Daddy: "you can eat apples again, because you have two front teeth again!" (apparently he doesn't want to cut the apple). Fairy Girl: "But Daddy, one of my teeth is still small, the apple will be uneven!"

And The Lowcountry Community Band Has Its Very First-EVER Peformances!

Humorous Moment

Ms. Angel is playing "hospital." She handed the patients (myself and Fairy Girl)...bells, to call for help. We both immediately proceeded to ring our bells, when nurse Ms. Angel jumps on the p.a. system: "attention all patients...please stop ringing your bells at once, or i will add $500 onto your bills. Thank you for your cooperation." :O

My Magical Messenger

 

 March 19th, 2012

"The Miracle of Birth is not limited by the physical plane"

from "Winter Moon Rises"

May 24th, 2012

Ok, Forgive My WARPED Sense of Humor:D

Another Newspaper Article About Our New Community Band

http://www.blufftontoday.com/bluffton-sun-city/2012-05-16/lowcountry-community-band-blends-talents-inaugural-concert#.T70hU8Wl5EN

A Newspaper Article About Our New Lowcountry Community Band

http://savannahnow.com/bluffton-sun-city/2012-05-16/lowcountry-community-band-blends-talents-inaugural-concert#.T70fmcWl5EM

My Beautiful Backyard Bowls

Our Weekly Excitement

 My brand new band will have our first (two) EVER concerts over Memorial Weekend---we've been together for nine weeks now, and quite frankly sound pretty good for being newly formed!! 

 This gorgeous arrangement was a gift from my neighbor for me to enjoy...a centerpiece from his daughter's wedding (there's a lemon in the arrangement:D)

Little Ms. Angel's very own fondue recipe creation...you would not believe how good this is!  And the recipe seems very unique!  I'm going to find a kids' recipe competition for her so we can submit this...thinking maybe even Taste of Home Magazine (you know, since I'm a former employee and all:D..or does that disqualify us? :D)

And here's a quote from the master chef in the making: "we need more white wine, what I didn't use in the fondue, Daddy drank;)"

 Pretty Paws!

Ok, this may require some explaining...though it was overcast, it is NOT raining.  However, Little Fairy Girl took it upon herself to grab the hose and SOAK her daddy...then proceeded to run into the house giggling.  Next thing you know, both girls come downstairs, VERY well-prepared for certain retaliation!

Oh, and notice the new Nikes they are both sporting?  All of their young lives, they've both pretty much refused to wear tennis shoes...especially after moving to the land of perpetual sandals!  In fact, I'm embarrassed to say that they have JUST learned to tie their own shoes over the last couple of months (at ages 6.5 and 8) due to literally having nothing to practice on!  They finally learned our of sheer survival, because they both have roller skates now, and got tired of waiting on mommy and daddy to tie their skates:)  Anyway, the Nike agreement came about because they decided that they wanted to start jogging with Daddy...and well, flipflops and jogging---not a good combo...further, they both stated, and I quote: "these are the most COMFORTABLE shoes I've ever had!"

"Marshmallow Madness" a short story written by our homeschoolers

Once upon a time, our family started a campfire for an innocent evening of relaxation.

Little Katrina said: "we need smores!"  So Mommy ran inside to get the smore stuff: graham crackers, chocolates, and of course (the star of the story), marshmallows!

Marie said, "Daddy, may I please have a marshmallow?"  Daddy hands over a marshmallow; Marie carefully puts it onto a stick, and toasts it to a perfect golden brown.  Daddy then carefully removes Marie's hot marshmallow.  Marie takes one bite of her perfect marshmallow, sets it on a plate to run in for a glass of water, and returns to find Daddy with a sticky, smiley grin.

Marie is VERY mad and throws a marshmallow at Daddy!  Little Katrina starts giggling and throws a marshmallow at Daddy too....just for fun:)

Marshmallows start flying everywhere!

...Until Marie comes out with her secret weapon.....the JUMBO MARSHMALLOW SHOOTER!

She prepares the shooter....1....2....3....BLAST OFF!

Everybody watches as the marshmallow flies, right into Fido's BUTT!  Fido gets this funny look on his face...then...

1....2.....3....BLAST OFF!!!   (Fido toots:)

and the marshmallow flies right into Daddy's face!!!  Everybody watches Daddy: "Yummy, that was really good, but it really needs graham crackers and chocolate!"

THE END

Humorous Moment????

my *sweet* Little Fairy Girl wants to send her grandma  a very specific present, because she's slightly laid up....she wants to send her new shoes:O (it's a VERY thoughtful gesture except that her grandma is in a cast healing from a broken ankle:O)

Scenes From Mother's Day Weekend 2012

Babies!

first tomatoes---we will have a LOT of salsa!

first lemon on our meyer lemon tree!!

Crisp Lemon Cookies

Crisp Lemon Cookies Recipe

• Prep: 30 min. Bake: 15 min./batch + cooling
• Yield: 54 Servings

30 15 45

Ingredients

• 1-1/3 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup vanilla or white chips, melted

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the lemon juice, peel and vanilla. Gradually add flour and mix well.
• Shape dough into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Coat the bottom of a glass with cooking spray; dip in sugar. Flatten cookies with glass, redipping in sugar as needed.
• Bake at 325° for 11-13 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Drizzle with melted vanilla chips. Yield: about 4-1/2 dozen.

Nutritional Facts 1 cookie equals 99 calories, 5 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 12 mg cholesterol, 34 mg sodium, 12 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, 1 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 1 starch, 1 fat.

Chickpea Crunchers: Roasted Chickpeas

1 15-oz can of organic garbanzo beans (chickpeas) or approximately 2 cups of prepared chickpeas
2 teaspoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon garlic salt
couple dashes of sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Rinse chickpeas and drain. Lay on a tea-towel and allow to air dry (or pat dry with a towel or paper towel).

3. Place in a 9-by-13 glass baking dish. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove chickpeas and stir/toss thoroughly. Place back in the oven for 15 minutes.

4. Remove from oven and drizzle the olive oil and seasonings of your choice. Thoroughly stir. Place chickpeas back in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove and stir/toss thoroughly. Bake for the last 15 minutes, being sure to keep an eye on the chickpeas if they seem to be roasting or browning too quickly.

Bake for 60 minutes in total, stirring every 15 minutes.

Store in an air-tight container.

Read more: http://www.naturalhomeandgarden.com/food-matters/chickpea-crunchers-roasted-chickpeas.aspx#ixzz1uIP3qdeT

Green Homemade Weed Killer

1 gallon of vinegar (5% acidity) 2 cups salt & 7 drops of dawn dishwashing soap. Works great! Put it in a spray bottle but be careful of overspray if you spray dandelions because you will have brown spots where it also kills the lawn.

Kim's Window Cleaner Recipe

1/4 c rubbing alcohol, 1/4 c white vinegar, 1 TBSP cornstarch, 2 c warm water. Best stuff ever. Takes an extra couple wipes but cleans better than Windex and no streaks!

It Was Time to Spice Up My Kitchen...

The Many Hats of Little Ms. Angel

My sweet Little Angel insisted on making dinner tonight. I do admit I got a late start...but it's now delayed an extra hour since my 8 year old is making all of it! (fresh steamed green beens, home-baked cranberry orange muffins, and a potato cheese casserole). We won't eat til 9 (yes, past their bedtime:D) but very much worth it! Did I mention she's 8!

 In case dinner for the family wasn't enough, earlier this afternoon, she decided to make Piper some doggy cookies!

The Barking Buddy Biscuits were a hit!

In case her eight year old chef hat isn't enough, she decided today to pick an experiement from our Usborne Book of Experiments, teach the experiment to her much younger 6.5 yr old sister, and conduct the experiment themselves; all with ZERO help from a grownup.

Pictured to the right, you will see Ms. Angel sporting her science teacher look:)

A.I.M. Choir and Awards Ceremony

The girls joined a community children's choir, hosted by the beautiful historic Church of the Cross, this past fall.  Pictured above is the A.I.M. group (Adventures in Music), comprised of the younger children. 

They had a combined performance with the older children this evening, for the parents.  Their final performance of the season will be on Mother's Day. 

Both girls were VERY excited, to receive their VERY first trophies this evening...for excellence in attendance.  And the medals were in honor of their graduation to the St. Francis Choir Group, which will begin this fall!  I'm proud of my girls!

A Week With Grandma and Grandpa and Brie

Our snowbird grandparents have left the Florida flock, and are headed back to Wisconsin.  Of course they came to hang in our hood for a few days!  This is day one.  My mom had come across this GREAT coupon deal where for the price of $10, they could choose amongst a restaurant list, and order $50 worth of food for $100!  She bought two and thought we could combine them (which we learned we cannot).  She found an Italian place on Hilton Head, handed me the information on the restaurant so that I could read the hours.  I read it 3 times and read that it was OPEN  seven days a week.  So, we thought we'd head over there for Sunday dinner!  

1.  We could not find it.

2.  Everytime I phoned for directions, the message said it wasn't open Sundays.

So, we settled for our local pizza fav, Guiseppi's:D  (and asked the waitress where their competition was located:D)

A fun time, and great pizza was had by all!

Day two.  We ate!  again.  (this is starting to feel like a growing trend with us, isn't it:D).  

This photo was taken from my favorite area picnic spot, in a forest preserve in Sea Pines.....it's gorgeous here!  The girls had fun feeding the turtles, as they did last time we were here.  

 But before we headed to the forest preserve, we did some shopping, sight seeing, and rocking.

We were in Harbourtowne (a VERY cute and trendy shopping/restaurant/park section on a marina in Sea Pines on Hilton Head)...they have red rocking chairs everywhere.  My dad and J were  rocking, and my dad had a taste for a beer....which would go nicely with the rocking.

Cheers! $17.50 for two Harbourtown Beers:O

ooops:D

The girls were SO excited that gramma and grampa would be here to see them sing in a choir performance.  Only, mommy ONCE again found out she REALLY cannot read, or at least follow a simple set of instructions anymore.  You see, there are two groups of choirs...the younger and the older children.  Only the older children were supposed to perform that day.  There was another girl from the younger group there, also all dressed up...so the choir director was gracious enough to introduce the three girls and let them join the older kids for their combined pieces:)  They also had each of the choristers state his/her name, age, school.  (The majority were actually homeschooled, which surprised me).  I was proud of my girls, who announced loudly and clearly!!!

Of course we hit the beach; where J lost his good sun glasses in a huge wave crash, and I lost my cell phone jacket.  But I did find a FABULOUS white hat!!!!!!   (as a note, this was in the Coligny shops area, we left it on a rail in hopes the owner would find it, but after an hour, decided it was waiting for me---I LOVE this hat!)  Speaking of finds, a month ago, I found $60 in a parking lot, and yesterday I found $5 in a parking lot!!!!!

And of course there was some pool time, and LOTS AND LOTS of puppy playtime!  Brie and Piper have completely hit it off:D

Now, if my parents could manage to get back to WI in one piece, I think we'll be in business:D

We miss gramma and grampa already, but we know they'll be back down before we know it!

 

Hee Hee

Feel Good Moment of the day: I was driving through the parking lot past a Napa Auto Parts when someone whistled at me!!! I was feeling all HOT STUFF (at least from the shoulders upward, as that's all that's visible from a moving vehicle anyway)...when I heard the whistle again---I was feeling SO good about myself---I turned around to smile at the whistler to find out it was a PARROT!