Oops

I missed a couple of days. I guess I didn't pick up my camera while getting ready for Linden's party. Stefan tells me it's time to actually work at getting more of his friends to come but I thought it was fine. How many times am I going to say it and how many times can you hear it. We have six people (someday seven) in our family. It's a party with just us.

My favorite from the party. Lala had bought him a sparkler candle. It was fun to watch but you can't blow it out, though it was fun trying.

The birthday boy

I can't believe he's FIVE!!!

I talked him into chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes because I'd found a recipe and he wasn't particular about what kind of cake/cupcake he wanted.

Here he is birthday morning.

Um, and just in case you can't live without that recipe...

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
with Cookie Dough Buttercream Frosting

For the cookie dough:
2 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips

For the cupcakes:
3 sticks softened butter
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the frosting:
3 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

To make the cookie dough, combine the butter and sugars in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 mins. Beat in milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Beat in the flour and salt until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Using a 1.5 tbsp scoop, shape the dough into balls or tubes. Freeze on a parchment lined baking sheet overnight.

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24 total). In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar. Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir together to blend. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated. Blend in the vanilla.

Using a 3 tbsp scoop, fill the prepared cupcake liners 2/3 full with the cupcake batter. Place a frozen cookie dough ball on the top center of each cupcake.

Bake at 350 for 16-18 mins.

To make the frosting, combine the butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the powdered sugar until smooth. Beat in the salt, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth and combined.

Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips!

Makes 24 cupcakes.

The best part

Everyone knows the best part of baking is licking the icing off the beater. The best part about your birthday is that you don't have to share it. Since all the birthdays are so close together if anyone complains I just explain that they'll get a turn next month or just got a turn. It ALWAYS works out that easy. Ha!

Thanks for that

Thanks Gamma Gicki for the lip gloss in Channing's Easter basket. She loved it!

It lasted one day. Sorry!

The whole crew

Stefan and I worked ALL weekend in the yard Easter weekend so somehow there aren't many pictures from the entire weekend, just on Easter Sunday. For whatever reason I missed taking a picture of all 4 of my kids together so instead you are going to get everyone who celebrated Easter together at the Cunningham's. Thanks Gary and Vicki for hosting all of us and making it a special year. :)

Legs

Ooooo.... nothing is better than those sweet baby legs.

The boys toys

Don't get me wrong, the girl loves her baby dolls but if the boys are not around and have left their toys out, it's fair game.

Carrying something

You can always find Gibson with something in his hand. He isn't really particular but a spoon or toothbrush are probably some of the favorite things to walk around with. If he can find a cup to stick his object in, it's even better.

I know a sharp pointy object probably isn't the best thing to let him have but let's just say I just took the picture for the sake of proving a point and then most likely took it away from him right after that without any regards to how happy it was making him while I cooked dinner....

School Program

Hadley had his spring showcase recently. He did great! (Grandparents, if you want to see your grandson recite about 15 minutes worth of scripture and poems I'll try and get them online for you soon.)

Please don't judge the pictures, while our seats were okay, there were a lot of people in front of us holding up cameras so I didn't get many good shots. I'm not sure why he's making this face other than he saw me with my camera and that was his attempt at a shy smile.

Signing with the whole school.

Performing an African welcome song and dance after learning about Africa in his kinder class.

Money

Hadley and I are working on the value of money and how coins work. We are just now figuring out that 5 pennies equal a nickel and so on. We've been practicing buying things and how to pay for it with different coins.

You've got to love the kindergarten year and the basics we take for granted.

Egg hunt #1

We went to Northside for their Easter Egg Hunt on the Sunday while the guys were camping. It was HOT! We waited and waited and waited for it to begin after lunch and then neither one of my kids had any interest in hunting for eggs. I was thankful that Beth and Doug were there to help. I was not very bright and wore heels and carrying buckets, diaper bag and Gibson was more work than I had planned on. It was an experience. :)

Channing was willing to have her picture taken but Corbin and Gibson, not so much. Again, it was hot and everyone was kind of done before we had even begun.

What we did

What do girls do when the 3 out of 4 boys are camping and the 4th boy is napping?

Paint our nails, of course.

Spring Camping

The boys love camping and have been looking forward to this trip for a long time. This weekend was Inks Lake. I talked to Stefan tonight and he said they saw 4 snakes. I miss those guys while they are gone. Things are much quieter around here. I'm happy they are all having fun though.

My quirky kid

My son who loves the end piece of the bread, chose the cherry limeade cupcake (the one with the lime frosting) out of the all the delicious sweet cupcakes. Something sour, not sweet. He loved it! Thought he could drink the frosting with the straw. :)

Another delicious recipe

I think Gibson ate almost a whole piece of this fish. He LOVED it! Of course this was the day that I didn't make enough. I always struggle with how much fish to make. I don't really do leftover fish so I want to make enough that we have plenty to eat but not too much so that there are leftovers. Oh well! I'll know for next time, of course next time he'll decide he doesn't like it.

Herb Fish with Roasted Tomato and Olives 1-1 1/2 lbs frozen tilapia 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 Tbsp McCormick Italian Seasoning Grinder 1 pint cherry tomatoes 3/4 cup chopped black olives 1 Tbsp minced garlic 1-2 lemons Heat oven to 450. Spray a 9x13 dish with nonstick spray. Cut tomatoes in half; place tomatoes, olives and garlic over bottom of baking dish. Stir gently to mix and place in oven 5 minutes. Drizzle fillets with olive oil; season both sides with Italian seasoning grinder. Remove pan from oven; push olive mixture to edges of dish. Place fish in center and spoon olive mixture over fish. Squeeze half of one lemon over top and return dish to oven. Bake 10 minutes or until fish just begins to flake when tested with a fork. Serve immediately with fresh lemon wedges.

The cheese face

I promise she was making a normal smiling face until I got my camera and then I got this.

Z day

After working through the alphabet all year at preschool they finally reached the letter Z which means they get to go to the zoo. We had a fun day.

The fence

We knew when we put in the "basketball court" that we'd have to move up the fence. It's been hanging over Stefan's head as one more thing to do on his list of things to do but it was one of those things that really needed to get done soon. Too bad he was out of town 3 weekends in a row then had company. That only left nights to work on it. Sunday afternoon was the day he really made some progress. He ended up almost finishing it Sunday night in the dark with a headlamp on. Before then though he had some help.

Grandparent Detox

Carla left early Wednesday morning and we had just enough time to change sheets and clean bathrooms before Karen and Phil got here. It's so much fun having the grandparents come for visits but we are stopping some of the regular grandparent stuff that happens while they are here. (You know what we're talking about.) Anyway, here are the kids with Grammy and Grumpy on their last day. Phil had to do something at church on Sunday so their flight left at 6am Sunday morning so they could get back to Seattle in time. That had to have been a long day! It's been long couple of days for us trying to unspoil our kids. Thanks for being so good to them all of you.

Linden's big gift

Since Grammy and Grumpy were here so close to Linden's birthday they went ahead and gave him his birthday presents. He got a new set of golf clubs. I think it took a little time to warm up to the clubs but notice first thing in the morning (still in pajamas) he and Hadley were outside hitting balls. I'm hoping they can take a golf lesson or two this summer. I think it would be a great sport for both of them. We'll see.

Helping out

Linden would help me out in the kitchen any day over playing basketball with the other kids. I kind of like it.

He's quite the perfectionist.

As good as it gets

This is about as good as it gets trying to get a good picture with my 4 kids. This was the only we tried while Carla was here and I we wanted to remember her visit with us and them.

Hiking

Stefan and I went hiking on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was much more exciting. We saw a copperhead and got lost. I think we ended up hiking around 4 miles. Sunday after laying around for most of the morning we went on a quick uneventful hike. We saw this 200 year old tree. I know this isn't a good picture but it makes me laugh. I made Stefan wrap his arms around that tree and pose for a picture with me. He wasn't really happy about doing it. That was his irritated face. :)

Bike Riding

We went on a really short bike ride around the resort on Saturday. We would have gone longer but there wasn't a lot of path to bike on. It was pretty next to the Colorado River.

So long, farewell, good luck!

We left Lala with 2 crying kids as we went for a long 3 day weekend on OUR OWN! She did fabulous and we enjoyed our time away where we didn't have to feed anyone but ourselves.