We spent a rainy day with the Bakers at a fun new children's learning center in our area.  The kids had a blast!

With a play stage and dress-up outfits galore, Megan and Lacie were in 7th Heaven.  Every kid needs a muumuu, right?


Melissa and Megan manned the checkout counter and ice-cream stand so that the other girls could go shopping.




Then they took their things home and set up house.



If they worked hard and finished cleaning up their home, their was even time left for a sword fight from the pirate ship.



And, there was always time for being silly!





I'm afraid Lacie probably started a trend with the toddlers that the other moms might not have appreciated!  In reality, she was only trying to let Tessa go in front of her in line.  What a girl.

Yes, I did withstand the urge to give the kids hand sanitizer every time they touched a new toy.  I waited until the end.  (I, however, used sanitizer quite frequently.   I can't help it.  I'm a bit germ-o-phobic!  I cringed every time Megan or Lacie put on something new.)

*Tessa is in red, and Paige is in pink.

We had a visit from these two cuties last week.  Their parents came, too. :)


Getting them to sit still and smile for a picture is quite a challenge.


 Nope.


Missed it again.

 Megan, you try.



Got em!

I made this meatloaf recipe for Valentine's dinner.  The kids actually liked it!  It has grape jelly in the recipe, so it's kind of sweet.  I would recommend the recipe for these mini versions, but I didn't think my full-size version was as yummy.  The best part was the ketchup hearts on top.

Last week parents were invited to the gym to watch the kids show off.  You can really see my girls' personalities in their pictures.

Lacie:

She listens to her teacher and throws herself totally into everything.  She doesn't notice we're watching unless we catch her eye.  Then she hams it up.  While she's doing gymnastics, she's oblivious that I'm taking pictures.







 Megan:

Total ham.  All the time.  She knew I had the camera and kept posing and trying to get me to take more pictures.  As for what the teacher was saying . . . she has no idea.  She's great at giving me good poses, though!









Melissa:

If she knows I'm taking pictures, she often turns her body away from the camera so that I can't catch her.  She loves to have people she knows watching her gymnastics, but she also loves to hide from my camera!  I did manage to catch her unaware a few times.

 








Keep up the good work girls. You're doing great, and I love to watch you!

Steve requested this cake for his birthday.  The Oreo Cookie Blizzard cake from Dairy Queen.


Since I'm kind of a cheapskate (or shall we call it frugal), I decided to try to make one myself.  Online and from my friend Jena, I found several recipes that involved a cookie crust topped with ice cream.  That kind of cake is really good, too.  If you're not up for trying what I'm about to show you, just google ice cream cake and you'll find lots of recipes.  I wanted mine to have lots of layers--like this:


My layers are vanilla ice cream, chocolate fudge, Oreos, cookies-and-cream ice cream, Cool Whip, and more Oreos.  Here's how I made it.

My friend Jena gave me the tip about slicing the carton of ice cream to make the layers even.  I marked the box and cut it in 1" sections.  (I used a serrated knife and a pair of kitchen shears.  The knife wouldn't cut through the bottom of the box.)

These pictures are of the second layer of ice cream.  I let the box sit out too long, so it was pretty melty.  (I was in a hurry, so I prepared both ice cream layers at the same time.  Since the cake would be pretty deep, I used a casserole dish for the pan instead of a regular cake pan.  I put the bottom layer of vanilla directly into the casserole dish, and I put the cookies-and-cream layer into a cake pan that was just about the same diameter as the casserole dish.)  Be sure to have a container ready to hold the ice cream you don't use.  Your boxes won't exactly be fit to return to the freezer!
 


It only took three or four pieces of the box to make a layer.  I had to do some cutting to make them fit, but the pieces I cut off were just right to fill in the corners.  I used a wooden spoon to smooth out the ice cream and spread it to the edges.  If you have tons of time, melty ice cream would work great.  If you are in a hurry, my method worked pretty well.  Here's the cookies-and-cream layer:


After preparing the ice cream layers, I put them in the freezer for a couple of hours.  Next, I spread fudge on top of the vanilla layer and put it back in the freezer.


I prepared the crushed Oreo layer in another cake pan.  The Oreos were Spring Oreos.  That's why the creme is yellow.  White would've looked much better, but my coupon only worked on Spring Oreos.  Oh, well.  This is a little more than 1/2 pkg of Oreos mixed with 1/8 c melted butter.  (1/2 the crust recipe for a sheet cake ice cream cake.)  It turned out to be a little too much, so I added the extra to the leftover ice cream.


I hoped that I could flip the cookie layer on top of the cake and have it slide right in.  It didn't exactly work as planned.  We'll just say that I had to scoop a few stray Oreos off the counter.   (The crumbs left after Lacie frantically scooped the spilled cookies into her mouth.)  If the fudge layer is completely frozen, it will probably work to press the Oreos on top without pressing them into a pan first.  My fudge was not frozen, so I had to improvise.


Although the cookie layer didn't go according to plan, the cookies-and-cream layer worked great.  I took the cake pan out of the freezer, set it in a shallow layer of hot water in the sink for about fifteen seconds, and ran a knife around the inside edge to loosen the ice cream.  I flipped the pan on top of the casserole dish and the ice cream landed beautifully on top.  It was awesome!


I let the cake freeze a little longer, spread Cool Whip on top and finished it with 1/2 moon Oreos and some of the leftover crumbles.



When we cut the cake that evening, the cookie layer was a little crumbly.  The next day it was perfect.  Moral of the story?  Start a day ahead!

So here's a recap of the recipe:

Ingredients:
1/4 gallon each of two favorite ice cream flavors
3/4 jar fudge topping (caramel would work, too)
About 1/2 pkg Oreo Cookies (I bet any favorite cookie would work)
About 1 cup Cool Whip (More would be yummy, but my dish was overflowing, so I had to make this layer thin.)

Layer 1:  Ice Cream (any flavor)
Layer 2:  Fudge topping
Layer 3:  Less than 1/2 pkg crushed Oreo cookies mixed with 1/8 cup melted butter (press down)
Layer 4: Ice Cream (any flavor)
Layer 5:  Cool Whip
Top with crushed and/or half moon Oreo cookies

This takes time and effort, but it's worth it!  I'm sure the cake would've been prettier and tastier with expensive ice cream, but the Walmart brand tasted yummy.

Enjoy!  If you try it, let me know how it turns out.

Happy Birthday to the best husband and father ever!  Sorry I'm a bit late with the post!

All Steve asked for was brown socks and an ice cream cake.  He got both wishes.  Is he easy to please, or what?  I'll post pics and instructions for my experimental cake later.  It turned out pretty yummy.

I love Megan's cute little pucker as she helps Daddy blow out the candles.

Warning--Severe creepiness ahead in this post!!!

The day started out like any other--kids eating breakfast at snail pace, kids stalling for time by snuggling in blankets because they're "too cold to get ready for school," kids playing in their rooms instead of getting dressed--

Suddenly, I hear screaming and crying coming from Melissa's room (no exaggeration--I do mean screaming).  I run in to find Melissa clutching her bright red ear and hopping around the room in agony.  She hadn't complained of any pain prior to the screaming.  I gave her some pain medication, dropped the other girls off at school, and took her to see "Dr. Daddy."   The pain came and went, but at it's worst it even hurt when she moved her shoulder.

Daddy peeked in her ear and found it too blocked to see anything.  There was wax or something in the way.  He tried to scoop the wax out, but he couldn't get it, and Melissa was in so much pain that he stopped trying.  Eventually, he could see enough to diagnose an ear infection.  (Sorry about the graphic detail, but it's important for the rest of the story.)

With prescription in hand, and ear pain under control, I dropped Melissa off at school and settled down to my routine at home.  No more than five minutes passed before the phone rang.  It was the school.  Melissa was in the office crying.  No more school for Melissa.

We decided to use ear drops to help Melissa feel better.  Here's where it gets creepy.  I put a drop in Melissa's ear . . . and . . . out . . . crawled . . . a SILVERFISH!!!  No joke.  Foolishly, I told Melissa.  Yep.  She freaked out.  (Understandably!)  On the up side, her ear started to feel better fairly quickly. 

Did the bug cause the ear infection?  Did the infection attract the bug?  Hmm.

When I told Steve, he was shocked, but quite quickly had an "ah-ha moment."  He said, "That explains the strange shadow in her ear that I thought was ear wax.  It almost looked like it had hairs on it.  Hmm, could they have been legs?  No wonder it wouldn't come out.  It evaded the tool by using it's legs!!!

The description Melissa gave me through her sobs that morning suddenly made sense, too.  She said it kept feeling like ear wax was dripping down her ear.  It tickled.  Ever seen a silverfish?  I'm pretty sure that would tickle.

Sorry.  Now this is getting gross.  I'll probably regret this post in the morning!

Needless to say, Melissa was not thrilled to go to be that night.  It took a lot to convince her that a bug crawling into her ear was probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

And, yes, I've stopped saying, "Don't let the bedbugs bite" when I put the girls to bed!

Poor Melissa.

Time to post pictures of all the stuff I forgot to post from December (and a little bit of November).  Ready for a whirlwind post--backwards through the month?  Hopefully, it won't be too painful!

Rare Desert Snow:





Weeping Rock hike with Grandma and Grandpa:



Christmas Traditions:
Posing in the Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve



Waiting on the stairs Christmas morning for the okay to look at the tree



Stockings first

Posing with the gifts



Putting Grandpa in charge of the paper mess


Testing out the gifts

Ward Breakfast:






Megan was the only one who would go near Santa!




Birthday Blades:




(We had birthday cake while everyone was here for Thanksgiving.)


Pre-Christmas Traditions:
Decorating the Tree




(It actually took about a week for Lacie to finally decide to put the angel on top of the tree.  It's a tradition, and it was her turn.)

Taking pics wearing the Santa Hat








A Little Dancing





Phew!  Done!