Easter Sunday

Yes I know it is late, but i fell behind in posting last month so here comes our Easter pics. We had a lovely Sunday at the Allen's house listen to con fence and playing games.
We had an "official" Easter egg hunt. The boys knew exactly what to do this time so it was super easy and fun.



I'd like everyone to notice the big difference between Harvey and Owen.

See it?

Owen looks like he is in a hurry everywhere while Harvey looks like he has nowhere to go. That's how they are all the time.

We went to the park a few weeks ago and Owen was all over the place like a ping-pong ball. That's why we had to leave actually. Owen had ran so much he literally fell to the ground exhausted.

Harvey was all "dude I want to swing some more" but Owen, he was done. Owen is the hare and Harvey is the tortoise. That being said, we had a nice Easter.

Daring Bakers: British Suet Puddings

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

I wasn't able to find suet here in Southern Illinois, so instead used butter.

I started with a basic sponge pudding recipe.

1/4 c. Buter
1/4 c. Sugar
1/2 C. flour
1 egg
pinch salt & dash vanilla
lemon zest.

I then prepped 2 small containers with lids.
Smashed strawberries with a tbs of sugar and a lemon squeezed over it.

Chocolate chips in the 2nd.



Divided the batter and added coco to the second. I also put caramel inside the chocolate.






Set the two inside the double boiler and let steam for an hour and a half.







Finished puddings.

I decided to make individual puddings because I wasn't sure I would like it.



These were very different than a normal cake. Captain liked them, I thought they were OK. The caramel in the chocolate pudding melted completely so you couldn't really tell it was there.

I'd make it again, though in a larger scale to make it worth the time.

Stylin

This is what happens when you let your Hubby dress your boy.

Hot Cross Buns

When the Pioneer woman posted this recipe I knew I had to make it. We had them for brunch between conference sessions. The only change was made was to replace the raisins with chocolate chips. I don't care much for raisins in my breads.

Captain really liked them.

Lil' Mower

You already know this but Harvey LOVES to help his dad. It doesn't matter what the task is, Harvey wants to be there.



Now, granted the lawn doesn't get mowed very quickly this way, but it sure is cute!

Pre-Easter Egg Hunt

Twas the Friday before Easter and all through the yard.



The eggs were all scattered. It was very hard,



To find all sixteen before the sun grew dark.



But find them we did, it was quite a lark.

How to Hang a set of pictures.

This post is for Logan who asked how our house was coming along.

If you are like me, after moving into a house it takes about 3 years before you are ready to nail holes into the walls. And by this point you have so many its hard to know what to do. So what you do is cut paper templates out the size of your frames. Rearrange them around on the floor till you find a patten you like, and then tape them to the wall.


It helps if you mark on the paper where the nail needs to go. that way you don't have to guess. It keeps the spacing more even. Now you are ready to put your nails in and Hang you pics!


Beautiful eh? When you have lots of pics I find this is the easiest way to arrange them. If you just have a few it might be overkill, but then again it gives good results.

By the way, how do you guys like the wall color? It used to be this horrid orange. The trim was orange too. I know, Awful. But this color is nice. It's called 'coco rose' and yes, you can get it at Walmart. I know people say good paint makes a big difference, but I haven't found a big difference yet.

Playdough Manikin

Captain gave a speech in his class about embalming. He was required to use a visual aid for this speech and he wanted to do something more than just a poster. So late Thursday night we cooked up a pot of flesh colored play-dough.


We made WAY more than we needed. But Captain's speech went well.

Truck Surfing

One of Harvey's favorite toys is this yellow truck. His grandma gave it to him for christmas last year. He doesn't use it to put things in and dump things, he likes to stand in the bed and try to move himself around. He also likes to lift the bed and sit down to push it around.

Happy Birthday Captain

A few weeks ago (yes I know, I'm behind in my posting) We celebrated captain's birthday. It was low key with just the Allens over for dinner and games.


We had WAY WAY WAY too much food. I decided to make some of Captain's favorite foods that I rarely/never make. We had sushi, gyoza, miso soup, fresh cut veggies, and instead of cake we enjoyed brownie balls.


Then we ended the evening trying to tire out the boys so we could enjoy our games without wondering what they were up too. I'm note sure it worked, but they all had fun.

Busy Bees

Sorry it's been so long we've been busy at the smith household.

Actually, we really have been busy with spring cleaning, gardening, and lots and lots of Babysitting. Apparently people like to go on trips in the spring. Weird eh?

But I promise to have more posts soon, I know you are dieing to hear about Captain's birthday dinner, Harvey's truck, and the vat of human flesh we cooked up on thursday. (don't worry no humans were harmed, it just looked gross)