Randoms

I recently discovered the lovely world of meringues.  I will admit that when I was younger, the thought of whipped eggs frightened me and I refused to eat it.  The Lemon pie always called to me, but that pesky meringue always got in the way.  So when Grandpa R. would sneak into the pie room at Thanksgiving and eat all the meringue pie, I was eternally grateful. (Is that lemon meringue pie? That doesn't look like lemon meringue pie!)- that was for Mom and sisters ;)

BUT... when I made that amazing frosting the other day I tasted it when it was just the sugar and egg whites and was ever so delighted by what I found.  I decided to make meringue cookies, and everyone told me how they were very difficult to make.  Maybe I'm just awesome, or it was beginners luck- or perhaps its my super awesome mixer with a timer that did it- but I made them and they were a huge success.  Brittle at first bite, melty and chewy and oh so delicious.  They aren't that bad for you comparably- gluten free and I loaded these puppies up with cocoa powder and crushed dark chocolate.  The kids LOVED them!

 I walked in on Aleah shaking her crib.  It's old and falling apart and she had shaken it so much that it was starting to lean.  So needless to say we said adios to that crib and got out the toddler bed.  She has been really good about it!  It helps that she can't open the door, and we always find her passed out next to her toys and such.  So naturally, she needed a new cozy.  Here's what I came up with:

 I wish I had taken a closer picture- the tree branch is painted on with fabric paint and then there are cherry blossoms and leaves.  It's cuter in real life- promise.  The blossoms are white fleece and I sewed them on with red embroidery thread.  There are a couple green fleece leaves as well.  She loves it:

 Another random, she FINALLY likes to swing

 When we were at Legoland, the caricaturists did pictures of the people as legos.  I'm cheap and didn't want to pay the $$, and so I gave it a try.  The kids love em!
                                                                JoJo Ninjago!

                           Thurston as a Castle Crasher Lego holding his Ninja Cat (that's a whole other story!!) :)

  There is one of Aleah and a friends son.  I will post those later when I upload them.

4th of July festivities

It wouldn't be a celebration with out some form of cake, right?  I found THIS recipe and had to try it.  I just made a french vanilla cake mix (spiked it with raspberry extract) though.

 I will tell you that it took a lot longer than your typical frosting, but it was totally worth it!!  Preston, the dude who scrapes off frosting, when gave him a small sample on a cupcake, requested more.  NOTE:  If you ever do this, make sure you follow the recipe and times exactly or it will not set up.
  I refrigerated the (2) that were left over from the night before and they were even yummier the next day.  The icing was harder and cold, but melted in your mouth.  Oh my, just typing this I might need to make somemore!!  The cute little strawberries are the little nubbins left over after I made some jam (from my garden) :)

 The snack spread.  The steak and chicken are absent at this point, but we were kept busy. :)

 And yes, those ARE patriotic jello jiggler stars....

 Our pool is a little less cooler than the Thomson cousins real pool we were at 2 days prior, but it got the job done.

    Happy baby girl!

 I told him to act sexy

 We did our little fireworks in the cul de sac, nothing too fancy.  We didn't want to set anything on fire so we set the bottle rockets off upside down in a jug of water.  It was entertaining.  Last year we had sand castles and jell-o molds to blow up, we missed those this year.

 Be grateful.  I think this is the one time all of their shorts were ABOVE their cracks.  Usually there was a whole roll of white pookies staring right back at cha.

   Zach training for Baywatch

It was fun and low key with lots of yummy food and good friends.  That's what it is all about. 

Pretty Little Flowers

This year was wet and cooler than most.  It almost felt like March weather finally appeared by the end of May.  At the time I was kinda annoyed, but I have to say that because of that weather, we grew an amazing amount of lettuce, strawberries AND this year my wild flowers finally took.  I'm in love.  I feel I need to give some credit to my awesome boots.  They have made working in the garden fun, and at a steal of $6 on clearance at Target- you can't beat it!

 See?  I just love Poppy's