First day of school! Yahoooo

Sweet freedom! School has started and I don't know who is more excited my kids or me. This is the first year that I don't have kids at home. It has been lovely if I do say so myself! A couple weeks before spencer, payton, aaron and mady started, cameron started high school. I think i was more nervous than he was. He wouldn't let me walk him into high school. I would have loved to walk him to his first class and give him a smoochy, but he didn't go for that. I got the "I love you mama!" And it was very quietly whispered as he got out of the car! 2 Weeks later the other 4 started. When I asked them if they needed me to walk them to the back they all said "no mom we are good!" I was shocked. I was a stark difference from when aaron started kindergarten. He refused to go to school. As flag ceremony started his kindergarten teacher pryed his hands off my leg and I took off running for the car. I laugh about it now, but seriously at the time it was most annoying to have the only child screaming his head off yelling for me. I jumped in the car dukes of hazzard style and took off. I wanted to yell out the window "Bye sucker", but that may have been too much and maybe a little dramatic! Nontheless this year was a lot better than that. Mady didn't even want me to take her to her line. I was a proud mom watching my kids walk off by themselves. It is great to see my kids having the confidence to do things on their own. Not needing me to hold their hand every step of the way. It was a great first day of school!!!

Bills birthday

The same weekend as aaron's birthday we had Bill (my father in law) come up for his birthday. He went to chuckee cheese with us. I think he had fun. After that we came home and he let Aaron and mady paint his nails. He was quite a good sport. He also had a treasure hunt. We had his favorite dinner which is biscuits and gravy. He also requested a chocolate cake. When i suggested the 4 layer chocolate cake that my family loves he agreed that would be a good choice. He stayed with us for the weekend. I also gave him a birthday haircut. He was set for the weekend.
Bye the way, we got to listen to him play the guitar and sing. He sounds exactly like Johnny cash. Mady loves sitting on the floor and listening to him sing. He does a great job of it.

Aaron boy had his 9th birthday! yahoooo

We had another birthday in our house. In fact the month of august is quite busy in our house with birthdays. We have one every week the entire month of august. Its a busy birthday month. Aaron wanted to go to chuckee cheese this year for his birthday. He was quite excited about that. He got to pick one friend to go with us. He also wanted to have an omlet for breakfast and his very own treasure hunt. After all that we went to chuckee cheese. He also wanted to do Bahama bucks after the pizza. I would have thought that that was too much but he loved it. At bahama bucks he got to have a snowball fight. That is something they do. It's kind of fun and my kids love it. That is the only snow they get all year long! He said he had a great birthday and he was a happy kid when he went to bed that night!

Oh no another Teenager!!!

My spencee turned 13. I have another teenager in my house. He had a good birthday with family. We are still trying to figure out a day to have his "big 13th birthday party". We had a planned a couple of days that friends couldn't come on. So sometime this month we are taking him and his friends to fiddle sticks. He is looking forward to it. It has go-carts, bumper boats, golf stuff, arcade games, food. It's just kind of a fun little place to go. Especially for boys!!!
He got to pick what he wanted for breakfast and dinner. We had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and he requested spaghetti with bread. He also got to pick his favorite cake which is the chocolate cake that is 4 layers and in between the layers is shaved chocolate bar and whipping cream. It is quite yummy!

My little sugy turned 6!

My little mady turned 6 in August. She was pretty specific with what she wanted to do for her birthday. She wanted just a couple of friends to come. She wanted to go swimming and have nachos for her birthday. She wanted to frost her own cupcakes and have a treasure hunt. So. we did all that. She had 2 friends come to her party. We went swimming for about an hour. When we got home she and her friends went on a treasure hunt in the house. They thought it was great fun. What they found was all the makings for the cupcakes and a little extra. They made nachos and had fun making their own cupcakes. The colors were pretty interesting. But they had a blast!

Recipe/ lemon Bars

Here is the recipe for Lemon bars. I love these cold. They DO NOT taste good right out of the oven. Don't eat them warm. For some reason they taste really yucky and gooey right from the oven. Let them cool down and them put them in the fridge. Enjoy.

Lemon bars
1 C. Butter
1/2 C. powdered sugar
2 C. flour

Mix well. I actually use my blender to mix these ingredients. You could also use a pastry mixer. I just like how the blender mixes it so well. And this dough tastes soooo yummy. You have to grab a little pinch.
K. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. While it is in the oven mix together the following ingredients.

4 eggs- beaten well.
2 C. sugar
1/4 C. flour
6 T. lemon juice/ I will also do half the lemon juice and half real live lemons. Don't steel them from your neighbors. You will have guilt! And it's kind of pretty if you grate a little lemon peel in to the mixture. It makes the lemon taste more intense. It's also good with just the lemon juice. Try it!

Pour this on top of the crust right out of the oven and then put it back in on 350 degrees for 25 minutes. When it's done, dust it with powdered sugar! They look so tempting to eat right now but DON"T DO IT!!! Cool the little suckers down and then put them in the fridge. They are devine.

Recipe/Oatmeal fudge bars

Don't let the name of this recipe fool you. They are to die for. I don't make them often for obvious reasons! There is a lot of fat in them and i don't want my butt jiggling anymore than what it already does! Cameron has been requesting these for the last week. I haven't been feeling all that great lately so today I figured, suck it up and make them. These little puppies are helping my children get their homework done right now and baths taken early! See what power these bars have!!!The power of the bar!!!
Oatmeal Fudge bars

This recipe comes from The Lion House christmas recipes cookbook

1 C. margarine or butter (of course i use butter. wouldn't use anything else!)
2 C. Brown sugar
2 Eggs
2 Teaspoons good vanilla
2 1/2 C. flour
1 Teaspoon Baking soda
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 1/2 C. quick-cooking oats
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 12-oz package semisweet chocolate chips(DO NOT USE MILK CHOCOLATE!)
1/4 C. margarine or you guessed it BUTTER
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 C. chopped walnuts (i have never put these in them) Optional
cream margarine or butter and brown sugar; add eggs and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt; add to creamed mixture. Mix in oatmeal. In heavy saucepan mix sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and margarine or butter and heat till just melted. Stir in vanilla and nuts. Spread 2/3 of the cookie dough into 9x13-inch greased baking pan. Spread the chocolate mixture on top of cookie dough. Drop (i do little spoonfuls of dough)remaining 1/3 dough on top. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes. Cool; then cut into bars. Makes 36 bars.