Baseball in the Desert Tournament

Jens had a tournament in Las Vegas over Easter weekend. My kids were thrilled to go over Easter. They swam in the pool, went bowling, played at the parks and soaked up the sunshine ~ meanwhile back at home it was snowing!

I took the kids down on the strip a couple times. We went to New York, New York and road the roller coaster and played at their "Coney Island".

We went to M&M world and spent a small fortune on M&M's.

Jeff and I went out and had dinner one evening with our good friends, the Martin's who live there. Then Jeff and I went with Jeff's parents to see Jersey Boy's while we were there. It was a great trip!

The Dawgs ended up taking third place. Not bad considering it was single elimination and there were about 40 teams. But I'm a pessimist I guess because I am still wondering why we didn't take FIRST PLACE!

I'm amazed at how much, over the years I have come to love every single boy on this team. My heart breaks for them when they fail and I am one proud mama for them when they succeed. I am really going to miss spending time with all of them when this season is over. I just hope that all of them make the high school baseball team next year. All of their parents are great! They have raised fine young men. I'm so glad that Jens has good friends.

Easter

Easter came a week early for us this year. Jens had a baseball tournament in Las Vegas over Easter and I simply refused to let the Easter Bunny show up in our hotel room.

I love Easter. It's my most favorite holiday.

My Annual Easter Egg Hunt

This is what 942 EGGS looks like.

The hunting rug rats.

If only I could figure out how to make my kids clean their toys up just as fast as they can clean the eggs off the lawn.

Cade was all excited because he was one of the 15 winners this year. He won a giant chocolate bunny. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of it.

Alivia and Molly didn't care that they weren't winners because they found "golden" eggs.

L O V E this party!

Grasshopper Mint Cookies

I found this recipe and couldn't wait to make them, well actually Sidney made them. (My 12 year old is one awesome baker!) AND YES they are as yummy as they look! They are also soooo simple! And what a perfect St. Patrick's Day cookie!

COOKIE

One chocolate cake mix box ~ Don't follow the box directions

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

*Mix all together and roll into 1 inch size balls. Bake on 350 for 6 to 9 minutes. Don't over bake!

FROSTING

1 stick butter - room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract

*Mix all together and spread on top of cooled cookies

CHOCOLATE GANACH

2 cups chocolate chips (semi sweet will be more rich than milk chocolate. I mixed the two for the perfect richness!)

1 stick butter

*Melt together in a double boiler or melt together in a glass bowl in the microwave. Start out at 30 seconds, take out and stir. Continue at 30 second intervals, stirring in between until all the chips melt with the stirring. Spoon a drop full over the top of the frosting.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Okay................. I SERIOUSLY need to stay away from Pinterst because I am sure to gain 40 pounds if I keep finding mouth watering recipes like this one! This cinnamon roll cake was warm and delicious! I loved every. single. bite. I mixed 1/2 a cup of butter in my glaze and made it just a little thicker. This came out of the oven and it smelled soooo good! I couldn't wait to glaze it and devour it. I poured the glaze on a little too early. The cake was still warmish/hot. But the glaze melted all down inside it and it was moist and dense. Just the way I like cake!

CAKE

3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup butter - melted

*Mix all the ingredients together except the butter. After it is all mixed, slowly add the butter and pour into a 9x12 greased baking pan.

TOPPING

1 cup butter - room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

*Mix all together and drop spoonfuls into the cake batter. Swirl around with a knife. Bake on 350 degrees for 28-32 minutes.

GLAZE

2 cups powdered sugar

4 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

*While the cake is still warm, drizzle over the top of the cake.

Simple St. Patrick's Day banner

I love to decorate for the holidays. Each and every holiday. (Well almost every holiday. I don't decorate for Cinco de Mayo, but that's about it.) My kids are always asking why we always have to change the decorations. They mainly complain because I make them help me carry the bins of decorations up and down from the basement. This year when I was setting up my St. Patricks Day stuff I decided that I needed a banner. So I just whipped one up! Well, "whipped up" might be overstated. It took me about an hour and a half is more like it.

I went to the local scrapbook store and bought some paper with wording on it. You could even use old books pages if you wanted, or sheet music. I used a triangle shape to trace and cut the paper out. You could also make the shape square or rectangular. I stuck them together with glue dots and used a circle shape to cut the four leaf clover paper and the green paper out. I glued them together and glued them to the word paper. I stuck cheap "lucky" and clover stickers on them that I bought from Walmart for 97 cents each and put some gold glitter paint on the edges. I used eyelets for the ribbon to weave through but an even simpler idea would be to just fold the paper over the ribbon and staple it on.

I have bought banners in the past and spent around $18 - $20 on them. I made this little baby for a little over $8.00 and I liked it just as well as my other "store bought" ones.

Pizza Pasta Bake

I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it looked so good that I just had to make it. I swear that I am going to gain 400 pounds from some of the recipes on there. The only down side of this recipe was the preparation time. Simply because you have to brown the meat and boil the noodles and then layer it all and then bake it. But it is so yummy that you won't mind the prep time.

You will need:

*Rigatoni noodles (or wide egg noodles or whatever kind you like)

*Pizza Sauce (I used two 14ounce jars)

*Pepperoni

*Sausage (I used Italian flavored. You could use plain or even ground beef)

*Mozzarella Cheese (I use about 3 cups, but you could use more or less)

*Olives

*I didn't use green pepper but it would have been really good too!

Brown your sausage and boil your noodles.

Then pour one jar of pizza sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 dish.

Then sprinkle half your meat over that.

Then put half of your cooked noodles over that.

Then sprinkle half your cheese on top. Then top with the pepperoni and olives.

Repeat all the layers one more time.

Bake on 350 for 30 minutes covered. Then take the foil off and bake for another 15 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it stand for about 10-15 minutes. This will not only let it cool a little but it will help it set up. If you just dig right into it, it will run all over.