Favorite Little Princess

I hope I am joining what will become a national phenomenon. From the moment I read about the 26 Random Acts of Kindness here , I was ready to join in. I've always tried to be a good and kind person, but I'm hoping that this challenge will encourage others to participate as well. This isn't the first I've heard of "paying it forward", but with the tragic even at Sandy Hook Elementary, our country needs this more than ever. It wasn't long ago that our country came together after 9/11 and started treating their neighbors with kindness. Sad that it takes a tragic event to stir these acts of benevolence, but it does seem to ease to pain felt by the loss of innocent victims. We wanted to help somehow, but felt that there was nothing we could do. Random Act of Kindness #1  -  in honor of Charlotte Bacon (age 6) 100% tip to our waitress Last night, at our usual YoTaco Wednesday  dinner, we decided as a family to start our 26 Acts of Kindness.  The people...

We have stopped being so serious about our 5k races. No, really. We've started looking for races that are fun, in unique locations, or support something that is important to us. It has really made a difference in our experience. This past weekend was exactly that. I had heard about the Color Run from another blogger and it looked like it would be fun.  We signed up early and created a team. K1 decided to name us the Super Awesome Rainbow Unicorns. Huh? Ok, no one could come up with anything, so thus we were named. Then she came up with a design so we could have matching t-shirts. The day before, teammate Mer and I went across the bridge to pick up our race packets. December is beautiful in central Florida and St. Pete is the perfect beach location for a run. We stopped for lunch at a little Thai restaurant that looked not so good on the outside, but was surprisingly cute on the inside. Lanna Thai and Sushi on Park Street gave us good service in a beautiful setting. The ...

Are you familiar with Klout ? It's something I stumbled upon here in bloggy world. I'm still finding my way through it, but I have received some "perks" from it.  Zatarain 's sent me (and some other Klout users) a package of 3 types of their pasta dinner mixes. These are great to have in the pantry for those nights when you need to cook something quick. Our first pick was to try the gumbo. We almost always have shrimp and chicken in the freezer, but we decided to use the sausage we had from a recent buy one get one sale at the grocery store with the shrimp. It felt like it was a free meal! Plus, even though it's filled with flavor, it's not too spicy for the kids. The dinner was a hit and filled with the family quoting lines from Disney's The Princess and the Frog .  Bon Appétit!

It's your Sweet 26, K1!  Blow out the candles and make a wish!   Season Tickets to the Straz Center Broadway series? Wish granted! It's always fun dressing up for the show. Yes, she is taller than me. The heels don't help. She has been looking forward to Jekyll & Hyde for quite a while and it was a great performance. Some classic posters to look at while we wait to take our seats. K1 was in her school production of Little Shop last spring. She had a ball doing it.   We just love having our "girls night" outings, especially when it includes a musical.   Time for the show!

I'm still playing catch up from when my computer was down, so we are still in "rewind" mode until I get caught up with all the things from October and November that I wanted to post. It may seem like a strange request, but for my daughter's "Sweet 16" birthday, she requested to go to the local Oktoberfest. Fine by me! Being German, I love authentic German food. Yum! Good thing we don't eat this all the time. Lots of meat and carbs, but it's soooo yummy. We decided to burn some of those calories off with a little dancing. The kids really loved the band and the costumes. It wouldn't be a birthday if we didn't make her get up in front of everyone as the band sang to her. She was totally embarrassed  but I'm sure it's a memory she will always love. Then everyone danced a special birthday dance. Too much fun! After feeling like we went to another country, it seemed appropriate for her first gift to open be a lugg...

http://www.crochettoday.com/crochet-patterns/giraffe-hat Recently, I wanted to make this adorable hat that I found in Crochet Today! magazine and I had the perfect baby for it. I love making hats because they work up quickly and there are so many things you can do to make them unique. It didn't take me long to get this rolling. And then I decided that I didn't like it and that I wasn't following the directions of only working in the back loops, so I ripped it out. I do this a lot. This is why I take so much longer than the average person to finish a project. It MUST be perfect or I'll do it over and over again.   Finally, I got it to look just like I wanted. Many of you saw this progress as I posted it in Facebook. So much better with the texture added from crocheting in the back loops only. This is my initial model. She's a sweet baby doll that I've had all my life. Poor thing has definitely been well loved. However, this sweet little ...

I won't lie, I love getting free stuff. Sometimes I win it and sometimes I just get it. Is that still winning? Hmmm, maybe so. Free is free, right? Well, this time it was a sampling of VitaCoco 's pure coconut water. They were giving these out and I snatched one up as quick as I could. I actually thought I was going to get a coupon or at best, a tiny little sample. These were actually large packages (about the size of my hand), but I have not seen them in my stores yet, so I'm not sure if they are the full size. I'm sure my mailman wasn't impressed with the weight. That box was heavy! There has been a lot of buzz lately about the health benefits of coconut water, so I was anxious to test it out. Of the three flavors sent, I liked the plain and the pineapple best. The flavors aren't very strong - you mostly just taste the coconut. It was very light and refreshing. I'm definitely going to be looking for these in stores. I was really impressed with fla...

One of my favorite traditions of Thanksgiving is making tortellini soup from stock created with the leftover turkey. My uncle Harold, introduced my family to this and it's been something that we always look forward to. You can also create this with stock from a box and with chicken any time of year, but this is a sure fire way to use every little bit of the Thanksgiving turkey.  To make the stock, just place the turkey carcass in a large pot and cover with water. Cook on low until the meat easily falls off the bone. You will then remove the carcass and pull off any remaining meat to return to the pot. You know have stock!  Be sure to remove all bones and pieces. You can replace the chicken and stock in the recipe below with the homemade turkey one. Tortellini Soup 1-1/2 cups water or chicken broth 1 carrot, chopped (1/2 cup) 1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning 1 can cream of chicken soup 1 onion, chopped (1/3 cup) 1/8 tsp pepper In large sauc...

I haven't really disappeared - but my computer has. It has a mind of it's own, I swear. It works fine when take it to get looked at, but acts up when I bring it home. So, until I can get it really fixed, I'm not downloading my pictures onto it. Which is why I haven't posted anything for awhile. However, I did find a few pictures I had stashed away, so I thought I would get out here and post something. We love going to the Melting Pot restaurant, but it can be pretty pricey. Plus, I only want the cheese and chocolate anyway. So, we found a couple of recipes for cheese fondue that we can make at home. Yes, I do believe that fondue maker is from the 70's. It still works. You can also use a double boiler to melt the cheese and then use some Sterno to keep it warm. Cheese Fondue 1 cup dry white wine 1/2 pound shredded Swiss cheese 1/2 pound shredded Gruyere cheese 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg Direct...

I love apple butter. My grandma used to make it for me when I was a little girl. Probably the only reason I like to eat at Cracker Barrel is because I know I can get it there. They do sell it there at the Country Store. However, it's full of preservatives for shelf life. Publix recently started selling a pretty good version at the bakery, but it's not cheap. So, I decided to make my own. I tried using an apple peeler/corer, but it was just a huge mess and it peeled more apple away than I liked. So, I just did it with a knife and potato peeler. It went pretty quickly. Slow Cook Apple Butter Apples - I used 8 small Red Delicious, peeled, cored, and sliced 2 1/2 cups sugar 2 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp allspice 1/4 tsp cloves  1/2 tsp nutmeg dash of salt 1/2 cup water Mix all together in a 4 Quart Slow Cooker and cook overnight on low. You could also cook during the day, but you need a good 10-15 hours or longer. I've heard some people cook for 24 hou...