Yeah Hot Cocoa

Scott and Cara enjoying the hot cocoa.

When Scott's family visited a week ago he asked if I could make hot cocoa for breakfast one day. This is something that my mother made for me and my children and I on occasion would serve it too. I don't quite have the magic touch that my mom did as her cocoa was by far much better than mine. Still it wasn't too bad though. After the hot cocoa is made the next item on the menu is toast with peanut butter spread on it. Best for last and that is to start dunking the toast into the cocoa and eating. Yummy, better than peanut butter cups. This was the first time I made cocoa for Cara and she joined right in on the tasty breakfast.

Tasting pretty good!
Yes, she likes it.

Yeah hot chocolate and grandma!! We will have to do this when Cara's Aunt Cyndi visits us next time.

Emily also enjoyed the tasty breakfast, I took a photo of the three of them but it didn't turn out.

This receipe is especially enjoyable on a snowy day.

Happy Halloween

WISHING YOU A HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


The princess of our family hope all of you have a great trick or treat day!!

Halloween At The Zoo

Last weekend we were delighted to have Scott, Emily, and Cara come up for a visit. On our plans was a trip to the children's zoo in town all decorated up for Halloween fun. This is something that we had done with our children when they were younger. How exciting it was to now be taking Cara there to share in the fun with family and friends that were with us.

Who is having the most fun? Cara or grandma?

The zoo decorates each year for Halloween and offers thousands of decorated pumpkins throughout the zoo along with lights decorating the pathways. Also in the zoo there were goodies at nine trick-or-treat stations to be given to each child when a ticket was given to the one passing them out. Cara quickly figured things out and carried her ticket with her until we were at our next stop. She would then hand them her ticket, take her treat and put into her little princess bucket, tell them thank you, and head on towards the next stop. Of course, this meant no time for photos because Cara was too busy to stop. She walked all the way through the zoo never stopping to rest.


Cara and O trying to pose for photos, this was really hard for them as they wanted to get right into the zoo.


We were still trying to get photos but with so much to see and do Cara didn't want to slow down.


Our gang heading towards a tunnel that will take us to our next treat station.


Checking out some of the treats.


Mission accomplished, all treat stations visited, now it was time to head out for another surprise.


We ended the evening by stopping at a local diner and sharing two turtle sundaes.

It was a fun night and I am not sure if Cara, her parents, grand parents, or our friends had the most fun. I hope we can get together each year and take that walk through the beautiful not scary Halloween zoo.

Apple Pie & Homemade Ice Cream

This post is dedicated to Cyndi and Danilo, we miss you and wished you could have been here to share our delicious fall treat with all of us.



Click to play video

Fall in the Midwest means weather changes, the beauty of the leaves changing color, bright crisp days, pumpkins, apples, fall festivals, and a reason to make apple pies. Each fall Scott treats us to a homemade apple pie served with homemade ice cream. This year Cara helped in the kitchen and she, like her daddy, is a wonderful pie baker. You are all invited to join in as we share some apple pie with you.


Mixing the ingredients.


Tasting to make sure everything is fine.


Emily and Cara cut the warm apple pie.


The ice cream is ready.


Yummy!!!!

We all miss having Cyndi and Danilo here to share in our treat but next time you visit we will treat you to a pie and ice cream.

Weekend Project

Each year we buy several trees for our property to be planted and this year is no exception. Several weeks ago we planted two trees and now, even though our backs are sore and we were not ready to dig some more, we had no choice but to get this tree into the ground. This was possibly the last weekend that we could undertake this project so we could not put it off any longer. The days are getting more into the cooler weather and now we were facing rain in our forecast for several days. Ameridad started the day out digging, digging, and digging . . .


. . . as beautiful as our property is, underneath it is solid clay, making this job even harder . . .


. . . I even tried to help, tried but not so much help . . .


. . . sitting down on the job while I am working? Wonder who he is talking to?


. . . Ameridad called in the cavalry to help! Yeah, O will help us . . .


. . . Thanks O, great job! You are wonderful . . .


. . . first two to sit in the shade of the newest tree!

I do have to add, so no one reports us for child labor law violations, that in fact Americdad, O's dad, and O's grandpa helped finish up getting the tree planted.

Thanks for your help!

Note: No children or trees were hurt or injured on this project. I am not sure at this time if I can say the same about the adults.

Summers End

Home Sweet Home

We have been fortunate this year in that that we have been having an extended summer. The weather has been perfect the last several weeks with no humidity, blue skies, cool temperatures at night, and no unwanted bugs. This is what makes living in the Midwest this time of year a great place to be at.



In spite of having several a weeks of perfect weather if you look closely you will be able to see that fall is starting to make its appearance . . .


. . . a little color in the trees . . .


. . . the last of the farmer's crops to be harvested . . .

. . . vibrant sunsets . . .

. . . but with all of the beauty that fall offers us the only drawback is what will follow . . .


Winter 2007
. . . not really looking forward to the snow.

Barbies Anyone?

Another garage sale find! A beautiful Barbie Grand Hotel with furniture, an elevator, and working telephones. Knowing that I had the Barbie Hotel waiting for some play time I called and got permission from Cara's Aunt Cyndi to see if we could play with her stash of old Barbie dolls that were in the attic. Given the go ahead we had an afternoon of fun, even grandpa joined in. Yes, real men can play with dolls.

Helping Grandpa set up the hotel.

Getting the front desk in place.

Inspecting the elevator.


Answering the front desk phone.

Thanks Aunt Cyndi for letting Cara play with all the Barbie stuff!