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Sweet Temptations Surprise

Posted on August 20, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

Sometimes surprises are the best thing. Wednesday, we went and picked up Daddy for lunch to celebrate NHL’s birthday together. After lunch, we were going to go shopping for a few things, but then I had an idea. I thought we would head over to one of your favorite ice cream spots. Both of you love Scoops because they have amazing ice cream and you can watch the cows while you eat. When we pulled up, they were closed. I guess I did not realize that they are not open during the day mid-week.

Not to worry. I quickly recalled that a cake shop was right down the road. We had seen their truck over the weekend at a Farmers Market. We did not buy anything from their colorful truck because cousin SG would not be able to eat anything. Your disappointment over the ice cream quickly went away when we pulled up to Sweet Temptations and went inside.

Since it was a special occasion, I told the two of you to pick whatever you wanted from the case. Dangerous thing to do, but I had an idea what you may select. Here is a look at the items that we brought home.

NHL, you immediately homed in on a dragon creation. It was two chocolate chip cookies combined with a large amount of icing inside it’s mouth and on top. When I picked it up out of the box, I was floored with how heavy it was. There was no doubt that you loved it since you kept “mmmmmm-ing” as you ate it.

JSL, you had one item in mind. You wanted something chocolate. It was the chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing, of course. One minute I saw the cupcake in your hands, the next it vanished. Since you were the only one that tried it, you must have really liked it since I have never seen you gobble up a cupcake like that.

Since Daddy was not with us, I did not have any idea what kind of cupcake to get him. After making cupcakes all weekend, I was in the mood to try something different. I opted to get the cookie sandwich to share with him. YUM! The chocolate chip cookies were gooey, fresh, and amazing. The frosting inside was the perfect amount and not too sweet. Half was the perfect amount for me to splurge on.

Little surprises like this during the summer have been so much fun. I hope that we get back to Sweet Temptations again soon to show Daddy all of the fancy cupcake creations that they have.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

Categories:
baking birthday Dear Kid Saturday decisions food glorious food jsl Local Business nhl photos summer TechyDad yummy

Games for the Entire Family

Posted on August 19, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

We have collected many board games over the years. Even before we had kids, TechyDad and I had several that we bought for game nights and/or when we had company over. Back in the day, Scattergories, Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, and Upwords were favorites.

As a child, I remember playing board games with friends all the time. Titles that come to mind include:

The Game of Life
Allowance
Uno
Monopoly
Trivial Pursuit
Boggle

The list could go on and on. Games were huge on cold winter nights, or to pull out during summer days after we ran and played.

Now that we have kids, our most used games are things like Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Memory, Rush Hour Jr, Uno, and others for 10 and under.

While NHL would prefer his Nintendo DS and Wii games, we all need to unplug. Board games are the perfect time to do this and allow us to have special time together where we can work on many skills. For NHL’s birthday, he received a new game and it has been used a LOT lately. Here it is:

What I love about this game is it takes something familiar with the kids (Disney) and puts a fun spin on it. The kids know the Pictureka game show, so they were excited to have a version for our house. Yes, it says ages 6+, but let me tell you my 4 year old was keeping up with us. The only item JSL needed assistance with was reading the cards. If people told him he was looking for “items with a tail,” he was good to go. Yes, I knew this would be a popular game in our house. Locating games that are appropriate for 4 and 8 year olds can be very tricky, or impossible at times.

So my question to you this week:

What are some of your favorite board games to play with your family and why?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #165

Categories:
Aloha Friday birthday Disney fun looking back photos play time TechyDad

Website Work in Progress

Posted on August 14, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Owning your own domain means that you have to host your website. This can be a drag at times, especially when things do not go smoothly. I have to admit that I am SO lucky to have TechyDad. If something goes wrong, my website it down, or anything needs work – he is a webmaster in real life.

Of course, just because he is a webmaster does not mean he can magically make things run perfectly. Often times, there are mazes that we must walk through that can complicate things.

Unlike a hedge maze, you may not be able to find your way out of this complicated problem without making a switch and starting over. Yes, sometimes hosting does not quite work properly and it is time to pack up and move.

Thanks to on-going issues, down time, and the list goes on . . . we –er TechyDad is doing some work behind the scenes. We are currently moving all of our websites one by one to the new server at a more reliable hosting company. We had hoped to avoid this, but what can you do? In the end, we will come out of this smiling.

We look at this as a time to reflect on what we need in our hosting company, ability to support a local business, and opportunity to clean up several other websites that we have. It was not what we wanted, but we will be better thanks to this.

Please note that comments are currently turned off on all blog posts until the move is 100% complete. Thank you for your support during this transition.

Categories:
decisions TechyDad vent

CowParade Las Vegas – 2002

Posted on August 10, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Quick note about this week’s Wordless Wednesday. Photos were taken in Las Vegas throughout the city during the 2002 CowParade exhibit. We had countless other photos on TechyDad’s digital camera. Unfortunately, that camera was stolen on our way home in the airport (right off my back). These were pictures that I took and scanned with my now dated film camera. Wandering and seeing all of the CowParade pieces was amazing in itself.

Categories:
cousins family fun interesting jl looking back photos TechyDad vacation

Tuesday Tales – DC Super Heroes Books

Posted on August 9, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Tuesday Tales

As the mother of two little boys, I have written about my need for a tutor in Super Heroes 101. I do believe I may have found something that will help my need to learn more about the characters that my boys love, but also keep my oldest reading.

While at the library with TechyDad one rainy Saturday, the boys were looking at the chapter book section together. At this point, we had just gotten NHL reading the A to Z Mysteries and he realized that chapter books were not as scary as he thought they were. Suddenly, they noticed some Batman and Superman Series from Capstone Publishers. Yes, there they were pulling my son under their spell. He asked to take one home to try. That book was finished rather quickly. On our next trip to the library, he picked up these three Super DC Heroes Superman books.

As a reading teacher, I have learned that I will rarely turn my nose up at any book that a child will read. Thankfully, these days there are a lot more books out there for reluctant readers, especially on topics that boys will be attracted to. These books range from 3-4 grade reading level and have an M in Guided Reading Level.

NHL seems to really like these books. He will sit and devour them and then after tell us all about them. As a parent, I like that they keep his interest and are giving him more than a simple story. How do they do that? Well, let’s look inside one of the Superman books. Yes, they have pictures within, but they are also filled with dialogue among the characters, show paragraph formation, and more for early reader/writers.

Saturday night, NHL finished one of the books. TechyDad opened up the book and that is when the two of us realized how much more was inside. At the end of each book, there is a summary from Clark Kent on Daily Planet letter head. Within this, he summaries who the arch nemesis of the book is and highlights and explains crucial parts.

Then, there is a biography page. This is perfect for people like me who are still learning about all of the people. On the opposite side is a glossary of terms. Check out the vocabulary, not too shabby for a chapter book. The teacher in me was impressed and happy that children were being challenged while reading these books.

Then, I heard TechyDad asking NHL questions. You guessed it, there were some discussion questions at the end of the book. Not only did they make NHL think about what he read, but called on prior knowledge to make connections. Each built on things and really made the reader explain why they answered one way or another. In addition to this, there were some fantastic writing prompts. One asked you to write your favorite part of the book from a different character’s perspective.

What you may also notice is that the last page points you to a website for the kids. The publishers have a spot where you can go and catch up with characters from all of their different series, including the DC Super Heroes. Thanks to this, I now know there are 16 in the Superman series and can reference the characters and things with NHL in a safe, child friendly setting.

My lesson learned, I will not judge a book by it’s cover again. Just because it looks a bit comic book like, it can still pack an educational punch.

What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.