Fun Easter Egg Lunch!

I love holidays and I love family traditions.  I think having traditions to go along with holidays helps build nice memories for children.

 

We try and emphasize the Christian reason for holidays such as Christmas and Easter but we also let Caden participate in some of our culture's traditions such as going on an Easter hunt and finding an Easter basket with some goodies on Easter morning.  He also receives a few gifts at Christmas.

I read somewhere about filling plastic Easter eggs with candy for a lunch box.  I thought, what a fun and genius idea!  In fact, why not fill it with food for his lunch?  Caden LOVES eggs!  Real eggs, pretend eggs, wooden and plastic eggs, it really doesn't matter, he loves them.  He also loves footballs, I think because they are sort of in an egg shape, but I don't know. :)  In fact, he likes to sleep with either his footballs or wooden or plastic eggs, every night.  No joke!  We can forget stuffed animals, just give him a football or two or one or two pretend eggs and he's one happy kid going to bed.

 

For Caden's lunch today I washed the Easter eggs, cut up some ham, cheese, carrots, washed grapes, and added cheddar bunnies, and some dark chocolate almonds.  I wrapped them in surround wrap (you could just put them in a clean egg) and placed the little baggies in different Easter eggs for Caden's lunch.  You could add anything your child likes that will fit in an egg.  To make Caden's lunch extra fun I added a little green grass and his favorite fruit of the moment, a banana.  He was very excited watching me make his lunch.  I think he's going to love it!

 

St. Patrick's Day and German Friend

At the airport - 1st picture in the USA

Our good friend and neighbor from Germany, Michael, came to visit us yesterday.  This is his first time to visit the U.S.  There was a St. Patrick's Day event at the Stockyards called "Cowtown Goes Green."  This was a free event with pony rides, face painting, and a parade.  The event started when we needed to be in the car on the way to the airport.  After we picked up Michael, we took him to the Stockyards and made it just in time to see the parade.  We ran into some friends, the Tungates, from church, as well as our friend Andria and then later the Proctor family, whom we ate dinner with.  The parade was fun and lots of people were there to enjoy it.  Michael's only concern was how hot it is in Texas compared to Germany, where it is still snowing.  I'm a true southern girl and love the warmer weather.  I hope he enjoys it too.

We are looking forward to making memories and taking Michael around to see our part of the world.  He had some Texas BBQ last night and we plan on introducing him to Mexican food and other favorites.  I will post our events as we do them.  Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

At Riscky's BBQ downtown, after the parade

Caden pretending to be a cowboy!

Michael at the Stockyards

  

Who made it in the parade...Collin!!

Horse and Carriage

Michael and Collin

Caden

Military Tanks celebrating St. Patrick's Day

Horsemen waving the Texas and American flag

Amish Friendship Prayer Bread

My sweet friend, Erin, gave me an Amish Friendship Bread starter.  I'm calling it Amish Friendship Prayer Bread because everyday when I mix the dough I say a prayer for her and her family.  The purpose of friendship bread I think is to share delicious homemade bread with others.  It takes 10 days from the day you get the starter until you can bake it.  From each starter you make 4 new starters, one to keep and 3 to give away.  The bread is delicious.  If you want me to share a starter with you, let me know.  Here is the recipe Erin gave me with the starter bag.

Amish Friendship Bread

Do not use a metal spoon or bowl for mixing.
Do not refrigerate.
It is normal for the batter to thicken, bubble and ferment.

Day 1 – This is the day you get the batter, so do nothing.

Day 2 - Squeeze the bag.

Day 3 - Squeeze the bag.

Day 4 - Squeeze the bag.

Day 5 - Squeeze the bag.

Day 6 - Add the 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk to the bag. Squeeze until well mixed.

Day 7 - Squeeze the bag

Day 8 - Squeeze the bag

Day 9 - Squeeze the bag

Day 10 – In a large bowl, combine the contents of the bag, and 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of flour, and 1 cup of milk.  Stir with wooden spoon.  Scoop out four (4) 1-cup starters into separate ziplock bags.  Keep one starter for yourself and give the other 3 to friends with a copy of the instructions.  To the remaining batter in the bowl, add the following:

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

½ t. baking soda

1 ½ t. baking powder

2 t. cinnamon

½ t. salt

1 box instant vanilla pudding

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup oil

1 t. vanilla

Nuts and raisins (optional)

Mix well.  Pour into a well-greased and sugared pan (bundt pan or 2 regular size loaf pans).  Sprinkle a little cinnamon sugar on top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan.

Be creative!  Make a new recipe from every starter.  Here are 2 ideas:

Lemon Poppy Seed – substitute lemon flavoring for vanilla, 2 T. poppy seeds for cinnamon, lemon pudding for vanilla, and leave out the nuts and raisins.

Chocolate Chip – substitute almond flavoring for vanilla, cocoa for cinnamon, chocolate pudding for vanilla pudding, and mini chocolate chips for nuts and raisins.

Baking is so much fun!

 

Before going into the oven

 

Caden's First Opera

We took Caden to his first opera today. We went to a children's opera at Scott Theatre and saw The Three Little Pigs. I was so excited about taking Caden to the opera that Collin even took off half the afternoon to join us! It was a lot of fun. The actual show was only about 30 minutes, which was a great length for someone new to the opera. The actors engaged the children well. They had questions and answers after the show and let the kids get their picture taken with the cast. The cost was great too, only $5 a ticket. I know Caden doesn't look too happy in the picture with the cast, however, he did say he had fun and wants to see the other show tomorrow. I hope we see many more operas in our future.



Before the show began - silly face!

There was even sword fighting, so fun for a little boy to watch!

He really did enjoy it.  :)

Pursued Weekend

This past weekend I was able to go on a "retreat" with some women from church called Pursued.  Very little was revealed beforehand.  We were taken to a beautiful lodge in the country about 1.5 hours away.

 

Since some of my friends have not been on Pursued I'm not going to go into many details about it.  But I will say that it was fantastic!  A truly life-changing experience.  My relationships with these women really grew.  My toolbox to defeat Satan is now full.  I barely slept even though I honestly had one of the most comfortable beds that is not mine to sleep in while I was there.

 

All women need to have a Pursued weekend experience.  Going through this I have grown so much.  I finally truly feel set free and full of life.  It's amazing how a weekend away with God can change you. 

 

I have the best husband in the world.  Collin took such great care of Caden while I was gone.  This was the first time in my life I went a day without talking to Caden.  That was hard but I needed to spend that time with God.  No phones or computers were allowed.  When I returned my guys met me with two roses, a red one and a while one.  It was so sweet.  I'm such a blessed wife and mother.  Maybe someday when the right words come, I'll share some of my story with you and a little more about what I learned and how I changed from this weekend.  One of my favorite things I was reminded of this weekend is how women are the grand finale of creation.  We were created for a specific purpose and God has an awesome plan for all of us.  If you're ever able to go to Pursued, go.  You will be so glad you did.

Collin's Birthday

Friday was Collin's birthday.  I know I've said this before but I am truly the most blessed woman in the world.  Collin is absolutely the best husband and dad.  He is incredibly smart and kind.  He strives to please God and lead our family in the way of the Lord.  He's funny and humble.  He's also a great provider, loving, and defender of our family.  There is so much more I could say.  He's truly the best!

 

For Collin's birthday, he wanted to have my parents and any siblings of mine that could come over for a lobster dinner.  He always tells me he likes my cooking better than any restaurant we could go to.  I felt very honored to cook his birthday dinner.  I went ahead asked my dad to help with the lobster.  I cooked it last week by myself but wanted to learn from the master lobster cooker.  My step-mother offered to steam the asparagus so really I only provided the lobsters and cooked the potatoes and cake.  My parents and sister and her husband came over and we had a nice evening. 

 

Caden and I bought some flowers and balloons for Collin to surprise him.  Caden loved picking out balloons at the store and has enjoyed playing with them daily since.  We made a Texas Sheet Cake per Collin's request.  Dinner and dessert turned out great.  We enjoyed spending Collin's birthday with some of my family.  I wish his parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews lived closer so they could have joined us.  Happy birthday Collin!

Father and Son playing with the cool balloons

Our feast is ready!

My Dad taught me how to fan the tail of the lobster

Cake time!

 

 

Caden loved helping his dad blow out the candles

Michelle and Kyle

Cathy and Dad

 

Friends, Parties, and Garden

It seems like every week and weekend fills up fast with activities.  Since returning to Texas last year, I don't always do as good of job blogging about these things so I'm going to try and get better. 

 

Friday, Caden and I were able to meet up with my friend Jocelyn and her two boys, Levi and Joel.  Caden and Levi are the same age and it's always fun to get together and let them play.  We ended up going to the museum because it was kind of cold.  The kids had a good time.

 

Friday night Collin and I went to a Love and Logic class and originally the second half was going to be on Saturday morning.  However, so many people were not going to be able to make it Saturday morning that we changed it to another night.  That being said, we missed Caden's friend's Naomi's birthday party because we had already planned on going to the parenting class.  Instead we had a relaxing morning at home.  Caden's friend, Nash, from church, had a hunting birthday party at 3pm for his 4th birthday.  It was really cute.  Not too long before we needed to leave for the party my friend, Kylee, called.  She wanted to talk and hang out so we invited her family over for a last minute dinner.  She has two boys who are not too much older than Caden.  Caden had a blast playing with them.  This was really the first time they've been able to hang out.  He loves older kids and especially playing with big boys.  Sometimes last minute plans work out well.

 

Sunday we went to church and small group.  Nothing too much to report, just a nice day in general.

 

Today (Monday) Collin was off for President's Day.  We thought Caden didn't have school so we all went out to breakfast (not something we do often) and then to Calloway's to get some plants and look at their trees.  We're planting a garden and in the planning stages.  While at Calloway's my friend texted me to let me know Caden had school after all.  I asked him if he wanted to go and he did so we dropped him off after we bought our garden supplies.  This gave Collin and I time to fill our pots and plant our crops.  We're going to move our fence and build a garden on the side of our house.  We actually have a pretty decent size yard.  We want to plant a peach tree or two, probably two so they can cross-pollinate and a pear tree.  We'd like to also plant a large shade tree.  Caden wants a lemon or lime tree.  We'll see.

Here are some pictures from our weekend.

Caden on a bed of nails!

Levi's turn!

Giant light bright

Caden and Quentin at Nash's birthday party

This was a hunting party and they got to shoot things

 

They learned about gun safety

Played pin the ears on the deer. Very cute party.

 

Saturday night- Caden, Kylee, Caiden, Casey, and Andy

So many cute and sweet kids at small group

First crops of the year - kale, tomatoes, broccoli, and strawberries