On the Sunny Side of the Street

Sunday, July 21, 2013

3-2-1-Cake!

Lauren "won" a 3-2-1 cake mix at the Relief Society Auction made by Heidie Lee. Hers was chocolate! Since then I have made cherry chip, key lime and lemon. All yummy. The cake is 3 weight watchers points. And the topping is 1 (for 2 tablespoons) so it is a yummy 4 point dessert!

Take an Angel Food Cake mix and any other flavor cake mix

Thoroughly mix the two together

Stir together 3 tablespoons cake mix and 2 table spoons water and bake in microwave 1 minute. This is a double 6 T cake mix and 4 T water bake in the microwave for 1 minute 10 seconds (do not over bake)m

Voila! Yummy cake.

To make the topping mix 1 package sugar free pudding mix with 1 cup almond milk when it is nice and smooth carefully fold in an 8 ounce tube of thawed whipped topping.

Finished topping.

Top cake with 2 tablespoons topping mixture.

Arrgh Matey!

I found the cutest Sesame Street veggie faces on Facebook. Unfortunately, we were having a pirate birthday party! Undaunted, I decided to create pirate faces. These were so fun to make. Thanks for the inspiration!

Broccoli pirate

Carrot pirate

Cauliflower pirate

Grape pirate

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

9 people home +

4 trips to the airport +

1 baptism +

1 library make and take +

1 parade +

2 times to the splash pad +

2 birthday parties +

1 Navajo taco dinner +

11 made to order breakfasts +

10 lunches prepared +

9 dinners served +

1 broken washer +

5 days at the pool +

2 water fights +

4 two-year-old cousins +

1 movie in the theater +

1 movie night at home +

10 evening walks +

2 scooter riders =

1 very happy Grandma

Megan and Mommy

Arriving with a new kangaroo

Checking out the baggage carousel

Look what I made!

Wow! Look at the water!

See how high I can jump!

Special friends

Whose daughter is she?

Love to blow bubbles

Hanging out on Grandpa's chair

Driving Grandpa's tractor

Birthday boy

Look who can get Grandpa out of his chair

Splash pad fun

Aunt Skate love.

Going home.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Random Thoughts

This is going to be a rather nerdy post. I have been busy keeping up with the house and the yard. I have been a bit overwhelmed and thought back to the time when I had four young children at home and wondered how I did it all. After a little contemplating I remembered that all my household chores were divided into 15 minute increments. Wow! You can get a lot accomplished in 15 minutes. I have organized closets and cupboards, scrubbed down bathrooms, reorganized crafts, weeded the garden, treated the grass for weeds and bugs and finally figured out why the grass is brown...not enough water! Amazing how it has greened up with more water. All of this NOT completed in a day or even a week. Just in 15 minute increments.

I have a plan for Christmas gifts where I need 150 pint jars. I have the jars-filled with salsa and spaghetti sauce and some empty. I used them for a secretary's day gift and it took me literally hours to get the labels off. So I went on line searching how to get labels off and found if they are water soluble to just soak them in water, If not to soak them in oil. Well I had tried the water and obviously after soaking and a razor blade they were not on with water soluble glue! So I went the oil route. I had some rather old cooking oil, not yet rancid, but no longer usable in cooking. I have probable had it since I stopped adding any fat to any food. Not good. Any way. After a week soaking in an oil bath the label still had to be scraped off. Then I got an idea! I filled a jar with water. Put it in the microwave for 2 minutes. The label peeled off in one piece! But there was still glue on the jar. I lowered the jar into the oil for 2 minutes and the sticky was off. I then rubbed dish soap all over the bottle, rinsed it and a sparkling clean, label free jar! You can do it, too!

Jar full of yummy salsa

Empty jar with lid

Fill with water and set in microwave on high for 2 minutes or until water boils

Remove from microwave with hot pad, set on towel and carefully peel off label

Sticky glue residue left on jar

Pour oil into a container just bigger around than the jar about 1/3 up from the bottom.

Carefully lower jar full of water into the oil. The oil will rise so make sure the container is not too full.

After 60 to 90 seconds remove the jar full of water from the oil

Rub the outside of the jar all over with dish soap and rinse. Voila! Label free jar.

If any of you have pint jars you are of a mind to throw away, I would love them!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Happy 6th Birthday to our St Patrick's Day Princess!!!!

Today is the sixth birthday or our beautiful grand-daughter! She has brought Joy, Happiness, Love, and Excitement to our family! Her aunts dote on her. Her grandma and grandpa are proud to call her grand-daughter. She is smart, witty, curious, creative and always busy. Wow has she grown! Love you!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Ginger...bread

Candy covered table

Bell tower roof with sliced almonds put on individually

Rock church..rocks had to be placed with tweezers

Vicar's house complete with Christmas lights

Finished creation with trees, skating pond, sleds and a bell in the bell tower!
Katie, Megan and Lauren collaborated on a gingerbread church and vicar's house. They really turned out quite charming. Katie went to the work of making and baking the gingerbread. In fact, she made the pattern for the church including the bell tower. It was quite a charming scene. At the end of the evening, they let the children eat the gingerbread church. Wow were there excited faces!