Roller Coasters, Railroad Experience, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Rainforest Exhibit

Apparently we were studying the letter "R" today in our family! Dylan is really into roller coasters so I took him to Union Station because they had a little display of the old Worlds of Fun coasters. They even had the original blueprints for them.

Then we walked through the railroad experience and looked at the model trains.

Yummy chocolate at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

We walked over to Crown Center and went to the Rainforest Exhibit. There was not much there but Dylan wanted his picture taken with my favorite animal. I love gorillas!

The rest of the day we were LAZY because it was hot outside! Tomorrow we will be packing for our camping trip since I have to work all day on Friday!

I Love Weekends

What a fun weekend!!!!! Saturday morning we enjoyed a family outing to the movies. We saw Cars 2. Michael does not like going to the movies as much as the rest of us but he said we could not go see it without him. We were excited that he wanted to join us. He is the one who also wanted to see the movie in 3D. All of us really enjoyed the movie.

We had a nice relaxing day after the movie. Michael smoked ribs and we also had stuffed jalapenos with goat cheese and wrapped in rib eye steak. I also enjoyed having a fresh strawberry mojito. YUMMY!!

This morning I got up and made breakfast for my family. As much as I love to cook and bake I rarely fix breakfast. Everyone was pleased with the brown butter waffles.

I usually bake something for my office mates so they can have a treat on Monday morning so today I made Rolo brownies and this is what they looked like before I put the batter on top.

finished product

I had some Rolos left over so I also made Rolo dream bars.

Tonight Michael grilled us delicious bacon and ranch cajun cheeseburgers. Now we are just sitting around waiting because Dylan has a basketball game tonight at 8pm and we hope it is a great game to end a great weekend.

Caspian Bistro

Tonight we went to Caspian Bistro with Ann and Ricky! Caspian Bistro serves Mediterranean food and I had no idea if I would even like it but I did! The chicken was so good!!!!!!

We had a cheese platter and hummus for our appetizers.

I am so proud of myself for trying something new!

A Wonderful Day Off!!

Wow! I slept till 8am today! I had to start my day off with a Starbucks and then I actually did some laundry today. After Dylan got home from football camp I took the kids to go see "Mr. Popper's Penguins". I thought it was going to be horrible but it was a cute family movie.

Dylan was being silly in this picture!

Dylan was busy this afternoon building a roller coaster out of straws and...

a roller coaster outside with wood and bricks.

Wheeeee!!!!

With my family there is always one person who does not like what I fix for dinner (unless it is tacos or spaghetti) but tonight all four of us LOVED this meal. I made ranch house crock pot pork chops with parmesan garlic mashed potatoes.

Cass trying the caramel creme toffee cookies!

Back to work tomorrow!!

Father's Day 2011

Cass and Dylan are so lucky to have such a great daddy!

Dylan had a basketball game today and he said they would win for all of the dads. He was right because they won by 18 points. I love that his tongue was sticking out while he shot the ball.

Tonight Michael grilled wings and I made homemade cole slaw for the first time.

Did you think I would go without making dessert??? I made golden oreo cheesecake bars. YUM-OLA!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Food Club

Finally, we had food club tonight after four months of not having it!! I love eating all of the delicious food and spending time with the Mahin family. Dylan did not go to the February gathering so this was his first time meeting Emily.

Emily loved Dylan

We had beautiful weather so we were able to sit on the deck. I made taco pizza dip for the appetizer.

Michael smoked brisket and I made sour cream and chives cheesy potatoes and garlic pull apart bread.

Mike and Mike

Jenni made a chocolate cake from scratch and Julia Child's buttercream frosting. It was so scrumptious!!

We are NOT going four months again without food club!

The only recipe link that works is the garlic bread one so here are two other recipes.

Taco Pizza Dip

2 pkgs. cream cheese, softened

8-12 oz. french onion dip

1 lb. ground beef

half of an envelope of dry taco seasoning mix

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Combine cream cheese and onion dip and spread in slow cooker. Brown ground beef, drain and stir in taco seasoning into meat.

Place meat on top of cream cheese mixture.

Sprinkle cheese on top of meat.

Cover and cook on low for 1 1/2 -2 hours.

Serve with tortilla chips.

Sour Cream and Chives Cheesy Potatoes

2 lbs. frozen hash brown potatoes

1 can cream of chicken soup

2 cups sour cream and chives

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup melted butter

Mix together except for melted butter. Pour melted butter on top and bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes.

TGIF

Today I had to take Cass to the doctor to get a TB test so she can volunteer this summer and she also had to have her right ear cleaned out. Neither one was fun so I took her to Yogurtini for a treat afterwards.

Then my family took me to Willie's to celebrate my new position at work. We all got an appetizer for dinner and it only cost us $17. Yay cheap!!!

Well, not so cheap because when we came out we had this on our windshield!

A $38.50 parking violation! Whoops!!!

Michael and I have been enjoying some deck time while sipping on a fresh mint margarita. Cass made non-alcholic Kentucky Derby drinks for her and Dylan.

What a nice way to start the weekend!

A Great Day Off!!

It was so nice to have the day off today! I even got up and went to my 5:45am water aerobics class and then went to Starbucks.

Dylan had basketball camp this morning and then I took Cass and Dylan to go see the movie "Judy Moody and the not so Bummer Summer".

I loved that we had a nice rainy day with some thunder!

I also made chocolate truffle cookies today so I can take them to work with me in the morning!

I also took graham cracker chocolate chip snaking cake (smores cake) this week and it was really good!

My lemonade cake looked absolutely ugly but delicious! My office mates miss me when I am gone :)

Basketball Tournament in Hesston, KS

Well, the Kansas City Premiere team got 4th place out of 28 teams. Not bad but we lost in overtime in the last game so it was a heart breaker. Michael and I wanted to have a cookout with the whole team so on Saturday between our 11:15am game and our 9pm game the whole team and their families came to the campground. The boys had a great time and some actually thought we lived in the trailer. We had grilled hamburgers, chips, corn dip and yummy chocolate chip cookies that my mom made.

BBQ time

Dylan and Coach Hudson

The boys wanted to go in the trailer so I made them pose for a picture. Dylan even had some special people come watch his games. Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Robert enjoyed watching Dylan and his team play.

I had to post my favorite recipe of the week! Homemade Peppermint Patties! Delicious!!!

Another Fun-Filled Day

Every year after vacation I immediately work on our photo album. It usually takes all day to finish it so that is why I always take the Monday after vacation off. Well, this year I decided to take two days after vacation off and thank goodness because today was filled with other things besides finishing my album.

I worked all morning on the photo album. Scrapbook materials, photos and of course a Starbucks are the supplies needed for the album.

Then I took the kids out for lunch at Lettuce Eat. It was delicious as always.

After that a dr. appointment and then I took Cass and Dylan to go see Kung Fu Panda 2. We had to stop and get some candy before the movie. The new coconut Twix was yummy!

Dylan also had basketball practice tonight. Maybe I can finish my photo album before I go to bed and then tomorrow I can rest!!

Family Vacation 2011

Click here to the link to our family vacation!!! Hope you enjoy them!