Playing Catch-Up

Yes, there was a period when some wondered if I would ever blog again... I am glad to report that I am blogging again, and so I need to post what happened during the 'blackout.' I do love that our blog is like our family's journal... So if you see old posts, that's me trying to catch up a little.

Superbowl Party a.k.a. the Food Fest of the Century!

So I have to say growing up watching the Superbowl was all about the commercials... Now that I am grown, I have to say too many of the commercials are about beer and/or are crude and not appropriate. However, we do enjoy watching football and we LOVE to eat good food. So now the Superbowl is more about having awesome 'eats' while we watch the game.

We invited our friends Saskia, Chris, & their kiddos over and had some of the best food ever! I forgot to take pictures, so a menu and internet photos are all I can provide! We had:


Brownies cut & frosted to look like footballs


Peach Dump Cake w/pecans

Cheesecake Sopapillas

Stuffed Jalapenos


Fresh Salsa

Hot Dogs and Homemade Chili

7 Layer Dip

Chicken Quesadillas

Chicken Wings - Buffalo style


Peanut Butter Fudge

YUM! Writing this post is making salivate! Thanks Saskia and Chris for your awesome contributions and for being such great friends! I don't know how we will top the food next year... but we'll have to try! ;)


P.S. Samuel has 3 Superbowl rings now... and those pro football players think they're so hard to get! Maybe we should tell them they can go to Wal-Mart and get them on top of cupcakes... Maybe not. I know what you're really thinking: "Superbowl rings AND cupcakes?? Can life get any sweeter?!" ;)

Valentine's Day

We had a fun valentines day! All month long Thayne and I have been doing a valentine's countdown where we get to do fun, cute things for each other each day.


On valentine's day, I made goodie bags for Thayne and the kiddos and Thayne bought me beautiful roses!! We put the goodies on the table for the kids to find on valentine's morning! Here's what it looked like (after the kids got into the treats a little)!

P.S. We got a new table!! Here's what it looks like without holiday goodness on it. I know drastically more boring, but I still LOVE it. AND.. it is the same table that Michael and Sarah have :)


To Michael and Sarah we would like to say: "THANK YOU for having such a great and awesome table that it made us want to have a great table too!"


One of the coolest features of this table is that it turns from a 46" square table to a 65" round table! It's also a counter height, which is fun, but also scary when Anna climbs up!

Evelyn Turns S-E-V-E-N!

How did THAT happen? I don't know but Evelyn is 7! Before we went to bed on the 12th, we put a balloon and flower in a vase on the table, so it would be sure to catch her eye, first thing, on her birthday! And it did! She loved her surprise and even told us that yellow was one of her favorite colors :)


F.Y.I. - that doesn't mean too much other than she loved her flower, because she loves just about every color in the rainbow, but her absolute favorite colors are blue (more of a teal shade) and brown.

I've been making an effort to make the kids more awesome cakes this past year. I know when my efforts are appreciated when one of my kids (when it's not their birthday) is sad that cake is not for them! For Evelyn I decided to make her a Barbie cake. [side note - the choice of cake may shock those who knew, as a child, that I loathed Barbies... I'm over that phase and am fine with my daughters liking them ;)]

Back to Evelyn, she has really gotten into Barbies and I thought this would be the perfect cake! I found pictures online of the cake I wanted to make, and set my mind on it! To make it I had to learn how to make fondant icing! AH!

I made sugar cookies the week before her birthday so I could practice with fondant. The fondant was almost tasteless and thus terrible, but it rolled out great and looked beautiful. Making fondant for her cake went beautifully, here's how it turned out!!


I banished Evelyn from the kitchen for the entire time, so it could be a surprise, but allowed her in when I was done - I just hid the cake. I should have been more careful though, I left the wilton cake kit box (it came with a "doll pick" and the cake mold in the shape of her skirt) out on the counter and she saw it! AH!

I think I've said this before,but I'll say it again - Evelyn looks like Thanye but acts like me. I know how snoopy I was was growing up, I should know that I need to be especially careful in safeguarding surprises... I was so mad at myself for not double checking the area to make sure I cleaned up all "evidence."

That said, I had to come up with a Plan B so that she would still have a surprise! When making the cake, I used the wilton wonder cake mold. I didn't know how much batter it would need, so I used 2 cake mixes... It only needed 1, so we also made a 9x13 cake. To surprise Evelyn, we frosted the 9x13 with Penuche frosting, put candles in and sang to her. The cake, while it had super yummy frosting and candles, looked pretty drab... PERFECT!


It wasn't till after she blew out the candles, we told her: "Hey wait! That's not the right cake! - - and brought out the real one! She was pretty excited! HOORAY!


It turned out to be a wonderful day! Just like every birthday should be!! We love you Evelyn!! We are so glad you have been part of our family for 7 years, and look forward to an eternity with you! :)

You've GOT to be kidding me?!

So here are the pictures from Friday's snow. It was a pretty good snow - probably like 4". Because it was Thayne's Friday off, he didn't have to go to work!


Saturday and Sunday were very nice weather days. The sun was out. The snow and ice melted away, so I figured: "Yea! We'll be back to our normal schedule, meaning mostly, back to school on Monday..."


Didn't bother checking the schools website... Just got Evelyn up and ready. Got 3 other kids up and ready. Loaded and buckled into the car. We get to our friend's house (to pick up our carpoolers) and I am informed that there is NO SCHOOL!!

Seriously??

Don't worry, it was not an inclement weather day... it was a teacher prep day - previously scheduled on the formal school calendar and, yes, it's even marked on my calendar at home... OOPS! I guess I was a little too antsy for school to be back in session!

SNOWED IN...

So to most of my readers this post will be tame compared to what you may be going through, but I am still going to whine about our current weather trend!


The weekend was beautiful, with temperatures in the 60s. Then Monday came and turned our world upside down! We got rain/ice/snow on Monday night - maybe an inch... nothing HUGE, just enough to cover the ground. But because of the snow, school was cancelled on Tuesday - a miracle - because they didn't cancel school at all last year for snow or dangerous road conditions...

Tuesday didn't get warm enough to melt all of the snow, so we ended up with ice covering our roads and sidewalks.


Now I know this may shock those who don't live in the south - cancelling school for such little snow?? The city has no equipment to clear the roads here. There are some ruts that are better to drive on, but on any given road you have ruts for a bit, and then sheets of ice that cover the entire road! I'll be driving and thinking: "this isn't so bad" and at that moment, I get humbled as I look at the ice field I'm about to drive through!! They put some sand down in some select places, but in my driving today, I only saw it in one parking lot - not on any roads!

When I was done running errands today, I pulled into our driveway, with the intent of parking in our garage, but because of the ice, my wheels just turned and turned. I was stuck. I didn't dare gas it, our suburban barely fits into our single-car sized garage and I didn't want to gas it, slide on the ice, and hit our house! UGH, I had to park outside :(


But I digress, to add to our ice problem, we have been below freezing since Tuesday night - with temperatures at a 20-year low!!

Since we have been so cold, no ice has not really had a chance to melt. So Wednesday and Thursday school was also cancelled.

Hold on to your boots... Tomorrow we are supposed to get more snow! AH! And yes, school is cancelled!! 4 SNOW DAYS!

A bit of warmth on Saturday will hopefully melt this ice/snow. But our forecast for next week shows snow on Monday & Wednesday!! AHH!! Sweet, WARM, relief will just in time for Evelyn's birthday!

Don't hold your breath on that forecast promise though, the weather here changes in the blink of an eye!

OH! How I L-O-V-E Cheat Days!

So Thayne and I have been on a quest to eat healthier since last year. We got serious about it in late August and have lost over 80 pounds together!

One of the biggest changes in my (Erica's) eating habits is to reduce the 'sweets' to one day a week. (Yes, Mom & Dad, you know that we cheated a bit more than that during our Christmas break!! But we are back on the wagon...) I used to eat dessert after lunch and dinner almost everyday. Now I only have treats once a week - usually on Friday. This cheat day has to be awesome. It's what keeps me good the rest of the week! So I will, throughout the week, plan out what 'naughty' things I will make :)


Today I made Homemade Girl Scout Samoa Cookies!! The store bought ones are DELICIOUS! So when I stumbled upon this recipe, I just had to try my hand at making them. They are a multi-step cookie, but OH, so good - so worth it!