New Favorite Craft

Our friends Brandon and Sarah and Kyle and Heather recently had baby girls (Hannah and Alaina). My cousin Michelle and aunt Joyce had told me how much babies enjoy "Taggie blankets". So, I found a website with instructions and decided to try them for myself. It was so much fun! I hope the girls like them!

Fourth of July Fun!

We had a few friends over for the Fourth of July. It was so much fun! And I got introduced to our new favorite game (pictured at bottom right): The Settlers of Catan.

Ben and Alaina (Kyle and Heather's baby) didn't make this picture, but here's the rest of the crew:

Our table decorations:

Memorial Day Weekend!

Ben and I went camping over Memorial Day with my family. We had so much fun hanging out with everyone. And we got to spend a lot of time with my cousins' kids.

This is Bethany. She was a lot of fun. Definitely the smiliest baby I've ever met!



Autumn and her dad decorated a car for the mini Indy race.



She also had a lot of fun at the pool!



Autumn decided not to race after all. Maybe next year. Her little brother Paul "drove" her car instead.



So serious:).



At each lap, the kids had a different pitstop. The first one was a "fill up". The girls gave him a mini marshmallow.



He got a medal and a little car for participating!!



Isaac went fishing and caught 2 bluegills. He named them Supper and Dinner.



He thought they were pretty yummy.



On Monday, we went to Ben's grandma's because his aunt Judy was visiting from Colorado. Everyone enjoyed playing (or watching:) ) a little family Rock Band.

New Recipes to Share!

We tried a couple new recipes this week - 2 of the 3 were a success:). I highly recommend this recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup. It's supposed to taste like Max & Erma's. Ben thought it tasted even better! And wasn't difficult at all!

And tonight, I baked Orange Dreamsicle Cookies. They were really fun.... and tasted like an orange dreamsicle. (You just have to be careful not to bite into a pocket of the Tang:) .)

Our strawberries made the picture, too:). We decided to grow them on a whim but have been very impressed with their flavor!

We've done a little flower planting since our last post. There's an AWESOME plant nursery close to our house.... dangerous:). Here are a few pictures:

More Cake Balls...

Well, my first attempt at bunnies wasn't so successful, so we ended up with some Easter piggies... :)

Here are the bunnies.... and the cute little bunny butts:).

Cake Balls/Herbie's New Friends...

Ben and I made cake balls this afternoon. And Herbie was excited because he met some new friends.


I still have some more baby chicks to work on tonight, and I'm hoping to try bunnies, too. Bakerella has other awesome ideas for Easter cakeballs on her blog.

And I forgot to post the link for the Homemade Peeps yesterday. So, here it is.

Homemade Peeps!

This year, we didn't make Cadbury Eggs, but we did make Peeps!!

Here were the ingredients:

I got to use my candy thermometer:)

While the marshmallows were "fluffing", I prepared the pan.

I made the marshmallows blue.

We had a bowl-licking party:).

Ben helped cut out the Peeps. Then, I finished them off with sanding sugar.

The finished product: