Stepping Stones

(from my personal archives September 2008)  

We made these babies at the reunion- and they were fun, easy and cheap.

Cement (10 bones) + craft store floral pebbles (two fity) + Costa Vida tin (twenty pennies) = less than 15 bucks (buy more tins and you'll have enough cement to make twenty. You could make one for every grandma, uncle and teacher for less than a buck a piece. The kids loved it and the parents had a memory to take home (okay, so they will probably just throw it in the dirt- but they liked it too).


(note: you take the foil off- this picture was taken while drying, but trust me, they turned out cute)

Sam and Kaori Part One

Sam and Kaori's wedding weekend was a blast... and it was especially fun to be their photographer (a first for me). It will most likely be sometime next week that I get to posting the reception photos. Congrats Kaori and Sam- you are a beautiful couple with beautiful families. What a beautiful day.

Back to school with Olivia

My kids gut laugh every time we read, "Olivia forms a band." They can't get over the ginormous lips Olivia sports when she applies some make-up for a night out. When I saw these wax lips in the store... I could not resist throwing a back to school dinner celebration featuring Olivia. We had black spaghetti with read sauce, homemade Macaroni Grill bread (Dylan's fav), homemade magnolia bakery banana pudding (our new family favorite), played Mad Libs, talked about Dylan's first day in second grade... and read our funniest book of course. We had a great time... even Ruby cakes.

Is anyone else totally frustrated with blogger right now? any tips on lining up photos would be warmly welcomed.

Dylan's Doodles

When Dylan was three we made (what I consider) the cutest shirts ever known to man. We were remembering them this past week and now I'm itching to make some more. Originally we made them as Christmas presents for all the fam and then we made one for welcoming baby Ellie, and another made for his first day of preschool. I love that I still see grandma's wearing them.

My parents used to frame my artwork- and I felt so dang important. My dad even made shirts with a smiley face I had drawn and then wrote below it : Start your day with a smile and then get it over with. I felt famous.

Such simple steps to helping my kids feel famous:

1. have them doodle a drawing.

2. refine in illustrator by tracing the scanned image. add type if wanted.

3. print on iron-on paper and adhere to shirt. of course you can get fancy and have it silk screened.

4. wear the shirt everywhere you go for years to come and rave about your little artist.

Put to good use

(from my personal archives fall 2008)

Do you have projects coming out of your ears? We turned Dylan's masterpiece's into thank you cards. I think I will keep this up- they turned out too fun.

So fun...

...to be featured on this fabulous site! Hip Hip Hooray is a blog I have been following- you should too!

Zuchinni Bread

What's better than having your own garden? Easy: having your own garden that you did little work to and still enjoy the benefits. Sure, I was having a baby while my husband was busy building the beds, prepping the soil and planting the seeds- but boy am I lucky to enjoy the fruits of his labor. I like his fruits. I have especially loved having oodles of zuchinni around to make this divine bread.... a perfect Sunday snack:

Zuchinni Bread
(found on allrecipes.com)

 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chocolate chips or walnuts

Directions

1. Grease and flour/sugar two 8 x 4 inch pans (or a bundt pan- thanks to my sister-in-law for this fabulous idea). Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl (I felt lazy I didn't sift and it work out just peachy). 
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted (ahem, non-sifted) ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and chips until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.