Whoopie Pie Visiting Teaching Treat

In my church we’re asked to watch over a few sisters in our congregation- it’s called “Visiting Teaching.” I’m assigned to visit a few sisters with a partner, and two ladies are assigned to visit me. We try to visit once a month, keep in contact with the sisters and know what’s going on with them and their families. This weekend I was already making treats for my Sunday school class, (rice krispie treats) but I wanted something chocolately. A few minutes on the internet later, and I knew I wanted to make whoopie pies. I settled on Martha Stewart’s “classic” recipe with marshmallow fluff filling instead. The complete recipe I used is from Annie’s Eats . I gave some to my visiting teachees and my visiting teacher today. The married sisters received theirs with a note attached:

“This Valentine’s Day, I hope you find time with your sweetie for some whoopie…”
Inside it says:


“Pies! Whoopie Pies! Happy Valentines Day"!”
I must admit, I thought I was pretty clever making this treat. It didn’t hurt that the pies turned out delicious. I punched a hole in the card and tied it around the bags.


I didn’t have a whoopie pie pan, I just put parchment on baking sheets, scooped the filling out into a heart shape, various sizes so some were kid sized. The recipe from Annie’s Eat’s says it makes 24, mine made 36 of various sizes.
Hooray for Whoopie! Pies, Whoopie Pies!

If you're visiting from Skip to my Lou, thanks for stopping over!

Peaches!

It’s nice to have a friend that’s an expert in her field. My friend Lesley, she’s my canning expert. As in, make your own pectin expert. Canning homemade grape juice expert. So for the last year whenever we’ve talked, we mentioned canning peaches, and we finally made it happen. She drove 3 hours with 4 bushels of peaches, and hauled all 4 of her kids down to my house. Party time! We canned 42 jars, and chopped the rest for bbq sauce and jam.

We learned some team work while they visited…

Marcus was eager to steal the spotlight…what 3 year old boy isn’t?

Sophia and Jodie have known each other since birth. SINCE BIRTH! How many of you can say you’ve had friends since birth? Ok, it’s pretty easy when you’re 6. I was so glad they hit it off.

 

Lesley even cans with a broken foot. The dedication!   And isn’t this little one a stud?

Oh the silliness.

Some closeups. You know, for the graduation/mission farewell/wedding slideshow file.

Hooray for good friends! And hooray for peaches!

A REAL summer…

Yesterday at a church meeting my friends were talking about being so excited for summer to end, because it’s been so crazy for them. I had no idea what they’re talking about, it’s been lazy town around here. Little bit of structure, lots of random ideas and no motivation to do them…and a few adventures to local spots.

This summer we’ve been….

Drinking from frozen water bottles….preaching about first aid kits…

taking a good look at ourselves….in our vaccum…

 

Studying jelly bean art and ancient statues…

 

 

Learning new tricks, like putting your shirt on the wrong way, and playing guitar…(yes, Leo is trying to strum with a flip flop foam magnet)

Posing for pictures….

Cleaning up (all the time it seems…especially after we make homemade fudgsicles…

And trying to pose for pictures in the same spot as 14 months ago. Only this kid does not stay still.

 

Ok, so that all sounds great, but I do think I’m ready for school to start… Sophia can only read so many Magic Tree House books a week before she wants me to challenge her mind…

Happy Summer!

Monkey Man had a birthday, shout Hooray!

First, let’s get the pesky party details out of the way, so we can focus on how cute Leo is.

We made a triple chocolate monkey cake. Recipe here at Best Bites. Then we decorated the cake with vanilla wafer ears and eyes, and Cocoa Krispies for texture.

The yellow plate monkey one is 6 inches, for Leo to smash! Or in his case, it was more like POKE! You’ll see in a minute.

 

I made a little birthday sign with my Cricut.

And made a felt crown (which is pretty much the easiest thing to sew- ever. And I whipped up some party hats.

Ok, so he’s only 1, so a cute hat and a cake, that’s all he gets. Tried to reign myself in here, keep it simple. We had a BBQ at the park with our cousins for a celebration.

But first I took some shots. I borrowed a friend’s 50mm lens, so I wanted to see what kind of dreamy artsy shots I could get.

A 50 mm is pretty good if you want your kid to look like a Claritin commercial. Especially if you are using automatic focus. Once I went to manual focus, I got some good shots

Well, good for a little baby who doesn’t sit still for long. Leo didn’t seem too excited to look at me, he was more interested in the soccer practice going on next to the pavilion.

Here’s a side by side of the same shot with 50 mm vs. zoom lens, 1.8 vs. 5.6 f stop. More exposure on the second- I like the first dreamy Evie better.

Ok, so enough camera talk. Here’s the Par-TAY!

I love these giggly girls, especially together. Their conversations are hilarious. Don’t they look like a commercial for summertime?

Superhero Ninjas Unite!

 

Here’s the cake pictures. Leo told us all about the cake, he ate more when we gave him a spoon, I think he was distracted by the cocoa krispies.

At home we opened presents. Well, the girls did, and baby boo-bah looked more like this- a deer in the headlights. Looking at this picture with his puppy dog eyes makes me miss him, and he’s only been asleep napping for an hour. I’m going to be a wreck when I look at this picture in 5 years. Or 18 years when he goes on a mission.  Man. I Love you Leo!

Happy Birthday!