Indoor games

This is one of his favorite games.

It works great on our slick wood floor.

And only sometimes results in injury.

But he still loves it.

Graham loves a good game of checkers.  Thanks, Mr. Anderson, for indulging him.

And there's always money laundering.

I love watching these boys play.

Easy Ice Cream Pies

My very first for real job was at TCBY.  Remember TCBY?  I still crave White Chocolate Mousse yogurt every so often, and am willing to pay big money for it in an airport terminal (which is the only place they seem to have it these days).  TCBY's disappeared in the later 90's.  I miss them.  Anyway, my favorite part about working there, besides constantly sampling the yogurt when there was no one in the store (which was an awful lot during the month of January in Minnesota), was cutting peanut butter cups.  All the other toppings came already chopped, but not the peanut butter cups.  What's not to love about a job where you get paid to cut up peanut butter cups?  

Sorry about that trip down memory lane.  On to the topic at hand.  It was there that I learned to make ice cream pies and cakes.  And I still make them to this day.  They always get rave reviews.  And they are SO EASY, but there are a couple of little trade secrets.

This is the list of characters.  The great thing about this dessert is that you CANNOT ruin it!

Put some Oreos in a ziploc bag.  I used generic Oreos.  I don't think you can really tell the difference when it's just the crust.  A good rule of thumb is to use one sleeve of cookies per crust.

Use a rolling pin and crush them.  Then melt some butter in the microwave, I would guess about 2 tablespoons per crust.  Mix with the crushed cookies in a separate bowl.

Then press them at the bottom of a pie dish.  Put the crust in the freezer to harden while you do the rest.  This is very important.  If you don't do this, the crust will come undone when you try to spread the ice cream mixture in later.

Another important step.  Let the ice cream soften for about 30 minutes on the counter, put in your mixer for 5 minutes or so until it gets nice and smooth.  You could do this by hand if you don't have a mixer.  I've never tried it, but I'm sure it would be fine.

Mix until it looks like this.

Then cut up the candy bar of your choice.  This time, I used peanut butter cups and snickers.  It's just what I had on hand.  Thank you, Graham, for cutting up the chocolate bars.

Take the pie crust out of the freezer, and GENTLY smooth into the pan as to not disturb the crust.

Smooth out with a spatula to make pretty lines if you wish.  That's what the TCBY folks do.

Decorate with some extra chocolate if you have any left.  This was the peanut butter cup one.  All finished!

Then put in the freezer overnight.  The good and the bad about these pies is that they need to be made the day before.  So they are a good dessert to make ahead of time and not fuss about later.

Set out on the counter a couple of minutes before trying to cut.  Cut in slices, top with whipped cream if you so desire, and serve!

I think he liked his :)

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Home School Golf

Asher is the king of making up games.

Everything to this one is a competition.  He could play games all day long.

So you would think that those little starter trees in our yard are just trees, but they're not.

They are golf holes.

It has to touch the tree to make it into the hole.

Like this.

Sweet boy.

Embrace the Camera {Sweet Nothings}

Samuel is my mysterious child.

It's hard to know what is going on in his little brain.

So I'm so glad that he leaves me notes around the house.

He taped this by the place I sit on the school table one morning.

He wanted to make sure I had my picture taken with it.  He took this one.

He wanted his picture taken with it too.

Another present he gave to me.

This is what was inside.

Thanks for making my day, Samuel!

Go Embrace the Camera here.

And the winners are...

We had so much fun drawing names this morning.

I have to admit.  I was really tempted to cheat and just pick names of who I wanted to win.

You know, people who I thought might NEED a pick-me-up.

Or people who I want to like me.  Isn't that evil of me?  Yes, it is.

But I promise I did it the fair way.

Chris drew the $25 winner as he was out the door to work.

Amy, congratulations to you!  There were 3 Amy's who entered, but this is the one that said, "I've been following your blog for the last few months and I love it! I love to hear of your homeschooling adventures, how you organize your life, and the "Embrace the Camera" feature."

The kids drew for the $5 winners.  Eyes closed (if they can read).

Jopie drew Kathryn Whiting.  The boys were so excited that their babysitter won!

Cry Cry drew Matt Gulde.  Matt was the one and only male to enter our giveaway, and for that reason alone, I'm so happy he won.  But another reason is that Matt enjoys a bargain just as much as I do and he'll enjoy his free drink at Starbucks more because it was free.  Congrats Matt!

Samuel drew love who said, "this is my first time here, [from your comment--thank you!] your family is precious! i see you homeschool & am very interested in families that do that with many little ones. hoping we're there soon! =)

Click over to her blog here.  I have enjoyed it for some time.  You will be inspired by her growing family!

Asher drew Stephanie Whiting.  Can you believe a sister pair won?  Kathryn and Stephanie are two of our favorite babysitters.

And last but not least, Lisa Oliver.  That makes three winners from our church.

Love that!

So there you have it.  Lisa, Stephanie, and Kathryn, I know how to find you.

Moments with love, I know how to find you!

Amy, I don't know how to find you, so please leave your email address in my comments and I will get your Starbucks card to you asap.

Thanks to all of you who commented.  I loved reading your kind words and suggestions.

One More Day

These boys are excited to give you your Starbucks card.

Keep your comments coming.

You have until midnight tonight to win your Starbucks card. 

I know I have LOTS of cheap friends, so come on, leave a comment on yesterday's post and one of these cute boys may draw your name tomorrow!

Happy Blogiversary {Let's try this again!}

Well, I finally got Thursday's post back, but I'm sorry to say that your comments have disappeared into cyberspace.

But I've decided to add in a little extra fun because of all the confusion.

And to increase your change of winning.

I'm still giving away the $25 Starbucks gift card (of course).

But I will also be giving away 5 - $5 gift cards, also to Starbucks.

So there will be SIX chances to win!

But I did lose all of your comments on Friday, so PLEASE comment again.

Remember in your comment to leave what you would most like to see from this blog in the next year.  

I've loved reading all of your suggestions.  It really is helpful to me.

There are some that have commented again on the last couple of posts and that is great.  I will include those.  The rest of you, leave your comment at the end of this post.

Assuming all goes well (come on Blogger, don't fail us now), I will close the contest Tuesday at midnight, and post the winners on Wednesday.

Thanks for doing this again with me!

Here is the post from Thursday.

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Well, friends, it's been a year.

A year ago today, I sat down and wrote a post about how great my husband is.

The rest is history.

As a special thank you for reading this blog, I'm doing my very first giveaway.

I'm sort of nervous about it for some unknown reason.

I wanted to do something creative, but ran out of time.  So yesterday, I picked this up.

It has $25 on it.  Starbucks cards are one of my favorite gifts.

I'm giving it away as a thank you for reading my blog.

And being interested in what we are up to.

And for looking at endless pictures of my boys.

Like this one I posted exactly on May 12 last year.

I may cry looking at this one because they are so much bigger now.

You have encouraged me.  I can't tell you how great it makes me feel when you say, "Hey, I love reading your blog."  Or, "I used your cookie recipe and loved it."  Or, "You have inspired me to do this or that."

I have also greatly appreciated your comments, some from friends, and others from strangers who are becoming friends.  Thank you for your encouragement and suggestions.  I love reading both.

So, if you want to win the Starbucks card, leave a comment telling me what you most want to see from this blog in the next year at the end of this post.  I'll close the giveaway on Friday at midnight, and post results on Saturday.

I'm excited to read your comments.

I love blogiversaries!

Don't you?

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Giveaway to be continued...

While blogger is saying it's "restored," they are still in the process of restoring the posts that were posted yesterday.  So I'm waiting because I lost that post from yesterday, with ALL of your wonderful comments. I'm hoping that I get them back because they were lovely and I hadn't had the chance to really read and process them yet.  I'm sad about it, but I guess there are more terrible tragedies in the world than me losing yesterdays blog post and comments.  

So as far as the giveaway goes, I'll wait until Monday to see what happens.  Hopefully all will eventually be normal and we can continue the battle for the Starbucks gift card!

But for now, I'll leave you with this picture.

Just for fun.

Happy Blogiversary To Me {Starbucks Card Giveaway}

Well, friends, it's been a year.

A year ago today, I sat down and wrote a post about how great my husband is.

The rest is history.

As a special thank you for reading this blog, I'm doing my very first giveaway.
I'm sort of nervous about it for some unknown reason.
I wanted to do something creative, but ran out of time.  So yesterday, I picked this up.

It has $25 on it.  Starbucks cards are one of my favorite gifts.

I'm giving it away as a thank you for reading my blog.

And being interested in what we are up to.

And for looking at endless pictures of my boys.

Like this one I posted exactly on May 12 last year.

I may cry looking at this one because they are so much bigger now.

You have encouraged me.  I can't tell you how great it makes me feel when you say, "Hey, I love reading your blog."  Or, "I used your cookie recipe and loved it."  Or, "You have inspired me to do this or that."

I have also greatly appreciated your comments, some from friends, and others from strangers who are becoming friends.  Thank you for your encouragement and suggestions.  I love reading both.

So, if you want to win the Starbucks card, leave a comment telling me what you most want to see from this blog in the next year at the end of this post.  I'll close the giveaway on Friday at midnight, and post results on Saturday.

I'm excited to read your comments.

I love blogiversaries!

Don't you?

Just another night at the ballpark

 So we pack a picnic dinner and head down to the fields.

Tonight it's for a Marlin's game.

We watch the boys warm up.

Poor outfielder.  Just waiting for some action.

Still waiting.

Laughing with Joe, our trusty, and oh so fair, umpire.  

Asher tends to get slightly animated.

His competitive spirit can sometimes get the better of him.

Winning=happiness.  Losing=complete devastation.

We talk lots about playing for the glory of God, not just to win.

Love the concentration here.

And the batting face.

Getting a little pep talk from the third base coach.

Graham's a lefty, and very proud of it.

He's not a power hitter, but he gets on base (most) every time.

Then we get to spend our treat tickets and goof around while we wait for Daddy to stop talking baseball.

When I was little, I remember standing and waiting for my mother to leave church.  We were often the last ones.  My mom liked to say hi to everyone.

Chris is the same way at the baseball field.

I love that about him.

Teammates and best friends.

Yesterday Asher sobbed (really, uncontrollable crying) for 10 minutes when I told him this was the last time he and Graham could play on the same team.  Sweet, isn't it?

Messing around.  Tasting each others snacks.

Did you wonder where he was?

He's always up to trouble, face covered with sugar.

And a big smile.

Just another night at the ballpark.