And Even More Recent Pictures

The girls and me on Mother's Day



The girls and Grandma Edna on Mother's Day



The odometer in my Honda Pilot (one year after purchasing it!) I am pretty happy about this!



Back in April, when B2 turned 10, she and B1 decided they would make some fancy cupcakes for the occasion. They purchased a cupcake cookbook together back in December with Christmas money. They chose to make penguin cupcakes. Here are the steps they took:

They needed both regular-sized and mini-sized cupcakes for the project



Icing makes things stick together nicely.....



Doughnut holes were necessary for the head!



A little time spent in the freezer made everything "dry" faster



Assembling.....



The final product! Cute, huh!



Let's see.....their bellies were a sliced off marshmallow, their beaks were half of a yellow starburst, chocolate chip eyes, and thin mint "wings"



Here is a dinner I cooked about a month or so ago.....madeira chicken with mushrooms and asparagus, mashed potatoes, and mozzarella cheese. It took forever for the sauce to thicken and I almost gave up and served is soupy, but all of a sudden it turned to a gravy-like consistency. Whew! It had a very good flavor.



Here are my basil plants. Basil and cilantro are my favorite 2 spices. I've tried to grow cilantro in the past and it just doesn't work out well for me. Plus, it's cheap enough to buy at the grocery store and you get a nice amount of it. I LOVE just touching the basil plants in the morning when I walk out of the house and having that wonderfu smell on my fingers for a few minutes while I drive down the road. Ahhh!!

This came from 4 starter plants.



This year, I also bought some basil seed and planted it. As you can see, it is coming up. This picture was taken a few weeks ago too and by now, some of the leaves are an inch long. It is doing great!



I cannot use all of the basil that these plants are producing as quickly as they are producing it so I have been making pesto and freezing it. By plucking my plant regularly, it seems to already be healthier than ever in the past, and it's reproducing leaves quicker too. I use an ice-cube tray to freeze the pesto and it works great! Now we will have basil/pesto available to use all winter!