Olive's Turn

 Olive had her turn to wear her Mother's baby dress.

 

 You know it is staying light longer. Nate reminded me of this as I was snapping pictures while we drove. Pretty winter light. 

A new baby on the block! Finn. 

I had two close friends that were pregnant during the same time I was. So nice to have the babies all here now. Do I hear an amen?

 Fresh air. You know how it is to visit Grandmas sometimes, right? Warm.

 Nate's cousin Neil brought his puppy over to Grandma's house.

Mia's been studying Vivaldi at her piano lessons. So we've been listening to his music lately and I was happy to find this mix up from the Piano Guys.

Ice Cream Sundae

I mixed up my favorite brownies. I like to use dark cocoa but it's not necessary.

The wax paper was a total fail. Do NOT use wax paper. 

Thank you.

After peeling off the wax paper I dug through my tupperware drawer looking for something small and round to cut out the brownies. A salt and pepper shaker was perfect!

I soon left Mia take over the cutting out job.

And of course the next steps involve scooping ice cream and cooled off hot fudge. 

I added some cookie crumbs on top of the hot fudge layer. Yum. 

The ice cream was melting pretty fast so I forgot to take pictures. It would be better to assemble 12 at a time instead of 36. 

Olive was a big help by being sweet. 

Nate was helping too. We need snow removal.

Here we go!

Yum.

Don't forget the layer of cool whip.

We were the last stop for a progressive supper with our Youth Group.

 Best Basic Brownie

• 1 cup Butter
• 2 cups White Sugar
• 4 whole Eggs
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• ⅔ cups Cocoa Powder
• 1 cup Flour
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ½ teaspoons Baking Powder

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 pan.
Melt butter. Remove from heat and add ingredients in the order listed, stirring well by hand.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Do not overbake.
Cut with a plastic knife (best brownie trick).
It’d also be great to make these using black cocoa.

Hot Fudge Recipe

from Mary Kay Fox

And Ginger Fox who introduced it to me.

• 1 cup 10x sugar
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 1/4 cup butter

Cook for 8 minutes stirring constantly, remove from heat and stir in:

• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Cool before pouring over ice cream, unless you are going to eat it right away.

Pippi Goes to School

 

 Ellie's art. We were out of chalk for a while. Would you believe I could not find chalk at target? 

I might have lied when they asked if I found everything I was looking for. 

I pretty much do not like when they ask me that. 

 Let's hope Mia was not telling a tall tale when she came home from school Friday saying that they are supposed to dress up like a character on Monday. She and Mr. Nilsson are on their way to school right now. 

Pipe cleaners in braids. It would have been nice to have some brown pipe cleaners on hand.

We practiced the braids on Saturday morning. Nate had to run a few errands in the snow storm. He took her along... at the first store the cashier thought it was a hoot and asked her all about it. Next store, a more conservative cashier would only stare. 

Nate was still laughing when he got home. 

Big Beanie

I wrote a silly book for my children and nieces and nephews. 

This was a quick project that made me very aware of how much work it is to write a book. 

I was racing against a Christmas deadline and it is what it is. 

Stuart knew about it, he was my only critic. 

Until Nate came home from work then he had to listen to all things Beanie. Oh my. 

Mia can smell a project like this from a mile away and she was full of questions. 

I drew the pictures on construction paper and then took pictures of the drawings. 

Uploaded them to photoshop, added the color, texture, and text. 

Used the files to make a blurb book. 

 

The other day I said to Stuart, "Miles is going on an airplane today, he is going where Beanie went, do you know where that is?" Stuart answered in such a sweet voice, 

"To his favorite island." 

It sure was a fun gift to give. 

 
 
 

    Big Beanie Goes to the Islands by
    |
    Make Your Own Book