Cinna-Bunnies

Riley had snack a few days before Easter so I decided to make cinna-bunnies.  He thought it was the best thing EVER.  And they were super easy since you just use canned cinnamon rolls.

 

**This blog post brought to you by the letter P for Pinterest...

Two years later...

Wow. Life gets busy and the blog gets neglected. Let's see, I've got boys in 2nd grade and Kindergarten and they both love school (Hallelujah!!). They're also both doing really well at school. It helps that their school is awesome and they both have amazing teachers.

And with all my "free" time I'm now going back to school full time to get my Master's of Education. In addition to that, I've gotten more serious about running and when the boys started school back in August I started training for a Half Marathon. My goal was 2 hours and ten minutes. I finished the Athens half mary last month in just under 2:07 (I think it was 2:06:55). VERY happy with that. I have some really great friends who helped me get ready for it. I never could have done it that fast without all of them. Leah and April became my workout partners back in the spring. We started out doing Insanity with Sean T. Oh man, it truly was INSANE. But when summer started we decided to start walking and running at the track instead of doing Insanity. And we have kept it up. Some weeks are crazy and we only get together one night, other weeks we exercise 4 mights and one afternoon together. It sure has made a difference. Then Eric told his running buddies about me running and one of them told his wife and she texted me about starting to run together. I'll tell you, Robin is F-A-S-T. She's a machine. We do 5-5.5 miles once a week. There's hills. Big hills. And she doesn't let up. I usually have to walk at some point but she just keeps running. Wow. But she pushed me and I'm a better runner for it. And Eric has always been a big supporter. He's always encouraged me to run and had faith in my ability. I love him for that!

Eric, on the other hand, is taking a break from running. He did run a marathon just over 2 years ago and I think he wants to run another, but it will be a while before that happens. Three months ago he had hip resurfacing surgery. This was an alternative to total hip replacement. Instead of cutting off the whole head of the femur they just whittle it down some and put a new cap on it along with a new socket for that to fit into. He now sets off all the metal detectors at the airport. And speaking of the airport, Eric's job has changed greatly. He works for the same company but in the corporate arena. He helps with internal audits of safety and environmental procedures among other things and this requires traveling. He averages about one week a month of traveling. Sometimes he gets to go to exotic locales like Oklahoma and Tennessee. But he also has spent a lot of time in San Diego as well as trips to Maine, Virginia, Modesto, CA, the Philippines, and Brazil.

Okay, now that we're all caught up, on to the real reason I'm here. I have a problem. Well, maybe not a problem, but it is definitely an addiction. An addiction to pinterest. I love that sight. Man can I find some AWESOME things on there. Like this Praline Pumpkin Cake that is personally responsible for me gaining about 5 pounds. You may think I'm joking but I'm not. This cake is AWESOME. Apparently I think the word AWESOME is AWESOME. Anyhoo, I think I've made it 4 or 5 times in the past month. And I'm planning to make it again next week for Thanksgiving. I think what makes it so divine is how the praline layers kind of soak into the pumpkin cake and make it oh-so-moist. Oops, sorry about that little drop of drool on the screen. Let me dry that off for you... There, that's better.

The surprising thing about this cake is how easy it is. You use cake mix and store bought icing and just jazz it up. I know of 4 people who have tried this cake since I made it and are planning to make it for Thanksgiving too! So without delay, here a link to the recipe: Praline Pumpkin Cake and this is what it looks like (I took the pic with my phone so please excuse the quality)...



I do have other pinspired creations (I think I just made that word up!) and I will be sharing those with you in the future.

Valentine's

I helped Owen make his own Valentine's for his classmates this year. We did monster-tines and he got a little creative. I found the idea on familyfun.com but it only had one-eyed monsters. Owen couldn't stick to just one eye, so we did 3, 5 and even 7-eyed monsters. And I loved all the logic behind deciding who got which monster (the seven-eyed monster had the smallest eyes so it went to Blake "because he's little"). And for what it's worth, I tried to think of something a little more clever to put on the paper the monster's holding but I was tired and couldn't think so we just used the suggestion given with the instructions. :-/



Coming soon: The BE5K and this weekend's trip to Birmingham.

Halloween

I've got a lot of pics to post from recent activities, but I'll start with the most recent and work my way through them all.

Owen decided quite a while back that for Halloween he wanted to be "that thing that's wrapped in toilet paper." I couldn't see buying a mummy costume, so we made it ourselves. It was pretty easy really. I looked for some good ideas online and decided to learn from others' mistakes and NOT just wait and wrap him up each time he needed to wear his costume. I mean, he's good at holding it, but he's still going to need to use the little boys' room at some point. So I wrapped the gauze around his pants and a turtleneck and he was able to pull them on and off whenever needed. It worked really well and he loved it.

Riley still doesn't quite get the whole Halloween thing, so Eric and I picked his costume for him. He loves sharks right now, so that's what we went with. I couldn't find a shark costume though for less than about $40 (TOO MUCH!!!) so I made it for around $5. I think it turned out pretty good and he LOVED it, so that's all that matters, right?

Anyway, here's the pics...

First Owen had Trick or Treating at school and a little party there with his friends on Thursday. Riley and I came for the party and Ry had a great time.

On the way to school...

Party at school... (L-R: Will, Nolan, Jack, Blake, Owen, and Riley)

That afternoon was our MOMS Club Halloween party.

Shark Attacks Mummy...

Riley and Julia


Then Friday night we went to a friend's house for TorTing in their neighborhood. Let me say Owen LOVED it. Here's some pics of the boys with their friends.

(L-R: Will, Brady, Owen, Bowie, Riley)


(Will, Cloe, and Owen)

While out TorTing we ran into some other friends. Here we are with Jenni and her girls, Anna and Emma. BTW neither Jenni nor I live in the neighborhood we were TorTing in. I guess we're just a bunch of moochers.

Happy Birthday America!

We went to a friend's house after dinner for dessert and fireworks. We all had a great time and the boys all enjoyed the sparklers. Here's a few pictures...

First the firetrucks:

Then the sparklers:

And here's Owen and his pal, Will, watching the fireworks from their bikes:

More cuteness!

I just ran across these Sticky Notes Books (a.k.a. Post-It Notes Books) and thought they were neat. I just might have to give this a try myself.

And I like these Crayon-A-Longs. There's not a tutorial for it, but how hard can it be, right???

I'm sure I've posted these Crayon Rolls before, but I still haven't gotten around to making any of them, so here it is again.

And I know it's not Easter, but I think these Chalkboard Easter Eggs are a cute idea. Oh the possibilities with colored chalkboard paint!

And I know it's not even school time, but this little number will be great for Teacher Appreciation Week. Except that Owen usually has about 25 teachers all together!

And while I'm posting things for holidays that are far, far away, how about this cute little drum valentine. I hope none of Owen's classmates are reading this because we just might do it next year for his valentines.

And here's one for an obscure holiday (obscure int he US anyway). Apparently January 26th is Australia Day and these ANZAC cookies (or biscuits Down Under, I guess) are just the thing for celebrating it. The reason I'm so excited about this is because my mother-in-law was born in Australia and her mother served in the Army there making this the perfect thing to add to our family traditions. What a find!

Well, it's dinnertime, so I've got to go feed the critters!