Rock of Ages

After we saw the live Shrek the Musical a few weeks back, my husband asked me if I was interested in going to Rock of Ages that was coming to the theater soon. I told him no, it was probably stupid. I have never researched the show, but I do know that Tom Cruise was in the movie, and I really dislike Tom Cruise, so maybe that's where my reservations stemmed from.

Tuesday my husband came home and said "Guess what we are doing Friday? Going to Rock of Ages!"

It turns out the owner of his company has season tickets to all of the shows our theater puts on. He was going to be out of town for that show, so he passed the tickets on to us. A free show is a free show after all, so we ended up going anyway. I am so happy we did. We go to a lot of live shows. Some of them are just ok, some of them are wonderful. Rock of Ages was FABULOUS! Hands down, the best show I have ever been to. It was crude, vulgar and laced with profanity, but if you can look past that, then you are really going to enjoy the show! Especially if you love 80's music! The only complaint I had was it was a show based on the music of the 80's, but there was no Gun's 'N Roses, Def Leppard or Aerosmith. That's the only thing that could have made the show any better.

The best part though? Jason was actually able to see the whole stage this time LOL!

Do you love the music from the 80's? What are some of your favorite artists or songs from then?

Buttery Cloverleaf Rolls

I love bread. Other than chocolate, it is a huge weakness of mine. I don't get to indulge in my cravings for it much though, because I hate hearing my husband lecture me on how unhealthy bread made with white flour is. Tuesday, I just didn't care though. I was craving it and he was at work, so I pulled out my trusty Paula Deen recipes to find a quick and easy recipe to whip up. After a bit of searching, I found this Buttery Cloverleaf Roll recipe that looked mighty yummy, and it turns out, they were! I was thinking of playing off the cloverleaf part and maybe making these for St. Patrick's Day with our corned beef. Maybe tint them green? We'll see :)

Ingredients:

1 cup warm milk (105- 110 degrees)
5 tbs sugar
1 tbs active dry yeast
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
3/4 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (*I used bread flour here. I am not sure how much of a difference it would have made with all purpose flour)
2 tbs heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine milk, sugar and yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes, or until mixture is foamy.

Fit your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, and combine softened butter, egg and salt. Add yeast mixture, beating at low speed until smooth. Gradually add flour, beating at medium speed until a smooth and elastic dough forms. Dough may be slightly sticky.

Spray a large bowl with nonstick cook spray. Form dough into a ball, and place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let stand in a warm place (85 degrees) for 1 hour, or until dough doubles in size.

Spray 2 muffin tins win nonstick cook spray. Divide dough in 24 equal pieces. Divide each piece into 3 equal portions, and roll each portion into a ball. Place 3 dough balls in each muffin cup hole. Brush each with cream. Cover and let stand in warm place for 35 to 45 minutes, or until double in size.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter. Remove from muffin tins and place on a wire rack to cool.

Doll Finds In Target $1 Spot

I have always loved Target, but it was a happy, happy day when they put in the dollar spot section. I find myself at Target much more now, simply to browse the dollar items. On my latest Target shopping trip I found some cheap items that would make excellent props for my daughter's American Girl dolls.

I found this metal mailbox that I thought would be cute for the dolls if I dressed it up with a stand. I went to Michael's and bought the wood pieces, painted them up, and for less than $3, a new mailbox was created.

They also had these cute wooden buckets in assorted colors. I thought they would make great picnic baskets for the dolls!

And these lip balms in the shape of Pepsi and Mountain Dew are the perfect size for the doll hands, as are the food shaped erasers.

If your girls play with American Girl Dolls, then you know how expensive the accessories can be. You can save a lot of money buying accessories for the dolls in Target's dollar spot!

Have you found anything great in the dollar section lately?

Gingerbread House Fail!

I have always wanted to make a gingerbread house. I see them every year at Christmas and think they look so fun to decorate. Unfortunately, December has always been just too busy of a month for me to even attempt to make one, so I got the bright idea we would make one for Valentine's Day. I had grand dreams of making a pretty house like this:

 

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or this:

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I found a gingerbread recipe that sounded simple enough to create house pieces out of and set off to work. Making the pieces was simple enough:

Assembling them was the problem. My royal icing wouldn't hold them together, then I broke a few pieces. After about 30 minutes of frustration, here is where they ended up:

In the #&%*@!$ trash. So I did what any self respecting, wanna be baker would do. I scooped up all my Valentine's candy that was supposed to go on the house and ate myself into a sugary stupor. We won't be attempting this gingerbread house making again.

With that behind me now, I want to wish all of my sweet bloggy friends and readers a Happy Valentine's Day! ♥

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Shake

Looking for a sweet treat that you don't have to bake for your Valentine? Why not try this Chocolate Covered Strawberry Shake? I found this recipe in Taste of Home. The recipe was inspired by Steak & Shakes version and tastes almost as good!

Ingredients:

2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup strawberry ice cream
2/3 cup fresh strawberries, stems removed and hulled (you can also use frozen strawberries, but the fresh strawberries make it taste much better in my opinion)
2 tbsp hot fudge ice cream topping, warmed
whip cream and cherry for garnish


Directions:

In a blender, blend milk, ice cream and strawberries until smooth.
Pour the hot fudge topping into the bottom of a glass.
Fill glass with shake mixture.
Top with whipped cream and a cherry.
Immediately serve.

*For a healthier version, substitute with skim milk, reduced fat ice cream, and low fat hot fudge topping*

3rd Place!

Allison's school just had it's yearly Science Fair. It is totally optional if the kids want to participate or not. Allison tends to struggle in science, and since participation includes extra credit towards the science grade, we figured she better participate. After getting on Google to find some ideas that wouldn't be too complicated for her to come up with a project, we let her get to work.

She got to explain her project to judges during school and came home and told me how nervous she was and how sweaty she got from those nerves.

The night of the science fair she quickly found her project and was thrilled to find that she was awarded 3rd place! She wasn't the only one who got that though. They grouped the projects first through fifth, as well as awarding "participation" ribbons to the others.

As I walked the gym looking at the projects, I was a little shocked at what I saw. Projects that were out of the comprehension range of 3rd graders, and some beyond my own lol. Looking at my daughter's science fair project, you can clearly see that it was done by a 9 year old. Looking at some of these others made me wonder who exactly put the work forth in their experiments?

 

As I was studying the grand prize winner, I overheard a mom bragging about her background in science education and how it helped "her" win the fair. To be honest, it irritated me. Not because I thought my child should have placed higher (frankly, I'm still kind of shocked she even got 3rd lol) but because I feel that HER child should have done the project with minimal help. What message was she sending to her kid? I'll do the work and you reap the rewards? I may be in the minority here, but if my child wins something, I want it to be because SHE earned it. Not because we did the work for her.

What are your feelings on this? Am I way off base thinking that children should come up with their own ideas, work on their own projects, and not rely on their parents so much to win these types of fairs?

A Girl After My Heart

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching. It’s one of those holidays that your either love or hate. For me, I choose love. I am a girly girl, so a holiday that focuses on love, hearts and pink is A OK in my book. I think that it is a holiday that can be celebrated a few different ways. If you are new into a relationship, you may want to show your love with a card, candy and Valentine’s Day Flowers. It’s a day of romance and celebrating your coupledom. I used to look forward to spending some one on one time with my husband. I have been with my husband for 16 years, and we now have two girls. Valentine’s Day, to us, is more of a celebration of family, and the love we have for each other. It’s not about the two of us any longer, but the family as a whole. The girls and I like to focus on making a few sweet treats and a few handmade cards to pass out to friends and family. We love to put out pink decorations, then make a few crafts. 

 

All of us moms know how our hearts light up when our kids bring home something they made at school in art class for us, but Allison just stole my heart the other day. The one thing I love about my children getting older, is they can take the initiative on what kinds of crafts they want to make all on their own. That’s exactly what Allison did.

“Here mom. I got started on your Valentine’s Day gift early. I wanted to make you something, but I didn’t know what, so I got on Pinterest for some ideas. Here you go!” And she handed me her finished gift.

Yes, it looks like the art work of a 9 year old, but the fact that she got on to one of my favorite sites to find inspiration for crafting a gift for me, well, that’s just priceless. She is surely a girl after my heart.

 Do you celebrate Valentine's Day? Do you do it as a couple or as a family? 

 


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