The Painted Palace

A group of us went out last night to The Painted Palace. It's one of those sip and paint places where you get one complimentary drink and paint a picture led by an instructor. I had so much fun and can't wait to do this again. The only problem is there are so many great picture to choose from! Mine turned out pretty good. Now I just need to decide where to hang it in the house.

Starting off with a blank canvas. I was a little nervous if I'd be able to pull this off and create something that looked half-way decent.

 Ok....so far so good!

 Anne and Kyra's paintings....the fun part about all of this is we're all painting the same picture, yet each one ends up different. 

 My painting! Not bad. There are some parts of it I wish I'd done differently, but that's how everyone felt about their own. 

 The group that evening posing for a Facebook pic

 And then our little group: Me, Anne, Kyra and Luzia. 

Easter

We had a nice, low-key Easter this year. My family came up to visit for the afternoon. I made up a big batch of lasagna for lunch. Here are the boys eating at the "kiddie" table with Uncle Roddy and their cousins Riley and Conner

 After lunch all the boys were playing downstairs when Conner fell in the pile of Legos. He ended up putting a small dent in his forehead. Uncle Peter came to the rescue!

 I told Conner if he stopped crying and allowed Uncle Peter to fix his owie, that I'd give him a popsicle. This picture makes him look so sad, but I promise he was all smiles between pics :)

 For dessert Peter made White Trash Chocolate Eclairs. We only make this once in a while for get-togethers, so I always forget how amazingly delicious this is.

 Kids squeezed in some game time with Grandma and Grandma Jane before having to head home.

Later that evening after family left, I got in and made a small dinner. I realized I never took an Easter pic of my boys, so I took a few quick ones before we ate. 

 Easter Dinner: Pork Roast, Mash Potatoes, Asparagus and Bread. YUM!

Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt, Potluck Dinner.....and a Hospital Trip?!

This past Saturday we were invited over to Jon & Halley (and their son Bob's) house for their annual flashlight Easter egg hunt and potluck dinner. We were the first to show up, followed by another guy (named John) with his two kids. So we're all just chit chatting in the kitchen as Halley finishes up her food dishes and Jon works on arranging the drink station. All of a sudden, we hear a loud POP from Jon opening the champagne bottle. It makes everyone jump and look over at him. Jon has a funny look on his face and he's still gripping the neck of the bottle. He takes his hand away, but keeps it in a fist. At this point, everyone starts to notice the little bit of blood on the top of his hand and blood droplets on the wood floor! Jon and Peter immediately walk over to the sink to look at rinsing the hand and inspect the cut. Peter took one look, turned off the water from the sink and said "nope, close your fist back up, we're going to the hospital". And off they went!! They were gone four hours (!) and Jon ended up with 12 stitches! Poor guy. (Upon further inspection of the champagne bottle, it was clearly a manufacturing defect)

Poor Jon!

Meanwhile, while Peter and Jon are at the hospital, the rest of the guests arrive for the party. Us moms sat in the living room to chat away while all the kids ran about playing. Halley was trying to wait on dinner until the guys got back, but the hours kept ticking away, so we finally ate. The food was amazing (Halley is an amazing cook, so you never leave hungry or disappointed). Once it was dark enough outside, the kids did their Easter egg hunt. There were soooo many eggs! I think it took everyone 30 minutes just to empty out all their eggs. I believe it was after 9 pm when dessert made it's way out. Around that time Jon and Peter finally made it back home. The night continued on with more conversation, kids running around playing, and Halley making all the kids cotton candy (she bought her son a machine for Xmas...and we're not talking some small counter-top thing!). It was after 1 am when Peter and I decided we needed to start heading home. It was a great party and we had such a great time!

Since Halley knows I like to bake, she asked that I bring dessert. So I whipped up my Vanilla Rich Chip Cake and some cute Easter cookies for the kids.

 Potluck Dinner

Mixing up the Easter Eggs before the hunt. There were so many the kids could practically swim in the pile!

 Making the kids pose for pics

 And the hunt is on!

 The boys with their loot

 Midnight snack anyone?!

 It was after 1 am when Clifford finally past out on their couch. I guess it was his hint to us that it was time to leave.

 And here he is passed out on our couch with his teddy bear. So sweet!

Easter Peeps Cupcakes

Are you ready for Easter on Sunday? We are!

I've been eyeing these cupcakes on Pinterest, so I finally got in today and made them. I even made my own sugar sprinkles (so easy!!!). The cupcakes look so cute.....but I can only imagine how sweet they are. Peter and boys will each get one, and the rest are headed to work tomorrow with Peter!

Root Beer, Anyone?

Recently Clifford watched a video on YouTube on how to make a giant gummy soda. He's been hounding us for weeks to purchase the items so he could make one. So on Saturday Clifford tagged along with Peter to run an errand, and while they were out they bought a bottle of root beer and a box of gelatin. After reviewing the video, Clifford got in to make his gummy creation. Peter assisted in a few spots, but otherwise Clifford did majority of the work. After all was said and done, it looked pretty good. Clifford posed for a few pictures for me before taking a bite into it. Unfortunately, he didn't care too much for the taste :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We started our morning off having a magically delicious breakfast!

While the kids were at school, I tried making the kitchen table look festive.

Next I whipped up some cupcakes for an after-school treat.

 (a few days ago I also made some Leprechaun Bait [sugar cookies] and Thin Mint cupcakes as an early celebration treat)

For dinner, we tried a new recipe: Kielbasa, Sauerkraut and Potatoes

Lastly, we sipped on St. Patrick's Day Floats.

(lime sherbet and lemon lime soda)