Mmmm, Zebra

Yesterday when we were at Sam’s Club they had a big fancy popcorn company giving out free samples for their super expensive popcorn. I promised the kids that I could make them popcorn just like that for a fraction of the cost. So this afternoon we made some of what they called “zebra” flavor.

And in celebration of the fact that I’ve lost 8 pounds this month I let myself taste some. But it’s back to the 60 calorie fudgsicles for me until I drop another 5.

This is the recipe for the caramel corn. Then we just drizzled melted chocolate chips and melted white chocolate on top for the zebra stripes.

Easy Caramel Corn

2 bags microwave pop corn*

(recipe calls for Jolly Time Blast o Butter)

Non stick cooking spray

1 cup butter or margarine

2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 250º. Coat the bottom of a large roasting pan with cooking spray. Pop the pop corn, discard any unpopped corn.
2. In a heavy pan, melt the butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Heat to a boil, stirring constantly. Then let boil for five minutes without stirring. Remove from heat, stir in baking soda and vanilla. Gradually pour over popped corn in roasting pan and stir.
3. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven, cool completely, store in airtight containers.

* I made one batch of popcorn {1/3 cup} in my Whirleypop {love it!} on the stove.

Oh, The Flowers, The Flowers

I love having flowers in our yard. Really, isn't that the whole point of having a yard?

I’m so glad that my roses survived the deers’ thanksgiving feast last fall…They’re still ticking. {Thriving might be too strong a word.} Hopefully they will keep growing and blooming.

Luckily Peonies repel the deer. That’s awesome. Unfortunately one of my peonies didn’t survive the snow on Easter. I’m wondering if it will come back next year or if it’s lost forever?See that fabulous birdbath? I put it together from a platter and candlestick I found at a garage sale.

A crazy wind storm this week knocked it over onto the rocks and shattered it. sniff.
Well, it is in the place where a peony should be, so maybe next year it will return...

And I’m quickly becoming a daffodil fan. I think mixing my tulips in with the daffodils is helpful in keeping the deer from decapitating them. They seemed to eat the ones that were on their own and leave the ones that were scattered in with the daffodils. And I’m learning quickly the virtues of other flowers that are unappetizing to deer {hyacinth, begonias, allium, iris, day lilies, bleeding hearts, clematis etc.}.

A Long Time Coming

I can pretty much count on my fingers the times when I have gone in to have my hair done. My hair grows relatively fast and I let it go from short to long before venturing back to a salon. The hairdressers usually double check a few times before taking the first cut just to be sure I really want to change things that drastically.

This time I knew I was overdue for a few reasons. My hair was getting so long that it hurt to put it in a ponytail since it was so heavy. Heavy and hot. Not exactly conducive to cooling me down on a summer afternoon. And then there was the hair catching on fire while making dinner incident. {I tried to get a picture of the melted hair, but it wouldn’t focus correctly that close up…} Yeah, it was time.

I have also been planning for a while to take Easy in to get her hair cut. As much as I want her hair to stay long and luscious, she loathes anyone brushing/combing it and it pretty much only would get brushed after a bath. And forget about styling. You know I’ve tried. As a result, her dreadlocks have been anything but luscious.

So, after much unintentional procrastination, we made our way this morning to the neighborhood beauty school. Since it was Easy’s first visit to a “beauty salon” I had them capture our before and afters:

She of course kept everyone entertained while she was there. And, while it wasn’t exactly the look I was going for, {they never seem to give me enough layers} I think it is a decent summer do. And I was able to donate the leftovers.

Born again

Cuddles was baptized this morning. He was very excited.

We had family over for a barbeque afterward.
But mostly we just wanted to hold our new baby cousin. Can you tell??

She's so good she can do it in her sleep

Yes, you read that right. I’m talking about losing her tooth. In her sleep. She went to bed with a tooth attached, then woke up with a stray tooth hanging around in her mouth. Just glad she didn’t swallow or choke on it…

The spring that almost wasn't

I thought it was silly when we had snow on Easter.
I didn't really like having snow on Mother's Day.
But I never thought I would see the day when it was snowing on our anniversary.
Until today.

We still have comforters on all our beds. I turned on the fireplace today at lunch.
It's the last week of school for crying out loud!
This has got to stop.
It might be funny if it weren't so infuriating.
Let's just say that next year I won't be such a hurry to get my garden planted...

It's Great to be Eight

Guess who had a birthday...

For some reason I gave in and got him this cake. I never buy cakes. They have like a 500 percent markup. But he wanted one with flowers. For his Bakugan party, what else?

That was on the Saturday before and then went to Chuck E Cheese on his birthday {Tuesday} with his cousins. Then we ended up at Arctic Circle for dinner and I realized when we got there that I went to Arctic Circle on my 8th birthday too. Weird. I got a new coat, because my birthday is in February.
Somehow his celebrations were stretched out over the course of the week, we went to get his free scoop at Baskin Robbins on Friday and Daddy took him to Red Robin on Saturday for his free birthday meal. How did he end up so spoiled?