Easter 2011

What a great Easter. I feel almost as exhausted as I do after Christmas for some reason though! This weekend was non-stop! Brad de-constructed our laundry room (more on that to come), Princess Mia had to be cleaned before her holiday, we had shopping to do, bunny cakes to make, eggs to dye and baskets to assemble. (shh!) Egg hunts, family meals and wine to be drank!

 Her royal blow-dry (not sure if that's the front or back!)

The gifts from the Easter Bunny -

 Hailey left the Easter Bunny a gift (some change she found put into a small box) and Anthony left a note asking the Bunny to take a break and enjoy some snacks as a thank you for all the gifts from the past, the present and the future. He also asked what the Bunny's name was.

The Easter Bunny's Reply:
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Dear Anthony, Hailey and Makenna,
Thank you so much for the snack, I really needed it! I hope you don't mind but Princess Mia came out with me a bit tonight to help. Thank you for taking such good care of her. I did promis her that I would tell you she would like more strawberries, they're her favorite.
Anthony - My real name is kind of embarrasing, I'll tell you but you have to keep it a secret. It's Melvin, Everyone just calls me EB.
Hailey - Thank you for the present. It was so nice of you, I am going to spend it on something nice for myself.
Makenna - Hop Hop!

I love you three, see you next year!
EB
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Anthony got a very nice snorkle set for the pool, here he's showing off his mask. I'll just keep this one for the wedding slide show. 

 The bunny cake that the girls and I made:

 Sorry for the smudgey picture, I didn't realize there was a little girl fingerprint on the lense.
This is a close up of the mini cakes we made, aren't they cute!

 The customary family Easter picture.

 Easter egg hunting

Black egg hunting! The black egg is hidden by B-pa and is the hardest to find. Who ever finds it though, gets the money inside, usually $20. This year, B-pa went a little over the top and was saying that no one would ever find it (what's the fun in that!) but he was a good sport and gave Anthony ton's of clue's that made him think and reason it out. Finally it came down to "hot or cold." It was somewhere between Anthony and the girls. No one could find it.  (Do you see Mia in the backround laying on the grass? She had her own outdoor pen she could roam around on the grass in today)

 Finally B-pa had to help.

Luckly, despite the fact that he didn't actually find it, Anthony got the money.

Dinner was great, desert was rich and the kids were in bed by 7:30pm! Brad and I quickly went around and stashed all the candy out of sight and are ready to collapse into bed. Tomorrow is tornado clean up. Hop everyone had a great Easter!

Those naughty leprechauns!

Well, the leprechauns got my kids again. They woke up to a messy house littered with green streamers, green napkins, green toilet water and once again we got tricked with green milk!


*smile*

St.Patricks Day is Anthony's favorite holiday aside from Christmas. It started at my mom's house years ago and has grown thru the years. I get up in the middle of the night and over turn chairs move things into odd or wrong places and "litter" the house with green things. I also put green food coloring in the toilet and claim that it's leprechaun pee. (Remember, he's a 10 year old boy – body functions are funny and green pee is hilarious!)


The best is the milk though. We use to color the whole gallon of milk green but it gross me out to have a green latte in the morning (and for the few days after) so instead my step-dad came up with the best idea. Now, the night before I set out a bowl of dry cereal for the kids with what ever trinkets are from the leprechauns, this year it was balloons. In the bottom of the bowl I put a few drops of food coloring before I add the cereal that way when Anthony pours in the white milk, it "magically" turns green in the bowl. It amazes him every year!


This afternoon as a reward for Anthony helping around the house on his short day of school I told him we could make cookies. Darn if those leprechauns didn't get to those too - (Sorry it's in two parts, my camera got too full so I had to delete some pictures before I could record more)

I got the random idea today that if I took a cold stick of butter cut it in half and scooped out a small bit in the center, I could fill it with a few drops of green food coloring then put it back together and smooth over the cut marks. Worked like a charm!

I Love You More Than The Movie Tron Legacy

My valentines poem from Anthony:
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I love you more tha the movie Tron Legacy
Than our dog Daisy and our Wii

More than our Xbox 360
And Epic Mickey the video game
And being lazy on the couch

I love you more than yummy banana's
And having lots of money
Thank candy and sweets
And a bright and shiny Penny

I love you mroe than television
Than toast
For I love French Fries
of any size
But I love you the most!

This poem is dedicated to my Mom.
________________________________________________________

....cue tears.....

Valentines Day and meal

Happy Valentines Day to all! I hope you and your loved ones take the day to declare your love, maybe thru some pretty flowers or a special meal. (Poetic huh!?!)

Brad and I rarely celebrate valentines as a couple, more often than not, we volunteer to babysit or have others over for dinner. This year is no exception. We have our nephew, my grandmothers, my brother, and our best friend and her daughters all coming for dinner. That’s not to say that we don’t try to make it special. The little girls, particularly Hailey, are really into holiday celebrations right now so I try to make the most of it. My house has little foam hearts all around, some of the picture frames have been adorned with cute valentines wrapping paper and we will be making tomorrow as special as we can, on a budget. I bought some valentines for the girls to make for their family. I also have some construction paper to make place mats for dinner. We picked out some single flower vases for the grandma’s, a dollar picture frame and we will all be helping to make a yummy dinner. Hailey asked to play restaurant for tonight so we will make up menu’s for her to pass out as well.

Mommas Valentines Café Appetizers Sliced Apples with cinnamon peanut butter dip Or Apricot Chipotle cream cheese spread with crackers Main Course House Salad with choice of dressing (Blue cheese, Ranch, Italian, Creamy Cesar) Roasted tomato bread grilled cheese sandwiches Or Whole wheat bread grilled cheese And Tomato soup Or Chicken noodle soup Desert Spice cake with peanut butter marshmallow frosting And/Or Homemade chocolate chip ice cream Drinks Root beer Sprite Chocolate milk with whipped cream Hazelnut Coffee Rose wine White Wine Spritzer

The Apricot Chipotle recipe idea came from the Kraft foods website here. I made it for the Super Bowl and aside from the chicken wings my brother made, it was the only dish completely polished off. I even saw a few finger swipes across the plate to get the last few smears.

1 pkg cream cheese

½ cup apricot preserves (I used sugar free)

1-3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce finely chopped

Smear the softened cream cheese out on a small serving plate or butterfly the brick of cream cheese and lay flat. In a separate bowl combine the preserves with the diced up peppers and some of the adobo sauce. I started out following the Kraft recipe and only used one pepper but decided that it needed more heat to cut the sweet. (I’m a poet and didn’t know it!) So, I added two more, bringing the total to 3 diced peppers and a few teaspoons of the adobo sauce. Spread over the cream cheese and serve with sturdy crackers, like Wheat Thins.

Here's Hailey working on her Tinker Bell Valentines

Here's Dinner: Tomato soup with heart shaped grilled cheese on roasted tomato bread.

 And finally, desert, heart shaped spice cake with peanut butter marshmallo frosting (my hubby's favorite)

I have to say, the roasted tomato bread made the meal. Everyone was sneeking into the kitchen for the scraps left from the heart cookie cutter. Here's the recipe:

2-3 roasted tomatoes

5 roasted garlic bulbs

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup warm water

1/4 cup warm milk

1 egg

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp itallian seasoning

3 3/4 cup flour

2 1/2 tsp yeast

Roast 2-3 tomatoes, sliced, coated in olive oil, at 375 for one hour.

Before Roast:

After roast:

I also like to roast a bulb of garlic if I have it on hand. Just cut the top off, drizzle some oil over it and close it up in foil.

Before roast

 After roast::

Just squeeze the garlic and the bulbs slide right out.

In your bread machine, add the ingreedients in the order listed. I combine the milk and water into a glass measuring cup, add the butter stick then microwave for 1 min, then add it all in. Set your machine to the dough setting and watch the mixture combine. Depending on the type and ripeness of the tomato the dough often needs either more water or more flour.

When the dough cycle is done, turn out onto the counter, kneed out the air and shape into a loaf. Coat your pan with olive oil and set your dough in to rise, covered, again until doubled. Cook at 375 until internal tempature is 180.

Yum!

I hope everyone had a great valentines! I'm ready to pass out!