Death by Chocolate

I have been in a Cooking Group for almost a year and I finally decided it was my turn to host. Each month there is a different theme from cheese, to healthy foods to BBQ side dishes, breakfast foods etc. Well since it is February and let's face it, I love chocolate, I decided to do a Death by Chocolate night. It was so much fun and there were so many yummy treats, but best of all some fun recipes to try out.

I made peppermint patties that, I am not kidding taste just like the real thing, which is dangerous for me since that is by far, my all time favorite treat.

I also made some Mexican hot chocolate, so good and with a perfect little kick of cayenne pepper, love it.


I have put together a blog for the group, so if you want check it out and see all the recipes you can find it at www.tfcooks.blogspot.com.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! What a fun holiday this is. A few years back , I got a great idea from, ironically, an ex-boyfriend's wife, to decorate the breakfast table in a cute valentine way. I love doing it and putting the emphasis on just simply celebrating love in a family.

Sleepy eyed- Elise!

Mollie loving her pink dinosaur!

Reagan thought the referee was a lot better than a pink stuffed animal like the girls got.

The kids were so fun, and made it all worth it. Can't get enough accolades from them. We had pink pancakes, a few I even shaped into hearts,
and then they got to just enjoy the goodies. I love their sleepy little eyes, and the smiles we got when they saw the table.

The kids heading out for a fun-filled day of candy and valentines.

Elise and Mollie in their matching Valentine's day shirts, so cute!

After the 2 older kids had left for school, Mollie and I were cleaning up and she said: "Mom, that wonderful breakfast was just lovely, I just had to tell you that!" Aaaaaawwww! Melt my heart. What a doll, so much fun when the kids get in to it.


I love Valentine's Day!

Why blog?

I am trying to decide why I blog? Is it for journaling purposes, is it to stay connected with friends and family, is it for feedback in the comments, is it a combination of all of the above or just because blogging is there? I do things and often my first thought is, "I should blog that." Then I think, why, who cares?

When I journal on the Internet is it truly journaling, or do I only put in the pretty stuff? Ya, I keep it pretty, but it's not that I don't want to remember some of the bumps, it's more I don't know who is reading this and I don't know if I want the world to read about everything in my life, that's a scary thought.

So, here is my question, why blog? What's the payback?

Winner, winner, chicken dinner, or a set of books

Recently Reagan and his class entered a contest with Scholastic. The prompt was: Draw a picture and write one paragraph explaining what Mike Thayer (author of the Black Lagoon series) would do if he came to your school for a day as if from the black lagoon series? This is what Reagan entered.



(Click on the letter to see it bigger if you want to read it, pretty cool, I think, but I am a little biased, I'm the mom, it's what I do)

There was one Grand Prize winner and then 10 runner's up nationwide. Reagan was one of the 10 runners up, so he won 2 sets of the Black Lagoon book series, one for himself and one for his classroom. We were pretty excited. His teacher took him around the school today to present his story and tell all the classes what he had done. She was pretty proud of him too. She is a phenomenal teacher, and ironically, she was EJ's 4th grade teacher, back in the day.

It's gotta be a family

I have to do a blog post about Mollie's obsession with families because I think it is about the sweetest thing I have ever seen. It has been a couple years now since she has been playing this way and I am fascinated that she still continues to organize her toys into families. She first started with all the toys that were one color which might include a pink doll, a pink crayon, pink shoes, pink stamps, whatever, but they would have to all be together. She has done this with spoons, she will gather up spoons of all sizes, plastic, toy, sterling silver, you name it and assign different family roles to them. Of course, the biggest is always the dad and it goes from there. There is always a dad, mom, kids and a baby. It ranges from spoons, to hairbrushes, sticks, pine cones, stuffed animals, crackers, pencils; you name it.

There have been occasions where I will be cleaning and tucked away neatly somewhere I will find one of her little families "put to bed".

For her birthday, she wanted a family of penguins, so she got some from her grandma Larsen and we have added a few since then. Anyway, I think it is adorable and it warms my heart that it is such a focus in her play. Here are a few samplings of her families, I have been collecting pictures of them for a while.