade for her sewing the curtains for the two windows and the door. The material is a shower curtain that I found at target. Which I thought might work out better than regular fabric since it will be exposed to the elements.

All the kids love playing in it, opening the curtains and playing inside is lots of fun! We keep a small stash of toys and books inside for them.

We also up sized our pool this year! It's a $30 walmart special but I feel like we have already gotten our money's worth out of it as we have played in it just about everyday!

She loves the slide and mommy and daddy like the fact that we can actually fit in the pool too!

We have already spent many days trying to beat the extreme early summer heat in the pool with a little help from Popsicles too!

Another ongoing project has been working on the little one's new room. Hubby and I decide to move her into a bigger room so that we could contain the toys a little better. This has been a project for the better part of a month now because I couldn't decide on the paint color. I think I almost paid more for the half dozen sample jars then I spent to paint the whole room itself! We painted three walls a soft green and the remaining wall a creamy white.

I also found this awesome wall decal online. I was a little unsure how it would work out whether it would stay stuck on the wall or not but it was super easy and looks really cool! I am excited that it will peel off and that I can move it around as needed. I never realized how many wall decals that there were out there and I was worried that it might look cheap and tacky but so far I am pleasantly surprised.

We divided the room in half using a bookcase turned on its side. I still am planning on painting the bookcase white but that is a project for another day.

One half of the new room is her play area. The floor tiles that we had used in her previous play area work great and fit together to make a nice big area that fits her kitchen and table and chairs. She has enjoyed having tea parties with everyone who comes over and when no one is available for tea her teddy bear fills in nicely.

The other half of the room is now her designated sleep area. (Dresser not pictured is on opposite wall)

I was worried that she might not transition well to sleeping in a bigger different room and that she might not go to bed but play with all of the toys but so far so good! She loves to invite people to come see her "new room" and has surprisingly resisted the temptation of toys after bedtime, for now at least.

The next challenge is to decide what to do with her old room...

As much as I love it, as a guest room purple polka dots may be a little much. For now they will stay as I am still trying to put the house back together from the first redecorating job!

Oh Sh*t!

2010-06-02T14:43:00.000-04:00

Nothing like starting your day by getting locked out of the house by your two year old.

Fortunately for me there are several people close by that have keys to our house. Unfortunately for them it happen to be the ass crack of dawn. My first stop was to my next door neighbor's, sadly she could not locate her copy as her toddler had dumped several drawers in her kitchen out and it had gotten misplaced in the shuffle. My next unsuspecting victim was a good friend who lives close by, I felt horrible having to call her as it was her day off but there was an unattended two year old in my house!

Luckily she was able to deliver the key in just a few minutes so the little one was not trapped for very long!

Little one was fine when we busted back in the house. For some reason she had

shut every door in the house.

It's a shame she is not better at opening them!

Mountain Getaway!

2010-05-12T16:04:00.116-04:00

As a special treat to ourselves we decided to go a little last minute mountain vacay! With the help of my sister (the travel planing guru) we found a great hotel up in Asheville, NC to stay at for a few days.

We took a leisurely drive to get to Asheville stopping in Lake Lure on the way.

Here is hubby and the little one on the walking trail at a park on the lake. There were tons of ducks wandering around which the little one enjoyed.

We also stopped in downtown Chimney Rock to walk on their river walk, we found this cute bear cub along the way.

The next day we went to Dupont State Forest to do a little hiking and see some waterfalls. The little one was a little unsure about the rushing water behind us.

It's beautiful places like this that remind me why I love to visit the mountains.

The little one was a little unimpressed with the activity of hiking! However, daddy and mommy got a great work out, nothing like lugging 25 lbs up and down the side of a mountain!

We were able to bribe her to walk a good part of the way, chocolate candy and trail mix can do wonders for a little one's energy level!

Doling out another bribe!

Yea! We made it to the top!

After working up an appetite hiking we had a picnic lunch at a nice little pond

Our last night in Asheville we decided that it would be fun to go eat at a fancy place so we checked out the Red Stag Grill that is in the nearby Bohemian Hotel. I'm sure the waitstaff cringed when they saw us arrive with a small child but she did her best and managed to make it through (with the help of 2 lollipops) with no meltdowns! Mommy and daddy were able to enjoy a very yummy dinner, who doesn't love a steak aged 30 days?

Here she is pointing out some of the beautiful flowers they had outside with lollipop still in hand!

It was so nice to get a way for a few days for a little R & R. Next time we won't wait as long to take a vacation. :)

Mother's Day Surprise!

2010-05-12T15:04:00.000-04:00

I am so behind on my blog posting it is not even funny, I have several posts to be edited, so while we are on our mini vacation I am going to attempt to get caught up. Last weekend, for mother's day, one of my sister's and I shocked my mother by showing up on her doorstep for a surprise visit! Dad did a great job keeping the secret, which I know was tough because mom has a social calender you would not believe, scheduling something without lots of notice can be tough!

We had dad play photographer for us! He did pretty good!

Saturday night, dad treated us to supper at a very yummy Italian restaurant where we stuffed ourselves until we cold eat no more! My sister and I took the opportunity to clown around with the camera!

An important part of taking a good picture is making sure that you hold the camera at a flattering angle! Don't want to show any double chin, if you know what I mean!

Cheers!

This was my delicious supper, it was so good! This was only half of it, the rest was in my belly by the time I thought to take the photo! Fresh pepperoni, mozzarella and tomato!

The next morning for mother's day my sister cooked up a fantastic brunch, that included mimosas!

Cheers!

(starting to notice a pattern here? mom + drink )

While waiting for brunch to be ready I got so hungry I almost had to sample the miniature pineapples we had given to mom!

Good thing sister had waffles at the ready!

She also had delicious real whipped cream! (No cool whip at this meal!)

And to top it all off fresh strawberries!!! Oh yea!

After all the hard work of cooking ...

She needed a big drink and...

a smoke!

(Just kidding, she didn't really smoke that cig, she did perhaps make a dent in that champagne!

Thanks so much to my sister for planning everything, and also to my dad for taking the risk of getting berated for 3 weeks by mom to keep a secret as to what "special" was on her social calender!

Two Years Old!!!!

2010-04-26T14:38:00.001-04:00

It's official, the little one is now two! She will happily tell you that too, since two has now become one of her favorite numbers!

To celebrate the big event we had a park party. One of the little one's favorite things is the park. If we would let her, she would stay on the swings day and night!

7 of her playmates attended and I think everyone had a good time. The park was the easiest thing that I could think of. I just am not one of those parents who will spend a small fortune on a toddler's birthday. We did a picnic lunch and had balloons for party favors.

The little one has a huge passion for balloons! What 2 year old doesn't?

The park has a lot of old school play equipment, which she is finally big enough to get on and off of by herself!

Here is Auntie Karen testing out the motorcycle! I don't ride on them that much since the day I had a little boy tell me he thought I was way to big to ride, and I didn't want to break it, did I?

Two of the little ones on the merry- go - round, wheee!

This is the little one's birthday twin.(He was doing some very serious driving) It is so fun to see him with my little one since they are literally the exact same age.

Happy Baby!

The twins having fun on the slide!

Climbing high!

It was nice to have all of the grandparents attend,

that way every little one had a hand to help push the swings!

As part of the picnic lunch I made personalized cut out cookies for all the kids. I didn't feel like fighting the mess of small children with cupcakes. So these were a nice alternative. I don't think the kids minded at all because to a kid sugar is sugar!

There were ducks and dinosaur cookies for the kids goodie bags and then flowers and butterflies for the adults to munch on! Many thanks to my sister for staying up late helping to decorate them!

And because no birthday would be complete without cake I did make a devils food pound cake for the little one's birthday dinner!

She was so pleased that we were all singing to her!

She was fascinated by the lit candle, she did attempt to blow it out...

But then seemed truly bothered and bewildered when it did go out!

The lack of flame from the candle did not deter her from shoveling in some cake.

She licked her plate clean!!!

Now that this birthday has come and gone, I guess I better get to planning next year's!

Bee City...

2010-04-25T16:42:00.000-04:00

One of the other fun adventures we had while the family was in town was a trip to Bee City. We had never been there before so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to check it out. I knew nothing about it except what was on their website and the fact that I had passed the signs to it on drives out in the country.

We were all pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it was for all ages. Although I will say a very hot day could make this not nearly as pleasant. There is a lot of animal poop to be had, if you know what I mean!

This guy needs some serious braces!

Do you have any snacks for me?

The lemurs were so cool!

You can purchase food to feed almost all of the animals. For the lemurs and monkeys it's cheerios. Yum!

It was really fun to fed them. They would just reach through the cage and get it out of your hand.

The little one was really impressed by the bunnies. I think she would have stayed all day petting them!

We all loved watching this sweet little momma wallaby and her little teeny baby.

The little one was in awe of all the animals antics!

The monkey's were trained to retrieve a snack using a pulley. Very funny to watch!

Yummy!

A quick family photo!

I think by the end the boys were getting a little overwhelmed by all of the excitement (or maybe the smell from the animals) so I really don't know what to say about this photo other than it made me laugh out loud!

Cypress Gardens...

2010-04-25T15:07:00.001-04:00

For the little one's birthday one of my sisters and her husband came to visit for a few days. We had a lot of fun adventuring and also preparing for the little one's big day! One of our adventures took us to the Cypress Gardens in nearby Moncks Corner.

This is a beautiful place to visit if you have a chance. Especially this time of year, before it gets to hot and while all of the flowers are in full bloom.

Sister and Brother-in-Law make quite the beautiful butterfly and handsome caterpillar don't you think?

Me and the little one (LOL!)

The garden has a wonderful butterfly house that also contains a koi pond. We had a lot of fun watching them all flutter by.

The little one got and extra long visit in the butterfly house, which she loved, with her Uncle because she refused to get in the rowboat.

Maybe she knew we would encounter gators like this one...

Just kidding! Daddy wasn't really eaten by a gator!

We did see several alligators in the water while we hiked and then also when we took a quick paddle in the swamp, but none of them tried to take off our heads!!!

In addition to the gardens there is also small aquarium with lots of neat turtles, some talking birds on display and lots of great nature trails. It is a really cool place to visit if you get a chance.

Really?A Penis Tree?...

2010-04-20T14:43:00.000-04:00

I have been way behind on my blogging lately in part due to pure laziness but also we have been slowly preparing for the little one's upcoming 2nd birthday this week. The playhouse is coming along wonderfully. I have not fully finished decorating it so I have not taken updated pictures yet. However, the little one has been having lots of fun playing in it un decorated. I think she really doesn't care if its decorated or not, she knows its her house though and will gladly point it out as well as pointing out mommy's house (our house) and daddy's house ( the storage building, LOL!).

Now, because I'm sure you are all wondering what the title of this post is all about I will get to it! First, here is a cute picture of the little one playing at the park.

A few days ago the little one and I journeyed to one of our neighborhood parks to feed the turtles and ducks at the pond. I was saddened to be told by a fellow mommy upon pulling into the parking lot that someone had spray painted the playground equipment and that if my child was old enough to read we may want to not play.

Fortunately, the little one is not up on how to spell the latest and greatest in dirty words...

The penis picture on the merry go round was the only thing mild enough to post. The other half of it was covered in words and pictures that even offened me!

It was hard to watch the little one going down the slide with this under her bottom!

The worst to me was the penis tree. Who puts graffiti on trees? So wrong!

Needless to say I called the local police, (who made remarkably fast time, if it were an actual emergency I wouldn't hold my breath!) The nice officer assured me the city would be contacted and it would be cleaned up. Sure enough a few days later, hubby went back to the park and it was all gone. I'm still wondering how they managed to get it off the tree and still leave the bark intact but they did! I'm also still wondering why anyone thought vandalizing a toddler park was a good idea? Losers!

To make this post end on a lighter note, here is a picture of the little one in her new fairy princess dress! This adorable outfit is a birthday gift from one of her aunties! It has been a real hit!

The little one shocked me yesterday by putting it on all by herself!

This picture doesn't do the dress justice because you can't see the little fairy wings on the back, and if only I could get her to smile and not make the monkey face! Now all she needs is a magic fairy wand! I could use one too, one that with the snap of the wrist makes my house clean itself! :)

A Secret Project...

2010-03-31T13:58:00.000-04:00

It has been a tough last few days around here. Since Thursday, last week the little one has been under the weather. I finally broke down and called the pediatrician's office yesterday after another random episode of vomit. The good news is that they confirmed what I had already suspected that it is a virus going around. The bad news is that it generally last a full seven days. Yuck! By my count we still have about another 36 hours to go!

I hope the little one gets better soon! 2 am surprise vomit is never a fun time!

In other news , while hubby was working out of town last week he mentioned that he was working on a secret project. For 5 days I tried to pry out of him what it was... it didn't work. I honestly hate surprises and really dislike secrets (unless it's a secret i'm keeping!). But this secret project is super cool!

Even though it did involve tearing out the garden bed we labored to install last year. Can you guess the secret project?

It's a modular playhouse! Since our house is for sale hubby built a special custom playhouse for the little one. He built it is sections so it can be taken apart to be moved! He arrived home with the four walls already built, they just had to be screwed together!

He worked hard all weekend putting it together!

Even though the little one is sick we still let her go check it out!

It is big enough inside to fit the whole family, dog included!

Yesterday, since the little one was seemingly better, I caught her dancing inside!

She was kind enough to pose for the camera.

Unfortunatly, it was only 20 minutes later that she threw up all over my couch so needless to say we were inside much of the rest of the day! :(

Hubby's secret project was a pleasant surprise, but now the question remains as to how to decorate it!
I am debating back and forth between white with pink trim or pink with white trim. We will also have to incorperate flowers and butterflies since those are a few of her favorite things!

Hopefully the lttle one will be back to her normal self before to long so we can hit up the paint store!

Fancy New Things...

2010-03-25T20:32:00.000-04:00

In the last few days the little one has really racked up on some super cute clothes! Bappy came for a visit and brought 2 super cute dresses and an awesome sock monkey pair of pants and shirt.

Today was also the semi annual rosalina sale, I was proud of myself for only buying three outfits!

Here is the little one modeling one of the outfits and holding up one of the new dresses.

]

The great thing about the outfit she is wearing is that it is totaly reversible!

It is a pretty pink on the inside, and I love the Carolina Girl embroidery. Too cute! There is nothing better than 2 outfits in one!

The blue and white polka dot outfit is her birthday outfit. My neighbor had a trunk show for Shrimp and Grits kids clothing and I ordered it from her. I am going to have her initials embroidered on the front at some point before the big day.

Last but not least here she is wearing her normal clothes, Walmart's finest!

I actually went back to Walmart and bought another dress that is the same style in a different color after I saw how cute it was on.

For $6 it is a great little play outfit.

Especially when most of the time it will be covered with a layer of dog fur!

Weekend Happenings...

2010-03-21T16:33:00.000-04:00

This weekend we marked the beginning of spring with our first trip to the beach. It was great to feel the sand between our toes!

The little one insisted on wearing her shoes though! She didn't think much of the damp sand!

Showing off our shovels full of sand!

Daddy pointing out boats in the distance.

Filling her bucket! It was great to get out and enjoy such a warm day. We are lucky to have the beach so close by. :)

In other news Grandpa and Bappy (grandma) came for a quick visit. So I used it as a good excuse to try out a new dessert Lucious Cream Puffs. The actual recipe is here.

Start with puff pastry sheet baked into round shapes. I used a 2 inch drinking glass as my cutter. The recipe said to use a 3 inch, oops!

When pastry is cooled split in half and top with Jello pudding and Cool Whip combined.

Top with remaining half of pastry. Drizzle with melted chocolate and enjoy! Because I used a smaller diameter of circle cooking time on the pastry was a little shorter and we were all able to enjoy 2 puffs! Yummy!

Since the grandparents were in town Hubby and I decided to take advantage and went to see a movie.

We went to see Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland in 3-D! It was awesome! We have not been to see a movie in almost 2 years so that in itself was pretty remarkable, but the movie was really cool! All of characters really come to life in 3-D, my favorite character had to be the Chesire Cat.

Who doesn't love a magical kitty?! I wish my cats could disapper and reappear. If only they could clean the litterbox by themselves! That would really be magical...

Hope ya'll had a great weekend!

Chocolate Dipped Macaroons...

2010-03-16T14:26:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend I decided to try a new recipe. I have had a bag of coconut in the pantry for a while so I figured the time was right to use it. I used this recipe which I found using google. Apparently a lot of recipes call for sweetened condensed milk but since I didn't have any this recipe was totally meant for me.

Mix 1 1/3 cup coconut, 2 tablespoons flour, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/3 cup sugar in medium bowl.

Add to dry ingredients 2 egg whites (whipped until form stiff peaks) with a little vanilla and almond extract.

Form into rounded teaspoons and bake for 16-18 minutes.

This recipe only makes approximately 18 cookies.

After they cooled on a wire rack I used two unsweetened chocolate bakers squares to dip them in. Yummy! I think I ate the majority of these. Oops!

In other news the little one's hair is finally long enough for actual pigtails so here is a cute pic showing off her new hairdo!

The disgruntled look is disappointment because Elmo was ending!

Bacon Cheese Pull Apart...

2010-02-28T15:02:00.000-05:00

I have been waiting for a leisurely morning to try this recipe. I had printed it off the pillsbury web site a while back. It had caught my eye because the name of the dish contains two of my favorite things bacon and cheese! It is super simple to put together and could easily feed 4.

The recipe called for chopped green onions and a package of pre cooked bacon cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Next time I think I will use fresh cooked bacon as I think it will give a stonger flavor.

Shred a good amount of cheese. Recipe calls for 3/4 cup. I'm sure I used at least that if not 1/2 cup more.

Cut up biscuits into quarters. (I used Grands flaky biscuits)

Mix a little milk and an egg.

Combine and then bake in greased 2 quart dish.

Enjoy!

Potty Training at it's Finest...

2010-02-25T14:11:00.003-05:00

A while back hubby and I thought it might be time to introduce the little one to the potty. Since she is almost two we thought it was worth a shot. It didn't go over well so we tucked it away in the closet for future use. Today the little one spotted it in the closet and pitched an absolute shit fit until I let her have it. We discussed proper usage but somehow the connection was not made ...

Somehow I don't think that standing in the potty with the bowl on her head is going to get the job done!

Closer but still not quite right, considering her feet are still inside.

Modeling her new hat?

Doing the potty time jig!

The dog even joined in on the fun!

Maybe she needs to watch the "potty time with elmo" video again as a refresher!

Outdoors...

2010-02-24T14:05:00.000-05:00

It has been snot central around here the last few days as the little one has been slightly under the weather with a horrible runny nose and now a nice sounding cough. The weather outside however has been quite pleasant so the little one and I have been outside burning off some excess energy. I have discovered that the afternoon nap that I so need her to take becomes non exsistant unless she gets at least an hour of outdoor play in. To find an indoor activity that burns as much energy off can be tough especially one that we haven't already done a million times since the weather has been so foul this winter.

Here are some pics of our outdoor fun. Excuse the picture quality these were all taken with my cel phone.

Here is the little one romping through the bushes.

I splurged and bought her a balloon from the dollar store. Which she insisted that we walk around the block with. She did learn a tough lesson though, what happens to balloons when they come unattched from the string. Bye-bye balloon! It didn't seem to bother her she just waved to it as it departed from view!

The little one has quite the love of flowers. If she can get her hands on them her favorite thing is to smell them. Even with a super stuffed up nose she take a sniff.

At first sniff she realized she couldn't smell anything.

She inhaled even deeper!

She inhaled all the pollen right out of the flower! I couldn't help but to laugh out loud, it probably didn't help that it stuck right to all of the stray snot ! Gross but cute all at the same time!

Happy Wednesday! Don't forget to stop and smell the flowers!

Cupcake Cake Attempt #1...

2010-02-20T21:12:00.005-05:00

Today was my first attempt at using my super new as seen on TV silicon cupcake pan. It was a gift from hubby, he had remembered me talking about wanting one.

As it was my first attempt I opted to make a solid cupcake versus using the extra piece to make a filled cake.

They bake up nicely but took a long time to bake. I was somewhat confused as to how much batter to put in each side, the directions said to divide evenly but I just sort of eyeballed it so that was probably my mistake.

Next time the top section needs a little more batter. :)

I trimmed both cakes, although after the fact I realized I should have trimmed more off the bottom. These look a little like a drunk carved them.

I used a whipped frosting, which on the upside totally hid all of the bad carving. On the downside it looks like a pink and white blob!

When cut open it resembles a cupcake, if you squint your eyes a little.

I was skeptical about the silicon pans. I have never used them before and really wasn't sure what to expect. They work great, the cake really just pops right out and you don't even have to flour the pan only spray with a little cooking spray. Hopefully cooking in them doesn't make the food toxic.

I think next time I will attempt to make a filled cake and work a little harder on the frosting and carving. Although like I have said before, it doesn't really matter what it looks like just what it taste like!

Snow Day...

2010-02-14T13:33:00.007-05:00

Who would have thought it would actually snow here hard enough so that it covered the ground? I was so excited I raced out to catch photos for proof...

A few hours later in the backyard it's winter wonderland, the bamboo had touched down!

The next morning as the sun came up.

Our street, the prettiest it's ever looked!

It was such a heavy snow, my poor trees!

Hubby was the only one who intentionally braved laying in it to make a snow angel.

That is the look of someone who is getting ready to nail you with a big snow ball!

Poor yard kitty had a hat of snow! Brrrr!

Perfect time for a fire don't you think? Next time will have to remember to put some wood in a dry area prior to the freak snowstorm!

Tree limbs leaning on the roof.

The bamboo was hurting from the weight of the snow. Most of it has pulled back up now that the snow has melted.

Checking out the snowman daddy made for us.

The little one's were more excited about the huge rushing streams of water made by the melting snow. Gotta love stomping in the puddles!

It was a fun and exciting 24 hours of snow we have a little bit left today but it is quickly melting. We had 6 inches total which was the first big snow in about 20 years for our town. We enjoyed it immensely even if our shrubbery didn't!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Sweets...

2010-02-12T14:16:00.004-05:00

Last night I tried out a new cookie recipe in continuation with my attempt to be festive and bake for each holiday. I had intended to make the cookies that were on the cover of this month's Southern Living but after forgetting to buy a lemon twice at the grocery store for the lemon zest it called for I scrapped that plan. I then thought I would just go with my standby sugar cookie recipe that I used for Christmas and Halloween, after realizing I didn't have unsalted butter I finally decided to go with option #3, a new recipe.

I found the new recipe in an old Kraft foods magazine you can download it from their website here.It is super easy and really yummy. The best part is that it doesn't need to chill for nearly as long as regular sugar cookies. The dough was ready in about 30 minutes.

I love that it calls for all my favorite things: butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla!
With just a little flour mixed in, it became a nice dough.

I divided the dough into four sections to make it easier to work with. Keeping the remaining dough in the fridge. I also tried a new trick for flouring my rolling surface. I sprayed a little cooking spray on the counter before flouring. It really helped to keep the dough from sticking and it wasn't to bad to clean up after.
Thank you food network for the hint! :)

I now use parchment paper under all my cookies, using parchment paper instead of greasing the pans is so much more effective. Way less mess and the cookies slide right off! I am totally in love with using it!

I did sprinkles on half and used frosting on the other half. The random bear cookie was a trial run of a new cookie cutter that I got for Christmas! Isn't he cute? I actually made several of the bears but because they don't fit with the Valentine's theme I was forced to eat them all!

Yummy!!!!

And to wrap things up here is a picture of my favorite Valentine!Hope your Valentine's Day is sweet!

Brrr...We're Ready for the Spring Thaw...

2010-02-11T13:58:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, after a few too many days inside, the little one decided to find a new toy to play with. I walked into her room after hearing this little voice repeating "mommy, mommy, mommmeeee!" only to not know where the voice was coming from. Until I noticed that her changing pad was wiggling on the floor.

I was able to run out and grab the camera in time to catch her still playing in it.

It then became the fun item for the day!

Totally busted her later on the coffee table, that's a big no-no!

After getting the boot from the table she decided the couch was a good spot!

Basking in the sunlight.

On the move again, this time Elmo was coming with...

Guess Elmo wanted to read a book and have an extra cushion for the tush!

Where is she? I don't see her! Her way of hiding!

Contemplating Life

Trying to find the most comfortable position.

What a tough life!

Today, in an act of desperation a.k.a no nap in 2 days due to lack of energy burning activities
I took her to the mall. Since it is too cold to be outside I thought we could go walk where there was heat and she could ride on the quarter burning rides.

After 2 rides with Mickey Mouse and a half of a tractor ride she was over it. Fortunately our mall has a play area that I had never noticed before. I'm positive that there was a time where I would have thought to myself "When I have a kid I will never let her play there, Yuck! Imagine all of germs and filth!" Well, times are a changing!

I will admit it was not the cleanest, but the little one loved it! We were the only people there at first but then a really nice woman showed up with her 2 year old daughter and a sleeping 10 month old boy. The girls hit it off and played for over an hour, several other kids came and went so it was a lot of fun for her. It also helped that the little girl's mom wasn't a whack job so that we were able to chat while the girls played. There really is nothing better that adult conversation when you have been inside with only a toddler to talk to for several days in a row!

I know spring is right around the corner but it can not come soon enough! We are ready to play OUTSIDE!!!!

Random Arts and Crafts...

2010-02-04T20:14:00.005-05:00

I was hanging out at the neighbor's house the other day with the little one and I saw this in her daughters room. It is much cuter than what I have been using so I was inspired to make one of my own.

Since I know you ALL are in need of a bow holder here is the play by play! :)

I went to craft store and for a dollar I bought the round wood for its face.

Put that art degree to good use and painted a cutsie face on it. Blue eyes to match the little one.

Cut yarn, about 25 strands. Tangled the yarn several times, and I never did find the end to the actual yarn ball. I just cut a new end out of what I could pull loose. I'm sure that will come back to haunt me later during some other random craftiness...

The cat was a big help too, especially while trying to braid the strands.

Glued the hair to the head and hung, perfect for all the bows!

Eventually when better weather reappears
I promise I will blog about something more exciting! We are stuck in cold weather mode and not getting out much. The other excitement of the day was the pineapple upside down cake I felt compelled to bake. Yum!

Hope you all had a great day!

Monkey Basket...

2010-02-01T15:26:00.003-05:00

This adorable sock monkey Easter basket is an early Easter gift from one of my friends from work. She found it at Big Lots of all places. Knowing how much we love sock monkeys around here she thought it would be perfect, and she was right!

I know the little one will love it and it will be perfect for her first egg hunt!