Strawberry Shortcake

Holly got her first taste of strawberries a few days ago. She was sitting in her high chair being a bit fussy while I was trying to get dinner ready. Owen was asking for strawberries, so I decided to give one to Holly to see if that would calm her down. First I stripped all her clothes off her though. I would hate to have strawberry stained clothes to wash!

She seemed pretty happy with her strawberries. She ate a few of them...I don't know how much she actually swallowed though. I found a bunch of pieces of strawberries in her lap when I took her out of her high chair. So her highchair is stained now. Oh well....

Speaking of high chairs...why didn't anybody tell me not to buy a high chair with a cloth cover? I took my sister-in-law to Babies-R-Us to register for her baby shower. When we got to the high chairs I made sure she bought a high chair with a cover that was easy to clean. The cloth one on ours gets so dirty with food, and the directions say to just wipe it off with a damp rag or have it dry cleaned when it gets really bad. I would have to have it dry cleaned every day! I just throw it in the wash every once in a while. Actually, I'm getting pretty sick of it, I think I will just leave it off and Holly will have to just sit on the plastic seat. She doesn't seem to mind it, and it's a lot easier to clean up.

Summer Fun

Remember last summer? Remember how I was complaining about how hazy, hot and humid it was? Well this summer does not resemble last summer at all...THANK GOODNESS!!!! I think it rained every day in June, and it didn't make it above 80 degrees. Some people thought that was a bad thing, I thought it was the most wonderful thing ever! I wish every summer was like this one. I really don't like the heat. It has started warming up a bit around here though. This past week we have been enjoying some low 80 degree days, but with no humidity. It's so nice to wake up in the morning and have COLD air coming through the windows. I wonder where I can put an order in to have all summers like this?

The only thing we have been missing out on in all this unseasonably cool weather is our little swimming pool. We just have a dinky little purple pool that was donated to us last summer. So this past weekend when the weather was actually warming up I brought the pool outside for some fun. I finally found a good use for the dinky slide my mother-in-law bought for Owen...it's great as a water slide! Owen had a ton of fun sliding down into the water, over and over and over again. A few times he decided to just jump from the top of the slide into the water, but I think he was getting too much water into his ears that way, so he only did it a few times.

Earth to Holly! She was spacing out big time....

Our little neighbor friend Edward came over, but he wouldn't go in the water. He said it was too cold.

Holly didn't think it was too cold though....she would have jumped right in if I had let her. She only has one bathing suit though, and it's a 2T. She won't be swimming for another year at least! Plus it was a little cold. Owen was freezing after about 45 minutes of pool fun. So we dumped the water out and went inside to warm up. Maybe we'll get to swim another day this summer. If not, that's OK with me, it just means it's not hot...YAY!

Happy Mom

Last night I was putting Owen to bed. I said, "Goodnight Owen."

He said, "I love you."

That was the first time he said that to me. It made me very happy. I know he loves me, but it's just nice to hear it out loud in his little 2 year old voice. It actually came out sounding more like, "i WUV you!" So sweet!

New Recipe - Black Bottom Cupcakes

OK, this isn't a new recipe to me. My parents have been making these for as long as I can remember. But I have been making a lot of them in the past few weeks, and people are always asking me for the recipe. So I figured I better post it on my blog, then I will always have quick access to it.

Owen and Holly's daycare had a fund raising event last Saturday. For part of the event they wanted us to donate baked goods for a bake sale. So I volunteered to make these cupcakes. I told a few people at work that I was going to be making the cupcakes, and they told me they would buy some if I brought them in to work. My coworkers go crazy over these things! So on July 1st, Scott's birthday, I made 144 cupcakes. I brought 100 in to work to sell, and the rest went to Scott's work for his birthday (his coworkers are always begging him to get me to make some for them too). The 100 cupcakes I brought into work were all sold for 75 cents each...so I made $75 for the fundraiser, before it even began. Not bad!

I didn't make as many cupcakes for the actual bake-sale, just about 36. They went pretty quick, and people were asking for the recipe....they were willing to pay for it! So I gave the daycare director the recipe and she is going to sell the recipe for $1.00. So here is the recipe...be careful if you take them somewhere though, people will be asking you to make them all the time!


Black Bottom Cupcakes

Preheat Oven to 350. Line 18 muffin tins with paper cups, or lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Cream Cheese Mixture:
8 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup chocolate chips

Beat the cream cheese, egg & sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the chocolate chips and set aside

Chocolate Cake Mixture:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the center and add the water, oil vinegar and vanilla. Stir together until well blended.

Fill muffin tins 1/3 full with the chocolate batter and top with a dollop of cream cheese mixture.

Bake for 25-30 minutes

A Walk in the Woods

Our local park has some nice walking paths that go through a wooded area. So a few days ago we decided to take the kids for a walk. Owen must have been feeling a little under the weather because he did not want to walk. He was walking so slow! He didn't want to be carried either, so it took us a long time to walk a path that probably should have taken 20 minutes. Owen seemed to have a little bit of fun though. He kept on asking us where the gingerbread house was, and when he was slowing down we would say, "Let's go find the gingerbread house!" and he would start moving a little more quickly. Scott reminded me that a witch lives in the gingerbread house...but if it would get Owen moving I didn't care too much!

Holly had an easy ride through the woods. I felt like a horse with her sitting up there. Scott got a chance to horsey back her around for a while too.

I thought we were never going to get Owen off of this bridge! It was a beautiful day though, so we weren't in too much of a rush.

We finally got back to the actual park, and that is when Owen perked up.

Holly was pretty hungry after that long walk too. I'm just glad that it was a nice day. We have been receiving a lot of rain this summer, but I don't mind. We haven't had any hot and humid days, and we are almost to the middle of July! I wouldn't mind these kinds of summers all the time.

Can't Sink Those O's

Last night I did not feel like cooking dinner. So we decided to let somebody else do the cooking for us, and we went out to eat. It's great going out to eat with kids because the restaurant always provides crayons and coloring books! We never got that kind of stuff when we were kids....oh well.

So while we were waiting for our food to come out Owen and I were coloring on his place mat. He kept on telling me to draw different shapes, "Draw a circle, draw a square, draw an octagon." You get the picture. I knew that he was learning his letters at preschool, so I decided to draw some letters for him. So I wrote, "A B C" on his place mat. Then Scott pointed to the "A" and said, "What is that Owen?"

Owen said, "an A!"

Scott: "Good! What is that?" (pointing to the B)

Owen: "a B!"

Scott: "Good Job! What is that?" (pointing to the C)

Owen: "an O!"

Scott: "No, what is that?"

Owen: "an O!"

Scott: "No...try again..."

Owen then picked up the crayon and drew a line to close the opening of the C to make it an O...

Owen: "See, an O!"

Hehehe...I guess he was right and I just drew it wrong!