H.O.T

All I can say is it was H.O.T today! I hope everyone was able to stay cool. I have to confess that we spent most of the day indoors since the temp easily reached 100 degrees. It was the kind of heat that when you stepped outside you felt like you could cut though the air with a knife, hot and humid. I unfortunately couldn't keep the troops happy indoors all day so I did what any mom would do in 100 degree weather...



Filled about 30 balloons with water and got out the water guns for a little fun.






In the shade with the water from the balloons and guns we were able to stay out for about 30 minutes until my children looked like they were going to pass out from heat exhaustion. We had a good time while it lasted!



Balloons anyone? Stay cool!

Our last outing...

Kevin took Tuesday off of work so that he could join us on our last day with Grammie and Papaw. We decided to take them out to Greenfield village for a little blast from the past.









It was a HOT day so we rode as much as we could and walked as little as possible. It was a sad day coming to an end knowing that Grammie and Papaw would be leaving to return home the next morning. Thank you for taking the time to spend with us, we had so much fun!

Fun with Grammie and Papaw

Uncle Curtis and Aunt Charlotte packed up and headed on their journey back to Texas on Monday morning. We were sad to see them go but knew we still had two more days of packed in fun with Grammie and Papaw. Kevin had to head back to work Monday morning so the kids and I took Grammie and Papaw to see the city of Ann Arbor Michigan, AKA the home of the University of Michigan. I had heard about the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum and Grammie and Papaw agreed that it sounded fun, so we headed that way. The kids thought it was spectacular!








Grammie thought it was a pretty fun place too...








No worries, Grammie has perfect peripheral vision. Papaw had some fun with Chase.












His attempt to completely brick Chase in was destroyed by one little sister.




No not this sweet little angel, she would never do such a thing (right!). After a busy morning of playing hard we unfortunately got caught in some pretty heavy rain getting us nice and soaked in time to grab some lunch in town. Even a little rain couldn't spoil the great time with had with Grammie and Papaw. Up next, our adventure to Greenfield village.

Happy Fathers day!

Happy Fathers day! Ok, so I know I am a little behind but we have been a little busy lately. We had a wonderful morning with Kevin at church and then headed home for some more quality time.






You can't have presents without lots of help from little hands.



Kevin got some sweet snuggle time with the kids. We are so thankful to have such a wonderful Daddy and husband to lead our family. Thank you Kevin for being a man of God. For being an example for our children and a loving husband. We are so blessed! We were also blessed this fathers day to have Papaw here with us. When he arrived he was attacked by the kids to open presents.



Kevin swept Papaw and Uncle Curtis away to a car show and dinner out and had an amazing time. I hope everyone else had a good day celebrating the Dad's in their lives!

Growing so fast

I really can not believe how fast time flies by. Chase is going to be 4 this year and Leah is going to be 2 years old. We have lived in Michigan for a little over 1 year and have a little less than a year left here. With time quickly sneaking away, Friday evening we decided it was time to change Leah's crib into a toddler bed. It was a family affair...









Of course after it was all together it had to be tried out by everyone...






I know those are truck sheets. It is the curse of being the second child. I can't believe our little baby is a big girl sleeping in her big girl bed. It is just another reminder to me of how fast this time will go by and makes me squeeze my little ones a little bit tighter. Night night everyone!

Round 2 with the McMahan's

Last Friday Grammie and Papaw returned from their trip to the northern beauties of Michigan and brought some guest with them...



Kevin's Uncle Curtis and Aunt Charlotte. They traveled all the way from Texas just to see us! Well, OK they had heard/read about the beauty of Michigan's Traverse Bay area so they took this opportunity to travel up north and then took the time to stop and see us. They of course came bearing goodies for the kids.






Chase loves his John Deer tractor and hat!



Our little girly girl loves her tippy toad purse. Thank you Uncle Curtis and Aunt Charlotte! Aunt Charlotte was volunteered by Chase to bathe and get the kids ready for bed. Luckily she was up for the job.






Saturday Morning the girls and Chase headed down to the farmers market.


Grammie had found Leah a "pretty" as she calls it while they were visiting up north.


Saturday night Grammie and Papaw kindly stayed with the kids while Kevin and I enjoyed a peaceful dinner out with Uncle Curtis and Aunt Charlotte. Thank you! It was so nice to have some quality time with them. On Sunday the kids received early birthday presents from Uncle Curtis and Aunt Charlotte.






Leah got the cutest doll table and chairs but it took her awhile to understand that it was for her dolls and not for her. Chase got lots of fun Cars themed play-dough and was more than ready to try it out.



I think everyone was having fun trying out the new play-dough. Thank you Uncle Curtis and Aunt Charlotte for taking the time to spend with us and for all the wonderful gifts!

Chocoholics beware

If you are looking for a super rich cake I have a recipe for you to try, its called a Hershey Bar Cake. If you are a chocoholic just the name of this cake should perk your interest. I personally am not a huge chocolate fan so this cake is not for me but Kevin has enjoyed every bite along with his mom who was just here visiting. It wins no awards for being diet friendly, your arteries will probably clog just reading this blog post.






First using your double boiler melt 6 hershey's chocolate bars in 1 can of hershey's chocolate syrup. While the chocolate cools...



cream 2 cups of sugar with 2 sticks of butter. Next add 4 eggs one at a time and beat well. Mix in cooled chocolate. Mix 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.


Alternatively, add 1 cup of buttermilk and flour mixture. Mix in 2 teaspoons vanilla. This yummy mixture is then backed at 300 degrees for 1-1 1/4 hours in a lightly greased and floured bunt pan. I din't manage to get a picture of the full completed project so my half eaten cake will have to do.


I guess since it is nearly gone it must have been alright. I was a bad baker and neglected to make a frosting to complement my treat and I know that I would have liked it much better with something vanilla to cut some of the chocolate flavor. Happy baking.

Hershey Bar Cake

2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
4 eggs
1 can hershey's chocolate syrup
6 plain hershey's bars

melt chocolate bars and syrup over low heat using double boiler. cream sugar and butter, add eggs one at a time. beat well and add cooled chocolate. add flour and milk alternatively. add vanilla and mix well. bake 1-1 1/4 hours at 300 degrees in lightly greased and floured bunt pan.

Can we say spoiled

Last Saturday night after our long day of fun with Grammie and Papaw Kevin and I headed home with just Leah. Chase was getting to "camp" out with Grammie and Papaw. One day soon when Chase really gets to go camping he is going to ask where his flat screen TV is and where is king size bed.



He had a quite a cozy spot to sleep between Grammie and Papaw and enjoyed some games on the iPad. I am not too sure anyone got much sleep that night. The next morning they had a yummy french toast breakfast and then headed out for some more fun.


The campground had a full miniature golf course so Chase got to go for the first time.



He even got a hole in one. He had no idea what an accomplishment that was but he had a wonderful time. Of course after a round of putt putt you have to get ice cream, right?



It was quite a weekend for Chase full of activity and loving spending time with Grammie and Papaw.

BAD DOG!

You probably know where this post is going with the title but I will continue on with the story. Last night we needed to run a few last minute errands in preparation for our incoming company,so we decided to head to target when Kevin got home from work. Knowing that we would be pushing the kids on dinner and bedtime I planned ahead and prepared a pan of sloppy joes to reheat when we got home for a quick dinner. Pretty smart, right? Well I thought I was smart until we came home to find this...



The empty frying pan is where the sloppy joes were before we left and you can see some of the residue all over the floor. By now you have probably guessed that our dog managed to jump up and pull the pan off the stove and helped himself to ALL of our dinner. BAD DOG! Needless to say we did not have sloppy joes for dinner. The kids had left overs and Kevin picked up a pizza, good old comfort food for us once the kids were in bed.

They are here!

Summer is finally here along with the hot weather and guess who else is here...






its Grammie and Papaw. They arrived Friday evening and of course did not come empty handed.









Thanks Grammie and Papaw for all the great presents! After dinner the kids picked on Papaw until bedtime.



Luckily for Papaw he has his "home away from home" RV to retreat to for a good nights sleep before a full day of grandkid attacks. Saturday morning Grammie and Papaw joined us for breakfast. While the girls headed to the farmers market, the boys headed outside to check out the wind.






I don't think the wind was fully cooperating but they did manage to get a kite flying for a while. After flying his kite Chase was ready to go over to Grammie and Papaws place to play. We loaded up and headed to camp Dearborn for the day. We had an action packed day of swimming...







playing in the lake...






Kayaking...



we of course threw the kids in the middle of the lake and took a little adult break....





After Kayaking Chase learned what "roughing it" is all about.






Nothing like a little Scooby Doo on your flat screen TV in your air conditioned home on wheels to learn all about camping. He got a little closer to the camping feel when he moved outside to watch his Scooby Doo.



We did manage to "red neck" up the place with our bathing suit christmas tree...


After a little bit of down time and a yummy dinner, we ventured out to try our hand at some fishing.








Who knew Grammie was a worm girl.






Sadly the fish were smarter than we were and managed to eat most of our worms and not get captured. We still had fun trying and the water was so clear that the kids had fun watching the fish eat our worms. After fishing it was time to head home for the night. Chase was going to continue roughing it with Grammie and Papaw for the night. Thank for a fun filled day!