Daddy-Daughter Evening

Last night for our Young Women activity, we had a great daddy-daughter night.  I had nothing to do with planning this event, but they asked me last minute to bring my camera ... I had no idea what they had in mind. Our evening started with mixing ingredients for 3 different flavors of homemade ice cream.  While the ice cream was churning, we played some games ... girls vs dads.  One game had about 15 small cups with different spices & ingredients in each cup that are found in most kitchens.  The girls & dads had to close their eyes, sniff, and guess what they were smelling.  Pretty fun.  There were a few other games going on throughout the night. 

Before YW started, one of the leaders took some snazzy fabric and tacked it onto one of those large rolling blackboards.  Because we had a cooking/kitchen theme, aprons & chef hats were supplied for the dads & girls to wear in the photographs.  As the evening started to come to a close & while everyone enjoyed the fruits of their labors (homemade ice cream), we took some photos of the girls with their dads.  I don't have a fancy flash or anything for my camera so I was somewhat worried about how these were going to turn out, but it makes my heart happy to look at them.  I hope these are a special treasure for the girls.

By Hand

I tried my hand at using my own handwriting on a scrapbook page.  It turned out a little shaky, but not terrible.  I'll have to keep practicing.  I actually tried a lot of new things on this page and I'd like to share one easy trick if you'd like to make a road trip or vacation page for your scrapbook.

Inserting a map into your page ....

1. Go to Google Maps.

2. Move the map around, zoom in & out, etc until what you see on your screen is what you'd like to see on your scrapbook page.  Make sure both the starting and ending points of your trip can be seen on your screen.

3. Push the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard for Windows users or "Command+Control+Shift+4" for Mac users.  This saves your screen shot to your computer's clipboard.

4. Paste (Control+V or Command+V)  your map into whatever program you are using or document that you are working on.  If you are a traditional paper scrapbooker, you could probably just paste your map into a program like Word & print the map.  If you are using a scrapbooking or photo editing program for your digital scrapbooking pages, just have the scrapbook page open that you are working on before you paste your map and the map should show up for ya right on your page. 

5. After your map is on the page, make adjustments to it's size, location on the page, etc as needed.

6. Finally, I added the orange dots to show where my trip started & ended.  I used a round brush in Photoshop to do this.  You could also just add text, stars or whatever makes you happy. :)

Have fun!

Stay-cation

Ever been on a "stay-cation"??  I've decided they never end up being very relaxing.  Unless you really go away, you still have people bugging you for stuff & too many distractions.  But we did get to relax a bit and, even though we got chased away by bees, one of my favorite activities this past weekend was taking the kids to Tempe Beach Park to play in the water.

Parenting: Touching the Hearts of Our Youth

I'm off to make dinner & my goal tonight is to not ask any of my children to stop talking ... no matter how much my brain seems to be rattling. :)

Scalloped Circle Tags

I had fun playing with some circles.  I drew on the scalloped edge to make it a little more rustic or homemade looking.  You can use these as is or type something onto them with a photo editing program.  Use them for gift tags, church handouts, put them on a scrapbook page, or whatever you fancy.  Just right click on the desired image and save.  As always, these are for personal use only.

Patriotic Circle with no shadow

Patriotic Circle with shadow

Green Floral Circle with shadow

Green Floral with no shadow

I think when I made these, I gave the patriotic circles a transparent background & the green circles have a white background.  If you want to take the white background off, open the green circle in Photoshop and SELECT the entire image ... like around the whole white box that will show up.  Then Inverse your selection (go to Select then click on Inverse).  Use can now use your Move Tool to drop the circle onto whatever you want.

Lamb of God

The East Valley Mormon Chorale Organization (EVMCO) will be perfoming Rob Gardner's work, Lamb of God.  Performances are on Friday September 10th & Saturday the 11th at ASU's Gammage.  To buy tickets, go HERE.  Tickets start at ONLY $6!! We had our first rehearsal this past Saturday ... it think it's going to be a beautiful performance!

If you are having trouble viewing this youtube video, try THIS link.

Cheesecake Bars

I tried another new recipe ... this time I can easily share the recipe with you cause I found it online. :)

I tried Bakerella's Cheesecake Bars recipe.

My thoughts .... the chocolate ganache TOTALLY made this dessert for me.  I used a good (ie no Nestle, Hershey, Bakers ....)  dark chocolate instead of semi-sweet.  I think I used a 60% dark chocolate or maybe 70% ... can't remember.  Pretty sure on the 60% though.  I definitely didn't miss the semi-sweet chocolate and I'd definitely use a dark chocolate again.  The cheesecakiness of the recipe was good, but not the greatest cheesecake I've ever baked.  But before I turn you off from the recipe, it really was good.  I also really liked the flavor of the crust.  My only complaint was that it got a bit soggy in less than 48 hours in the fridge which seems kinda soon esp if you are supposed to refrigerate overnight (always a must with cheesecake!).  All the cheesecake recipes I've ever made instruct me to bake the crust for about 8 minutes before putting the filling on top of the crust.  I think I might try that next time to see if the crust holds up a little better.  Any thoughts?  I used some leftover cookies & put them on top (as Bakerella instructs) of about 1/2 the bars ... next time I think I'll put them on top of ALL the bars although a lot of people seemed to go for the non-topping ones.  I personally liked them better with the cookies on top.

I cut my cheesecakes into bite-size pieces (about 1x1") and took them to a Relief Society activity, sent a bunch to work with my hubby, had some family over for a game night & used them as a treat, and there's still a bunch left in my fridge.  These would be perfect for an event where you like to have finger-foods or you'd just like to have small treats.  I'm sure they'd be great as larger bars, too!!

Overall, I give this recipe a 9 out of 10. :)

P.S.  I was a bit worried about where I'd be able to find the Biscoff cookies for the crust, but I found them at my local Super Wal-Mart on the cookie aisle ... easy peasy.

UPDATE:  Checked my cocoa ... it's 72% dark chocolate!

Young Women Manual 2 Lesson 31: The Law of the Land

I found this old post that I started over a month ago & never finished.  I think something happened that day & I ended up not teaching, but I'm going to post what I had so I have something to refer to later on down the road.

NICE HANDOUT!

A WHOLE BUNCH OF GREAT IDEAS!

Families Supporting Adoption Conference

On October 8-9, 2010, there is going to be a Southwest Regional Conference put on by the Families Supporting Adoption (FSA) organization.  The conference will be held in Tempe, Arizona.

If you'd like more information, go HERE.

The link above takes you to a homepage, but even if you aren't interested in attending the conference, you might find some helpful information related to adoption when you click on RELATED LINKS.

Downloading a YouTube Video

One of my readers, Penny ... such a cute name!  ... reminds me of Lost  ... asked for help with downloading a Youtube video onto her desktop like I do for my Young Women lessons.  I have to be glued to my violin for the next 48 hours, but I thought I'd share a few links that will hopefully get some of you started.

HERE is one online tutorial.  From that link, there is a program called Easy YouTube Video Downloader ... I believe this is the one that we use here at my house.

Also, if you go to http://www.youtube.com/, you can search for video tutorials that may be able to help you with downloading youtube videos.  For example:

I will try to get a tutorial put together on how I download these videos, but in the mean time, I suggest googling "how to download youtube videos" ... or something similar ... to get you going.  Good luck!

Tired ....

It's almost midnight & I'm beat.  I feel like I never stopped to sit down & relax today ... or eat ... or a lot of other things.  School is in full swing for the kids, I'm taking an on-line class, and it's time for me to start sawing away on my ol' fiddle.  I'm afraid that my days of baking goodies are going to have to slow down a bit.

Around dinner time yesterday, these little babies came out of the oven.  I'm sorry that I'm too lazy to type up recipes ... maybe some day....

If you want to try something like this, make some brownie and cheesecake batter ... just a small batch for both.  The cheesecake batter doesn't need to be anything fancy.  Just some cream cheese, sugar, an egg yolk & mini chocolate chips.  I put the brownie batter into a gallon-size Ziploc bag and the cheesecake batter into a quart-size Ziploc bag.  Then clip off a corner of the bags and squeeze the brownie batter into mini cupcake liners ... filling them about 2/3.  Then put about 1 teaspoon of the cheesecake batter into the center of the brownie batter.  Bake.  Enjoy.  I made about 50 of these mini brownie cheesecakes and within a few hours, less than 10 were left.  (My YW enjoyed a few of them as well.) 

Off to bed ....

For Fun For You

I'm assuming a lot of my readers have no need for Young Women handouts, so today I have something for fans of non-YW stuff.  If you'd like to make a goodie & use my brownie wrapper to make something cute for a friend or loved one, please use these:

{blank brownie wrappers}

{large blank brownie wrappers}

{Happy Birthday! brownie wrappers}

Just right click on the image you like & save.  Use your favorite photo editing program to add text ... Thank you! ... Good Luck! ... Happy Birthday! ... be creative & use your imagination.  Then print on glossy 8.5x11" glossy photo paper.  I didn't create the papers & frame that were used, so these are for personal use only, please!

Young Women Manual 2 Lesson 30: Strengthening Testimony through Service

If you like cute things for Young Women, I think I have some for ya today.

My favorite handouts are by Shaunte Wadley & they can be found HERE.  Couldn't resist the owls! :)  I took the cute handouts and made an 8.5x11" page of both handouts.  I had to shrink down the handouts just a little so I could get 4 to a page, but they still turned out to be a really nice size.  Use my page below for easy at-home printing.  Or just use Shaunte's originals off of Sugardoodle's website if you want to get prints made at Costco.

TONS of cute handout ideas are HERE.  I took the compli"mint" idea towards the bottom of the list and had some fun with it.  I made brownies with York Peppermint Patties in the middle.  I'm sure you could use any homemade brownie recipe to duplicate my idea.  Just put 1/2 the brownie batter in the bottom of your pan and then layer the batter with peppermint patties.  I used a 9x13" pan and I probably used about 50 peppermint patties.  After your patties are in place, spread the rest of your batter on top of the patties.

They should make a beautiful, fudgey treat!

Then I had fun being creative ....

I made little wrappers for the brownies. 

I just printed them at home with glossy photo paper, but I'm sure a nice cardstock would work as well.  I recommend bending the corners of the wrapper so it wraps & fits nicely around your brownie.  I "glued" the wrapper behind the brownie with a blue glitter star sticker ... the squishy, foamy kind of stickers.  Any kind of sticker or paper glue should work for you. 

I know my wrappers are not evenly spaced, but I was in a hurry.  I kinda trimmed them all anyways to make them each the size I wanted.  I wanted to see a little bit of brownie showing on the top & bottom of each wrapper.

I used some of Angela's ideas for my actual lesson.  I put a nice tablecloth on the table and then brought different items to display that make me happy.... 

• A framed photograph of my kids (family)
• Shoe box (shopping)
• Point & shoot camera (photography & creative outlets)
• Cookbook (food, baking)
• Sunglasses (warm, sunny weather)
• Metronome (music, playing violin & piano)
• Scriptures (spiritual things)

It was a fun get-to-know-you hearing about what makes the girls happy.  The girls & I all shared our own experiences & stories that related to service.  To close my lesson, I used this video:

Family + Food = Party

My dad has been working a court case for the Town of Gilbert for over a year & as far as I know, he's done all the work for free.  To celebrate a job well-done and his win in court, we had a family party for him.

For as long I can remember, my dad has L-O-V-E-D York Pepperming Patties.  My dad grew-up in York, PA, so I'm not sure if it's the name of the candy or the actual flavor that he likes more. :)  In honor of my dad, I baked some brownies with York's in the middle.  (More on those later.)

After dinner, we took a quick dip in the pool.  I think my son should become a model for fashionable eyewear! :) :)

Contagious.

My boy is quick to smile.  His grandma commented last week that he has a contagious smile ... I have to agree.  In his younger days when he'd always find his way into my bed sometime during the night, I used to love to wake up to his huge grin.  It made my morning!  My boy loves to be silly which brings out the silliness in others.  I think he loves the attention that his silliness brings, too. :)

The other night he was saying his prayers before bed.  Daddy was prompting him and helping him with what to say.  I was standing in the room listening and around the middle of the prayer, it went something like this...

Daddy: I'm thankful

Turkey: I'm fankful

Daddy: for my family.

Turkey: for chock-it milk.

We had a few giggles.  Gotta love his honesty.

A Couple Tidbits to Ponder

On Monday, Penguin & I baked some luscious lime bars with chocolate glaze.  The recipe I was using had measurement options ... I could have used cups or ounces for my dry ingredients.  Just for kicks, I measured my ingredients with cups and the weighed them.  All my "cups" weighed more than what the recipe called for in ounces.  I decided to go the weighing route for this recipe, BUT the recipe turned out a little too gooey for my tastes.  I think I would have personally preferred the little bit of extra flour.  I'm anxious to try the whole weighing vs measuring thing again on another recipe just to see what the results are like. 

Also, I wanted to share this post from Scott Kelby.  Since I moved to AZ, I haven't had much time for photography jobs, but in the past, I always have people who wanted to order 8x10" prints.  This is an odd size considering photo are "meant to be" printed as a 4x6" ... or 8x12".  When you want your photographer to make you an 8x10, something is either getting stretched or cropped to make it that size.  The next time you are out shopping for frames, do your favorite photographer a favor & just skip over the 8x10's!

Berry Crepes

In continuation of our Russian/Adoption celebrations, we made crepes for breakfast.  When I was a kid, crepes were something I looked forward to and they were always a special treat.  My kids ... not really fans which I just don't get cause they devour pancakes and we filled them with all kinds of sweet goodies. 

I used to always make crepes for General Conference breakfast, but haven't in 4 or 5 years.  This time around, I tried a new recipe.  The recipe looked good and included things like brown sugar, but I think it was a poorly written recipe cause my flour never mixed in ... just got clumpy and sank to the bottom of the bowl.

I know crepes aren't really Russian, but we can count them as European, right?  And we were served blintzes while in Russia which are pretty much the same thing.  I'm not sure what you fill your crepes with, but we like:

• Ice cream
• Fruit & berries
• Pie filling
• Sauces & syrups
• Nutella
• Puddings & custards
• Powdered sugar on top
• Whipped cream

Wanna Smile?

Beauty Queen

Sometimes I get in the mood to play with Peacock's hair.  Not often because it can become a very frustrating project, but yesterday I was feeling confident.  Peacock & I plopped ourselves onto the couch, turned on the movie Sense & Sensibility (yup, she watched the whole thing with me!), and worked on taking out her previous style.  We had a major set-back when her brush broke as I was blow drying her hair and my brushes combined with her hair just do. not. work. I tried to blow-dry her hair with a couple different combs ... we did the best we could.  I made some fat ringlets with the straighter and then she found a cute headband that she wanted to wear to church.  The style totally did not turn out how I had pictured in my head, but she got lots of compliments & big smiles.

The Big 13

I'm so proud of my Penguin.  She memorized & passed off all 13 Articles of Faith!!  I don't think I can say all 13 word-for-word from memory these days.....  GREAT JOB!!!