Operation Baking Gals

My friend, Kara, is always finding the coolest blogs and making the coolest foods and such. Well her latest find is Operation Baking Gals. Since I'm always looking for an excuse to bake and emulate the greats like Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines (LOL!) and of course SAMPLE (the most important job of all), I decided to join the cause. Sometimes you really just have to sacrifice yourself for the good of man kind.

All joking aside, it is pretty cool. We bake yummy goodies from home to send abroad to the WONDERFULLY COURAGEOUS AND DEDICATED men and women who serve in our armed forces. A plate of cookies or other goodies from home is the least we can do to say thanks! I've never met the recipient of my goodies, but he's my neighbor. The one that helped during the Tsunami relief effort, has been deployed several times since 2004, and who is dedicated to his country and service! Thanks Colin!

As per Kara, she asked that we take pics of our goodies! I have to admit, this isn't something I tend to do, so I kept forgetting to take pictures. But I did at least capture a few during the process. I made some Caramel Bars, another great recipes thanks to Allrecipes.com

The super yummy oat and butter mixture!!!!!!!

Melted caramel with milk...it was supposed to be heavy cream, but I didn't have any!

The final result, a sea of melted caramel and chocolate chip, buttery goodness!

The recipe was REALLY easy and makes plenty! I changed it up a bit. I did a 9x12 and a 8x8 pan, so I tripled the oat flour mixture and added an extra 12 caramels and 2tbs of milk. Otherwise I sprinkled as many chocolate chips as I wanted (half cup? WHATEVER) and just dropped the left over oat mixture all around, lightly pushing it into the caramel. I highly recommend not cutting until they cool completely. It's really messy otherwise. If you want warm bars, cut them when they are cool and heat them up individually.

ENJOY!

Great day!

I'm getting some flack for not keeping up with my blog! (I love you dearly!) So I figured I would post a couple of different things.

A couple of weeks ago my friends Kevin and Kristen got married! It was a beautiful wedding and despite a brief thunder storm, was a spectacular day! The highlight for Wood and I, of course, was not being a part of the wedding or even watching Kristen walk down the isle, but our little, or grown up cutie.

Their photographer was incredible and took some great shots! You can check out his blog at Love Life Images.

The following weekend my mom and I went to see the Lion King at the Kennedy Center. I'm still speechless! Fate has had a way of keeping my mom and I from seeing it. FINALLY all the stars came into alignment. We had a fabulous lunch at a T.H.A.I. Shirlington, where we happened to run into Megan, Brad and Ashley. By far some of the BEST Thai food I have ever had! It was super yummy! We headed off to the Kennedy Center to our AMAZING seats, Center Stage front row box seat! UNREAL! If you haven't seen Lion King yet, I highly recommend it!

After the Lion King, I got to spend a great night with my family. The weather was great and so we went up to a local shopping area and let the girls play.

It's been a great couple of weeks!

A case of the wackies?

Today, at Kate's camp, they had Wacky hair pajama day! Of course, me being who I am, had to make sure my daughter, by far, had the wackiest hair of all! And of course she did. When I went to pick her up at school, she came running to me, with her beautiful eyes beaming, "mommy! look what I got!" She of course won the prize for her class. Inside I was screaming, "YES! YES! YES! YES!"

Oh how I love living vicariously through my daughter!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Great week!

*Note - This didn't get posted over the weekend!

It was a great first week of summer! Kate had VBS this week where she goes to school. I fell in love with Kids Under Construction (KUC) and now I've fallen in love with the Sterling Methodist Church community. They were energetic and absolutely wonderful with the kids. I was worried at first, but by the end of the week, Kate had learned 9 songs (she loves to sing), made lots of friends and of course learned lots about JESUS! Many of her friends from school where there, particularly her best bud, Kellen!

Another delightful thing happened. Went in to get Claire one morning and found this! Silly girl was practically hanging over the edge! Time for the inevitable, lower her mattress. Until you actually have to put a crib together, you don't realize how much of a pain it truly is. After untying the bumper, pulling the mattress out, taking the bed skirt off, lowering the frame and reassembling, life is good. Or until she meets her next goal and figures out how to pull herself up. Then we'll start the process all over again. = )

The week ended with a fabulous weekend! Kate and I had mommy/daughter time Saturday. We survived the "Perils of Sterling" putt putt. Kate had a blast, though it didn't occur that this really cool jungle setting could be a bit scary for a 3 year old. After that we went to check out this house that's been for sale on RT 7. It's this huge house, sitting on some prime property right on the border of Fairfax county and Loudoun County. I've always been so intrigued. Let me tell you, now I'm totally freaked out!!!! I totally got the heeby -jeebies walking around. I later came to find out it survived the Civil War and overlooked many of the weary travelers. CREEPY!!!! It is a great house, but of course needs a ton of work. It's called Holly Knoll! It was built Circa 1858! Check out!

After we speed away quickly, while the ghosts chased us down the long tree cover drive, we met up with Wood and Claire at the mall for a nice lunch. The girls were cute as always, so I captured a couple pics.

Claire is 9 months!

My little Claire Bear turned 9 months on Father's Day! Though my "little" girl is not so little any more! She now weights in at 24 lbs and is 30.5inches long. Yes my friends, she is 3 months shy of a year and only 6inches from being 3 feet tall. Though I don't know why I'm so surprised. Like, duh! We breed them big! = )

The good news though, is we went to a ENT (ear nose throat DR) and he said if we can't clear the fluid in her ear, which has been causing her poor eye to be gunky, then she'll have to get tubes. Well we did the round of antibiotics and I am happy to report no gunky eye! This is definitely a step in the RIGHT direction!

Yes this is incredibly exciting for me, but what's even MORE EXCITING, is that Claire is now able to get from her belly to a sitting position and is moments away from crawling. She currently scoots, some how on her belly, grunting the whole way. If she isn't doing that, than she is spinning in circles. It's almost like her belly button is a pivot point. I think Kate is finally starting to realize that Claire crawling may not be such a great thing for her. Regardless, she still continues to be the best big sister ever!

Claire is also eating solids. Tonight she had rice and it truly ended up EVERYWHERE! Just when I thought I had it all swept off the floor, I felt another grain squish between my toes. Oh yum! She shoves chunks of bananas in her mouth like they are going out of style. Cheerios still remain to be a staple not only for Claire, but apparently Kate too. She has reverted back to "baby food".

At the rate Claire is going, I'm expecting to find her in the kitchen whipping up sticky rice and bananas with a side or pureed mixed veggies.

The best day ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What more could I really ask for? For starters, I got to take a shower this AM. You all laugh, but trust me, when you have kids, especially more than one, a shower suddenly falls low down on the totem pole!

Then I got all "cute", yet another rarity, and had breakfast with the moms from preschool. We went to Mimi's Cafe. Their food was fabulous!

After that we headed back to the school for their last day of school/graduation assembly. They were so cute.

Then as if that wasn't great! My bestest friend ever and Kate's bestest friend ever and birth buddy, came to visit. It was so spur of the moment and I"m just grateful to God, that we had this time together to enjoy ourselves and get caught up! I feel like a completely recharged battery now!!!!

Then after my delightfully cranky preschooler went down for her nap, my glorious Buddha girl just had me going! Who can turn away from a laughing baby? Their really is nothing better. Find yourself in a bad place? Just watch the video below. It will definitely turn that frown upside down!

The day of course ended with our family night at chickfila. Nothing better than some chicken nuggets and a balloon animal. What more could a kid want? Oh wait.......

ICE CREAM!!!!!!!!

I truly had a happy day!