2 Wheels!!!

We have a big milestone, here!! We took the training wheels off of Taite's bike this weekend. She tried her first time Sat. night & we never really let go of her. Sun. afternoon, Lewis was going with her, let go & she went! We're still working on stopping! That may be harder than riding.

We've learned one thing....this is definitely another parenting "event" that really makes us appreciate our own parents. Running along side of a wobbly bike is HARD work. It's also hard to run along side, bent over, holding on to the back of a bicycle seat! Lewis & I had to take turns. Obviously, we're out of shape. I think we may try "relay" bike riding in our future attempts! :)

She rode again Monday after school & did great, again. She's going about 3 or 4 house lengths, so I think that's a good start. Her goal is to ride her bike in the 4th of July parade! I think she can do it! Practice, practice, practice!

**A Little Update: On day #4, she rode around the block 4 times without us holding on! :) We had to run beside her. Thankfully, I only had to do one lap (after which, I thought I was going to pass out!). Lewis is a better jogger than me! She's doing great. What fun!!!

Here's a video of her first ride without us holding on....

Cake Balls!

We have a new recipe! Cake balls! They are DELICIOUS!! We made our first batch Easter weekend and the girls & I experimented with some new combinations this weekend.

Here's the recipe...

Ingredients:
1 box of cake mix (your favorite flavor)

1 can of frosting (your favorite flavor)

Almond bark/melting chocolate....vanilla or chocolate (I found "melting chocolate' at HEB...you can get colored melting chocolates at Michaels or Hobby Lobby)

Cook cake per package directions in a 9x13" pan. Let it cool for a short period of time. Crumble up cake into a separate bowl. Stir in frosting. Mix cake and frosting together with a hand mixer. It will now be a play dough-like consistency. Place mixture in the fridge for a couple of hours to allow it to chill.

After the mixture has chilled, use a melon baller or your hands to make small balls (about 1"). Here is a picture of our balls. We had made a yellow cake and a chocolate cake....

Now, put the balls in the freezer. My directions said to put them in the freezer for 6 hours. I don't think you need to leave them in that long. Although, I found that the longer they were in, the easier they were to dip later...

After the balls have chilled in the freezer, melt almond bark or melting chocolate in microwave per package directions (it only takes about a minute!....easy!). Place a toothpick into a ball and dip into melted chocolate. I used a spoon to drizzle some over the top of the balls to get good coverage.

Add sprinkles, nuts, etc. to balls while they're still 'wet', if you'd like. Allow balls to cool on wax paper. I left the toothpicks in my balls, because we felt they were easier to eat later. If you want them to look "prettier", then you could carefully take the toothpick out while they're cooling.

Here are some pictures of our finished balls. None of them are "perfect", but they were yummy!
Here is how we packaged some for Taite's CCE teachers....

One of my friends puts the balls on lollipop sticks and makes them into cake ball sticks. How fun!
A note on our flavor combinations. As I said, I made a chocolate (devil's food) cake and a yellow cake (our favorite). I also had 3 different types of frosting: buttercream, chocolate & cream cheese. I also dipped in either chocolate or vanilla almond bark. I colored the vanilla bark with pink Wilton dye. So, here were our combinations:

• yellow w/ buttercream icing, dipped in vanilla (one of our favorites)


• yellow w/ buttercream, dipped in chocolate (yum!)


• yellow w/ chocolate frosting, dipped in chocolate (not my favorite cake/frosting combo.)


• devil's food w/ butter cream icing, dipped in chocolate or vanilla (okay)


• devil's food w/ cream cheese icing, dipped in chocolate or vanilla (pretty good)


• devil's food w/ chocolate frosting, dipped in chocolate (YUM! tasted brownie-like)

If you just google "cake balls" (like I did), you can find lots of recipes, ideas, and ways to "present" these yummy desserts!

You can only eat one or two of these at a time or you'll have a big belly ache! They're so rich. Delicious, but rich! Enjoy!

Mini-Me

With Paige's new haircut, she REALLY looks like me as a kid. Check out Paige now and me as a 2/3 year old. No doubt she's my daughter!!

Haircut

Paige got a haircut last weekend. She will not let us put ANYTHING in her hair....no clips, bows, headbands, etc. So, it was time to go short. A simple haircut that is low maintenance! Here is the before & after.

Seeing Mindy & Luke

We got to see our nephew Luke & sister-in-law Mindy at her parents' house last weekend. I'm so glad we went up for this quick visit. It was really fun to watch the kids playing together. Luke is 14 months now and is just cute, cute, cute! Here are some pics from our visit....

Grandpa & his grandkids...

Grandma with Taite & Luke....

One of my favorite pictures of Luke...

On a side note, we stayed in a hotel overnight. Paige hadn't been in a hotel since we were at Disney last Jan. She was captivated by this "place" we stayed. It was her first time to sleep in a bed (she's still in her crib at home)! Oh, the joys of toddlerhood....
We also had a 'scenic' drive through College Station and Stephenville, where Lewis went to school his 1st 2 years of college. It was a nice weekend with the whole family!

Easter

I'm a little behind on this post, so let me just add a few of my favorite pictures (other than the one above!)...

It was just the 4 of us for Easter this year. We had a nice day!

Paige was kind of serious about her egg decorating. After a while, she REALLY got into it!Easter morning....

Taite got a pink Wii wheel. Mario Kart is one of our favorite games! Fun, fun!

It's April Already?

STRAWBERRY PICKING...

There is a farmer's market nearby in Alvin that has a small strawberry farm. We took the girls last week to pick strawberries. Taite could've picked berries all day long. I told her we had to stop because we actually have to EAT the berries she's picking! Paige wasn't too interested. She didn't like getting 'dirty'. She has these phases where she is very anti-dirty! It was a beautiful day and a fun little outing.BEDTIME STORY...

I thought this was so cute. Paige brought Taite a book to read her before bed. It's one of favorites, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. So cool.....

ZOO TRIP...

I used to take Taite to the zoo all the time! I've slacked off with Paige, though. We hadn't been since the beginning of the school year! I decided it was time to go & I even renewed our membership. She LOVED it. She was so well-behaved, too. She liked all of the animals. We also rode the carrousel. She freaked out about the animals going up & down & woudn't get on one. So, I went and sat down on one of those bench seats with her. After our zoo trip, she was telling everyone about how much fun she had riding on the "couch" at the zoo! I'm so glad I took her. It was a great day!

This was the closest I've personally ever seen the cheetah! It was so neat - it 'pounced' at us and about scared me half to death!