Frozen Chocolate "Souffles"

Tried these out tonight

{June 09 Family Circle}

Frozen Chocolate "Souffles"

3 cups Milk

2 pkg. (4 serving each) Jell-O Chocolate Instant Pudding

2 cups Cool Whip

16 Oreo cookies, chopped (we smashed ours)

8 (8-9 oz.) paper cups

{strawberries or cherries to garnish}

1. Pour milk into medium bowl. Add dry pudding mix.

Beat with wire whisk 2 min.

Gently stir in whipped topping.

2. Spoon 2 Tbsp. broken cookies into each cup.

Cover with half of the pudding.

Repeat the layers.

Cover with foil.

3. Freeze 5 hours or until firm.

Remover from freezer and let stand for 15 min.

Peel away cup and plop on plate.

Garnish with cherries or strawberries.

How Does My Garden Grow?

lettuce, peas, onions, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, corn,

cantaloupe, strawberries, carrots, watermelon

This picture was taken last week.

Imagine it tons more fluffy

this week

(and why not imagine it less rocky and weed-free, too!)

Nacho Night

5.23.09

Hotel for Dogs

J stepped on B's nacho plate,

3 out of 5 spilled their water,

And all fell asleep except B and I

actually sounds a lot like how FHE goes, too.

Graduation

C had his Preschool Graduation

where we got to see him in action.

When it came time for him to present the map project,

he got up, looked right at his dad, and whispered,

"We made maps"

{C and Miss Shannon}

C has been attending preschool here

for two years, and between B and C,

we have been going here for about 3 years.

We definitely have a soft spot

in our hearts for

Miss Shannon,

and think she does a wonderful

job with her preschool!

The boys LOVE her and have

learned so much!

{Thank You!}

Kindergarten?

Bring it on!

Strawberry Swirl Shortcakes

If today you are celebrating

a lovely picture of my own Red, White, & Blue

{Memorial Day}

Then you will probably

want some of this

{June 09 Family Circle}

Strawberry Swirl Shortcakes

1 lb strawberries, hulled and sliced

5 TBSP sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

2.5 cups Bisquick

2/3 cup +1 TBSP milk

Cool Whip (I used Lite or Fat Free)

1. Stir Strawberries with 2 TBSP sugar in small bowl and set aside.

2. In another small bowl, combine lemon peel and 3 TBSP sugar, set aside

3. In large bowl, stir together biscuit mix and 2/3 cup milk until a soft dough forms. Turn out onto a well-floured surface. Roll into an 18x8 inch rectangle. Brush with remaining 1 TBSP of milk, then sprinkle with sugar/lemon mixture. Roll up starting at short end. cut into 8 slices, each about 1 inch thick.

4. Place on baking sheet, reshaping to flatten slightly.

5. Bake 450 for 9-10 minutes

6. When cool, split biscuits in half horizontally. Place the bottom on a plate, and dollop with a spoonful of cool whip, and spoon strawberries on top. Place top of biscuit on top and dollop with a little more cool whip and strawberries.

This version of the recipe will vary from that found in your

June Family Circle Magazine.

These are the ingredients and methods I used.

Soft Caramel Popcorn

This is a very easy recipe

for

soft

caramel popcorn!

Caramel Popcorn

2 bags of microwaved popcorn

( I use "Light Butter")

1 cube Butter

1 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Karo Syrup

Bring to a little bit of a boil.

For the softest caramel

pull it off, as soon as it gets

to a boil, it will get harder the

longer you boil it.

Pour it over

popped popcorn.

{be sure to get those unpopped seeds out,

nobody likes to lose a tooth on one of those things!}

To make

{popcorn balls}

form with wet hands.

This recipe can be halved for

1 bag of popcorn.

What has C Been up To?

Dad brought home

some old comic books

he had as a kid.

Guess, who couldn't

get enough of them

and when he wasn't

indulging in the funnies,

he made sure to get out

and....

{safety first, of course}

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Choc. Chip Cookies

Why I like these cookies:

I feel sneaky getting some protein,

oatmeal, and

better-for-you fats,

in their bellys.

I feel great getting some

cookie dough and chocolate

in my belly.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Choc. Chip cookies

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup butter- softened

Cream together and add:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Sift together:

1 1/4 c. flour

about 1/2 cup or so oats

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Gradually mix into peanut butter mixture

and add:

semi-sweet choc. chips

and/or

broken up peanut M&Ms

after putting them on the pan,

smash 'em with the fork tongs a wee bit-

you can go really wild and do the double cross on them!

Bake 375

10-12 min.

BOYS NIGHT OUT

05.07.09

Monsters vs. Aliens

3D

A Second Proposal?

In the car today

C {thoughfully}: "Mom, can one girl marry two boys?"

Mom: "No, only one boy can marry one girl"

C {concerned}: "Oh"

Mom: "Why? Do you know a girl who wants to marry two boys?"

C {sadly}: "Yah..., Dad and I both want to marry you"

Melt my {heart},

Put a smile on my face for the rest of the day,

Crowning moment of Mother's Day.

Mother's Day

My Sweets says that this was Mother's Day Part 1

I guess, due to the fact that he has had to be extremely busy this weekend and the coming week, that he didn't want me to feel jipped and said that Mother's Day would be continued next Saturday, too.

And, so you know me-

I just roll with the punches,

and I didn't try to talk him out of whatever he may have planned for next weekend, too-

Didn't want to protest and ruin any plans.

I'm real pleasant that way.

However, Part 1 has been wonderful all ready.

I got to go

to C's preschool presentation for Mother's Day,
where he had made a book mark for me, and he had answered cute questions about me

and then he sang to me.
Speaking of answering questions about MOM,

B answered some questions at school about
me, too, and between B & C,

I learned a lot about me, that I didn't know, like:

My mom is {19} inches tall

My mom weighs {99} lbs. (bless this child!)

My mom likes to wear {rockstar shirts}

My mom likes to eat {broccoli casserole}

My moms favorite place to eat is {Subway}

For fun, my mom {goes to the temple}

Ahhh, how do they come up with these things?,

So precious!

I also LOVE....

it when it warms up and I can finally get my planter boxes and containers

on my front patio full of cheery flowers.

And this year, I also sowed some Sunflowers to border my veggie garden.

Getting those things done were Holiday to me.

So I didn't bother to post any pictures about me looking all groggy-eyed during breakfast in bed- just imagine it.

But of course, after church, I wanted a picture of me and my handsome boys,

and it turned out to be almost too much for some people to bear.

so, after several shots that went something like this

I finally got one of semi-smiles

and sunshine

and patience

and tenderness

and calm

and goodness

and peace

and butterflies

and sunsets

and trophies

and chocolate cake

and EVERYTHING else that

the other picture DOESN'T show.

Which, by the way-

screaming,

crying,

and frustration

NEVER

happen at our house,

Only on Mother's Day.

And to close the day, I spent the evening

watching a movie and munching popcorn,

and having my babies curled

up to me.

It was a good one.

And since my Sweets is already off on his crazy week,

I guess I'll say good-night.

Thanks Babe.

The Zoo

B's class went on a trip to the Zoo.

Dad volunteered to go, too.

B was so excited to take Dad.

Dad was so excited to go with B.

B said it was the best day of his life.

Daddy did, too.

Garden?

check.

When I said we'd been up to a few projects the last couple of weeks, now you know what I was talking about

(sandbox, shelves, garden).

AND thanks to the darling child who ran off with Mom's camera and took pictures of everything on our property, I now have some lovelies to share with you.

This is our first real attempt at a garden, and we had to clear the grassy area first-

(read "Blisters and Back ache").

We've got the "cold" loving seeds in the ground. You can't tell it from the pictures, but we've got something coming up- can't tell if its weeds or lettuce.

Any way, if we get a fluffy green garden going,

I may add some posts now and then about it,

if it just stays rocky and weedy, - well, you won't be hearing much more.

The End

Rotating Food Storage Shelf?

Check.

Another project we have been working on the last couple of weeks, has been converting some existing shelves in our storage room, into rolling shelves.

I was sharing my frustration about how hard it was

to rotate our wobbly stacks of food storage cans, with my Sweets.

And he went into fixer mode.

It took some figuring out

and lots of patience to get everything clicking and fitted onto the old shelves,

but,

By Golly,

I think we did it!

{Well, actually, my sweetie and his dad did it, I just smiled and put the cans on}

Thank You!

Kids Thoughts about Life

About a box of Life Cereal

"I want some Life!"

"I haven't got any Life!"

"My Life is alllll gone"

"Mom, do you have any Life?"

"I like Life, don't You?"

"Life is soooo good!"

"Do we have any Life?"

"Life is my favorite!"

and when the kids say they would prefer Life for a snack, I always have to muse,

that yes,

"Life is definitely full of surprises!'

Sand Box?

Check.

After being inspired by this,

okay, and maybe the thought of my boys always digging up my flowers-

in an effort to satisfy their desire to dig,

We decided to make our own one of these.

We've been working on this for a couple of weeks and we got the load of sand dumped in our driveway today, so we started to work, filling her up.

When I was a wee sprout, my friend Sarah (G.), had a marvelous sand box that seemed huge, and it had a seat all around it and we could dig to china.

So, when we decided to make our own dig box, I said it had to be like Sarah's was.

Huge, a place to rest our buns, and lots of sand

{the new neighborhood hang out}

B said: "This is the best day EV-ER!"

C said: "I LOVE it!"

J said: "WAAAAAA" (I don't want to get out!)

Now these guys can rest easy

Sigh.