first known picture of michael phelps

My friend Angie emailed me this. I can always count on her for a funny email.

better than ever cake

I was asked to share the recipe for Scott's birthday cake. I think this recipe is another must have. It's so easy to throw together and gets rave reviews. Also, it keeps for several days in the refrigerator so you don't have to eat it quickly.


Better Than Ever Cake

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 small can sweetened condensed milk
1 small jar caramel topping
1 - 8oz container cool whip
Heath milk chocolate toffee bits

Mix and bake the chocolate cake according to the directions on the box. While still warm poke holes all over the entire cake with a fork then pour the sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping over the top. It will all seep into the holes of the cake and make it ooey and gooey. Put in the refrigerator to chill. When cold, spread the cool whip over the top of the cake and then generously sprinkle with the Heath toffee bits. Store in refrigerator.

*The Heath toffee bits can be found by the chocolate chips at your grocery store or you can buy 3 or 4 Heath candy bars and break them up yourself.

works for me wednesday: booklists

I used to walk into the library with my kids and just pick books at random, hoping to stumble upon great stories. It can be overwhelming looking at all of those shelves of books and not knowing which ones to choose. When I mentioned this to a friend once she recommended purchasing Honey For A Child's Heart. It's a book full of lists of good, quality books for ages 0 - 12. It has made the library become one of our favorites places and we have discovered many, many great books using this resource.

Our study of American History is literature based and I use Turning Back the Pages of Time as a supplement to it. This booklet is also a guide to which books to get from the library. I highly recommend it, even if you are not 'studying' American History!

Another thing that is wonderful about having these booklists is that it makes it so easily to utilize the library's online catalog. We are so lucky to have an amazing interlibrary loan system here. It is rare when I am not able to find a book. During the school year I go online, request the books we want to borrow and the majority of them are ready in a big pile for me to pick up and check out a few days later. The kids still get excited to go through the stack of books every week! It's instilling a love of reading and making learning fun....one of my major goals of homeschooling!

For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas visit Rock In My Dryer!

frozen key lime pie

I make this frozen treat once every summer. The kids think it is too 'limey' so Scott and I get the whole thing to ourselves and we are happy to enjoy every slice!

FOR THE CRUST
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (10 crackers)
1/4 cup sugar
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

FOR THE FILLING
6 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp grated lime zest
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (4 to 5 limes)

FOR THE TOPPING
1 cup (1/2 pint) cold heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Thin lime wedges

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For the crust, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter in a bowl. Press into a 9-inch pie pan, making sure the sides and the bottom are an even thickness. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

For the filling, combine the egg yolks with 1/2 cup of the lime juice in a double broiler. Whisk constantly over medium heat until the mixture reaches 140 degrees. Remove from heat and allow to cool back to room temperature. Beat egg yolk mixture and sugar on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for 5 minutes, until somewhat thick. With the mixer on medium speed, add the remaining 1/4 cup lime juice, sweetened condensed milk and lime zest. Pour into the baked pie shell and freeze.

For the topping, beat the heavy cream on high speed with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until firm. Spoon or pipe decoratively onto the pie and decorate with lime wedges. Freeze for several hours or overnight.

This pie will last for months in the freezer.

Recipe source: Barefoot Contessa Family Style

happy birthday daddy

happy birthday scott

I spent way too much time playing around at YearbookYourself.com this morning! Check out what Scott and I look like in the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's -



Hope you have a great birthday today Scott! I love you and think we make a pretty good-looking couple, no matter the decade! :)

knee boarding

We went out on the lake for a couple of hours this afternoon to try out this new toy. Thomas has been wanting to learn how to knee board and he did great on his first try. Elle gave it a go and also did well. They are looking forward to learning how to do a few tricks.


Here's Ava in her little storage room hangout, watching Elmo on the personal DVD player and enjoying a snack of goldfish and gummy bears. This is where she takes all of her naps with a little fan blowing on her to keep her cool and the waves rocking her to sleep. She's got it made!

monarch butterflies

About two weeks ago my friend Tracy dropped off two caterpillars and some milkweed so that we could watch them turn into monarch butterflies. They went into their chrysalis within a couple of days. We didn't get to see that part but it was amazing to watch the transformation of them inside!

We've been keeping them on the kitchen counter so that we could easily notice changes. This morning while I was making breakfast I saw that the chrysalis was completely clear and you could see the perfect detail of the wings. An hour or so later the first one emerged. If you click on the picture above you can see the one still inside the chrysalis better.

It is so neat to see their wings get bigger and bigger.

Another hour or so later the second one emerged and we saw the whole thing!

Ava kept saying, 'Butterfly, flap wings!'

After a couple of hours we set them free. One flew away but the other one is still sitting on the mum on the table and we keep checking on it. What an awesome miracle to get to witness!

fun with balloons

A couple of years ago we had a coworker of Scott's over for dinner with his wife. They lived in Florida and were so nice. He surprised our kids by bringing a balloon kit and making them all kinds of different balloon animals, swords and hats. They loved it! A couple of weeks later Thomas and Elle received their very own balloon kit from them in the mail. They played with it for awhile and I helped them make a few things but then we put it away in the closet. I ran across it last week so I gave it to Thomas to play with.

He spent the majority of the afternoon playing with it! It took some time but he figured out how to tie the balloons and then he just followed the instructions in the book to make fish, dogs and hummingbirds. Our neighbor, Mackayla, came over and played with it for awhile too. She made him that cool hat....her own design. :)

weekend update

• Temps were in the upper 80's on both Saturday and Sunday! Hours spent on the lake this weekend - 12!
  
• I finally did some serious tubing. I tubed on Saturday and am still feeling it today. But it was worth the pain!
  

• We met up with some friends for awhile yesterday. Thomas and Elle were so excited to get to swim with Jack and Eden.

• I won't be taking calls for awhile on my cellular number. I dropped it in the lake on Saturday and it took 5 minutes to find it. Elle is now the proud new owner of the pink phone.

• I thought this picture deserved a post of it's own but just couldn't think of the perfect title. I was thinking along the lines of...'Who Needs a Bee Suit?' or 'How Real Men Kill Bees'. He's lucky this stuff killed on contact because there were a few that came after him that he sprayed in mid air. We haven't saw any flying out of the hole anymore though so I think we finally got them this time!
  

a peachy day

Today I had 2 boxes of peaches that were ripe and ready to be preserved. I canned 4 quarts of peach halves in a light syrup, put away a big bag of frozen peach slices for smoothies, made 2 frozen Peach Pie fillings, canned 8 half pints of Peach Pit Jelly, and baked a Peach Crisp for dessert. Now I am exhausted!

The Peach Pit Jelly was a recipe in an old church cookbook that I've been wanting to try for a long time. I've been saving peach pits in a ziplock bag in the freezer for awhile now so I had plenty to give it a try. It was really cool to get 8 pints of jelly out of something that usually just gets thrown out.....and it tastes delicious! Basically all you do is put around 5 dozen peach pits in a pan, cover with water and boil for 30 minutes. The water turns a pinkish color as it boils. You then strain the pits from the juice and make jelly like you normally would with pectin and sugar. If you are doing any canning with peaches this summer you really should try this recipe or at least save the peach pits and try it when you have enough! :) Here is the actual recipe -

Peach Pit Jelly
Place 4 - 5 dozen peach pits into a large saucepan. Cover with 6 - 7 cups water. Bring to a boil and simmer 20 - 30 minutes. Drain the peach pits into a colander, saving the liquid. Check to eliminate any particles of peach pits in the juice. Measure the liquid, and add water if necessary, to equal 5 cups juice. Put the 5 cups juice into a 6 - 8 quart saucepan. Stir in a packet of Sure Jell fruit pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. At once, stir in 7 cups sugar. Stir and bring to a full rolling boil (a boil that cannot be stirred down) and boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off foam with metal spoon. Immediately ladle into jars and seal.

movie recommendations needed

Our Netflix queue is getting low but I have no idea which movies to add to it. Do you have any recommendations? Nothing too scary please! :) A few we've watched recently that we liked were 21, Breach and A Walk to Remember. I enjoyed that last one a little more than Scott did!

puppy chow

I'm sure most of you already have this recipe but I'm posting it just in case you don't. It's one everyone should have in their recipe binder...it's quick and it's peanut butter and chocolate...need I say more?!

Puppy Chow
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
9 cups corn Chex cereal (you could also use Krispix cereal)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

In a microwavable bowl, mix chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Heat until melted and smooth, stirring every 30 seconds. Add vanilla.

Measure cereal into a large bowl. Pour chocolate mixture over cereal and stir to coat evenly. Place chocolate coated cereal in a large bag, a paper grocery bag works great. Add powdered sugar, roll down top of bag and shake until well coated. Store in an airtight container.

miss smartypants

kit kittredge

Elle and I went to see this movie in the theater this afternoon and she LOVED it!

2 years

I knew it was getting close to the 2 year mark since I started this blog so I checked it today and it happened to be exactly a year today! Pretty cool! It's fun to be able to look back and have so many great memories documented.

I haven't been posting much lately because we are just busy enjoying these last weeks of summer before school starts. I should've updated to at least let you know that we weren't stung by tons of wasps after my last post! (Oh, and actually they are yellow jacket bees. After Scott saw them he said that they aren't wasps.) Anyway, Scott sprayed an entire can of wasp and hornet killer down the hole that they are flying out of. It foamed up and we thought we'd killed them for sure but unfortunately they are still taking up residence there. I'm going to pick up another can of the spray in town and Scott is going to give it another try.

I've started to harvest a few things out of my little garden. Cherry tomatoes and a couple of jalapeno peppers so far. Bell peppers are growing and my Romas and Early Girl tomatoes seem to be doing well too.

I'm starting to plan for the upcoming school year. Our new math books have arrived and more is on the way. We are planning to start after Labor Day. Elle is ready and wants to start right away, Thomas thinks that the day after Labor Day is too soon. :)

Scott started at his new job a few weeks ago and is enjoying the challenge. I am loving having him home more.

That's a quick update of a few things that have been happening around here lately. :)

wasps are evil

I was stung by a wasp on my ankle 10 days ago in the evening. I could not believe the pain. I felt really guilty when I remembered telling Elle 'Oh, it can't hurt THAT bad!' when she was still crying 30 minutes after she was stung a month or so ago. She remembered too and said, 'See Mom, I told you it hurts BAD!' Gulp. Anyway, I was up most of the night keeping it iced just so I could bear it. I tried the baking soda/vinegar remedy but it was pointless. Ice was the only thing that worked.

Well, it just so happens that we have a ground wasp nest right at the corner of one of the timber steps that we go up and down constantly. I happened to see 4 wasps fly out of the little hole yesterday and made a mental note of exactly where it was as I went running and screaming away with Ava in my arms. I've been doing some research on how to get rid of them and then set out today to find a powdered insecticide since that seems to be the thing to use. Unfortunately I was only able to find a liquid one. So tonight, after all of the wasps are asleep and dreaming their evil little dreams of stinging us Scott and I are going to get dressed up like it's wintertime and go out there and take care of 'em. Pray for us! :)

As we were driving around trying to find the right insecticide this afternoon Elle and Thomas were asking how we were going to kill them so I explained it to them. Elle asked if there was still a chance that Scott and I could get stung and I said that there is but that we would have our skin completely covered so hopefully not. Then she asked why we would take the chance. I told her that I am hoping to prevent her from getting stung again, along with Thomas and Ava. Then she said, 'You mean, you'd rather get stung again than have one of us get stung?' in a shocked voice. I said, 'Of course!' To that she just said, 'Wow! I guess you must really love us a lot.' :) I sure do!

Edit: When Elle saw this post she said that picture is 'freaking her out'.

ava at breakfast

This morning while I watched Ava eat her breakfast I decided that she would make a perfect clown for Halloween this fall. All she needs is a red nose, she's already got the hair! (She would've smiled for the picture but her mouth is full of Chex cereal.)

another shopping adventure

Last week while my sister was here we decided to drive to the cities for the day and do some shopping at the Mall of America. I think I was only at that mall a few times the whole time we lived in the cities but now it has become the place we go every time we make it down there!

We gave Thomas his birthday money early to spend at the mall. Most of it got spent at the Lego store. He loves that place. The other part of his present was to ride rides at the amusement park inside the mall.

He really liked the Log Chute and even talked Elle into going on it with him once. I was too busy chasing Ava around to get a picture of that.

Elle screamed the whole time she was on this ride. She must have liked it though since she went on it twice!

I decided that this was the last all day shopping trip that I want to take with Ava until she is much, much older! She was impossible that day. My sister couldn't figure out how I had shopped with all 3 kids by myself earlier this spring. Me either! She still refused the stroller even though we brought it along. I ended up taking it back out to the vehicle and had to change out of my cute shoes and put on tennis shoes instead so that I could keep up with her. :) The picture above is when she finally crashed for awhile on a bench. It was the best part of the day!

I found this really cute dress and a new bag at my favorite store. The bag looks especially cute with a scarf tied around one of the handles. I was going back and forth between two different bags and ended up deciding on the one that was more practical, meaning that there is room for diapers, wet wipes, a snack for the kids and Puppy. :)

Elle was so excited to see that they are building an American Girl store inside the Mall of America! She is hoping that it is open by her birthday in November.

sisters

My sister flew back to Nebraska yesterday. We had such a great time. I miss you already Nicole!

tommy turns 9

Thomas celebrated his 9th birthday on Friday. He had a fun day and loved all of the calls, cards and comments on his blog that he got from friends and family. He ran to the phone every time it rang and always got a big smile on his face when it was someone calling him to wish him a Happy Birthday.

It's a tradition in our house that the birthday kid gets to choose all of the meals for the day. Thomas started planning early in the week and his menu for the day included not just the meals but also an afternoon snack of Puppy Chow and a can of Pepsi with dinner. :)

We went to see Journey to the Center of the Earth and he thought it was pretty cool. Then we came home and made his all time favorite meal of Tater Tot casserole, ate a little Dirt Cake, and opened presents.