Blueberries for Sal, um I mean, Em and a muffin recipe, too!

Ahhh, I love kids books. Em has Blueberries for Sal. She got it FR-EE. In the mail. Isn't that great! Anyway, on to the point of this post!

We went blueberry picking! There is a really great farm not far from here, and I had NEVER heard of it. Lived in this area my whole life. Love making new discoveries! My friend, Cassidy, told me about it! Thanks, Cassidy!

I was so excited to go, thought Em would LOVE it. And she did for about five minutes. We didn't know it, but our friends, the Moss's, were there when we got there! Ha! So Em was super excited to see her besties, and pick berries, but when they had to leave a few minutes later.... then she realized it was HOT. If fact, she said repeatedly, "It's HOOOOOOT!" "I'm done picking berries." "That's enough, let's go home." So my dreams of a fun activity for the family resulting in buckets of berries to use throughout the year didn't quite come true. We came home with 4 pounds. Fail.

Haydon (acting silly!), Em, & Payton

She how happy she was...

Can we go now??

Today we made muffins from our berries. She was much happier.

As a family, we've been trying to make "healthy choices". I'm so not into depriving myself, so it can be hard to diet. So instead, we've been adding the things our diet has been missing. If it's good for you, you don't have to feel bad about eating it, right? Maybe not in the quantities I sometimes want. Ha!

I took a blueberry muffin recipe and tweaked it to make it my own.

Here goes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1/3 c. veg oil
1 c. buttermilk (I used 2% milk with a splash of white vinegar)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla (or more!)
1/2 c. sugar + 2 tsp. for topping (I did top them with sugar, but I don't think it is really needed!)
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking pwd
1/2 c. oats
2 c. flour
1/4 c. flax seed
1/4 c. wheat germ
3/4 c. blueberries

Mix oil, milk, eggs, & vanilla. Add sugars, salt, soda, & pwd. Mix well. Add dry ingredients. Mix. Fold in berries. Scoop into muffin tins (I used cupcake liners), bake for 10 - 15 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean). 


Let me tell you, the batter tasted amazing! Just ask Emma. I had to stop her from putting her HEAD in my mixing bowl. She said, "But how am I gonna lick the bowl?"

Notice that there is only 23... someone stole one.

Posing with her contraband. When did she become such a poser?

Muffins are pretty good, too. I'm gonna be honest... I could do without the blueberries. I'm just not a big fan of fresh berries in baked goods. But they are healthy and Em likes them, so there you go.

Dance Recital 2013

Here I am, again, skipping a post! I have to write about Emma's End of School Party, but the BIG recital was last night! So I just HAVE to get this up!

Talk about nerves! Mine, not Ems, that is. About getting her hair and make-up done! I was a wreck!

Getting ready. She was trying to put on shimmer powder by herself!

We went to the auditorium early for Em to practice a part in the finale number. This is when my nerves REALLY got bad! She was supposed to perform a small part in the Danielle's (her teacher) duet with a man named Jeremy. We had practiced Monday and Wednesday of this week. Well, we went Monday and she freaked out, but danced fine with just Danielle. We went Wednesday and she did great dancing with both, after I bribed her with a movie. BUT last night at the crucial last run through, she freaked smooth out. Full sob. All my hard work with her make-up was GONE! Anyway, we decided that she just wouldn't do it. I was/am very disappointed, but you live and learn. She just wasn't comfortable dancing with Jeremy, though he did try really hard to make her see how nice he was! So we went to the dressing room and got her cleaned up and her make-up reapplied. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty upset, and my patience was VERY short. After getting over that, she was happy and excited to dance her other two dances.

Here she is all made up, with her friend Ellie!

 Finally, it was time for her class to go on stage! All of us moms dropped them in the waiting area and sprinted to our seats!

Getting it!

Getting ready for their big bow!

And bow! That's her with her head down! Ha!

Here is a video of the performance. Please excuse the shakiness! I was trying to video and peek around to watch and kept moving! :/

The video cuts off the end. It doesn't show that way on my end, but something went wrong with the upload to YouTube and I have lost the patience to deal with it! Ugh!

And the big bow!

The Little Dancers came down to sit with the parents. Emma LOVED watching the big girls dance. She is enraptured by it all! Can't wait to see how she will be if she sticks with it!


Since Em is on the new competition team, she didn't get to perform in the next dance with the other Little Dancers, but we filmed it anyway! Clinton tried to focus on Livi, Em's friend, but she was in the back a little. Still really cute!

Next up was the new competition team! This dance was introducing them as a team. They only had ONE practice! I was so nervous that she'd forget some of it, and she did, but that's ok. :)

After Danielle's duet (which was beautiful), it was trophy time!

She had a death grip on that thing! Wouldn't even let anyone see it!

So our first dance performance is over and done! Em is excited to get on stage again!

Last Day of Preschool 2013 and Dance Pictures!

I haven't posted in FOREVER! Sorry about that! I've composed hundreds of posts in my head (really good ones, too!), but just lacked the energy to get them done! It has been so hectic around here! I have SO many things I NEED to write about, but I'm going to put that off (again!) and just write about today!

I resolved myself to sitting down as soon as I got home today to write this! I wish I would have.... instead I went outside with Emma to watch the family of geese that hangs out behind our house. They've been gone for about a week so I was surprised to see them there today! So out I go and I'm looking through my phone trying to get a picture of the Mommy, Daddy, and FIVE babies, then OUCH! I was standing in the only ant mound in the whole yard! Took me forever to get those bastards off me, too! So I'm sitting here scratching my dang foot. Nothing hurts like an ant bite! Hope y'all enjoy this picture of the geese, knowing how much pain I'm in from taking it.

And of course, you can't really see them. So goes my life. Argh!

Anyway, today was Emma's last day of preschool! She has completed the 3 year old class at Central, and today was, also, her last day at Mother's Day Out!

First Day of MDO 8/31/10

First Day of Preschool 9/4/12

Last Day of Preschool 5/30/13

As you can see, I didn't have it together this morning to do a cute sign. Sigh.

She is growing up so fast! That MDO picture is really getting to me! She has learned SO much this year at Central with Ms. Hiner. I can't wait to see what she learns next year! She will, also, be going to a different "after school" program at Episcopal Day School. Well, that's what I'm calling it. She went to MDO in the afternoons after Central and will be going to EDS in the afternoons this coming fall. She'll be going there this summer when I work, too!

Today was picture day for dance, too! We had a group pictures done on Tuesday, and let me tell you... it was cray-cray! Thank God I have no photography talent! No way would I be able to handle taking 14 2-4 year olds picture! Yikes! But the results are pretty dang cute, outtakes and all!

 Em's individual pics were today. Since today was a work day, I wasn't even going to attempt to do her hair and make-up! My nerves couldn't take it! Tuesday was a disaster! So my good friend, Regan, did it for me!

Em's hair has been an ordeal, let me tell you. The child's hair won't hold a curl!! Oh well, she will still look pretty!

This is after pics, getting our Sonic fix!!

 Tomorrow is another busy, busy day so I'm going to go now and get whatever rest I can get! Toodles!

Easter Sunday

The rain, rain didn't go away. Well, it did, but not until it made everything a muddy mess. So we had a change of plans and ended up having lunch and an egg hunt at my brother's house.

Kirk, Kinsley, & Emma- the egg hunters

My brother, Jason, trying to show Emma an egg...

Yeah, she still doesn't see it.

Comparing their baskets.

 After the hunt, we were standing around talking, about to load up and go home, when Jason says, "Um, how dirty did y'all want your girls?" Yeah... they were in the mud. It was too late to stop them, just let them play.

Kinsley helping take off Em's boots. Ha!

They were a mess! But they had fun!

Countdown to Easter

Em has had a really fun week. Egg hunts, Easter themed tea party, new surprises! She's had so much Easter fun already, hopefully she won't be too disappointed if this yucky rain ruins everything for tomorrow! Here's what's been going on!

Her school party was really cute, as always, but Clinton surprised Emma by showing up!

The set-up! The moms are so clever!

Ready to hunt!

Showing off her BIG egg with Daddy!

With Ms. Hiner (and blue teeth!)

I had to go back to work after the party, so Em had to go to Mother's Day Out. She wasn't pleased, and really, I felt bad about it. Thankfully, I got all caught up at work, so I was able to leave a little early. I picked her up and we stopped by the bakery for some Easter treats. I had a plan.

We had a little tea party, just the two of us!

Real tea (iced sweet tea, that is!) Ha!

Little bunny cakes!

It's the simple things in life...

Em and I talked about Easter, and read the story from her children's bible. This is where she learned that we celebrate Easter because in her words "God alived himself". Can't beat that. 

After our party, it was time for dance. While we were gone, her daddy got ANOTHER surprise ready for her! She had lost her TV in one of our battles over cleaning her room. (We had taken it away a few weeks ago.) She had earned it back using her reward chart, but we had decided it was time for her to get a new one. The old one didn't work that great. We talked to Em about it awhile ago, and told her if she let us sell her old outdoor toys that she had outgrown (playhouse, car, etc.), we'd use the money to buy her a new TV. I can't believe she agreed! Everything sold and Clinton had been bargain shopping. Em didn't know that he'd found her a new one. When we got back from dance, he had her new TV set up in her room, playing a movie! She was so excited! AND I have a new bargaining chip to make her clean up her room! Ha!

Yesterday, was the annual MOPS egg hunt. I can't believe this is the 3rd one we've been to! We were so happy to be able to spend some park time with our friends! I helped hide eggs while some of the moms told Easter story using resurrection eggs. Then it was time to hunt!

Haydon, Em, and Payton. Don't know what is going on with that grin!

Then we watched the big kids, they were so fast!

Ace showing off his loot to the little kids!

We had a nice picnic lunch afterwards. Just hanging out, chatting, letting the kids play! Oh, I love springtime!

Here's hoping the rain moves away, so we can enjoy the rest of our weekend!