The Next Best Thing

We have dubbed our vacation to Florida this past October/November as the scrubbed vacation because of all the issues with the space shuttle launch. We were crushed when we had to leave for home not having gotten to see the launch, but we knew all along it could happen(and we still had a wonderful, fabulous time, Gabe can't wait to go back!). We have decided however that it would have been worse to have missed the launch by a few days or even weeks then what actually happened. Yesterday, February 24th, 2011 Space Shuttle Discovery launched for a final time at 4:53 pm eastern time 16 weeks and 3 days after it's originally scheduled launch date. While it would have been awesome and spectacular to have had this view,

alright it would have been more like this view.

We settled for the next best thing and watched it live on NASA TV, the boys were still ecstatic, I may have cried a little:)

Seeing it live or not it is simply awesome! Godspeed Discovery!

Lets Go State

We were able to get mens basketball tickets from Carl's work for the ISU basketball game on Saturday.  Gabe and Carl were supposed to go with Gabe's friend Brady and his Daddy but Brady was sick all week and feeling really rotten on Saturday so he wasn't able to come.  Gabe was bummed that Brady didn't get to come and he had to go to the game with his mom and little brother instead but oh-well.  My mom and dad kept Callie at their house during the game since it fell during her nap time and she slept the whole game for them, it was nice not to have her wiggling all over the place:)  Carl's work also gets wristbands to Johnny's(they designed it as well!) so we took the boys there for some pregame snacks.  When we got to our seats I tried to get the boys to stand for a picture in front of the court for me but little fingers had smeared up my lens so it didn't look very good. 

Once the game started Ty was very intent of knowing where Cy was at all times.  However when Cy actually walked right up the stairs by our row of seats, he jumped out of my lap and into Carl's lap who was farther away, Cy was great from a distance but not such a fan up close.  Gabe on the other hand was practically jumping into the aisle so he could give him a five.  I snapped a picture too(I cleaned my lens, much better!)

  During the game both boys would cheer and clap some and they liked the music.

 This is what Ty was interested in.

  Popcorn and more popcorn and even more popcorn.

  He ate three small bags during the game.

At halftime we went to Johnnys again and got some treats, they had cookies, scotcharoos, and brownies which the boys thought was great(they have free appetizers, cookies, popcorn, lemonade, hot chocolate, coffee for those who are at a certain donor level to the athletic department)

 

Cy came in as well and this time Ty while shy at first actually gave him a five, he was very proud of myself, unfortunately I didn't get a picture.
During the 2nd half I tried to snap a few self portraits of Gabe and I but he wasn't cooperating.

Daddy helped us out and clicked a picture of the boys and I.

It was a good game and it looked promising there for awhile.

 Of course it is tough when you have many freshman and no bench so we came up short yet again but next year we will have all of these guys(in the gray warm-ups)

 plus our freshman who will have Big 12 experience so it should look a little better in the wins category:)  After the game we went back to Johnny's to pick up our coats(they have coat check) and the boys got another cookie. We then got our picture taken with Johnny in front of Johnny's.

  We had lots of fun and didn't spend a dime, the best kind of day! 

Monkey Bread and Balloons

We've been battling colds with slights fevers and I'm pretty sure ear infections this week.  Gabe has stayed home from school Tuesday and Wednesday to make sure his fever was gone and even with the nice weather the days get loooooong.  Yesterday morning we decided to make monkey bread for snack.  The boys both helped shake the sugar and cinnamon mixture in the bag and then helped tear up the biscuits and coat them.

  Gabe did a great job of putting the pieces in the pan.  Ty got a little bored by our third or fourth tube of biscuits but for the most part had fun helping.  Poor Callie just a little too small to help out quite yet but she did enjoy eating the bread(notice the impromptu step stool in the 2nd picture).

 

Gabe was proud of the way he got the biscuit pieces evenly in the pan.  He is displaying his masterpiece before we put it in the oven.

  It turned out great and was a big hit at snack time. 

Later in the day I remembered we had some balloons left over from a party so I blew up a few.

 They loved playing with them and then Callie got up from nap and tried to get the boy's balloons.

  Gabe told me I needed to get her her own pink balloon so that is what we did. She was happy as a lark.

 Of course the problem with balloons is that they pop.  Any ideas of whose popped first?

If you guessed the red head you would be right....and his reaction.  Priceless.

I think we are pretty much over the crud now and thankfully have even been able to play outside a few times, even with the mud:)  Although this weather is kind of a tease in February because most likely we will get at least a little more snow and it will probably be pretty cold again as well.  Oh well take what you can get I suppose.

Homemade Bagels

I got a wild hair the other day and decided to try to make homemade bagels.  I don't normally post recipes and food stuff on the blog since it is more of a scrapbook for me but I had several people ask for the recipe so I thought this would be an easy way to get it to multiple people.  I actually used two separate recipes.  The first is this one.  I followed the recipe as written except I did add about 2 tsp. cinnamon to the dough(I was going to add raisins too but my raisins were old and crusty so I left them out)  After I added the yeast I also added the butter to the warm milk and just stirred it around until is melted.   Also after reading a few reviews it seemed that to make 12 bagels out of this batch would be to have really small bagels so I did 8 instead and they were perfect. 

Here are the cinnamon bagels.

The 2nd recipe I tried was this one.  This one had slightly different ingredients and with this one I made 6 of the bagels plain and 6 everything bagels.  I tried the shaping method in the recipe on this one and found that really either way, shaping into a ball and poking your thumb through for the hole(like the 1st recipe said to do) or rolling into a "snake" and then twisting the ends together either way worked and one didn't really look better then the others.  For the everything bagels I mixed minced onion, kosher salt and poppy seeds(I thought I had sesame seeds but I didn't) together on a plate and then right after the bagel came out of the boiling water I place the bagel upside down to coat it then put it on the baking sheet to bake.  Also my oven seems to heat a little hotter then some so I only had to bake my bagels for about 16 minutes and they were perfect.  I also didn't flip them over at all during baking and they turned out just fine.  Each kind tastes really good and they have the perfect crusty outer layer and then soft inside.

The bagels before boiling and baking

 

The Everything Bagels

The plain bagels

I was really pleased with how they turned out,especially for my 1st attempt, I am excited to try different flavors and keep improving my shaping technique.  They have been a hit at our house. 

A Message for Uncle Pete

Upon hearing it was Uncle Pete's birthday this morning the kids wanted to make him a Happy Birthday Video. Ty got a little confused towards the end of the first video and wished Uncle Bone a happy birthday instead but he corrected himself in the 2nd video:) Happy Birthday Pete, hope it's a great day.

Waffles

Carl made waffles for breakfast on Saturday. Callie was a big fan!

Sometimes the Best Canvas...

is your face.

At least the green really compliments his eyes and outfit for the day.