1st day of pre-k

Just as every parent in the history of ever says, your kids will grow up fast. But what they don't tell you is it's a weird kind of fast. It honestly feels like Gracen should be 15 by now, but at the same time I have no idea how she's almost 5. I couldn't wait to get past the sleepless nights and diapers, and rocking to sleep, and now I miss it. My sweet baby is growing up and I'm not sure how ready I am for it.

Almost 2 months ago (yeesh I'm still pretty far behind) she had her first day of pre-k. And due to circumstances beyond my control (I still don't want to talk about it) I had to miss dropping her off for her first day. Luckily since it's our second year at St. Ann's I know a lot of the parents and kids already so that made up for a little bit of it.

At St. Ann's they split the classes by age, so last year she was the oldest in her class, with an April birthday. This year because different kids were signed up, she got bumped up to the older class with all new kids. Luckily she's a little social butterfly and it didn't seem to phase her. She still asks about some of the kids from last year, but she still gets to see them at recess and gets to play soccer with some of them.

This past weekend was the open house for kindergarten, and I get choked up just thinking about it. I know she's got to grow up sometime, but really? We're already thinking about kindergarten? Part of the reason that I love being back in KC, is becuase despite what anyone tells you, it really is a small town atmosphere. The prinicpal of St. Ann's used to teach at my high school, and I was friends with her son. The half day kindergarten teacher used to teach at my gradeschool. I was friends with the 1st grade teachers kids and have known her since before I was in kindergarten. It all makes me really nostalgic, and I get teary eyed just typing this.

After her big day I took her down to the park to take a few other pics for her first day of school. She was really excited at first, and then of course changed her mind once we got there. Ahh 4 years olds.

Before I know it, it's going to be time to her senior pictures and I'm going to cry like a baby. I have a feeling I'm totally going to be one of those embarrassing moms, and I'm ok with that. Hopefully Gracen embraces it. I love to get involved with her activities and know everything about whats going on. Everyday when I get home from work I asked her what she did at school and she always replies "I don't remember". Then slowly as the night progresses she starts to reveal little tidbits. I love to see her light up about school and learning and her friends. I hope she carries that passion for life wherever she goes or ends up doing and passes it on to her own kids some day. It's one of the things I love most about her and watching her grow up, even if that means sending her to kindergarten someday.

Breakfast for Dessert

Last night I made the most amazing pop over for dessert. It really is one of the simplest recipes I've ever come across, but looks totally fancy. It tells you to serve it for breakfast, which would be totally delish, but I chose to make it for dessert. I love dessert, and have to have it just about every day, since that doesn't always help out the whole eating healthy plan, this is a good compromise.

It's kind of like a mix of crepes and a pie (or my amazing tartlettes). There is absolutely no sugar in this recipe, and you would never know it. (Although I did sprinkle a wee bit of powdered sug on the top because I'm a rebel)

Doesn't that look like something straight out of a french pastry shop? I totally impressed myself with this, and the Mr. and it's kind of healthy for you! Definitely a repeat this fall at our house.

What you'll need (and most likely already have!):

• 2 T butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C flour
• 1/2 C milk
• 1/4 t salt
• fruit (fresh or frozen)

Put your butter in a pie plate and put it in the oven to melt while you're pre-heating to 400 degrees. In a bowl mix your eggs, then add in flour, milk and salt and combine. Don't over mix it or it won't pop! Make sure your butter is melted and spread all over the pie plate, pour in your batter and bake for 25-30 mins or until it's puffed and golden. It should "pop" up the edges, and leave you with a center to fill with whatever kind of berries you want. I used frozen mixed berries because we always keep some in the freezer for smoothies and dessert emergencies :) And that's it! SO SIMPLE.

This was heavenly straight out of the oven. I probably could've eaten the whole thing by myself. But when you have a husband and 2 bambinos you learn to share ;) I'm already thinking of what else I could fill it with, chocalate/pecans, pumpkin, peaches, apples, the possibilities are endless!!

Under the Sea

I was super pumped when I found out that the SeaLife Aquarium was coming to KC. First off I absolutely love Crown Center. I spent much of my childhood there, it's just a very special place to me. And the fact that I now get to bring my children there is an amazing feeling. One of the very top reasons I wanted to move back to my old stomping grounds.

I'd been looking for an excuse to go, but unfortunately its on the more expensive side. (And yes I know that's a relative term considering I'm a cheapo right now since we're on a mad crazy budget) But considering how many free activities there are around the city, and one of our other favs Deanna Rose is a whopping $2/person (free on the weekdays!) $20/person seems a little steep in comparison. So when Father's Day rolled around (yes I realize this was months ago...) I decided to surprise the Mr. and get tickets to go the Aquarium on Father's Day. He's not really big on gifts, but I knew he would enjoy it as much as the girls so it was a nice compromise (it is literally NOT possible for me to not get/do something for every occassion no matter how many times he says not to).

If you decide to go definitely make sure you order your tix online. There's a seperate line for you to enter so you don't waste half your day standing in line. One of the coolest parts was by far the little pools that let you pick some things up. But warning, it's not that big and always very crowded.

 

 



Overall it was a neat place. But I have to say I was dissapointed. It's incredibly cramped and small. We went through the whole thing in about in an hour. We'll probably go back again some day, but it won't be a regular stop for us. I think I just built it up so much in my mind, and was thinking it would be huge and pretty wide open, but the girls had a blast and we got to spend the day celebrating the best Daddy in the world :)

Sneak Peek

I am so incredibly thrilled with how everything turned out for Hadley's birthday party on Saturday, and that almost never happens. The weather was gorgeous, and everything I made turned out (almost) exactly how I envisioned it, even the cake. And the cake was very ambitious for me as a lower than amateur status baker. I'm so excited, that I'm going to share one of the treats I made before I even had time to get the rest of the pics and details in order.

I decided not to do a theme this year, because that can actually add on more stress. So instead I just decided to have a color scheme, and went with Purple (to reuse some decor from the wedding shower) and turquoise because I found super cute invites in those colors. This year instead of trying to have bbq-esque food at the park I went with a dessert table. Much easier to execute and a lot more fun to plan :) The first idea I came up with I thought would be the easiest, and turned out to be the hardest, so I had a lot of last minute changes goin on. Without further ado, a lil sneak peek:

Lollipop Cookies!

Now these are not near as pretty as the inspiration photo, and were kind of a pain in the rear to make, but still turned out really cute. In theory they sounded really simple. There's like 4 steps to the directions. 1. Make your cookie dough. 2. Dye your cookie dough. 3. Twist the colors together and roll up like a lollipop. 4. Insert stick and bake. 

A couple of things to note here though - 1.Making the cookie dough was easy (not to mention yummy) 2. Use gel dye. It's AMAZING. And there are SO many colors to choose from, also I should've made the purple darker. 3. Shaping the lollipops was a royal pain in the rear and took a very long time. They're incredibly sticky and break very easily. even after being refrigerated for a while. So i got impatient, and started just combing the dough and making them tie-dye-ish. Still looked pretty cute and tasted delish. 4. when I rolled them up they were about half that size, when I baked them they basically doubled in size and I was not anticipating that. After the first batch came out ginormous, I made some mini sized ones as well. So even though they're not exactly as I imagined, I still think they're pretty cute and perfect for a 3 year olds bday party. Here's a pic of the inspiration (I swear they took these photos before baking because it's no where near as smooshed together as mine - either that or they used some magical cookie dough for lollipops I'm unaware of)

How is it still perfectly coiled?!? The world may never know.