Fathers Day

The family on top of the Duomo in Florence, Italy (That is me next to mom with the "Caramel Kiss" colored hair. That is a story for another day)

I was lucky enough to grow up with an AMAZING father. My father sacrificed his time to be the coach for my soccer team for at least 7 years and was one of the youth group leaders when I was growing up. Dad made it a point be home for dinner and to know all of our friends. Dad filled our house with love.  I am so glad that I live only 1.3 miles away from him and mom. 

H & A are lucky enough to have JJ as their father. JJ works his butt off at work to provide for his family and then comes home and makes time to play with them and show them love. He makes it a point to be home by 5:15 every day so that we can all eat dinner as a family.  JJ is the apple of H's eye. H is his little mini-me and he can not get enough of his dad. 

We had a nice relaxing Fathers Day. I made our traditional Fathers Day breakfast, Sticky Bun Breakfast Ring. 

Ingredients:
1.5 tubs of Pillsbury Grands Buttermilk Biscuits
3 Tbsp. butter (melted)
1/2 C. pancake syrup
1/3 C. packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 C. chopped pecans
1.4 C. chopped almonds

Instructions:
Spray bundt pan with non-stick spray. Combine the melted butter and syrup in a small bowl and set aside. In another bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts (if desired). Place about half of the syrup mixture in the bottom of the pan. Then sprinkle half of the brown sugar mixture on top. Lay the biscuits on the bottom of the pan, overlapping edges (closely together) to form a ring. Top with remaining syrup and sugar mixtures. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 20-25 minutes or until gold brown. Cool for 1 minute in the pan, then invert onto a serving platter and enjoy!

This breakfast is very sweet but JJ loves it so I make it every fathers day. 

After breakfast we worked out and just relaxed. We usually go to church on Sundays but H is potty training and doesn't do well when his schedule is messed up so we stayed home. A has cut 4 teeth in 20 days and come down with a bad cold so she spent the morning cuddling with her Daddy. 

Mom, Dad and Steve came over after "quiet time" and we watched golf and grilled out. H was so excited to show them his big boy underwear and that he could go potty in his frog toilet. 

For dinner I made beer can chicken, loaded mashed potatoes, salad and corn with onion power and a Bar-B-Que spice. Dinner was delicious and relaxing. 

We finished off the night with a Buttercream cake from Publix (courtesy of Steve. It's his favorite) and Cookies and Cream Trifle that I made. JJ loves all things Cookies and Cream so as soon as I saw the recipe on Pinterest, I knew I had to make it. 

Ingredients:
Box of Brownie Mix (go ahead and make the brownies)
Cookies & Cream Mousse
* 1 (4.2 oz) box of Cookies and Cream Instant Jello Pudding Mix - dry, do not prepare
* 1/2 cup water
* 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
* 1 (8 oz) tub cool whip - thawed to room temp
Remaining ingredients
* 1 (12 oz) tub cool whip
* 1 (15.35 oz) Package Double Stuffed Oreos - crush cookies in both small and larger pieces


Instructions:
1. Make Brownies. Cut into 1 inch squares and set to the side. 
2. To make Cookie and Cream Mousse: Whisk Cookies and Cream Instant Jello Pudding mix, water and sweetned condensed milk together in a large bowl for about 2 minutes. Fold in 8 oz. tub of cool whip until no streaks are present. Stir in some extra crushed Oreo pieces as needed. Store in fridge until read to assemble trifle. 
3. To assemble Trifle, place half of the brownie squares at the bottom of the trifle dish. 
4. Next spread half of the Cookies and Cream Mousse over the brownies. 
5. Sprinkle half of the crushed Oreos over the top of the mousse.
5. Spread half of the 12 oz tub of cool whip over the Oreo crumbs. 
6. Repeat layers 1 more time only reverse the crushed Oreo layer and cool whip layer so that the Oreo crumbs garnish the top of the trifle. 
7. Chill in the fridge for a couple hours and then serve. 

It was delicious and an excellent way to end Fathers Day. 

Overall, it was great to spend Fathers Day with all the Fathers in my life and appreciate them they way that they deserve. 

I hope everyone else had a great Fathers Day!

KK

{This Moment}

{This moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. (This is a video... obviously).

H-isms

So... now that H is talking more, he is coming up with some really good sayings. So good that I want to remember them and immortalize them so that H will get to experience them when he grows up.

I was working out the other day (which I do with H 5 days a week) and he looks at me and say "Daddy workout hard many times." I asked him if I worked out hard and he simply said "No." (Good to know he doesn't think that I work hard at all!)

I don't have a picture of my current self working out so here is a picture of me running with dad when I was 10. You are welcome.

H has developed a love of singing. All things musical really. I posted a video of him singing here. Not only does he like to sing, he likes to "play" the guitar, which he calls "Tard". His version of playing the guitar is to put the guitar on the ground and make noises like a guitar. He loves when JJ plays the guitar so his way of asking JJ to play the guitar is to point at JJ and say "Daddy Tard! Daddy Tard!" Cracks me up every time. 

(Full disclosure: JJ can actually play the guitar. H has gotten his version of playing a guitar from me because I have no musical ability at all.)

This pictures has nothing to do with what I am talking about... I just love it! 

When A was born, we used to talk about how it was time for her to get some sleep every time she started to rub her eyes. JJ & I would say "she must be tired. She is rubbing her eyes." Clearly we talked about it a lot because whenever H would rub his eyes he would say "Rubberize" (in an extremely whinny voice). He now uses "Rubberize" as an excuse. If he gets in trouble, he will start rubbing his eyes and say "rubberize" because he thinks it will get him out of trouble.

After spending a day with Henny, H came home saying "Oh Dear" like an 86 year old lady. Any time anything remotely silly or bad (really any time anything happens), H will look around and say "Oh Dear" and then laugh and say "Henny".  It cracks me.  He spends a little less than 24 hours with Henny and comes away talking like her. 

There are so many more hilarious things that he says but this is all that I can think of right now.  I will post more later as I think of them (and try to get some videos of them) because these are the things that I want to treasure!

KK

Toddler/Preschool Game: Find and Match

My mom amazes me. She is the director at the preschool at our church, Mandarin Presbyterian Church and she devotes herself to her job 100%. She works full time and then comes home and loves on her grandchildren. This week she has all 4 grandchildren in the same city. 

Mom is a true teacher at heart. She comes up with fun games that H loves to play that help him learn and develop. I know that she doesn't make these games up but she takes the time to put them together.

What you need for the Find & Match Game:

5 lb bag of dried beans

Huge bowl to store beans

20 small toys (we have a plastic necklace, coin, golf ball, key, wooden block, domino, medicine dropper, etc). 

Pictures of the toys (we laminated our pictures so that they would last longer).

She got a BIG bowl of dried beans and hid tiny "treasures" in it. 

You then have the kids reach in, find a treasure and match it to a laminated pictures of the treasure. 

NiNi played this game with H on Saturday and it was all he could talk about on Sunday. As soon as he say NiNi today, he ran around the house saying "Game? Game?". He was very ready to play again. 

On Saturday when we played the game with H he barely put his hands in the beans. Now, he was elbow deep in the beans and trying to find all the treasures before C. 

H is 2 and C is 3 so there is a bit of a development gap. Mom has decided that when she plays alone with C, she will have her reach in, find a toy and feel it. She will have C guess what toy she has in her hand while looking at the pictures. 

After the kids played the game for about an hour, mom got out another boy and 2 cups and the kids worked on transferring beans from 1 bowl to another. 

This game is a big hit. I am going to work on putting together one for our house. 

What sort of indoor games do you have for your kids?

KK

This past weekend

This past weekend was a pretty typical/normal weekend. Nothing truly awful happened but nothing exciting happened. 

Friday was bad day. 

This is how H & I both felt on Friday.

H was an extremely defiant 2 year old. He was in the mood to test boundaries and see if I would follow through with my threatened punishments. I have to note that even on H's bad days, he isn't really bad. JJ and I have lucked out with a very sweet, gentle and kind boy so when he is bad it doesn't fit with his personality and I honestly don't know how to handle it. His bad day consisted of climbing up on windowsills after we repeatedly told him not to, taking a toy away from A and tearing the dust-jacket off 2 fairly old book. By the time that JJ came home, I was mentally done. We ate dinner as a family and put the kids to bed. JJ poured us both a glass of red wine and after talking for a little bit I went to the room for some alone time. I ended up just sitting in the quiet listening to the Carole King Pandora station. This helped me calm down and get to sleep. It was a nice, relaxing ending to a stressful day. 

My beloved Seminoles lost in the super-regionals. We just couldn't get our act together. We looked awful!  We had a great team and JJ & I were sure they were going to the College World Series. Alas, we were very wrong.  We only lost 3 games at home all season and then in the post season lost 2 in 1 weekend. I want to call the loss a heartbreaker but it really wasn't. We were sloppy and weren't able to hit the ball well. Indiana deserved to win.

A is really starting to come into her owna nd making us fall more and more in love with her. She truly babbled for the first time on Sunday. She was bouncing in her seat above and just started looking around saying "Dadadadada" like a champ. JJ was out golfing so he didn't get to hear it but always love that our kids say Daddy before Mama. A has also taken to wrapping her left arm around my neck and grabbing the hair at the base of my neck when she is tired and I am walking her to bed. She will then bury her head in my neck.  It melts my heart every time and I am going to miss it when she stops doing that. 

I hope that everyone had an uneventful weekend as well and that you are having a great Tuesday!

KK

Time with Mandy and AJ

My best friend Mandy came in town with her 4 month old daughter AJ today. They are actually staying in Amelia Island for a family vacation and made the trip to Jacksonville to see us while her husband spent the day on a motorcycle for his birthday.  Mandy and I have not seen each other in over a year. She was super pregnant when I had A so she wasn't able to come see me and then I had 2 young kids when she had AJ so I wasn't able to visit her. It was great to see her and have the kids meet. We are sure that A and AJ are going to be the best of friends. 

A was VERY curious about AJ and could not stop touching AJ in the face. 

AJ didn't really enjoy having her eyes poked or A fishhooking her very much but they soon reached an agreement and enjoyed each others company. 

We spent the day just hanging out and catching up. I really enjoyed seeing my best friend as a wonderful mother and see the love that she has for her little girl. 

AJ is such a precious little girl. She has so much personality (which is to be expected when her parents are Mike & Mandy).  She has these beautiful blue eyes that light up when she smiles and look at her lips!! They are such big and pouty lips. I will some day pay a lot of money to have these lips!

I can't wait to make a trip up to Atlanta to spend more time with them. I miss Mandy very much and am so glad we got to spend the day hanging out and enjoying each others children. 

KK

{This Moment}

{This moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. (I can never pick just one picture.)

KK