10 Years Later

Today was Kevin's 10 Beauregard High School reunion! We had a fun time at the Opelika Municipal "Monkey" Park. I had to explain to Carter that there wouldn't be any monkeys there.

We had a good time with old friends. It was fun to see people we hadn't seen in 10 years - especially since we were dating at the time he graduated back in 2003 - I wish I could find a picture of us then to post now. I have one, but it's in storage :) That's my excuse for everything right now! Here are some pictures from the day at the park.

Class of 2003

...and their families...

Senior Basketball Team Members

We had fun riding the Rockybrook Rocket! We rode this train as kids :) I'm pretty excited that our new home is walking distance away from this park!!!

Choo Choo! 

The last 10 years has been SO FULL of wonderful memories, here's to 10 more years!

Botanical Gardens Playdate

We went to the Botanical Gardens the other day with our playgroup. My camera battery didn't last too long, but I was able to capture some pretty fun memories...

Looking at the birds...poor birds didn't know what had just happened by the time we came and went :)

Then we got to help release the Monarch butterflies in the butterfly house!!! 

This was SO NEAT! Do you see the envelopes full of butterflies above? You opened up the envelope, and they came out and sat really still for a while until they warmed up and flew away. The kids loved it!!!

Carter had a friend on his shoulder for a long time. He was fascinated. Love his sweet face!

Miles tried desperately to get his hands on some butterflies...I tried desperately to save the butterflies :)

We saw turtles.

We got to pet box turtles.

Walked under waterfalls.

Hopped on stepping stones, and YES - ended up in that water :)

We rode see-saws.

The rest of the gardens were filled with the theme "Giant Garden, Little Me." There were really big things to see and play in. I got a few more pictures, but we have to go back sometime with a full camera battery! It was such a fun day.

Enjoying a fun day with my two buddies.

Duck Pond

The other day, we headed over to the UAH duck pond with Ava Grace and her mommy. We had such a good time feeding the ducks, geese, and turtles!

These ducks and geese were NOT shy! 

Carter REALLY wanted to touch the ducklings!

 

They retreated to their mommy where they were safe. 

Carter thought the bread was tasty. 

We had a great time! 

Sewing for a Girl

So my friends have baby boys - almost exclusively! It's so crazy. I think we are starting a little army sometimes. However, 1 out of the 5 babies due this Spring/Summer in our Sunday School class is a little girl!!! Woohoo! Little Baylee is going to have her pick of the boys - that's for sure! I had so much fun this week sewing a few things for her baby shower. I prayed for Baylee, her mommy & daddy, the delivery, post-partum adjustments - all that fun stuff as I was making these little girly things. We can't wait to meet you, Baby Baylee! Here are the things I made along with links to the tutorials!

Burp Cloth

Bloomers / "Diaper Cover"

Ruffle Butt Onesie

Who can resist a ruffle butt onesie?!?! There's a serious lack of ruffled butts in my house :-)

The Shower was fun! Our server knew Stephanie, so he was a hoot the whole time! It's good to get together with just the girls and laugh! 

I think I know who liked the cupcakes the most....

Little Friends

Carter has several little friends, but Kylie is one of his "best friends." Her family lives in the neighborhood next to ours, and we get together a lot. We invited her over on Tuesday to come play. This gives her mommy a break, and it gives Carter a playmate who is not me :-) I love to play with my lil' man, but his play endurance is longer than mine at this point. Kylie, however, can keep up.

Where did it go?

Kylie wanted to be a photographer too when she saw me taking pictures, so here are a few of her shots - I just love kiddos! 

(Can you see me smiling behind the finger?)

Not bad! There was significant improvement in very little time :-)

The Curse of the Amish

Have you ever received one of these from a person who hates you friend?

Well, I got one from my Bible study leader about two weeks ago. I was so excited!!! I followed all the directions and, at the end of a 10 day process, I ended up with 2 DELICIOUS loaves of bread cakes and 4 starters (3 to give away to people I hate friends, and 1 to keep for myself). It turns out to be more like coffee cake or pound cake than "bread" which was fine with me and Kevin - we loved it!!!

My problem was that I couldn't find people who wanted to take the starters off my hands, so I kept 3 of them - thinking that I would just use the extra starter and bake a few extra loaves and freeze them for the future and/or gifts. Well, I guess I didn't really do the math in my head because on baking day, much to my horror surprise, I figured out that, in order to use up these starters, I could bake 18 loaves of bread or 9 bundt cakes!!!!!!!!!! Kevin laughed at me, told me that I wasn't a bakery, and gave me permission to throw some away if necessary. Well, I HATE throwing away perfectly good starter, so I found a neighbor who took 1 ready-to-bake starter off my hands - that subtracted 6 loaves/3 bundt cakes. Whew....progress. I found 2 more friends who said they would like to try from day 1 which got rid of part of 1 more bundt. I BAKED 5 BUNDT CAKES, and I only had to throw away about 1/2 cup of starter!!!!

(You can make chocolate, vanilla, or banana versions....this is one chocolate and one vanilla.)

Now do you see where I was going with my title? Yeah, this thing they call Amish Friendship Bread can take over your life like a curse if you're not careful! Luckily, I figured out (through a helpful website) that I could freeze the starter and give myself a much needed break. I'm not sure if when I'll be baking more bread, but for now it's safe and sound in my freezer.

And we have 5 bundt cakes to eat in the mean time...

MY SUGGESTION: I figured out that 1 starter turns into 5.5 cups of starter at the end of the 10 days. My suggestion (if you do not have enough baking friends or have already given starter away to all your baking friends) is to save 1 cup of starter for yourself each time - this leaves you with 4.5 cups. The directions want you to give away 3 cups to 3 friends and then use 1.5 cups of starter to bake. INSTEAD, I just baked the recipe 3 times with the 4.5 cups. I found that you can make 1 bundt cake or 2 loaves each time. This means that you'll have up to 3 bundt cakes or 6 loaves of bread (or any other mixture). Then I would suggest taking a break and sticking your starter in the freezer for next time! The "cakes" freeze well, so you can freeze them or give them away! I have found that people respond to being given a cake much better than they respond to a starter!