Black-Eyed Susan Cake (and Dad's B-day)

After making the Pink Azalea Cake I saw in the Cooks Country magazine last weekend and reading how in the 1950's cakes with "flower" names were all the rage, I knew this would be the perfect cake for my Dad's birthday on Saturday! He really enjoys Black-Eyed Susan's and this cake sounded yummy with it's chocolate and orange flavor combination.

This is the finished cake:

You can find the recipe here at Cooks Country along with the Pink Azalea Cake, and check out this retro recipe for the Daffodil Cake!

Emmy is helping Papa blow out the candles!


Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!!

This was all that was left after Sunday dinner and I thought it showed the marbled inside really well, yummy!!

James took this one of Ethan helping Papa unwrap his gift!

"Little Lady" Play Date

The big kids (James, Ethan, and Emmy) had a fun overnight at the campground with Nana and Bumpa on Friday and that left Mollie and I to ourselves! We have been trying to get together with little cousin Maddie but things are always busy! This seemed like the perfect time for a play date with the two "little lady's", here are some pics:

Mollie and Maddie on the baby swings!

Maddie was super cute and happy on the swings!

Mollie on the other hand was a little dingy and I thought she was going to go back to sleep a couple of times! I had to wake her up when we got there and I guess she just wasn't ready!!

She snapped out of it after a little while, here the girls are getting ready to try out the slide!

We ended up playing in the grass where it was nice and shady because it was actually really hot and sunny that morning! It was really nice to chat and watch the girls play (together, by themselves as Derek says). Can't wait to do it again!!

Homemade "Twix" Bars

This is a super easy recipe that is great for the summer because it's "no-bake"!

Ingredients:

Club crackers (about 2 sleeves), divided

1/2 c. butter

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. milk

2/3 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. chocolate chips

Directions:

Line bottom of 9 x 13 inch cake pan with Club crackers and crush enough crackers to make 1 cup of crumbs.
Boil the butter, sugar, brown sugar, milk, and cracker crumbs for 5 min.

Pour over first layer.

Put another layer of Club crackers on.

Combine the peanut butter and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl, cook on high for 1 min, stir and then return to the microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until everything is smooth.

James, my helper!

Pour this mixture over the cracker layer and let it sit for a little while to cool and so that the topping will harden a little! Cut into bars and enjoy!!

Check out the Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap for mor yummy recipes!

Richardson and Eastman Family Reunion

Here are a TON of pics from our reunion last Saturday (the 13th)! It was great to see everyone, we had about 40 people in all! The weather even held off for us, it turned out to be a beautiful day and the spot where Sarah got married last year was the perfect place to hang out and visit with family we see too little!

WARNING:If you are not apart of my family this could be very boring! But if you are I hope you enjoy these!! If you want to save any of these to your computer just right click the picture you want and in the menu that pops up choose "save picture as". If that doesn't work email me and I will try sending you some!

Sarah, Pat, and Donna (aka. sister, husband, and Mom).

Madison, Karen, and Derek.

Aunt Joan, Aunt Linda, and Kendra.

Some pics from the sandbox:

Emmy and James

All the kids (not you Karen!).

I love this one of the girls!

Jennifer and Sean.

Aunt Wanda and Madison.

Doreen and Harry.

Lynn, Joey, and Sarah.

Matt and Kendra.

Nana and Aunt Linda.

Mark, Ethan and Christine.

Aunt Fran, Derek, Maddie, and Uncle Steve.

Aunt Fran (on the right) and her sister Norma and brother in law David all the way from England! They have daughters names Liz and Sarah too!!

Aunt Joan and David (my Dad).

Uncle Noice and Nana.

Sue and Tim.

Liz and Pat =:)

(Wow pics of me!!)

Wow a pic of all of us!!

James, Ethan, and Emmy next to Harry's "hot rod" as the boy's call it. Harry even took them for a spin (Pat too), I think it was the highlight of their day!

A group photo!

Aunt Marylin (in the middle) was visiting all the way from Florida! It was great to see her!! Her friend is to the left and Joey's daughter Crystal to the right.

Uncle Phil, Maddie and Karen.

At the end of the day cousin Marky gave the kids a fun tractor ride across the field to his house for the super fun remote control helicopter! Some how we missed getting pics of the helicopter getting stuck in the tree and them using the tractor bucket to lift people into the branches! It was a little scary and very amusing!

And the winner is...

Thank you Muria, Elizabeth, and Sarah for entering my giveaway contest!!

Okay so the deal is that since I technically have only three entries from two families you ALL win because I love you all and decided to thank you for supporting my giveaway! So congrats to you all and your bags will be ready in about a week (Everitts...when you get here!)

4th of July Picnic Cake

We made this cake for our family reunion .

It was very easy and everyone seemed to enjoy it!

Here is the recipe:

You Need:

1 baked white cake (9x13) cooled completely

1 8 oz. cool whip

1 pkg. strawberry jello

1 c. very hot water

1/2 c. cold water

12-20 strawberries (depending on the size and how many "stripes" you want)

1 c. blueberries

Directions:

With a large fork poke holes in the cake every 1/2 inch or so. Combine the jello and the hot water until the jello is dissolved, add the cold water and stir. Carefully pour the jello mixture over the cake so that it runs down into the holes (the cake will have red stripes when cut). Chill the cake for several hours to let the jello set. When ready spread cake with cool whip. Remove tops on strawberries and cut in half the long way. Make the rectangle of blueberries first, then add the strawberry stripes. Chill until ready to serve!

Check out the recipe swap for more yummy recipe ideas!

Girly Hair

We had fun playing girly hair the other morning and I took some pic of the super easy little bun I have been doing in Emmy's hair. I got the idea from the Hair for the Mini Diva blog, her little girl has hair similar to Emmys and so it is a good site for us to get ideas from! Here is the link.

Then she had an idea...
...Annie Oakley returns! So much for the cute girly do!!

I was in hair mode so I decided to try "baby piggies" on Mollie. She acutally did pretty good sitting still for this. I had to gel them to get them to stay but they came out cute!

Our 100th Post!

Our blog started out as a way to keep in touch with our good friends the Everitts who moved to California a year ago and has morphed into a family scrapbook of sorts. Sharing photo's, recipes, crafts, and keeping an online record of our homeschool activities and projects are what it is all about now that we have some experience with the "blogging thing"!

To celebrate we are doing a giveaway!

I have been wanting to make reusable sandwich bags ever since I saw a tutorial online! The one you see above is NOT mine but one I found online and is the style I will be making for the giveaway! If you are the winner you will receive a set of 4 bags!

All you need to do is post a comment below (one per person please).

Receive 5 more entries if you post this on your blog with a link back here! Please let me know in the comments that you did with a link to your blog!

We will pick a name randomly on the 20th of June!!! Check back here then to see who the winner is. The winner must then contact me within 48 hours or I will pick another.

Our Garden and it's "First Fruits"

Actually the first fruits went to my Nana who made Rhubarb Pie's (that were amazing)! When I picked the next batch I made this Rhubarb Cobbler and was naughty because the next morning I had it for breakfast with vanilla yogurt on top! Dessert for breakfast, yummy!!

Here is where I found the recipe:

Our rhubarb patch:

Here are a couple pics of our garden, which includes tomatoes, beans, peas, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers, pumpkins, and sunflowers!

And lets not forget our massive wild blackberry patch that sprouted up in our yard about three years ago. It is getting huge and we have to pull the runners out of the lawn here and there to keep it from taking over! It is loaded with blossoms so hopefully we will have a good harvest!!