Egg-tastic

In honor of the Easter holiday and arrival of spring, we had an egg-filled weekend. I believe if we all went in for cholesterol check-ups on Monday, the prognosis would not be good. 

The egg-filled goodness increased exponentially each time the words were uttered "opps, I dropped another one...it's only cracked a little bit" (note - did you notice, only about 6 eggs made it to the final round....if only you knew how many we started with - 18 I believe).  So, egg-salad sandwiches anyone? Or how about a hard boiled egg with your breakfast? On your salad?

In an effort to make Sunday extra special, as it is arguably one, if not the, most important day of the year, we also made gourmet french toast, complete with the egg-based bread, Challah bread. Amazing, if you ever want the recipe for the french toast, let me know.

Soaking for precisely 20 sec on each side in the 'special sauce'

The sugar/egg filled breakfast was followed by a change into our Sunday best and a trip to church.  Complete with pictures...note to self, pics before church are a much better idea :o)

The day ended on a stressful note. We're becoming accustomed to the new phase of parenting where we need to teach responsibility and the importance of meeting deadlines, still working the kinks out on that one (advice anyone?). So, tonight we ended frantically working on a school project that is due tomorrow.  Somehow, I believe this may be more a vision of the future than a fluke, but I will still find the silver lining, because ultimately we did spend time together, we're healthy and happy and are not in want.  That is unless you're Natalie and spill a bucket of pearler beads (sort of on purpose), followed by a lackadaisical effort to clean them up, resulting in a cold dinner.  Yep, we're those parents, with that kind of weekend, which really just makes us normal :o) [I hope]   Happy Easter Everyone!

Florida Vacation

We just got back from a wonderful vacation to visit Grandma Turner, or Grandma Great as the girls lovingly call her. She's a spectacular women who will feed you until you think you're full, and then will give you dessert.

What do you do to burn off those delicious calories in Florida?  Go to the beach of course.

Fishing was involved as well.  And of course, you must fish in style.

Finding the special shells is also an important part of any Florida visit.

 Grandma and Grandpa also came to visit, which made the trip even sweeter.

More beach time followed.

Wildlife always intrigues us.

Wow...and I'm definitely NOT tired.

Manatee

Looking at the manatees

And then we must return after a busy day, in style yet again.

Of course, there was one important person missing. We will forever miss him.

We returned in a short trip of close to 1700 miles in about 27 hours. Now we are napping. I hope you enjoyed our photos as much as we enjoyed our trip.  Thank you Grandma Great!!!!

My Laboratory

Cooking is an experiment.

The kitchen is the wetlab. 

The scientists are slightly less educated, but definitely cuter.

And the result is more fun and delicious.



Pear Gingerbread Upside Down Cake



And the result definitely comes and leaves quicker.

Lessons Learned

The past couple of weeks have been rough.  Sickness has found our household, unfortunately, mainly focusing on me - the mama.  During this experience there have been several lessons learned, which when thought of as such, are pretty funny.

1. When the mama is sick, no one has any fun and cabin fever quickly inoculates all.
2. In case you're wondering, if a stomach ache is accompanying the illness, laxatives are not an appropriate answer.
3.  Mac and cheese is apparently a staple that should always be stocked (I didn't know this, and was informed when Joe went to the store and bought little else than several boxes of Mac and Cheese).
4. Shows such as 'The Voice' greatly attract the 5 year old set.  After watching for the first time last night, Natalie woke up at 6am to tell me it would be on tonight too (and then go back to bed). How does she know this and why does she care so much?
5. The family diet circulates around peanut butter and the promise of treats if you're good.
6. The definition of "quiet" changes by the minute.
Oh the list could go on and on, but I think the point is made - nothing is normal when someone is sick. I'm looking forward to Spring.

Pictures will come in another post, but there are none for the today. The camera must be sick too.

The Water Closet

One of the rooms of our house that typically gets looked over in the decorating department is the bathroom.  This weekend I set out to change that for the girls' bathroom.  See the before pictures:

There wasn't anything wrong with the bathroom, but the flat paint that resided, did not pair well with two children and a puppy who sometimes takes a bath too. 

Initially, the bathroom redo started to take shape with a color change. 

But something was missing...this is a kids bathroom afterall.  To help make the bathroom more fun, I enlisted a few professional painters.

They made some beautiful artwork to decorate the large, long wall in the bathroom.

We framed it and came up with this finished result:

Pretty cool.  Now this is my favorite room in the house, which is unfortunate since I spend very little time here.  Maybe I can get some help from the professionals to decorate my bathroom as well?

A few pictures of the rest of the semi-finished bathroom.  One or two small projects are still in the works to finish it up.

Pictures don't show the differences well, so I suppose you'll just have to visit to see it for yourself :o)