Weekend of Celebrating!

Here at this swim house we had a bizzzzzeee weekend!  I hope your Thanksgiving was really great.

On Wednesday, my lovely ladies had their feast, complete with turkey tunes sung by the 3-6 set.  You could just die at the cuteness.

On Thursday we did the unthinkable!  We didn't cook! We didn't eat Turkey!  Nope my folks ordered a prime rib dinner from Safeway.  It was ex.cell.ent!  I did make these. And like she says--they are awesomesauce! (I'm eating the last one right now!)

Then yesterday is the big day of celebrating around these parts...we cooked a turkey finally, but way mucho more important is Emmy, my Birdie, turned one whole hand!  Yep, somehow she is now five! 5! Yikes!  

She wanted to decorate her own cake and of course LB helped (I cannot guarantee the prior whereabouts of those sprinkles).

We had a small family party at home--like we were going to go anywhere when we had royalty around hehehe

 I seriously am amazed she is five!

 I tried to tell her she has to be 4 for two years and she laughed that one off.  So then I cam at another angle..."You know Emmy, when you're 5 you have to get a job" Again with the laughter!  Her reply "Mommy, I have a job, I go to school!" Man oh man, is she a smarty farty.  Adore that kid!

 Adore all these little peeps that call me mom. 

 They really are the greatest!

Oh and since I know you're wondering--I survived triumphed on Black Friday and got the kiddos a giant trampoline-with an enclosure!  Let's hope my neuroses don't get the best of me and I let the kids enjoy knocking themselves around and hopefully wear themselves out... 

Hope your weekend was as blessed as mine was!

Makin' Stuff: Turkey Cupcakes!

I went to Zumba today. Oh how I love Zumba! The teacher at the Y is awesomesauce! She rawks!  I felt so energized (and wooo-ooorked out) after class. 

I had promised to take the ladies to the store for cookies. Add those two factors together and waddaya get?

Turkey cupcakes--Duh!

Not that it had anything to do with the ladies having a feast at their school tomorrow and my unnecessary, neurotic pressure on myself to make something groovy to take...

can you guess which egg bean destroyed with her bare hands cracked?

the girls love to 'help' in the kitchen, but

they hate to wait (side note: do you remember that ad campaign from the 80s?  My grandpa was hilarious and would always draw on those ads and send them to me)

we hhaaaaadd to sample after the bath

I had found this idea on the ever awesome pinterest, there they were made with candy eyes, but I just used gel food coloring that I already had, easy peasy!

I couldn't find candy corn in the store anymore (also from the pinspiration) so I used reese's pieces.  They were cute, but didn't stick in the oreos very well...

 Also, I think it works better on larger cupcakes, some of the smaller ones fell apart--boo

I think they came out darn cute!  Although, someone did ask me if they were chickens?!  Yikes!

 I guess they are both birds? 

Happy almost Turkey Day!!! May you be blessed and surrounded by those special to you!

Manic Monday

Today isn't really awful. just sorta blarghy

I am making this for dinner--right now it doesn't look to be going very well...

I am hoping to fit in a workout at the Y, even though there are three loads of laundry full on yelling at me to be folded.

Do you ever feel like your life is getting in the way of your dreams?  I'm so tired and busy, that I can't really get anything I want to get done done.

Perhaps that 7 habits book should be on my Xmas list?  Speaking of Xmas, I must have 700 or maybe just 7 windows open with Black Friday ads open.  Trying to compare prices with Amazon is making me tired.  Do you shop on Black Friday?  I used to be all about it, but last year I was in a 'working-toward-single' funk and this year is a post 'big D' funk maybe?  who knows...

We had our church thanksgiving yesterday--lots of peeps, not enough stuffing or pie!  I like to think of the turkey as merely a vehicle for the side dishes. My fav?  sweet potato anything.

Now can I blame these blahs on the tryptophan in the turkey?

 I just love her joy focused or not--it's SO her :)

Cookin' SWIM style

**Pay no attention to the first word of this post's title**

this is so not the place to read if you're looking for some new and exciting recipes or tips on cooking, the blog world is so full of that, who am I to crowd them? really I'm just not much of a cook.  I enjoy baking--exact measurements are right up this neurotic girl's alley, but a pinch of this or just the statement 'add salt & pepper' makes me yearn for the fetal position or take out chinese.

Anywho, I have a goal set in my life.  On that set list learning to cook has landed a special spot near the top of the weekday evening dance card.  Why why why I wonder sometimes, considering getting my children to got to bed without whining already has the impossible spot on said card...

(suddenly the idea of crafting a giant dance card seems much more appealing)

So tonight we are cooking a recipe from another blog--Chicken Enchiladas by way of Thrifty Mom.  I have nada to add to the recipe, it seems straight forward enough.  Although the things that fah---reak me out...

-it says to cook on medium--uh hello, my crock pot only has high and low! What to do? (I used the phone a friend option)

--it says add chicken and cheese to the tortillas--um, this girl would like to know exactly how much--I don't want to not have enough or too much at the last tortilla! (I am not a big fan of nachos because of the challenge of the cheese to chip ratio working out...am I crazy, do you feel like this too?)

I had the little ladies 'help' me make these.

  You can see the wisk turn into an airplane...

Then Em was sniffling and wiping her nose--I told her, don't wipe your nose with your hands while your cooking!  Go get a tissue...she replied...don't worry Mommy, I already got it all off...yummo... 

The thought really is that if they help make it they're more likely to eat it right?  Well you can guess how well that turned out...

According to Lilly Bean this is how they feel about them (They are actually quite tasty!)