Failure

I am not a very adventurous cook. I usually wait until one of my in-laws tries a new recipe and then I steal it from them, claim it as my own and take it to my side of the family. My family thinks that I am this wonderful cook!! But honestly I am not. I steal!!

So recently I received an offer from the Taste of Home magazine to purchase a one year subscription for only $6.00!! It was a great price so I sent in the money and not long after got my first magazine in the mail. I was determined to try several recipes! I did and several of them were good. I made some green onion and cheddar biscuits that were wonderful!!

This next thing was not a success I am sorry to say. I was trying to find a recipe that would encourage the boys to try something new and to try something that included lots of veggies.

It also had Capers in the recipe and Cale loves Capers. Win Win right??

WRONG!!!

This recipe was terrible!! I ended up throwing the whole thing away. Unfortunately the boys didn't even get to try it because Cale and I didn't like it. I was left with a problem after cooking this because it was supposed to be our dinner.

So we decided to throw some turkey and cheese on the bread and toast it. You cant go wrong with Turkey and Cheese!!

Not every recipe that I try is going to be a success. I know this and I know that I need to keep at it. It is really hard though when something does not turn out like you hope!!

My newest Taste of Home has some wonderful looking desserts! I am hoping to try some of them soon. You cant go wrong with desserts, right???

Lots of Pictures!!

Last week we went to St. Louis for E's annual check up. It was good over all and we spent most of our time in St Louis doing other things besides going to the doctor! St. Louis has a wonderful hands on children's museum called the Magic House. The kids are able to touch everything and they learn alot while they do it!

We started out in a section that is just meant for 1-6 years olds. It was perfect for us. There was this slide for the kids to go down.

This is a puppet center. The kids can put their hands inside the bottom two holes and look through the top hole and they will see.....

that they are actually controlling the puppets. E's hand is inside this toy alligator and he is moving it around.

This car was a favorite for L. He could use the gas pump beside it and fill it up with gas!!

Of course there were tunnels to climb through.

And sections to walk across.

And water to play in! We stayed at this section for a long time!

In the front of the museum there were musical toys that were really fun!

They all made different sounds.

And there was a maze in the front gardens for the kids to go through.

E is standing in this circle and we are trying to get the bubble to go over his head. It was a little challenging.

This was a bubble piano.

The fishing exhibit was one of the most fun things! The kids each had a fishing pole with a magnet on the end of it.

They would try to "catch" one of the fish in the pond.

Once the caught it they could walk to another area of the Magic House and throw their fish back in the water.

Then they would watch it swim or race another fish back to the fishing hole. If you look in this picture of E you will see the little river that the fish swim through. The kids enjoyed watching the fish under their feet!

There was also a mechanic area where L could work on cars. You could use tools to work on the engine or change the tires!! He loved it!

The ice cream cart was a favorite too! Inside it were scoops of ice cream in different colors and the boys would pretend to get different kinds of ice cream and put it on the cones.

This electric ball was alot of fun too! E really wanted to see this but when the time came he chickened out on me! I had to cut his upset face out of the picture!!

This is another bubble project.

The beanstalk was one of the last things that we did. L could not wait to get on this thing. E was determined to do it even though we were not sure that he would be able to.

I think that L climbed up and down it twice in the time that it took E to get up to the top.

But E worked so hard! He was so proud when he made it to the top!

It was a very fun day! I would recommend that anyone go and see this place! There was so much to see and do. We did not get to read all of the history behind this house which is something that Cale and I could have done all day! We love old houses. But it was the home of George Lane Edwards who was the first president of the A.G.Edwards company. He had a wife and two children that lived in this house with him. It also used to have a pool in the back and a golf course next door. There were also secret stairways inside the house! Very fun!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!

Technology and Traveling

We recently took a trip to St. Louis to see a doctor with E. We made it into a little mini vacation for the family and we all had a great time. One of the things that Cale and I were noticing while packing for this trip is all of the technology that we thought we "had" to bring with us. We laughed about the fact that when we were kids we usually packed a pillow, book, and if we were lucky a walkman or a gameboy. Dad would grab the atlas and off we would go.

Well, welcome to 2010 people!!

As we were packing we wanted to make sure and get some pictures of some of the fun stuff that we were planning to do so we put the camera in the van. Of course do not forget the DS so that E will have something to do while L naps in the car. L will want to make sure that all of the DVD's are packed so he can watch something and help take up the time of the 6 hour car ride. Cale will need his XM Radio to listen to Radio shows, comedy channels, talk radio and of course the MLB updates. We didnt want to distract the kids with television in the hotel room while they were trying to sleep at night so we brought along the laptop. (The hotel had free WiFi) It would be something quiet to do while they were sleeping. (We also brought books!) At the last minute our friends offered us their GPS to take so that we could find our way a little easier. I would not want to travel without that ever again!!! It was amazing and will get a post all on its own!!

We brought on this trip a laptop, a XM Satellite Radio, an MP3 player, a GPS, a DS, and the camera. That does not include the DVD player and cordless headphones that we have in the van. That is craziness if I do say so myself. The funny thing is that we used every bit of this stuff! How did people travel without it?? What? Just a pillow and a book??

This is one of the places that we visited on our trip. The Magic House. It was AMAZING!! It was origionally the home of George Lane EDWARDS. The very first president of AG Edwards. Ever heard of that company??

There were special areas just for the kids to climb through tunnels...

And go fishing....

And climb up the beanstalk!!

The boys loved it and I would recommend going if you are ever in the St. Louis area. I will post more pictures from this trip later. Have a great day!!

Sewing Class

I try once a week to get together with some friends and learn how to sew. Some of my friends are much better at it than me and have much more experience!! But it is fun and we get alot of visiting/talking/sharing/encouraging done and maybe a little sewing too! We are all stay-at-home moms of young kids and so this night also serves as a way for us to keep our sanity.

The other night while I was at my sewing class working on this skirt...

that will later be sewn together with this top....

to make this little dress for my niece, Brynlee, Cale and the boys were at home working on another thing all together!!

They made a house!! And these are the little faces that greeted me when I walked through the door!!

They wanted daddy to help them build a house and this is what they came up with!! All week long it has been in our living room and they have played with it every day. E has even colored the "bricks" and "walls" on the inside. They added play food and a mailbox on the side (that Cale even wrote a letter to each of them and put in the mailbox) and even a blanket!

That night Cale also made homemade chocolate chip cookies and gave the boys baths! I was so impressed that I called him "Super DAD" all night! He really is a good daddy and works really hard to do special things with the boys. If they grow up to be just like their daddy that would be wonderful!!

Sewing class not only helps me keep my sanity it also gives Cale a chance to bond with his boys!!

Children and the Arts

Ethan's school has a wonderful program for the kids that encourages parents to expose them to the arts. At the beginning of the year we sign up for different productions that we would like to take our children to. The tickets only cost $2 so it is pretty cheap to go and it is fun!

In December we saw The Best Christmas Pagent Ever and then in March we went to a Winnie the Pooh show. It was only about an hour long and the boys really enjoyed it.
After the show we got to take a picture with Rabbit!

This is L being silly while we are waiting on the show to start.

This is E waiting on the show to start. We were at the show with other families from Providence. I asked E if he knew the little boy that was sitting beside him. He answered by saying, "No, but I think that I have played with him before!" He can be such a shy little guy!

Overall it was really fun and I am anxious to see what shows we will get to see next year! E has been doing the standardized testing at school this week. We have all had to be up at 6am to get him ready and to school on time. It has been quite a chore and we are ready for this week to be over!!

This horrible thing!

Can you see this?? This horrible thing came out of my hair this morning!!! I know it is unbelievable, but it is true! I have a gray hair and I am still in my twenties.

The sad thing is that this is not the first one. And for sure not the last one. What is a girl to do?? Do I leave them and just go gray gracefully?? Do I pull them out?? Do I start coloring??
I know that some women start highlighting their hair when they get grays. I have only added color to my hair one time and I did not care for it. It made my hair dry and stringy looking. And then there is that whole growing out thing. When I highlighted my hair several years ago, I ended up cutting it off SUPER short! I dont think that I will ever do that again.

I guess I will just wait and see how many I get and how fast they come.
It stinks to get older!! :-)

My Dad

My dad has been taking up new hobbies as he gets older. Not that he is old by any means, but you know what I mean. One of these new hobbies is a motorcycle.

He is not crazy on it, except that he does not wear a helmet all of the time, but that is another conversation for another day. He likes to drive around for fun on it though.
He stopped by the house the other day during one of his drives. The boys loved getting on the motorcycle for pictures. ( He won't take them for rides, and I probably would not let him even if he would.)

He will take me for rides though. We dont go very far, just around the block. But it is fun.

Anyway, it was a fun way to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Thanks Dad!!

Easter Weekend Part 2

Well, we started last weekend in a lazy way. I went to Rick's for donuts and Cale and E started on a Lego project. Cale used to do these all of the time when he was a little boy and he wanted to share that with his boys.

The pieces are so tiny that E has to work hard to get them on just right.

This is the completed model. It's a helicopter in case you could not tell.

E had a fun time doing this and is ready to do another one soon!

After the model project we decided to go out to the farm and play. We took the four wheeler to the slate banks and had a picnic. Needless to say, the boys were not sitting down eating for long. They were up playing in the water as soon as this picture was taken. Usually they had a sandwich in one hand and a rock in the other.

We did a little "hiking" or maybe you could just call it roaming around in the woods. But it was fun!

And we took tons of pictures! I am really being kind and not using all of the pictures that we took!

We went to one of several ponds and threw some rocks in the water. The boys were having competitions to see who could throw in the biggest rock. The look on L's face is hilarious as he is trying to throw this rock in the pond. It truly was to big for him!

E is lifting the same rock, that L could not quite throw in the water. He is always camera ready.

We went across the road and threw the mud so Cale could test out the four wheel drive and then we ended up on the Calico rocks so we could take some more pictures!

It is very tough to get L to look at the camera. Thank goodness for digital cameras. We would go through tons of film trying to get a good picture of L. He is such a busy boy!

Me and the boys on the rocks. This was not my favorite place that we visited. I was worried about snakes the whole time!!

The last place that we went to was to the "old house place." There used to be an old house on this part of the farm and you can still see several parts of the house. There are alot of pretty flowers growing around that area and so we took some more pictures. The funny thing is that of all places this is where we found a snake! So we did not stay long once we spotted him! We got back on the four wheeler and headed back to the house.

This is how we rode around the farm. It was a little tight, but it was fun. The boys took turn riding up front with daddy.

And we had to stop by and get some chocolate from Grandmother and taste some cookies that she was making.

That night we went to the Whiteley's for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. It was a busy day, but we had so much fun. We will definately be doing this again soon!