What's Cookin' Wednesday

If you’re anything like me, you enjoy a good beer bread. There’s just something about it at a gathering with friends and I just can’t leave it alone. We dip it in cheese dips, sour cream dips with different seasonings, and it’s even good plain (and just a tad bit still warm.) I was first introduced to beer bread at a Tastefully Simple party and I’ve ordered it regularly ever since. As good as it is, it can get expensive, and I don’t always have it on hand. A few years ago, I was given a recipe for a homemade beer bread. I was a little skeptical at first, but it turned out to be just as good if not better, and you only need three ingredients!

Homemade Beer Bread

What you’ll need:
2 ½-3 cups of Self Rising Flour
2/3 cup Sugar
1 12 oz Beer (or other carbonated beverage)

What you’ll do:
1. Mix the three ingredients in a bowl.
2. Put mixture in greased loaf pan.
3. Bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. Enjoy!!

My Tastefully Simple rep brought an altered beer bread to a party. I figure it would work with the homemade version as well! Here it is: instead of the beer, use a 12 oz can of Coca Cola and mix in a bag of butterscotch chips. It’s delicious!! Since it’s pretty sweet and no one really needs to eat it by the slice, I cut it into chunks…it’s crumbly anwyway!


**We’re heading to ‘Boji on Friday for a few days, and I’ve already started packing. My heart melted the other day when I saw this:


It probably doesn’t look like much to you, but the Dora and black and white flowered backpacks were suddenly sitting amongst the things I have already packed. When I asked the girls what they were doing there, they told me that they had packed their things so I didn’t need to worry about it. So thoughtful! In the bags? Maysen’s contained a blanket, a stuffed kitty, three books, and a few small toys. Myah’s had a few books, a Buzz Lightyear toy, a twirl ribbon, and a pucci pup. When I asked about jammies, clothes, and underwear, their eyes got a little big and said, they could just wear what they had on the whole time we’re gone ☺

Happy 4th everyone!!

What's Cookin' (a little late), and Painted Lady Butterflies

Sometimes we like to have breakfast for supper. We've been waiting for the perfect night this week to do it, and I guess tonight was the night. It's an easy recipe, and one you can get the whole family in on!

Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuits

What you'll need:
1 can refrigerated biscuits (we used Pillsbury Grands!)
Bacon (we suggest Oscar Meyer Fully Cooked)
Eggs (scrambled--we add a little milk for fluffiness)
Cheese slices (we love Kraft Fat Free American)

What you'll do:
1. Bake the biscuits as instructed on the can.
2. Crack and scramble the eggs in a bowl. Have hubby warm up the bacon (it's fully cooked, remember).


3. Cook the eggs. Place a little of the egg mixture in the bottom of a small (hot) frying pan and let it cook about 25-30 seconds. Then attempt to fold it in half, cook a little longer, then flip over so it's cooked all the way through.


4. Slice a biscuit in half, place egg, cheese, and bacon on the bottom half, and then the top goes on top...duh!
Enjoy!

Kids can enjoy the eggs just scrambled if they don't want the sandwich, and it's not really like making something totally different for them! Photo courtesy of Myah.



**M&M got a Butterfly Keeper's Butterfly Habitat for their birthday. It was a cool gift. We mailed in the postcard (and $5) for the caterpillars. They arrived on June 10 in a vial....6 caterpillars and their 'food.' They crawled around for a few days and eventually made it to the top of the vial around June 16/17 and made their chrysalises. Brandon and I had to transfer the filter paper (which the chrysalises are stuck to) to the butterfly habitat. We attached it (carefully) with duct tape. 5 of the 6 emerged today and we expect the last one to go tomorrow or Sunday (it was a day or 2 behind in the chrysalis formation. They are feeding on 5% sugar water solution (as per the instructions) until we release them on Sunday or Monday. It's been a fun science experiment for all of us (and I'm definitely not one for the creepy crawlies!!).

Do the Zoo...the Blank Park Zoo!!

I don't want you to get the wrong idea and think that we do a big outing with the kids each day. I know it may be easy to think this since we went to Reiman Gardens just yesterday and today we ventured to the Blank Park Zoo! We love taking trips as a family and doing things so our kids have many fun, interesting, and educational experiences. We knew we wanted to take the girls to the zoo again this summer, though we knew a trip to Omaha again this summer wasn't feasible (or desirable) with Mylie being so young still (I hesitate to say 'little' because she's not so much). When I put up the June schedule, we knew we needed to get a date for the zoo planned immediately (and to have a backup date in case the weather was poor, which thankfully it wasn't!). Between gymnaastics, bible school, and swimming lessons, we were down to about 5 days this month that could work for the zoo. July is busy with trips to Okoboji and basketball camps for B. So today was the day, and it ended up being the perfect day for the zoo.

We left Ames about 10:30 with plans to stop in Ankeny for lunch. This would 1) break up the trip into two feasible parts, 2) get our bellies filled up (and partially digested before walking through the zoo), 3) cater well to Mylie's feeding schedule, and 4) allow for a potty break. I chose HuHot as the lunch destination. It's been over a year since we've been to HuHot, but it was the perfect place to get filled up (maybe a little too much so....hence the need for digestion to begin before arriving at the zoo). Myah and Maysen LOVED it! They had been there before, but this was really the first time they got to pick out all of their vegetables and sauces so it was a lot of fun for all of us!


We arrived to the zoo around 1:00, lathered up with sunscreen, and hit the ground running. We were all excited. The zoo was busier than we expected, but we never really had to wait to see anything. There are several parts under construction this summer so be aware of that if you really want to see the Australian Adventure (reopening July 19) or the Sea Lions (you'll have to wait until next summer).

This summer's featured exhibit is the animatronic dinosaurs. M&M have seen the commercial for the exhibit on TV for the past month so they've been really excited to see it. However, when we got close to the building, they grabbed onto our hands and weren't so sure about it. We had the 'it's going to be loud (we could hear dino sounds 75+ feet away), and it might seem a little bit scary, but I PROMISE!!! they can't touch you or hurt you' talk. Everything went just fine, and they even begged to go back to the exhibit towards the end of our trip. We didn't go back since we were hot and sweaty and it was hard to get around with some of the construction.






Have I ever mentioned that this girl is such a trooper!?? Yes, I notice the picture is not orientated correctly, but right now I'm too tired (and lazy) to fix it. She slept the whole time we were at the zoo. Of course, it helps that we are totally in-tune to her schedule and plan our travels around her eating and sleeping schedule! (For all of you new parents, parents-to-be, or parent wannabes, be sure to read 'Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child'...it's very insightful and I attribute Mylie's contentness with the strategies offered in that book!!)


Daddy and the girls feeding the Koi fish and goats. This is totally his thing, and totally NOT mine.



M&M in the Prarie Dog observation hole. We didn't see any Prarie Dogs today, though :(


M&M petting a turtle. Crazy story....one of the other girls asked the zoo person where the turtle came from. Her response: the pet store. How anticlimactic when you're at the zoo!!


Posing in the aquarium window.


We took our annual Father's Day picture (a day late...a little too late for Mylie as you can see she's crying....she was pretty tired and ready for bed--it might also be that Maysen is holding her like a Rag Doll--this doesn't ever happen that the girls hold her so haphazardly)! We gave Brandon this shirt and hat for his first Father's Day and he's taking a picture holding the girls like this every year since. Kinda cool.


What's your favorite animal at the zoo??

Father's Day Fun

We had a really fun Father's Day today. My girls got to celebrate the day with Brandon, and Kelsey, Eric, and my mom and dad came down for the day so we could celebrate my dad as well. We spent the late morning at Reiman Gardens. It was hot, and sticky, and sweaty, but we still had a great time seeing the 'Big Bugs'! That is the theme for this summer, and let me tell you, it's no lie that these bugs were big!

Brandon faced his fear at the large spider web while Papa and Myah and Maysen visited the Daddy Long Legs.


3 large ants, a dragonfly, and a grasshopper.


Taking a rest under the shade tree, and investigating lily pads on the pond. You can kind of see Mylie's feet in the stroller....she was a trooper and slept just about the whole time we were there!


Pumping water in the frog pond of the Children's garden, and Papa bouncing Mylie on his knee.


The L8D BUG (that's what the license plate said) in the conservatory


The butterfly dome was fluttering with tons of butterflies today. It was hard to find ones that stayed still long enough to get a picture of them :)


So what gifts do you get the wonderful dads?
Brandon got a new fire pit for the back patio (and even got a use out of it before Father's Day)


Papa got a hand and foot print flag made by M&M. He has done a lot of work for the Veterans in our home town so it had special meaning to him to have a flag made by the girls.



***The other night, I had a Q&A session with B about being a dad. Here are the results!***

1. Describe your parenting style in one word: Involved
2. Favorite TV family of all time (real or fictional): Keatons from Family Ties
3. Last meal you made for your family: Grilled Steaks
4. Favorite book to read to your kids: No, No, Jack!
5. Trait you hope your children don't inherit from you: sloppiness
6. Favorite kids' movie: Shrek or the classics like Snow White or Cinderella
7. Kids' TV show you can't stand: You Gabba Gabba!
8. Best piece of parenting advice you ever got: Be strict but fair
9. When I say "dad," you say: I have three kids...that's me!

Tomorrow, we're off to the zoo (weather permitting). Happy Father's day!!

The Many Faces of Mylie

Mylie turned 3 months old last week. My brother-in-law took some pictures a few weeks ago and they turned out great! We always joke that for such a young baby, she has a wide array of facial expressions. Which one is your favorite??













I'm a bit biased, but I think she's too darn cute to choose!!