What's Down?

So, last night, I tucked Gage into bed. He's got a green down blanket on his bed. I pulled the blanket up to his chest & he said, "cold-cold-cold!" I said, it will get warm. The outside is cold, but it's a down blanket, so it will get warm soon & keep you warm.
"Mommy, what's down?"
"Well, it means that the inside part of the blanket is stuffed with goose feathers."

About 1/2 a second after I finished my sentence, he KICKED off the blankets & yelled, "OH GAWD! That blanket's filled with DEAD GOOSES!"

I had to promise him that the only part of the goose in the blanket was the down, and that it is VERY clean before it is used to make a blanket. It took him a little while, but in the end, he was okay with it...

Pastries with Parents...

Early in May, Gage's school had a "Pastries with Parents" morning event. I was luckey enough to get to go!

We arrived to the school earlier than expected, and Gage seized the opportunity to play on the playground all by himself! {Note to my parents: THIS was what we fund-raised for. No copiers. Just a newer playground. Wooohoooo!}






We ventured inside...still before the event would begin, and I got to see some of Gage's school work. Oh, it's sooooo cute!
{The bird is happy.}



Pics of Gage & his classmates....






It was a lot of fun, and I'm VERY glad that I go to go!

The First Tomato!

So, a while back, I was on a kick for wanting a vegetable garden. Hubby thought that maybe I should start with one plant, and see how I do with that. Well, by golly I've got fruit! That's right. I grow things----like a farmer.

I present: The perfect first tomato....

Congratulations, Colin & Melissa!

....and her name will be McKenna!
How cute is that???

French Toast Casserole! By Popular Demand...

Thanks, Courtney, for turning my family on to this super-great breakfast.

Here's the recipe, per the requests that I got:



Ingredients
1 loaf French bread (13 to 16 ounces)
8 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash salt
Praline Topping, recipe follows
Maple syrup
Directions
Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. (Use any extra bread for garlic toast or bread crumbs). Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with maple syrup.


Praline Topping:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Makes enough for Baked French Toast Casserole.


It's a Paula Deen recipe. I credit Courtney, but Paula Deen came up with it... Courtney introduced me to it!

Easter Celebration....One Weekend Later

Normally, we spend Easter @ PawPaw & Darnin's.
Well, this year, Easter weekend fell on a post-chemo weekend, so we decided to postpone the family celebration for a week.
But, Gage had a baseball game the weekend after Easter, so we relocated the celebration to our house, and everyone got to come to a game! Yaaaay!

As luck would have it, we played H's team. He's a little friend who lives here on Wisteria Lane with us.

Pics of Gage from the game...





Pics of H from the game...




Gage had his personal best game by tagging 3 outs. Yay! {Darnin, I think you were his good-luck-charm!}




Back at the Casa de Lainey-Paney, Easter festivities & decorations awaited our arrival home!






Tiff & Allen...


We cooked...and cooked...{my goodness...there was SO much stirring!}...and poor Darnin slept...


We had Jess, R, & R over as the daddy for their family was out of town. The boys LOVED the cupcakes for dessert {Yay me!}





After that, the neighbors went home...we all kind of settled in, and I made the French toast casserole to sit in the fridge overnight {Thanks, Courtney, for the recipe. It totally rocks!}...

....and when the boys woke up the next morning---they had Easter goodies from Darnin!






Needless to say, Trystan & Allen sleep later than Gage. And Allen was NOT excited about getting up. {..but thanks for doing it & attempting a smile in the early morning photos!}


...and then it was time for breakfast! YUM!!!!


It was a very busy 24 hours!
....but it was great!

"....but I'm too pretty."

The quote of the weekend:
"I'm too pretty to run out of gas."

...No, I'm not going to tell you who said it.
But it was one of the highlights of my weekend.
Yes, the person who said it is pretty.
It's just that her rationale is hilarious.

To the person who said this: You make me laugh. And LOOK! I updated my blog!

{...related to the whole 'update the blog' thing...Over the course of 3 days I've had 3 people to tell me to update this thing! Yes, I suck. This whole "workin' full time" is really cutting into what I had goin' on... I'm just sayin'....}

But, hopefully, I'll be updating the blog soon.
Maybe even this evening!

For: Darnin!

Darnin,
I was going to get you
THIS for Mother's Day,
but I was afraid it might
be too ITCHY.

And yet,
if anyone could
pull off this look,
it would be YOU!
...................
Love you bunches!
Happy Mother's Day!

Easter Sunday, 2011

Gage woke up bright & early Easter morning, to find that the Easter Bunny left him some FABULOUS treats!





And then, we headed outside to see that the Easter Bunny HID those eggs we dyed for him! And a few extras too!
:)
Unfortunately, the Easter Bunny didn't count on the sprinklers being on outside, and it appears that he was limited to hiding the eggs on the front porch.
Gage didn't mind!






The last & final egg that was almost not found:





After that, we got dressed & headed down to Courtney's house for brunch & another egg hunt...








Clearly nobody wanted THIS egg...




We played around for a bit, and then the kids got to crack open their "fortune-eggs" that Courtney made. {How crafty is she?}



A great time was had by all...

And after the hunt and all the fun, we headed home for a quick batting session before lunch...




We had lunch over at James & Jessica's to celebrate James' birthday...
Sadly, I didn't take many pics that afternoon, but I managed to snap a picture of the cake before we all cut into it {it was delicious!}...


And our boys are now entranced with playing games on the iphone. Good times...



After lunch we all loaded up, loaded the boat up, and TRIED to head out to the lake. It was just toooooo windy, so that plan got cancelled. Instead, Jessica & I hit up some sales at Walgreen's. Yippy!

:)
So, that was our very long, friend-filled day!