The Goods

Tyler brought home so many goodies from school today that I was kind of jealous I missed out on the party. Today was a fun Friday, so besides all the valentines, the kids also had pizza and played a bunch of games. Sounds like fun to me!

I was impressed by all the fancy valentines they have these days. Tyler got one valentine that was a lacing card, another that folded into a paper airplane, and one that was a little sticker puzzle. I don't remember getting any stuff like that when I was a kid.

Tyler also brought home a gift for Rick and I. It's a heart he made using his hand prints...I love it!

While Tyler was away partying at school, I was at home waiting for a delivery from Sears. We ordered a new mattress last week for the guest bedroom and it was supposed to be delivered sometime this afternoon.

The delivery guys finally came around 2:30 and were actually pretty fast about hauling off our old mattress and replacing it with a shiny new one. Rick didn't waste any time trying out the new bed...apparently, it's nice and comfy.

For dinner tonight I made a Sandra Lee recipe for tilapia and edamame that was really good. We're not huge fish eaters, but this was a nice welcome change from the salmon I normally make. I'll definitely be making this one again.

Ready To Party

Tyler and I just finished putting together the rice krispy treat valentines for his class tomorrow. We ended up making 1-1/2 batches to accommodate the size of our heart shaped cookie cutter. Once we had 14 hearts cut out, it was time to bag them and attach the tags.

Tyler started out bagging the treats and putting on the twist ties, while I tied on the ribbon and tags. Then we switched jobs and Tyler took care of tying on the ribbon. Next thing I knew, he was cutting lengths of ribbon and leaving me to do the rest. Once he had all the ribbon cut, he was outta there and back to playing Sims on the computer. Aye! Boys!

They sure came out cute though! It's hard to tell from the picture, but the treats are a light shade of pink. Tyler and I are already planning to make some green shamrock treats next month, but for now we've got some pink scraps to eat up.

Hearts And Love

It's all about Valentine's Day this week. For dessert I made the monthly recipe from my Gooseberry Patch calendar, Brownie Cupcakes.

I baked them in festive heart muffin liners, but that was a mistake...they stuck to the paper like crazy. Other than that, they came out great! They were nice and fudgy, just as a traditional brownies should be.

While on the subject of chocolate, I also made some Chocolate Nut Biscotti.

The recipe for these came straight off a package of Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate. They have a little bit of espresso powder in them, so they smell divine and are great with my daily cup of coffee.

Tyler has also been hard at work in preparation for Valentine's Day. Well actually, not Valentine's Day, but his school party, which is happening this Friday.

We're making Valentine's for the 14 kids in his class. The plan is to make individual heart shaped rice krispy treats, package them in little baggies and attach a Valentine tag to each. He's been working on the tags...he's about halfway done. Tomorrow we'll get started on the rice krispy treats.

Saturday Crafts

This weekend, being the first weekend of the month, Tyler had two craft workshops to attend. Our first stop was at the Home Depot. The kids had the choice of making either a bean bag toss or a #20 race car shelf. Tyler chose the race car shelf....surprise, surprise.

We got there a little after 10:00 in the morning and it was kind of packed. I had to stand off to the side, as there wasn't much room at the tables. There weren't enough seats to go around either...and by seats, I mean upside down orange buckets, but Rick and Tyler seemed to manage just fine.

One project down and another pin for Tyler's apron.

Our next stop was at Ace Hardware to make a Valentine's Day gift bag. I was suggesting all kinds of things Tyler could fill it with and give to me, but he wasn't getting the hint. So instead I suggested that he use it as a lunch bag for school next week and he loved the idea. Since Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday this year, he's decided to take it to school on Friday. Sounds good to me.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to go to the park for the first time this winter. The highs have been near 50 degrees, so it's not so bad outside.

We stayed for about an hour until it was time to head back to the house and start cooking dinner.

Poor ducks! We didn't bring any bread.

Something Besides Food

Seems like I've been posting a lot about food lately, so I'm trying to do something different today. I've been hard at work in the scrapbooking room for the last few days and I have some new pages to show for it.

Speaking of the subject...ugh...our other scrapbooking store, Bella's is going out of business this month. That stinks so much I can't even get over it. So all we have left is Michael's, Joann's and The Craft Warehouse. At least The Craft Warehouse has a pretty decent scrapbooking section, so all is not completely lost. Still, I'm mad/sad about Bella's closing.

Here I used kraft cardstock and Cosmo Cricket patterned paper.

This one uses some Basic Grey paper from the Offbeat collection.

More Basic Grey....Urban Prairie.

Here I used a Making Memories kit I bought from http://www.peachycheap.com/. I also used my new Lyrical Letters Cricut cartridge for the letters.

That Looks Familiar

I stopped by the library this afternoon to pick up one of the Mr. Putter and Tabby books we had on hold. I surprised Tyler with it after I brought him home from school, and it was probably the highlight of his day. He couldn't wait to grab a seat and dig in. He loves getting new Mr. Putter and Tabby books from the library.

My favorite part is watching him grin when he opens the book to look at the pictures. There's nothing like seeing an honest to goodness real smile.

The first picture of the book is usually a random picture of Tabby. When he opened the book today, I thought, 'huh, that looks a little familiar'.

Maybe because Carmelita was sitting in the chair next to Tyler in almost the exact same manner. But instead of a paper bag, she was wrapped up all warm and cozy in Rick's snuggie. Hey, someone has to keep it warm while Rick's away at work!

Silly Little Rodent

I heard that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, which means we're in for six more weeks of winter. I guess he didn't hear that Yakima just had one of the warmest Januarys on record. Hmmm, I don't know if I can believe that silly rodent.

He sure is cute, though. But just in case, I've got the perfect plan to stay warm....get in the kitchen and start baking.

Last night Tyler was reading my Pillsbury muffin cookbook before bed, and he decided he wanted to make Orange Macadamia Nut Muffins. So after he got home from school today, that is just what we did.

I love that Tyler was working on his reading skills without even realizing it!

Get out...math skills, too! We cut the recipe in half and made only six muffins. Tyler was in charge of figuring out the calculations for that.

Once the muffins were in the oven, all we had to do was sit and wait.

The cookbook suggests drizzling the muffins with melted chocolate to make them special....that was my job. They came out very tasty, although we did substitute walnuts for the macadamia nuts.