Sunday School Slip 'n Slide Soiree

Jay and I teach Sunday School to the 12/13 year-olds at church. We decided it would be fun if we had a little class party- plus we really wanted to try out Jay's new slip 'n slide (his birthday present from The Frog) I think we all had a really great time.

I got a bit carried away with the camera and ended up taking over 200 pictures! (yikes!) Here are the highlights :D

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday, lucky guy. I know my dad won't see this, but my mom probably will and hopefully she'll pass along the message-

Happy Birthday Dad!

I always thought 7/11 was a great day for a birthday. Anyone know if 7-11 still gives away free slurpies on 7/11?

Anyway, my mom and dad are officially on their missions in Chile as of today! I'm so proud of them! My mom plans to keep everyone informed at their new blog. Check it out!

10 months old!

The Frog turned 10 months old on Thursday! What a great month it has been! He can now open any drawer or cupboard he wants. He has knocked over Jay's night stand on top of himself twice now (luckily it's pretty light weight). He enjoys pulling all the ziplock bags and dishtowels and scattering them on the kitchen floor. He is getting extremely coordinated with his little scooter thing and is very good at steering. He can walk around when I'm holding his hands and he goes really fast! He loves riding on shoulders... he always does a big grin as soon as he's up there. He's discovered that Jay's ears make great handles (and so does hair on occasion), so most of the time he holds on to them while Jay walks around. It's soo cute.



I think my favorite accomplishments are these- he gives hugs!! :) and he sleeps through the night!!!! (finally!) After a week of him waking up many times a night, and Jay getting up with him and staying awake until The Frog cried himself back to sleep (I just couldn't do it. It's too hard on my heart), last Sunday The Frog finally slept all the way through the night for the first time EVER! The Frog has continued doing it ever since. He often wakes up quite early in the morning- between 4:30 and 6am, but often I can get him to fall back asleep if it's before 5:30am. YAY!\



He's also really good at entertaining himself for pretty long stretches of time. As long as I'm in the room or if he initiates the separation, he can go minutes on end. If I get down on the floor, though, he'll be right over to climb all over me.

Here's to the best 10 months ever :D

Recipe Fail, Part II: glass is not a secret ingredient

So, as I mentioned earlier, I made Jay's mom's famous Pineapple Upside-Down cake for his Jay's Birthday this week. The very first instruction states:
"In large square corningware pan, melt 8 Tbls butter (1 stick)"

Simple enough, right? After that you are to:
"Stir in: 2 c brown sugar
Continue to stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves"

Ah, oh, ok. So if this is over low heat, I can just put this right on the stove, right? Okay, okay... so I don't own any shmancy Corningware. Big deal. Pyrex is where it's at, fo sho.

So I put my glass pyrex pan on the stove with the stick of butter on low. Meanwhile I start measuring out the dry ingredients. I turn around, finished, and the butter is only about 1/3 melted.

I'm on a schedule here people! The Frog plays contentedly by himself for only so long! How 'bout I turn it up a little? Yeah, a 4 oughtta do it...

Now I measure the wet ingredients. I turn around to check on the butter and

BLAM!
BANG!
POW!
CRASH!
ZOT!!
(anyone else watch the old Batman?
The tights one?)

My beautiful pyrex dish literally exploded all over the kitchen!! Big shards, little shards, tiny microscopic shards you cannot see but can only feel digging into your feet when you walk. Not only that, but these were greasy shards. *shudder*

Did I mention, they got all over the kitchen?

Needless to say, I decided to play it safe for round two and melt and mix in a pan. It's true that some of the buttery, sugary goodness was probably marooned in the pan after transfer, but we all know now that

Glass Pyrex pan + stove = disaster

My First Pie!

I've never made an entire pie,
crust and all,
from scratch,
until now.

Doesn't it look scrumptious?!


It was fun to do, though remind me next time to buy a cherry-pitter. Pitting all those with a chopstick was not exactly my new favorite hobby, and my dyed fingernail-beds feel the same way.