Wednesday, August 24, 2011

More Fun at GG's





My grandma has the best grass to play in! It's so green and soft. The kids had fun one afternoon playing outside at GG's house, and they loved playing ball with her.

More From Idaho













I feel like I'm never going to finish posting our pictures from Idaho! Here are some fun ones from one night that we spent with Grandma Lynda & Grandpa Denny. The kids helped grandma make homemade ice cream and grandpa brought out the four wheeler. He also showed them the garden, and they picked raspberries & peas to eat. Ava even took a ride with daddy on the four wheeler, which she loved. I think Bella thought she was going to drive it herself!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Cake Pops


My very talented cousin Lanette heard from my mom that I made cake pops for a friend's birthday party, and she wanted me to do a post on them. I looked around online at a lot of different recipes, and after trial and error came up with what worked best for me. And probably the AZ heat right now. :) There are so many different combinations you can do, but this party was circus themed for adults and kids so I chose one that the adults would like and one for the kids. For the adults, it was German chocolate cake with the coconut pecan frosting. And for the kids, white cake with rainbow chip frosting. You will also need lollipop sticks (those white ones found in the cake decorating/wedding area) and chocolate to dip them in. I used what I call the chocolate melting bark from Walmart that is found near the chocolate chips. I used both milk and white. Here are the steps I followed:
1. Bake cake as directed on package.
2. Let sit until cool. (mine was just slightly warm.)
3. Crumble cake in a bowl. I used a fork, but you could use your hands too.
4. Mix in the container of frosting.
5. Roll into balls. I used my small cookie scoop to get them all the same size.
6. Place on cookie sheet covered in wax paper.
7. Melt small amount of chocolate and dip the lollipop sticks in the chocolate. Then stick them in the cake balls.
8. Place in freezer for an hour.
9. Melt remaining chocolate and dip the cake balls. Sprinkle anything you would like to add. (I did coconut and Heath toffee bits for the German chocolate ones. And bright colored sprinkles for the white cake pops.)
10. Stick them in styrofoam or green floral foam to set up. Once the German chocolate ones had set up I drizzled some white chocolate on a few too.
And that's pretty much it! I did put mine in the fridge after they set just to keep them out of sight from Eli and make sure they didn't get melty. You can also do them without the sticks, and use a spoon to roll them in the chocolate. I did that for half of the ones I made.

Monday, August 15, 2011

The Gardens







My mom and I took the kids up to campus to the BYU-I gardens. They have a lot of fun fountains, flowers, etc. and the kids loved looking at everything. Made for some fun pictures.

Puddles





One night it started raining and we were trying to show Eli how he could look outside at the puddles to see if it was still raining. Kaelub decided to take him out and play in the puddles. Ava just stood by the front door watching, and I'm sure wanting to go out too. She made such a mess eating her piece of chocolate cake GG made (with Eli & Ava spelled out with sprinkles on the top) that we got her in the bath right before. GG sure is creative! I wish I would have taken a picture of the cake. So fun!

Back to Vacation




We met up with Kaelub's family for dinner and bowling one night. It was Eli's second time, so he thought he was a pro! He and Bella love playing...and getting into trouble. Ava was more interested in the arcade games she saw as we walked in to the bowling area. They had a toy car with Kermit the frog sitting in it. She loved to sit in there and give Kermit hugs and kisses. She would run back everytime I took her out.

Friday, August 12, 2011

First Day of Preschool



I have to interupt our vacation posts because yesterday was Eli's first day of preschool. I am so excited for him and can't believe he's already at that stage. I was a little worried about how he would react when I dropped him off. But he did great! I took him in the door and when I told him goodbye, he acted like it was no big deal. His teacher, Mrs. K, read them a book about seals on the bus and they painted a school bus. They also learned how to sit on the mat with their hands to themselves (she calls it eggs in a basket). And if they are really good throughout the day they get 2 stamps/stickers. When I picked him up, Eli had 2 stamps on his hands. Yay! His first homework assignment is to color/decorate his rocket ship and bring something he would take to space. I wonder what he will pick? (I love the look on his face in the picture I took at our house before we left. Like he is so cool being able to go to school!)

Riot Zone























The last time we came to the Riot Zone, I think Kaelub and I had been married less than a year. We got all-day passes for Eli & Kaelub so they could do everything as many times as they wanted. Ava was too small for most of it, but she did enjoy the bounce area with grandma and Kaelub even took her around once in the go-karts. She loved that! I played mini-golf with Eli & Kaelub. Eli's favorite was probably the go-karts and bounce area. They had a big inflatable water slide that he thought was great. His least favorite was the Rocket ride...maybe because it was too high for him. Kaelub made it up halfway on the rock wall, but then said he felt like it was swaying too much, which freaked him out. Plus he doesn't even like getting up on ladders, so I was surprised he tried this! I had to laugh at Kaelub taking Eli on the bumper boats because his knees looked like they were up to his neck. He was a good dad to take Eli on them a couple times though. The kids even said hi to a horse in the field next to one of the rides.