3.31.2011

I'm totally offended...

We were sitting at the dinner table and the following conversation took place:

Jordan: I'm the bestest pilot ever!
Jeremy and I: Oh really?! That's cool.
Jordan: Yeah...I'm a pilot and daddy's a pilot and Matt-matt's a pilot...but Mommy's just an old lady.

(sigh) Isn't it the best when your children innocently insult you? :)


And Kori - I read Leni's equally offensive quote on your blog. It's also hilarious. ;)

3.29.2011

Chirping

For the love. What reason does a bird have for being up at 3am? We have a tall bush outside our bedroom window with birds living inside. Every morning at 6:30am I get my wake-up call to notify me that the sun is rising. It's not so bad because I'm starting to wake up by that point in the morning anyway, and it's fairly easy to drown the noise out a little with a pillow over my head. I must say, I've contemplated cutting the stupid bush down, but then I can't bear the thought of bringing down tiny baby birds with it.

Well this morning the chirping starts at 3am. What the heck? So I lay in bed, toying with the idea of buying the boys some bee-bee guns and allowing them to practice on the hideous bush. At 3am I hate birds. Thank goodness for earplugs. Although, the problem with earplugs is that you can hear every sound inside your own head. I hate that.

That's all.

3.27.2011

Easy Chocolate Truffles

For a friend's baby shower I made some yummy chocolate truffles that are super easy to make. I thought I'd share the secret...

Ingredients:
Large bag of Hershey Kisses (or you could use chocolate chips)
Bag of Caramel Hershey Kisses
Half & Half
1/2 large bag of Pecans

Unwrap plain Hershey Kisses and put them in a microwavable bowl. Add half & half. I don't know how much to add, but it's pretty easy to just eye it in this recipe. I add it until Kisses are about 1/3 or 1/2 way covered.

Microwave in 15-second increments (removing to stir each time) until chocolate is smooth. Put melted chocolate in refrigerator for at least 4 hours. It's best if you can let it sit in there overnight. When you remove it from the fridge, it should look like this:

Take a spoonful of chocolate, insert a caramel Kiss in the middle and roll into a ball. Repeat until all of the chocolate is gone.

Chop pecans finely and then roll each truffle in the pecan bits.

They should look like this:

And like this on the inside:

Yum!!

There's a similar recipe on the Hershey's website here: http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/8613/Double-KISSES-Truffles.aspx

Safari Baby Shower

I'm way overdue in posting about the super cute safari baby shower I did for a friend, Melissa Dalton - I threw the shower in November and her baby is now 2 months old. Oops! :) Oh well, I had to share, even if late, because it's too cute to miss.

Melissa is one of the sweetest girls I know. She was the boys' nanny for almost a year, and they adore her. I adore her too! I wanted to do something really special for her shower. I chose the Safari theme because Melissa mentioned to me that she loves Safari decorations. Plus Melissa herself has had some experiences in Africa, so I thought the theme was fitting. I went with pale green, baby-blue and chocolate brown, with lots of animal print accents.

Invitations:
I designed the invitations to go with the theme - I love the baby and momma elephants. :)


Dessert table:
One of my favorite parts of throwing a party is putting together the dessert table. I made the cute banner out of solid and animal print scrapbook paper. Melissa's sister, Angie, helped me with the adorable zebra print cake (using my Cricut Cake). Everything looked amazing and tasted yummy.



Favors: I found some animal print fans on Oriental Trading Company and we wrapped them up with some Oreo pops that Angie made.


Decor: I didn't manage to get pictures of all the decor. We had animal print paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling. I draped the door with some mosquito netting and tied it off with some palm fronds to give the room a safari feel. I also draped mosquito netting around the chair that Melissa sat in. Finally, I turned one of my lamps into a palm tree. It turned out cute, but took FOREVER to make. :) I found the fun little baby animals at IKEA for $0.49 a piece!




3.13.2011

Duckpin Bowling

Ever heard of Duckpin Bowling? I hadn't either. Apparently it was quite popular with the "in" crowd of the early 1900s around the Eastern U.S.
Well, my mom found the coolest little Duckpin Bowling place in Fountain Square in Indianapolis. The building is very old and the atmosphere is totally retro. Too fun!


Duckpin Bowling is much like regular bowling, but the pins are smaller and squatter, and the balls are only about 5 in. in diameter (and have no finger holes). Matthew and Jordan LOVED it because the balls were just their size and very easy to manage with their little hands.


Coming to a city near you...

We are! - in Jeremy's new toy that we recently acquired. ;-) Fulfilling his life-long dream (of owning an airplane), Jeremy is now the proud owner of a 1965 Mooney.

Picking her up in Florida

First family flight





So, as the title of this post suggests, we may be coming to a city near you!