If you're local...

(Sorry about the photo -- only a portion of it would load.)

You should get yourself to the Museum of Art for the Walter Wick exhibit. He is the author of the the "I Spy" books.

We went the other night for FHE and had a great time. I, of course, forgot my camera, so I don't have any photos, but rest assured fun was had by all! (I am such a bad blogger.)

The exhibit isn't too big so you could walk through it quite quickly but all of the fun is had in finding all of the hidden objects. We could have stayed for quite some time longer, but one of my monkeys was being a bit rambunctious. (I don't want to name names, but let's just say it started with "Isa" and ended with "bella.") :)

The exhibit is there until August 1st so we plan to return a few times this summer. You can read more about the museum hours and this AMAZING artist here.

More bad luck.

So remember my post about my car?

Well, as you may remember, I discovered the screw in my tire as the hubs was heading to Home Depot. What I left out was the reason he was going to Home Depot. I am now here to explain.

You see my bad luck went beyond my car that day. We discovered that the roof covering our back patio had sunk on one side by about six inches. Yep, that's right. Sunk six inches.


Can you see the sagging roof line?
So, he was off to Home Depot to get some supplies to fix the patio cover.


He discovered as he started digging up the post to find out WHY it was sinking, that in the meantime, the sinking post had cut through the sprinkler wiring and thus the sprinklers weren't working.

Once he rented a post jack or post shore (thanks Peter) and jacked the roof back up into place you can see how far that post had sunk.
Ahhh....good times.
Here is the disaster that was covering our patio as well as a ladder that was helping to keep the roof up while we figured out how to solve the problem.

Needless to say it is now fixed. He had to dig a bigger hole, pour some new concrete, and fix the sprinkling wiring, and some other stuff...... but at least it's fixed.

The joys of home ownership! (At least it wasn't the roof on our house --sorry Steph!)

Fairy Tea Party

Last weekend Isabella and I were lucky enough to be able to go the Fairy Tea Party at the library. My good friend Heidi invited us to join her and her daughter and we loved every minute of it.
The Fairy King is declaring the Fairy Tea party officially started.
(He was such a good sport. He came in with an entire procession of fairies, trumpeters, and ballerinas.)

Heidi and Lily. Lily was a Woodland Fairy this year. (Check out her very cute earrings -- I love them!!!)
Here we are sporting our tiaras that were waiting for everyone at their place on the table. They also gave everyone a fairy wand.
She loved the ballerinas.
The official photo op. Isabella had such a good time. Check out some of these elaborate fairy wings.

Here is my sweet little fairy!

We had such a fun time. I would have loved to do something like this as a child. The room was decked out with lights and formal tables. It was a great mommy/daughter date. I encourage anyone who can, to try and go next year. I hear tickets go really fast and are a bit difficult to get ahold of, but we are definitely going to try and go again next year.

Thanks again Heidi!!!

LDS Stimulus Package

I'm sure some of you may have seen this, but if not, I thought I was a great idea to pass on.

Someone started an email, (not anyone officially from the church) and my mom sent it to me.

Basically, the idea is this...

If only 1/3 of all church members paid an extra 5 dol lars this month (just once) along with their tithing and fast offering , by putting 1 dollar into each of the 5 "extra" areas of the tithing slip t his week, then the church would get about 4 million dollars into the general missionary fund, 4 million for the Book of Mormon fund, 4 million for the Humanitarian fun, 4 million for temple construct ion and 4 mil for the perpetual education fund to start off the new year!

I thought this was a great idea and I think blogs are a great way to pass information on. So, if you are so inclined, think about donating an additional $5 this month and hopefully our small part will make a big difference.

Luck o' the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

The wee leprechauns visited and colored our milk green and later our pancakes were green.

Was the luck o' the Irish with you?

It wasn't with me yesterday.

On my way to the airport yesterday a large truck with an empty flatbed trailer came screaming onto the ramp I was entering from an adjoining ramp. As he did this stuff went flying off of his flat bed. A rather large rock smacked my windshield pretty hard so I backed off a little and a few more hit my window.

I couldn't see the chip in my window, but I could see a crack about an inch long.

Until I got home.

Then I saw it. A large chip and crack that has continued to grow straight up my windshield.
I was rather annoyed. (Look hard and you can see the vertical crack.)

Then, as me hubby was heading out to Home Depot in the van, I noticed that one of the back tires was a little low. So I looked closer and saw a nail in the tire. Then I checked the other back tire and saw a large screw in that tire. So, off to Costco he went to have them check and repair the tires.


A few hours later, one new tire and 6 screws later,.....my car is back.
That's right. There was a nail in one tire, four screws in another, and one additional screw in one of the front tires. Luckily, they were able to plug two of the tires, but one was unable to be saved.

Grrrrr. I'm thinking some of these came from the truck that threw rocks at my windshield.
Why do the naughty leprechauns hate me so? I'm little. I won't steal their gold.
(Well, I might now. Let me know if you find it.)

Hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day and your luck was a little better than mine.

Truth

A truer sentiment has never been expressed.

hee hee!

Thanks to his auntie for the shirt!

Food Fun

Today we made...

Peanut Butter Play Dough

You need:
1 c. Peanut Butter
2 Tbs. Honey
2/3 - 1 c. Powdered Milk


The honey was a little difficult to squeeze.

Mix together the honey and peanut butter with a wooden spoon.

Add 2/3 c. of the milk and stir. Add more milk to reach desired consistency.

I taped wax paper to the table to make clean up easier.


Luckily, it tasted pretty good.






Peanut Butter: $2.50
Honey: $2.50
Powdered Milk: $10.00

Edible QUIET playtime: Priceless

Cinnamon Muffins

Here is the recipe for the Cinnamon Muffins I posted about a few days ago.

It is from this cookbook: "Betty Crocker: Kids Cook!"
We checked it out from the Provo City Library.

Ingredients:
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 egg
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 c. (1 stick) melted butter


MAKES 12 muffins

*Heat oven to 350'. Spray just the bottoms of each cup in the muffin pan with cooking spray.

*Put the first 1/2 c. sugar, the milk, and oil in a medium bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until mixed. Add the egg and beat with a fork until mixed.

*Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg to sugar mixture. Stir just until flour is wet (the batter should still be a little lumpy; you don't want it to be smooth.) Spoon batter into muffin cups until 2/3 full.

*Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

*While muffins are baking, mix the second 1/2 c. sugar and the cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.

*Microwave butter on high for 30 to 45 seconds until melted. Let cool a few minutes.

*Once muffins are done put muffins on cooling rack to cool for 5 minutes.

*Roll muffins in melted butter and then in the cinnamon-sugar to coat.

Serve warm

A FEW NOTES:
The instructions are very kid-friendly (using a wooden spoon and fork to mix the ingredients), but you could obviously get out your hand mixer. I found that the fork and spoon didn't quite mix the egg in...almost, but not quite.
Also, I don't think I would roll them in butter again. The muffins soaked up a bit too much of the butter. The flavor of the muffin is good enough that I don't think they need cinnamon-sugar all over them. I think I would brush on the butter and then dip in the sugar. But, try it either way.


There you go Heidi. There are your cinnamon muffins! Let me know what you think.

Shoe sale...

Puddle Jumper Shoes

If you haven't ever seen this company's shoes, you ought to!!!

And, as a bonus, they have some REALLY CUTE ones ON SALE right now.

I didn't check any of the big sizes, but there were several to choose from for little guys. So, check it out.

These cuties here were 10 buckaroos.

They are all leather and have flexible soles. They are great shoes for new walkers and ....any child really.

Plus, you should see the new boots they have for girls. DELICIOUS!!!!! I haven't stopped drooling and dreaming yet. (I think that will be my new phrase...drooling and dreaming.) :)

Check them out here.

Pay It Forward!

Here's the idea. Be one of the first 3 people to leave a comment on my blog and you will be the lucky recipient of a handmade gift from me some time this year. When your receive your gift will be a surprise! Now here is the catch, you have to post the same thing on your blog and do the same for 3 lucky people. GOOD LUCK! This is going to be fun!

I saw this on my friend Heidi's blog and I was the first one to comment, so I'm looking forward to getting my goodie!!

So be sure to comment and I will send the first 3 a little handmade gift. Yeah!

Cooking...

I was inspired by my friend Robyn to have my kids start learning to cook. I couldn't find the cookbook she suggested here, but I did find a kid's cookbook at the library so we thought we'd give it a try.He chose Cinnamon Muffins. YUM!

We had a great time.

He was a little tentative with the hot oven.

It took quite awhile, but it was a great process.

They were delicious!
He did a great job and we had a lot of fun -- he already has a few more recipes picked out and is looking forward to the scout cooking requirement.

Thanks for the inspiration Robyn!

It's official...

We are now on the scouting trail!

He earned his Bobcat (rrraaaaarrrrr!!) and could not be more excited to continue doing all of the fun activities in his book!
Yeehaw for scouts!