Festival Of Trees

I desperately hate large crowds of any kind. It makes me irritable and anxious having to be smooshed in a room, no matter the size, with so many people. So when we decided to hit up the Festival of Trees this year, I thought I had really lost my mind. 

Then we arrived in the vicinity of the Expo center... and I wanted to turn back. The whole area was jam packed with cars, people, and congestion. I started to sweat a little.

Second bad choice of the evening, was going to Village Inn for dinner. Even worse, I for some reason, decided to get the turkey dinner... 'nuff said, it was terrible. 

I tried to get the holiday french silk pie to make up for it, but that was terrible too! I was so disappointed. I get so bummed out when I eat bad food, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, literally!

After eating we headed to the Expo Center, and parked in the 7-Eleven parking lot even though it said parking was for patrons only... okay, so I broke the rules a little... but we did buy our Rockstars there before leaving, so technically we DIDN'T break the rules, ha!

The place was packed, so much so that I was overwhelmed and didn't even know where to start walking around. They did have a "Kids Korner" where we took Emma first to see if there was anything she could do. They had a face painting station, that I mistakingly thought would be fun for Emma. We watched a few kids get their faces painted, and when I asked her if she wanted to do it, she said "yeah! yeah!". So off we went for tickets. We stood in line for about 10 mins, and when it was our turn, Emma would absolutely not let the woman touch her. Not her face, not her hand, not her arm, and most definitely NOT her leg. We tried everything to coax her into letting a stranger paint on her, but she had made up her mind. She DID however, want to play with the strange lady's brushes, paint, and glitter.  I think she wanted to paint on herself. 

So in classic Mommy fashion, I had the woman paint something on my face to show Emma how fun it would be if she did it too. She watched her paint my face, but still wouldn't let her face be touched. We left the station, and went on to look at the trees, but anytime Emma saw my face, she would point to hers and say, "paint?" as if she wanted hers painted. I told Matty that if she kept asking, I'd take her back before we left and try again.

We tried again, and this was the result:

Momma walked away with two paintings at the end of the night. I should have known better, but was certain that Emma would see the paints and think it was cool to let someone paint her face! Little did I know, that she did love the paint, but wanted to do it herself. Matty told me she wouldn't do it, and he was right! Way to go Dad.

Here are the rest of the pictures from our evening, there aren't much variety because I forgot our camera AND the large crowds didn't make for great pictures. Not sure if I would go again, maybe when the girls are older and can enjoy the kid stuff! 

The only tree picture we got... 

My new obsession

Is all about Rolo-pretzels! About a year ago, a girl that Matt worked with brought some in, and offered that I try one. I had a bad run in with Rolos when I was little, and all I remember is puking out of our family van after eating one. So when she offered one to me, I politely said "No Thanks". Well recently, Matt made a batch for himself and some people at work, and he offered that I try one, stating how delicious they were. I again, said "No Thanks". 

The next morning, I looked in the fridge and saw all these little Rolo-pretzels just eying me. So I tried one... and then another one... and well, let's just say I made Matt make me my own batch :) I am hooked, and make a batch once a week if I can. Unfortunately they cost you your first born child to buy, BUT it's worth it when you eat one. Trust me. 

Here is the recipe:
1 bag of square shaped pretzels
1 bag of Rolos candy (I've heard the Hershey's with caramel inside work too)


Heat oven to 350 degrees, place unwrapped Rolo on pretzels and bake 3 minutes. Take out and top with another pretzel and let cool.


Easy right?! I like them cold, so I put them in the fridge for them to chill. They are also very delicious right out of the oven, because the caramel is so gooey. Love them! 


Try it out, and then tell me how addicted you are, you can't eat just one!

 

New Phones!

We are finally out of the stone age, and gave in to getting new Droid touch screen phones. We resisted as long as we could, thinking that if we gave in, we would never be able to go back to our old "flip phones". Well, we were right! Since having our new phones we have downloaded more apps than ever necessary, checked Facebook too many times to count, and had to recharge our phone batteries much too often. I used to check Facebook once or twice a day when I would get home from work, but now, I find myself checking it every couple minutes, and it drives me nuts! No one ever updates anything when I want them to, so it's such a waste of time and I should really stop, but it's a habit now. Blast!

I did however, find a really awesome app called the "All Recipes Dinner Spinner" You shake your phone, and it spins through 3 different parts: Dish (soup, bread, appetizer, main dish, etc), Ingredients (beef, cheese, chicken), and Ready In (how long it takes to make). Then it randomly chooses a tasty meal for you! OR you can choose your own sections, and find this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/alaska-salmon-bake-with-pecan-crunch-coating/detail.aspx 

I just chose: Main Dish, Salmon, ready in 30 mins and it gave me a list of recipes, including this one. I made it and it was so easy and sooooo yummy! I highly recommend getting this app, I use it all the time! 

I definitely have a love/hate relationship with my phone!

Addicted (again)

Anyone that knows me, knows that when I stopped drinking coffee I switched to energy drinks. Most recently it's been Rockstars. I was heavily addicted before I got pregnant, but stopped drinking them (cold turkey) when I found out I was pregnant last year. WELL... I found that to function throughout my day I needed something, so I turned to my Rockstars :) I will have one a day, sometimes every other day, but I just can't stop now! I am back on the Rockstar train, and I like it!

Death by Chocolate

 I've  had a couple people ask for this recipe, so here it is- courtesy of Matt's dad :) 

1 lb. semi-sweet chocolate chips (I bought 2 12 oz. packages)
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 pint heavy cream
6 extra large eggs (room temperature)

-Spray spring pan with oil
-Whip eggs in blender and set aside
-Melt butter over stove until liquid, then add chocolate slowly and reduce heat so chocolate doesn't burn (I used about a bag and a half of chips for this part)
-When chocolate and butter are combined, add to whipped eggs
-Pour mixture into spring pan and bake at 375 degrees- 6 minutes uncovered and 12 minutes covered over a shallow pan of hot water. (I put tinfoil under the spring pan so no water got in).


-While that's baking, pour cream into a pot and heat just until scalding- remove from heat and add the remaining chocolate chips (I had a little less than half a bag, and only used about half of the cream) It should be a medium to thick consistency. Add more milk or chips until you get it to that point. 


-Remove spring pan from oven when finished, slowly pour cream/chocolate mixture over cooked chocolate


-Refrigerate until cake is firm (it takes a couple hours, I let set up overnight) and enjoy!!


I've only made this once, so hopefully it works out for you! It may take a couple of tries to get it just right. I am about to make a second one soon!