How to Make a Butterfly Cake - video on DisneyFamily.com

How to Make a Butterfly Cake - video on DisneyFamily.com

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This is what I'll be attempting as the cake for Anna's family bday party. I'm going to make a white cake butterfly and a devil food cake butterfly.

tomorrow day camp starts! wahooooo!!!

Not that I am looking forward to day camp or anything..

I've got their little camp outfits laid out. The water and a snacks are ready to go. I've got my running clothes all ready to hit the paths down south and I've spent the last 90 minutes getting my audible.com account reopened and the 4th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series (Dead to the World) is now finally in my ipod. So maybe you are saying:
1. Victoria is audible.com not very easy to use?

No audible is very easy to use and filled with directions on how to get your audible books right into your itunes library--it was Windows I was having problems with because Windows doesn't like itunes!

Or maybe you are saying..
2. So let me get this straight, the kids are going to day camp and you are going to spend the time running? Isn't that as much of a torture as kid wrangling?

No it's nice and peaceful on a walking/running/biking path. Definitely much more peaceful to listen to a nice Vampire Mystery than kids fighting.

I have no funny kid anecdotes today because of this conversation after church:

Patrick or Bryce says something funny--I cannot remember which of the two said it or what they said, my brain has all drained out at this point but earlier today I laughed and said: Patrick or Bryce that was funny!
Anna says:
"How come you never say I am funny?" This is of course accompanied by her pouting and crossing her arms very dramatically.

And here is where I made my mistake, I said:
"Anna all my friends think you are very funny. I put the things you say on facebook and my friends laugh and laugh and they say 'hey! we need an Anna story!!! And I then say I also share the funny things you say Patrick. And Bryce you too.

Apparently they all want to be on stage. They are craving the limelight and for hours today they tried very hard to be funny. Which meant that I got to listen to lots and lots of poop jokes. Potty humor at its finest it was not!

this and that

So on the Tastefully Simple front I have officially earned my place for a free all-inclusive trip to Cancun in April 2010, which will be perfect as by the time April rolls around I am at my tired of cold weather wits end. Now once I add 1 more person to my team then I'll also have Tom's spot reserved which is even more perfect as I am at my wits end having Tom point out to me that I get to go on all kinds of travels for free or almost free because of my Tastefully Simple business. So yippee!

On the home front, the children made a mess and this is what Bryce told his brother and sister:
"you should both be ashamed of yourselves, you think it's a garbage can in here."

tell em bryce!

But the really funny thing today is from Patrick. Earlier today he said that he was going to make a spongebob shrine. I didn't take him seriously, but then I came home tonight to this in his room.

Vacation Pics!!

oh light a candle and say some prayers to your favorite diety (tongue in cheek)

Summer Vacation is here! Ack! wish me luck! (and a busy Tastefully Simple party schedule so I can spend some time with adults this summer!)

Yesterday was the last day of school. To celebrate me and the kiddos walked over to Kokos for lunch. This was a big deal for them because A. they think walking is fun. :-) and B. the only time we go to Kokos is when my parents visit--so it's only for special occasions. Lunch went very well, Anna only climbed under the table twice...and Patrick only talked one of the waitresses ears off.



When we arrrived back home we received in the mail not one but two FREEBIES! First we have a coupon, which I was nice enough to give to Patrick, for a free chocolate bar from Mars (dove, milky way, snickers, 3 musketeers, m&m or twix) They are giving away free chocolate coupons every FRIDAY at:

http://realchocolate.com

And then just in time for Anna's upcoming birthday BBQ a coupon good for one free package of any Oscar Mayer Franks! I think you can go get your free coupon at:

http://oscarmayer.com

The kids will enjoy theirs w/ketchup--ugh! But mine will definitely be topped with Tastefully Simple Cherry Honey Mustard Sauce. Yum! I am going to have to order a bunch of it w/my 36% off because, it's only back for June and July!

http://tastefullysimple.com

Jogging with Anna

yesterday before I ran, Anna begged to come with, so I took her around the block with me one time and then she was very upset that I was going back out to run. Why couldn't she come with, ah well Anna
1. I run to get some quiet time away from you kids (that was just in my head, I didn't actually tell her that one)
2. I'm going to run 6 miles, your not ready for that.

So she says what do I have to do to go the whole way with you. And I agreed to take her around the block twice today.

Anna is quite disappointed that I will not let her run in her flip flops. She feels they are more than adequate for running. I tell her, no gym shoes no running. Then she looks for a compromise by putting on silver flats given to her by the Mighty Maggie--all clothes and shoes from Maggie are the best! ATA (According to Anna). I say fine.

We head out for our jog, Anna is next to me running along and she says:

Mama, I look so cute jogging with these shoes on, I like to look down at them!


She is such the fashionista!

For the love of Pete

Oh for the love of Pete, Patti blogovich (sp?) is going to do that reality show since her narcassistic criminal husband can't leave the country. Those poor kids of theirs!

From the Kids...

They keep calling the concession stand at Bryce's baseball games:
The confession stand.
Catholic Church take note, I bet if you served hot pretzels with cheese and Icee drinks more people would go to confession...

I am just devastated (tongue in cheek)

So I have been following my money saving guru, Rachel of mashupmom.com. And so I have been taking advantage of great deals at Jewel. Since Jewel is more pricey than other options in my area such as Aldi, Fairplay, and Tony's, I don't get to do all my shopping there I have to pick and choose.

And now I will definitely be shopping my closest and favorite grocery store far less often. Why you ask? In the past Jewel has had 'catalina' deals based on the shelf not sale price. So for example this is the deal I was trying to get this week.

Purchase $25.00 in select Kraft products and receive $8 off your Easter Ham. So I purchased over $25 shelf priced participating Kraft products that were $18.18 after the preferred card discounts.

When I got to the check out, the $8 wasn't taken off. I said hold on! wheres my $8 off (not in those words but you get it) so the cashier got the manager who told me, the discount was a coupon for your next purchase. I said:
Oh No. I called and they said it wasn't a catalina deal (that is the machine that dispenses coupons for next purchases based on your current purchases). I was told it was spend $25 on the participating products and buy your ham at the same time and get $8.00 off a ham.

the manager suspended the sale and went over to her desk. Then came back a while later. and said my Kraft Purchases added up to $18.18. I said hold the phone, the total of purchased items goes off the shelf price not the sale price. And then she said.

"that was a glitch in the system and there should have never been catalinas given out off the shelf price, it was always supposed to be the sale price and now that is fixed."

Grrrrr. So now I would like to know if this is true for all locations or what. In any case I will be much less likely to go out of my way to get the best deal I can at Jewel. It's easier to skip all that and go elsewhere--

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

Unlike many people in the Chicagoland area, I do not like Corned Beef and Cabbage. Tom does and he made his own last night. I do however, greatly enjoy potatoes...so I am going to make this actually authentic Irish dish. I am going to really scale back on the butter the recipe calls for because 2 sticks is quite a lot!!! I'm using turkey bacon as well as that will cut out 45 minutes of cooking time for the ham. and for

From The Food Network:
Colcannon
Recipe courtesy Christabel Rossiter

Prep Time:
15 min
Inactive Prep Time:
hr min
Cook Time:
1 hr 45 min

Level:
Intermediate

Serves:
6 servings

Ingredients
3 pounds potatoes, scrubbed (I'm using red)
2 sticks butter (Im using lots less)
1 1/4 cups hot milk (I'm going w/skimmed milk)
Freshly ground black pepper
1 head cabbage, cored and finely shredded
1 (1-pound) piece ham or bacon, cooked the day before (I'm using Turkey Bacon)
4 scallions, finely chopped
Chopped parsley leaves, for garnish (I'm using Tastefully Simple spinach & herb for the garnish, just a little sprinkling of the green!)
Directions
Steam the potatoes in their skins for 30
minutes. Peel them using a knife and fork. Chop with a knife before mashing.. Mash thoroughly to remove all the
lumps. Add 1 stick of butter in pieces. Gradually add hot milk, stirring all the time. Season with a few
grinds of black pepper.

Boil the cabbage in unsalted water until it turns a darker color. Add 2 tablespoons butter to tenderize it.
Cover with lid for 2 minutes. Drain thoroughly before returning it to the pan. Chop into small pieces.

Put the ham in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes until
tender. Drain. Remove any fat and chop into small pieces.

Add cabbage, scallions, and ham to mashed potatoes, stirring them in gently.
Serve in individual soup plates. Make an indentation on the top by swirling a wooden spoon. Put 1 tablespoon
of butter into each indentation. Sprinkle with parsley.