A Day In My Life

Stuff

I realized that I had written a post to show off Fourth of July pictures and then I forgot to POST it!  That always tells me that I have too much on my plate when I start forgetting thing.

So, I took waaaay too many pictures to make you go through all of them, so I made two collages that summarize our Fourth of July.  Almost every year we go to Scott's brothers camp on Half Moon Pond.  There is always a huge crowd out there and this year it was over run by small kids!  It felt like they were little water bugs, darting around everywhere.  Boy did they have FUN!  and alls I kept thinking is...they are so darn cute...but BOY am I glad none of them are MINE:)  I feel slightly out of energy right now to have little ones to take care of, face it...my teenagers are enough for me:) And truly they give me little to no problems!

First collage is of the busyness of the camp!

 
 some hilights...

See that puppy in the middle?  That was how she felt at the end of the day...AND how I felt.  She was so tired she didn't even move when someone picked her up...she stayed sound asleep.

The second picture down on the left...that is Uncle Ralph and Nate.  Nate is working for him this summer and they were negotiating new terms of a contract that included a haircut for Nate! It was quite funny, and said haircut did not happen.

The picture at the top of Lauren and Mario...well..they look like they could be brother and sister.  I guess they get told that alot.

And the picture at the bottom of me and Nate.  I don't like pictures of me right now...but I sure am glad that I have this picture.  I have so few pictures of me and the kids.

The other thing we celebrated on the fourth was Ralph and Joette's (the owners of the camp) 40th wedding anniversary.  I made a strawberry cake with white frosting and dots all over it for the "table" and they cut it as their cake. 

 
Their daughters did a great job pulling it together and surprising them.  They did a trivia game about Ralph and Joette's "early years" together.

In the first picture to the left there is a photo album.  I made that for them and it is titled 40 + people who love you!

Truly is was a great day...good friends, special family...and then I went home, put my jammies on and CRASHED!  The kids went to the fireworks and offered for me to go...but I declined.  I did get up enough energy to enjoy dinner at Pizza Hut with Lauren and Mario before I crashed though.

Well, another week is slowly coming to an end.  Nate has been at sailing camp all week and I am headed to take him to his last day.

Take good care...enjoy the beautiful day!

Dancingly, Denise

The Birthday Cake "Problem"

"Do not ask that your kids live up to your expectations. Let your kids be who they are, and your expectations will be in breathless pursuit." ~ Robert Brault

 

 

We had Nate's birthday party, cake and ice cream, yesterday.  Nate was pretty ambivalant about what "kind" of cake he had.  It is hard to find appropriate cakes for 16 year olds who are not heavy into sports around here.  He was not happy when I told him I had ordered a Jonas Brothers themed cake:)  He was okay, once he realized that i did not get the actual decoration that went on the cake...I had found this at a Prty store:

 
 I found the cake to be rather dark and gloomy once we got it home:

 

AND what we discovered as we ate it, was that we had a room full of people with BLACK and GREEN lips, teeth and tongues!  It was actually quite funny.  AND today, somethings came out BRIGHT green, if you no what I mean?  Let that be a lesson...

We had fun though...one of the hits of the party was my niece Amaree, who wore the tutu I had made her for Christmas...I was so thrilled and she was adorable!

 
 
My nephew David came in and asked for the "army men" right away and as always helped Nate open his gifts:

 
 
There were cousins:

 
 

and the usual assortment of wonderful people (who I didn't seem to get pictures of them all??)

 

Hopefully Mom got some more pictures of everyone...I missed pictures of Summer and Michael and some of the other people there:(

Happy 16th Nate!

 

 
Dancingly, Denise

 

The Cat In The Hat is in the house:)

I woke up this morning...went out into the kitchen and saw this:

 

I laughed outloud...all I could think of was that the Cat In The Hat had been in my house and stacked the dirty dishes:)

Ah well...I finished the Prom Table Centerpieces for the Casion Royale theme.  I will take them to the school in the morning, they are all packed up and ready to go!

 
I had to make 15 of them...and ran out of Boa at just the crucial moment of having almost all of them done...BUT they are now done!

 
 
Scott got the deck furniture out and both Lauren and Nate have been away working all day.  My nest gets so empty:(

I baked a cake this weekend...just had the urge to bake something.  i really wanted whoopie pies, but went with a chocolate cake with mocha frosting instead:

 
And now? I am off to grill some burgers for Scott and I:)  THAT makes me very happy!

Enjoy your Sunday evening!

Dancingly, Denise

Christmas

We had a nice, quiet Christmas here in Maine!  Today however we have blizzard conditions...which have caused me to stay in!  I actually have been sleeping most of the day...as my yearly bronchitis seems to have kicked in.

I thought I would share some pictures of our Christmas.

Christmas Eve day I always have a lasagna dinner...some guest stay the same...some change from year to year.  On top of our "regulars" (Our moms, Lauren's Joe) we invite people who MIGHT not have other people to spend the day with.

 
 
 
 
Just missing my brother Keith and we would have had all the crazy siblings:)

 

I always make a cake for the occasion and this year i found a recipe for GrassHopper cake:

 
Simba dressed up for the "party" but Snuggles didn't like his outfit:(

 

After everyone left, we did the typical things:

Hung Stockings by the table with care:

 

 

We always hang a stocking for our Baby angel Jamie too.

Milk and Cookies for Santa...carrots for the reindeer and a roll cuz I said I bet santa would like one:)

 

The kids always get Jammies from mammie on Christmas eve and we always take pictures under the tree with their new jammies.  problem is, they have become almost as tall as the tree!

 

 

and the tree after Santa arrived:

 

 

 
and yes that clock reads 3:10 AM
!  Scott had to leave for work around 4:15 so we opted to get up at three to have our tree.  Good thing Santa was on his toes and got here early!

 
 

It's funny how traditions are so important.  I told the kids Christmas eve, that we could fore go some traditions, as long as we read Twas the Night before Christmas and took pictures by the tree.  They still chose to make a letter to Santa...put out cookies...hang up the socks...etc.  Traditions are important!

I wasn't going to make the cinnamon rolls for 3:00 am...and Lauren wondered why not...soooo we had cinnamon rolls!  Tradition!

I'll show you a couple of pictures of some special gifts I got tomorrow!

For now...goodnight...and stay out of the snow!

Dancingly, Denise

Cupcakes anyone?

Cupcakes anyone?

 

I made these to sell at the craft fair this weekend.  I LOVE cupcakes...but you can't eat these:)  They are fuzzy Spa sock cupcakes!

I think these would make a great teacher gift...babysitter...birthday party favors...etc!

 
 
Dancingly, Denise

Graduation Party Number 2

We had a second Graduation party this past saturday for Lauren and her cousin Lindsey...this was dubbed the Field's Family Graduation Party!  Scott's brother, Ralph and his wife graciously offered the use of their camp! This is the picture of the two girls that I used on the invitation:

Ok so I can't post the picture of them when they were little cuz it is on my other computer and I can't get the internet to work on it so I can send it to myself:(  I'll post it soon, it is adorable:)

And this is the picture of them taken on Saturday:

I told everyone ahead of time about a PINK LEMONADE cake I made for the party...it was soooooo yummy!

 
our chef for the day: (Scott)

And random shots:  Grammie (Sott's mom)

Suzanne and Barry (Lindsey's parents)

Bruce (Scott's brother who was in the recent accident):

Scott's brother Ralph...who's camp we were at...I was telling him a joke to get him to smile:

Scott and Brother Shawn:

Lot's of swimming!

Lauren and CeCe

Joe and Nate:

Lindsey and her pals...and Lauren and hers:)

We had a great time! 

Dancingly, Denise

Old Things

At the beginning of this week I was "Gung Ho " about getting my ARTstudio back together.  BUT I got a call saying there was a booth ready for me at OLD THINGS, In Orland, if I wanted it and it needed to be set up by Monday March 1.  So, the studio is still in a shambles, as is the rest of my house...BUT my booth is ready at old Things.  For now anyway.  I have an entire 3 car garage that looks like "hoarders gone wild" and so...this booth will hopefully be ever changing!  here are some pictures of what it looks like right now...as you will see, lot's of costumes, scrapbook stuff, brand new rubberstamps and yes, even some antiques!

and yes that was a TICKLE ME ELMO;)

In other news...Aunt Dorraine made me a Carrot Cake to celebrate my birthday Friday night with my scrapbooking buddies!

It was so yummy!  Thanks Aunt D! 

It's been a long week and I still have a messy house;)  Gonna go finish dishes and some more laundry.

OH...I missed CROCK POT SUNDAY again this week.  I only used the crock pot once to make broccoli and cheese soup again.  It was good!  But I used the same recipe.  PLEASE bear with me...I have chicken and stuffing to make in it tomorrow and apple crisp...I PROMISE!

Dancingly, Denise

It's My Birthday!

And it's been a GREAT one!  I know the cake has a #8 candle...Scott and the kids got the cake for me and that was the only candle they could find in the house...so they said Happy 8th Birthday!  Doesn't it look yummy?  I am going to have a piece in a little while while I watch American Idol.

My Birthday started out with an unplanned birthday get together at McFatty's.  Bobo (Bonnie) arrived...Lisa was there and Lisa's mom Jill...and then my Mom showed up along the way.  Look at this adorable box I got from Bobo:

and guess what???  It was FULL of WHOOPIE PIES!!!!  My absolute favorite;)

And my pal Lisa gave me this beautiful Noah's Ark:

I collect Noah's Ark and they have very special meaning to me...this is adorable.  Hey you want one?  She has them down at SILKWEEDS!

I got some cash from my Mom and my Mother-In-Law.  My kids wrote me a very heartfelt note and gave me a gift card to Amazon...and some chocolates (cuz I couldn't have them during Valentine's Day)

I spent the day working on my new booth at OLD THINGS in Orland...more about that later.

I am going to go eat cake and watch Idol.  Oh yeah, and my family took me out to eat at ANGLERS tonight!  What a fantastic...wonderful...magical day! 

Good night...

Dancingly, Denise

Crock Pot Sunday

Well, here we are again at Crock Pot Sunday!  I did accomplish two recipes this week...one was AWFUL!  The other was pretty darn good:)

Let's get right to it. 

Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole

12 slices bacon cooked and crumbled

4 cups toasted bread cubes

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

8 eggs

1 1/2 cups skim milk

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

Spray the inside of crock pot with cooking spray.  In large mixing bowl combine cheese, eggs, milk salt and Peppr.  Put bread cubes in the crock, pour egg mixture in and place bacon pieces on the top.  Cover and cook 6-8 hours on low.  When eggs are set, top is browning and sides are pulling away from crock take off cover and let the steam evaporate for about 15 minutes.

This was AWFUL!  Now I have made it in the oven and liked it...but this was terrible.  FIRST I would suggest NOT adding the salt.  This stuff was so salty tasting...guess the salt in the bacon was enough.  PLUS I knew it would cook faster in my crock, so I didn't start it until midnight.  When the door alarm went off at 4:30 (low battery) and woke me up i should have shut it off...in any case, there really is nothing worse than the smell of over cooked eggs!  I absolutely could not eat the stuff...Scott ate a bowl of it so I thought he liked it.  When i asked him he said "You don't have to make it again"...I asked why he had eaten it "because I was hungry".  if anyone out there has tried this and likes it PLEASE let me know!

From the book Fix It and Forget It I made a CAKE in the crock pot for Friday night scrapbooking.  This was YUMMY! and very chocolatey and made a ton!

Chocolate Pudding Cake

18.5 oz choc. cake mix

3.9 oz pkg instant choc pudding mix

2 cups sour cream

4 eggs

1 cup water

3/4 cup oil

1 cup semisweet choc. chips

Combine cake mix, pudding, eggs, water and oil with electric mixer.  Beat on medium for 2 minutes.  Stir in choc chips

Pour in greased slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 6-7 hours or high 3-4 hours.  Done when toothpick comes out clean

This was YUMMY!!!!  We added ice cream to it and Connie had brought a carrot cake so we added that too:

Dancingly, Denise 

Stuff

This girl is a writer.  She started out, when she was very young, being a VERY GOOD story teller...to the point that sometimes I worried.  Once she could write, she started writing stories down and we have discovered that she is very good at writing stories and poems.  She has a "voice" that people can appreciate.  I tell you all this because she has started a blog and needs some encouragement.  She is afraid nobody reads it...I explained to her how many readers I have (a great deal thank you to all of you!)...but that MOST don't ever comment...but they read and take what they like and leave the rest.  SO I am asking that you check out Lauren's blog...become a follower...she really does have great...funny...things to say!  here is the link...just click on it and go: Lauren's Lala Land

and equal time here...this boy is just darn funny!  he won this mask on EBAY...it is from the band SLIPKNOT (not thrilled with it)...but he likes the mask:)

Lauren and I went to one of the two basketball games today, so we could listen to the PEPBAND.  There is a certain trumpet player that we are partial too...even if his hair is too long and he didn't wear his band t-shirt...I really enjoyed listening...I took my knitting and sat and enjoyed the music... 


Last night we had our scrapbooking time...6 of us scrapped...talked...laughed... and ate CAKE:)  Brenda brought her Pampered Chef rice cooker and made a cake in it...it was AMAZINGINGLY delicious!

and true to my "goal" for this year I worked on a scrapbook project.  I have a Disney kit from The Button Farm... I almost finished it and then I need to find pictures for it:)

Stay tuned tomorrow for some great CROCKPOT recipes!

This week has been so busy...two of the hilights were spending time with my friend Shannon and meeting up with Lauren ...who I haven't seen for about 16 years!  Good times!

Dancingly, Denise