Sneek Peek

This is my sister-in-law Hailey (and her darling family). She is creative, organized, stunning, patient and kind. I love her. So happy to take pictures for her on this perfectly beautiful day.

Moon Cake

My mom made this when I was little and then I made it for my preschool class I taught in high school. I then I made it yesterday, for a space themed playgroup. I ate twice as much as all the kids combined. yes.

Ingredients

1 cup water
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla or chocolate pudding mix
3 cups milk
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1/4 cup chocolate syrup (I did without)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and lightly grease a jelly roll pan.
2. In a large saucepan, bring water and margarine to a boil. Remove from heat, and mix in flour with electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Spread evenly in prepared pan .
3. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes. Set aside to cool completely
4. In large bowl, combine pudding mix, milk and cream cheese. Mix with electric mixer until smooth. Spread evenly over cooled crust. Top with whipped topping and drizzle with chocolate syrup. Chill in refrigerator and serve cold.

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.