Bamboo Sprouts

Sophie and I are heading west today for a little visit with my Grma.  Sophie is wearing me right out with her need to know every detail of what is to come.  Every.  Detail.  And Bella is just broken hearted.   She has made sure that I know how much she will miss me and that she would like to go on a sleepover “hot date” too and also could she please have a new soupcase with ice-cream cone print on it.  Yeah.  Levi seems a little indifferent except that he would like to go on a big air-o-plane too.  Rick will be home holding down the fort in the way only a Daddy can do so.  He is planning to feed them poptarts (eww!  lol) for breakfast and macncheese (more eww) for lunches.  I am afraid to know what all else is on deck for the week but grateful for this chance for Sophie and I to visit my sweet Grma.

Sophie keeping me company as I pack up the soupcases.  She is beside herself excited and told me that she feels like this is a very grown up trip and she loves her grown up soupcase (wait til you see this “grown up” suitcase!) and that she feels like she is even being TREATED like a grown up and she just loves this.  Cutie pie girl.

I am easily distracted from packing by the million other things that suddenly “need” to be done…like cleaning out my bathroom cupboards.  In doing so, I came across many boxes of hair color and considered showing up at my Grma’s as a redhead.  Then I remembered that I paid good money for this highlighted hair I have right now and decided against it.  Besides the fact that this was the night before the trip and goodness knows how this home color job would have turned out! (I am obviously a fan of home color jobs, just not the night before a trip!)  So then I got back to the task at hand. 

Carry on only for us!  Hey, I can pack carry on only for 3 weeks in China, I can sure do it for one week in CA!  Truth is, we could have almost packed both of us in ONE carry on suitcase.  LOL

The traveling girl, pleased with her new “grown up” polka dotted soupcases. 

(ah, cell phone pix!  I must stop relying so much on that or get a phone that takes better pix.  On that note, does anyone have an iphone?  Is this normal photo quality for an iphone (G3)??  I keep thinking maybe I got a broken one.  UGH)

Two good recipes for your next BBQ. 

Baked Beans

2 cans Bushs original baked beans

1/2 c. molasses

10 oz can crushed pineapple (usually in 20 oz cans so I use half and dump the other half in a fruit salad, or double this recipe if its for a bash)

1 large can of durkee (or any brand) fried onions (like you use in green bean casserole)

Mix all, reserving half the can of onions.  Put in a 9×13 baking dish and cover with foil and bake for about 1 and a half-2 hours for best results.  It is really done after about 30 minutes, but it gets better if you bake it longer.  Top with the other half of the onions and bake for a few more minutes and serve them up.  This is adapted from a Paula De*n recipe originally given to me by a friend (thanks Lori, we love this recipe!).

Fried Taters (also called Toni’s Taters because my Mom makes them the best!)

Lots of potatoes (I probably usually do 3-5 lbs but depends how many peeps you are serving up), cut into about 1/4 inch cubes

1 large onion-diced

little bit of oil, salt and pepper

Just cube up your potatoes and dice the onion and toss in a skillet with some oil- enough to coat bottom.  Cook covered on medium for about 45 minutes, turning them over/stirring them a couple of times.  If you turn them more, they turn more into smashed potatoes, still good, but not the way TONI does it!  Season as desired which for us is just some salt and pepper.  If it is a large group, I sometimes do two batches, holding the “done” batch in a crock pot.  Not ideal, but works and still yummy.

Bella trying to sit like Daddy.

Levi is SIX now!!  Doesn’t seem possible and I just don’t know where the time is going.  We celebrated with a family bash at our house the evening of his big day.  He chose Star Wars as a theme and I mighta had a terrible time with how “dark” everything seemed.  The store cakes, the decorations, the cake ideas online…everything black and very dark orange/red and monster looking and just ugh.  I think of Star Wars as blue and white and rather cartoon like.  I tried my best to get him to consider Toy Story (or about anything else) as a theme, but in the end, we went with his big wish and I “lightened” the theme up by doing my own thing with it.  

Anyhow, I think the boy was a happy camper and felt well celebrated today!

there was a lot of star wars…

and a whole lotta lego sets that were star wars!  And also Toy Story lego sets were a huge hit.  The kid has a lot of leggo-ing to do!

There was also a singing card.

and a new, bigger bike!

cousins Sarah and David

Gr’ma Toni

GG and Grpa

Aunt Dale and Tori

Me and Baby Emily (4 1/2 mos now)

Grpa David with lotsa Grands.

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Besides a couple of nice chats at my high school reunion, this is the best thing to come of it.    There were two couples at the reunion who were great on the dance floor and I said oh, I wish we had kept up our dance lessons!  Rick said, sign us back up.  So, this week, we started two stepping again.  It is so nice there!   The instructors are a great couple and the other couples crack me up.  It’s big fun.  They also have a playroom so we are able to take the kids and they played and watched a show while we danced.  After class, Rick showed Sophie some of what we learned.  Wouldn’t it be fun if we all learn and can go to family night at one of the dance halls (probably not actually called a dance hall…??) sometime?!  They do a line dancing class too that the kids can attend so I am thinking in addition to our regular class, maybe we will crash that next week.