Easter Celebration

 Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!
We had a full morning at church; we were the greeters and especially enjoyed seeing all the little kids come in their cute outfits.
 We had a great message and enjoyed singing some classic Easter hymns.
Later in the day our girls and their families came over.  It was cloudy and cold, but not raining so we had an egg hunt in the back yard.

Some of the eggs were hidden, some not so much!

Cassie had a great time gathering eggs.

So did Alaina and Ruby who helped point out the hidden ones to Cassie.

I found the bunny ears at our dollar store and got the girls to pose for me.

They came in and sorted the eggs out.

Look at the frightening bunnies I found in the kitchen.   :)

We had a yummy supper which included this finger jello.  I found this cute little jello mold of bunny butts and I knew the girls would think they were hilarious!

Laura brought this pretty little pot of daffodils.

It was a wonderful day, time well spent with church family and our family and a celebration of the resurrection.

"He is not here; He has risen, just as He said."
Matthew 28:6

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

 Do you like garlic bread?  How do you feel about pizza?  Today's recipe is a combo of both.  This is the quickest way to make a tasty French Bread type pizza and it's so good.
You can make it to fit your needs.  For the two of us, I just use a mini loaf of garlic bread and that makes plenty for us.  

Garlic Bread Pizza

Frozen garlic bread, size of your choice
pizza sauce
mozzarella cheese
Toppings of your choice - I had tomato and basil, Bob had pepperoni and bacon

Allow the garlic bread to thaw in the refrigerator for several hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Open bread and spread pizza sauce over the garlic butter on the bread.
Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the sauce, then add topping of your choice.
Place on cookie sheet in oven for about 20 minutes until cheese is melted and edges are slightly browned.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Coloring Eggs

We had fun on Saturday with all 3 of our granddaughters.  I had seen a few fun ways to color eggs and wanted to try it with them.

Here we are, ready to start.  Bob isn't scowling, just concentrating on something Ruby was showing him.  :)

Our first type of eggs were called volcano eggs.  You paint a design on the egg with food coloring, then sprinkle baking soda on it and squirt vinegar over top.  It foams up and spreads the food coloring around.  As a bonus, it's fun for the kids to watch.

Here's Alaina working on her design.

And Ruby's work of art!

The next eggs were done with Cool Whip.  You put cool whip in a bowl and then drop food coloring into it.  Swirl it to make a pattern and then roll the eggs through it.  These eggs have to sit with the cool whip on for about 1/2 hour and then wipe it off.

Cassie was having such fun just watching her cousins.

When we were done, Grandpa had them sampling the whipped cream which they all thought was such fun!

They each did 6 eggs, so we put them in egg cartons I had cut in half.

Cassie loves to play downstairs in our family room, so we went down there for a few hours.

Alaina and Ruby are so good with Cassie, and she was having a great time playing with them.

They even did some "cooking" and playing "restaurant" in the play house.

We finished the day by going to Chik-fil-A for supper, before bringing them back home.
We sure do love these girls, and love spending time with them!

Spring (or Winter) Wonderland!

On the calendar, it says it's Spring.

I posted this cute picture on Facebook on the first day of Spring, last week.  It was cold but the snow had melted and I knew Spring was around the corner...

But then Friday came.  The weathermen were predicting a "significant" snow storm.  When I got up, it had arrived.  There was heavy snow on the ground  and when I turned on the morning news at 6, I saw many schools cancelled, predictions for more snow and they said - If you can work from home, this is the day to do it.
So I put on some snuggly warm clothes, got out my computer and worked from home. As I worked, I saw the snow coming down much of the day.

Mid-morning I took a few pictures out the windows.

Here's a shot of the back yard with the snow falling.

And one from the front/side of the house.

When my work day was done, I put on my coat and walked around the yard to check out the snow fall.  It wasn't snowing nearly as hard as it had been earlier.

Do you see that little dark spot in front of the tree? That's the crocus I showed you last week.  It's all covered but the tip of a leaf.  It should be ok when the snow melts.  Crocus are hardy little plants.

Our street

Looking across the porch to the side yard.

And snow accumulating on a bush in the back yard.

We got around 7 inches of snow in 24 hours.  That's not horrible, and it does look pretty, but it's too much when we're so ready for Spring!

On Saturday the sun was out, the temps were still cold, but over freezing and much of the snow melted.  I'm thankful this storm was short lived.

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

The recipe I'm sharing today is one I've shared before, but I recently made this for a birthday at work and was reminded how good it was, so I'm sharing it again.  There is a moist vanilla cake, then a layer of raspberry filling, topped with a luscious vanilla, cream cheese frosting. This cake is not only delicious, it's really pretty.  It also makes a whole sheet cake, so is perfect for a large gathering. I'm telling you - if you need a treat for something, you need to make this.

Vanilla Raspberry Sheet Pan Cake 

Cake:
4 egg whites
1 cup water
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Betty Crocker French Vanilla Cake mix 
In a medium sized mixing bowl whisk egg whites, water, oil, sour cream, and vanilla until smooth.
Add cake mix and stir until smooth. Spread into a greased 13 x 18 inch rimmed baking sheet
Bake for 15-18 minutes at 325 degrees or until gently pressed the cake springs back.
Cool for about 10-15 minutes and poke holes all over the surface of the cake using a fork. 

Raspberry Filling:
12 ounce package frozen raspberries
3 ounce package raspberry jello
In a microwave safe dish heat half of the frozen raspberries until hot and bubbly.
Add jello and stir until dissolved.
Dump in the remaining half of the frozen raspberries and blend until smooth.
Pour over poked cake. Refrigerate until completely chilled. 

Whipped Vanilla Frosting:
2-8 ounce packages cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
4 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form, and set aside.
In a stand mixer beat cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat until combined.
Add whipped cream and vanilla, whisk together.
Spread over cake and top with fresh raspberries.   
Refrigerate until ready to serve and refrigerate leftovers.

Wordless Wednesday

Pics from this week...   snow and then crocus blooming!
Unfortunately, more snow is predicted and it's supposed to be a "significant" storm...  But, I'm enjoying the crocus for now!

Easter S'mores

We have 3 neighbor girls who are sweethearts and I often try to give them a little something for holidays. I saw this cute idea and thought they would like it for Easter coming up.
I thought I'd share it, in case any of you are looking for a cute Easter treat.

These are just regular S'more ingredients, with peeps instead of marshmallows.

I took one envelope of graham crackers, one package of peeps and 2 Hershey bars and tied them with some cute twine.

That all went into a bag, and I finished it with a little tag. 
I think the neighbors girls will enjoy them, and it was a quick and easy thing to put together.

A Day Away

Last year my sister Terri and I planned a day and went to Ludington for a fun day.  We decided we wanted to do something again this year and spent a fun day on Friday.  We tried to have our sister Cheri go too, but they've been short staffed at work and she couldn't get the day off.

This year we decided to go to St Joseph, another lakeside town which is about 75 minutes south of us.
It was windy and cold, but the sun was shining!
Our first stop upon arriving was to go to the Lighthouse.

Winter is hard on a beach area.  The sand blows and drifts like snow. These steps weren't easy to climb!

When we made it up them, we were treated to this pretty view with the lighthouse in the distance.

It was really windy and the waves were beating the shore. The tracks in the sand were there from equipment that was plowing the sand from the pier and parking lot, back to the beach.

You can see all the sand that's left on this section they have done.

Here's a shot of the equipment scraping up the sand at the other end of the pier.

The waves were pretty big, and were washing up on the pier.

Here's Terri!

And me.   The wind was messing my hair.  We stood on this side to do pictures because the waves were coming from the other side.  However, right after these pictures were taken, a huge wave came from the other side and soaked up.  We were wet to our knees and had to walk around in wet shoes...

We went into town and found a nice sandwich shop and had lunch.

After lunch we walked around this cute town and did some shopping.  I love the cobblestone streets. There were so many nice little shops to check out.

After we tired ourselves out, we drove along the road that borders Lake Michigan and enjoyed the scenery.  We had one more look at the lighthouse from the road and then headed back home.
I dropped Terri off about 3:30 and then got home around 4.  It was a really nice day and we decided this needs to be a regular event.  Hopefully Cheri can come next year!