The Birthday Party

Miranda's 11th Brithday will occur on July 17th but we will be gone by then. So that she could celebrate with her friends we had an early birthday party at the end of May. She chose to go to Bounce U. They had a great time.

Miranda and Sarah Earnshaw

What, are you pooped already?

Katie Meadows

Come on, I'll fightcha

Katie Meadows

Lauren Steinert

Miranda Howell

Sarah Earnshaw

Maddison Jacyzyc

Homemade even, on my last day to prepare for the movers.

Maddie's Chocolate Kiss

Lovely Lauren

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea.

Random this-is-all-I-had-time-for's

So, because I am moving, and because I have misplaced my camera, I am posting some random images that I like. Most are from
http://givingmirth.blogspot.com/

See you in NC.

This is so my cat, Gadget, but she mashes boobs, not noses.

Homeless Robot

This last one is from Maddie's blog, a sweet and talanted 14 year old who, after moving half way across the country a year ago and making new friends, has recently learned that she and her 3 sisters must do so again. I'm sorry Maddie.

I L O V E S P R I N G ! ! !

(I hate spring...Aiah, me itchin' eyes)



But you all know that spring is here. My new and latest love is Chicago. I didn't see much but it was a nice drive along the shore line and some great shopping and pizza in a fun but snooty mall...(at least till we had to drag the Daddy (Richard) out of the American Girl store. You'd think he was the one who wanted the doll)

I went to see my Sandra and her family over the weekend. It was so nice. I think she enjoyed it too....even if I did wreck her diet. I got to make carmel popcorn for her two littlest girls and I made baked french toast for a breakfast and a taco ring bake for one dinner. She said she hates to cook but then I made stuff that wasn't on Joni's weekly diet rules. Sorry Joni. I also took the family out to dinner and they chose Italian. We also went to the mall and got 3 of the girlie's hair cut, the Young Women's General Conference, stayed up too late and gabbed, and took a trip into the city. We drove along the shore line, shopped at the mall, got some really good Chicago pizza, bought too much chocolate at the Lindt store (they kept telling me I could get 13 more for just $.50 more and then a bar with the buy 3 get one and another one with the card.....). I ended up with twice the chocolate I intended, but hey, we will eat it if forced. I already know I should have gotten more raspberry ones. We sampled some weird gel soaps and large bath balls at Lush and then Sandra got a makeover in the makeup chair at Macy's, I think we were, and Richard schmoozed the lady at the fragrance counter for some samples. He is good. On the way out of town we drove past the bean, the large mirrored.....jelly bean landmark. I so enjoyed getting to know her girls and spending time with everyone. I would love to do it again and take Miranda this time. Maybe next year.

As for our move, we are gearing up for projects at both houses. At the Greensboro house we need a gas line, a short water line, paint, and a dog run, as well as a stove purchase and delivery. The current house just needs paint and some caulk repair. I tried to do it myself, cleaning the area really well and drying thoroughly but a month later it looked moth eaten so I don't know what I did wrong. If anyone is a tub caulking expert, let me know any tips or secrets you have. I need to dive back into the sorting and shedding process as well. Joy. No really.

Da Projects

Ok, now that my big dig is somewhat accomplished (as in excavating the storage unit and basement and closets and taking everything to the ward recycling event including all my baby gear (bittersweet, almost as much bitter as sweet) (that was soooo hard, but I have known it was coming for a few years now)) I have a little time to catch up the blog.

I wanted to document a couple of projects Miranda and I had done over the past couple of months. The first one was a school project, the Pizza book report.

We started with a salt dough crust and tomato paste.

Then we rolled salt dough cheese shreds.

Then we made the peperoni and dotted it with brown marker.

Here is the finished project. She laid the writing slices on top for the report portion. I dried it in a warm oven (sans the report). It was the most fun of the projects she has come home with.

The second one was cupcake pops from the Bakerella blog. These were time consuming but a lot of fun. I wanted a project Miranda and I could do together. When she bakes with me she likes to break the eggs and then wander off, coming back when yummy smells start coming from the oven. She loves art so I thought this would combine two of our favorites and inspire her creative side. Other than some gravity issues with too large pops and wet icing we both had a good time. I am realizing that the last few precious dregs of childhood are slipping quickly out of the cup and I want to make fun memories for her while she still enjoys spending time with mom. That door is already closing.

You start by baking a cake. We enhanced a cake mix with the cake mix doctor cookbook.

Once it is baked, you crumble the whole thing into a large bowl.

I added a cream cheese frosting. You can used the canned stuff but I made fresh. Tastes a whole lot better. Start by adding some and then some more till you get a play dough consistency. (loose play dough).

Then roll them out into balls. You can also shape them in little hors'dvors cutters but we went simple. The Bakerella website has a lot of great examples of what you can do.

Don't make them too big or they fall off the stick.

I melted two colors of candy melts. You dip the bottom half then add the stick dipped in a little of the melt. When that is dry you dip the top half. It doesn't take long for the "chocolate" to set up

Next decorate to your little heart out. We used colored sugars and sprinkles as well as squeezie frosting tubes. We zig zagged and polka dotted, sprinkled and swirled.

We set them in some floral foam which I have since spray painted purple. (Purple, of course purple, you wondered????)

It was a really fun project that I recommend as a great way to spend an afternoon with your kids. Even little ones.

Some other recent family fun, other than a movie, was a trip up to Wilkes Barre, about an hour and a half, to a Hockey Game. We all had fun, but I didn't realize that the score horn would be quite so loud. Miranda is sensitive to loud noises anyway and the first one caught us off guard and upset her. I think one of Miranda's very first unpleasant experiences in life was a loud noise. A few weeks before delivery they were doing fetal stress tests and she was sleeping peacefully. But they decided they wanted to see more variance on her heart rate so they woke her up with a loud buzz. It was the strangest sensation I experienced the whole pregnancy with 4 little limbs flying in 4 directions as she startled. As a baby she always used to cry if I blew my nose.

But I digress. The hockey game was fun and the home team won. Like most kids, she liked the zamboni and it was dollar hot dog night. We want to hit one more and then we will head for some Iron Pigs games, our local ball team, in the new ball park, opened last year. Pigs and corn, a great night. The Aw Shucks booth (zippy spiced corn on the cob) is our favorite booth, and the games are cheap. We like baseball.

This is one of Miranda with her new scooter. It is a zippy little thing. She crashed it once before realizing that using one foot as a brake can throw off your balance.

And this is a sleepy Rusty stretched out between my shoes. And my apologies to Joni, but in my defense, there were lots more pictures of my child. ;)

And if I have the dog I have to have the cat. This is Gadget. Aint she cute?

Spring is blowing a nice warm breeze today, 68 degrees. Miranda's skorts and scooter are coming out. We love spring. And now that we are going to North Carolina, I hereby bequeath my snow shovel(s) to the northern most (or highest elevation) of my relatives. So let me know who you are. Neener neener.