Month: October 2010

Barbie extravaganza………

Well…the time finally came…..the time that you dread in every young girl’s life….Barbie time!  We had been holding it off for a long time…but it finally arrived…River loves Barbie and wanted the Barbie Dream House in her room!

We spent about two hours the other day lugging the Barbie Dream House up from the basement….it was very dirty and dusty…so we had to put all the furniture in the tub…River was in charge of cleaning the furniture..and she did a great job.  Then I got to break the house apart and put all those pieces in the tub and scrub them clean…….

After everything was re-assembled in River’s room……River arranged all the furniture just the way she wanted it and played with the Barbies for about two hours!! I guess Barbie isn’t so bad after all!

Share the Love week…..

So, this week, I am involved in a really cool thing over at 3 boys and a Little lady……Emily and her family are in the process of adopting a little girl from Africa…..a little girl named elisabeth.   They are trying to raise money for the adoption…so Emily is having  a give-away….to raise donations…….you must go check it out!  I donated an item to the All Boy bundle (a custom woolie!!)…so I’m a bit partial to that one..but feel free to go over and browse all the bundles and donate for the giveaway!!  And while you’re over there…take a look at her incredible blog!!

Homemade poptarts…..

I read a blog called This Mamma makes Stuff and  once I saw this post about homemade poptarts…I knew I had to make them!  The original homemade poptart recipe that Carrie used was from  smitten kitchen.  (I’m not going to include the recipe..since it is quite long and involved..but if you click on the smitten kitchen link, you’ll find it!)  So, this weekend, we gave it a try…it was a lot of fun and really easy.  For fillings, we made strawberry jam (homemade from my mother-in-law!), chocolate and cinnamon brown sugar!  They were incredibly delicious.  They didn’t turn out at pretty as the ones from the other websites…but that’s okay..we had so much fun making them.  If I make them again, I might try a different dough recipe….and I’ve been told that I should also put icing on them!

River takes the camera….

Today’s post is brought to you by River….after art class…on the walk home..I gave her my camera and let her take photos.  Whenever we used to go on long bike rides..we used to let Tuesday and Quinn take photos..along the way.  I always loved looking at the photos the took….a different perspective.  River was so excited to get to take photos!  She had a great time.

Happy Weekend!

Embrace the Camera….

So, I’ve been following Emily and her blog, 3 boys and a little lady…..and every Thursday she does a post called Embrace the Camera…so this week I’ve decided to play along.  For some reason, River was not in a picture taking mood..so I had to bribe her with candy corn!  I got inspired by Ashley, over at The Domestic Wannabe, to take mirror photos…..they turned out okay..but it was slightly overcast and, as I stated, River was not in a cooperative mood!  I will have to give it another try next week!

Edie’s Fashion Factory……blog….

Okay..I just found a totally cool blog…or should I say…it found me…..Edie’s Fashion Factory.  She did a great post today about dying Ugg boots with Rit dye…and used my blog post!!  How cool is that!  The blog is all about Rit Dye and has “fun tutorials, technical tips and tons of colorful explorations.”  It is a fun site to click around and find inspirations!

Brioche in the bread machine…..

So, this week I decided to try to make a sweet bread.  I had never had brioche before, so I had nothing to compare the recipe to.  I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com…which is a site I love for recipes.    There were some suggestions for tweaking the recipe a bit…..so I gave it a try!  The recipe took a lot of eggs!!  But it made a huge loaf of bread!  While it was cooking, it tasted so delicious!  We were all excited to give it a try while it was still warm out of the oven!

And we weren’t disappointed..it was delicious…warm with a little bit of butter!  The next day Christopher made french toast with it….it was incredibly absorbent..and required a lot more eggs…but delicious and filling!  River ate it the rest of the week for breakfast.  Overall, I loved this recipe and will definitely make it again!

French Brioche

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • ¾ cups butter, softened
  • ¾  teaspoon salt
  • 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Optional:

  • 1 egg white
  • 2 tablespoons water

Directions

  1. Place the first seven ingredients in bread machine in order suggested by your manufacturer. Select sweet bread, dough cycle.
  2. Turn finished dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead 5 to 10 times. Separate into 2 or 3 pieces. Roll with hands into strips. Braid or twist strips together. Place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Set aside to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  4. Optional:  Whisk together 1 egg white and the water. Brush onto the top of the loaf.
  5. Bake in the preheated oven until deep golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Layla…..

So, this past weekend we got to go to The Seeing Eye in Morristown, NJ.  My mother-in-law is in the process of getting her first seeing eye dog!!  It is an incredibly complicated process…but she is near the end.  We were all so excited to visit her at the Seeing Eye campus, where she is staying during her training…and meet her new friend….her Seeing Eye dog…Layla…

Layla is a two year old Labrador Retriever.  She is incredibly gentle and kind.  The Seeing Eye is an incredible place that gives people, who are visually impaired, the chance to gain independence and a sense of security with their new companion.  It was great to finally get to visit the campus and meet all the different people who volunteer their time and who are part of the program.  We can’t wait until Layla and Gram come back home!!