While The Men Are Away = The Girls Will Play

Last Friday, May 27th, it was our ward's annual Father and Son's overnighter. And by some miracle Justin was actually able to work it out so he could finally go, for the first time. While Justin packed the car, I was looking at ALL he was packing for one night. He said he wanted to be extra prepared like I usually am. So he packed goldfish crackers, graham crackers, gardettos, squeez-its, Hershey bars, granola bars, fruit snacks, mtn. dew, sprite, hot dogs, and buns. I told him he didn't need to take all that and the stake was supplying dinner and our ward was supplying breakfast. He said what if they run out of food and we get hungry. I told him he'd be fine and he didn't need all that food. So for the record, I WAS WRONG! They ran out of food so luckily he had his snacks.
He followed Ryan, his dad, and Zachary up to our stake camp, Camp Woodland. They got their tents set up, ate a piece of chicken for dinner, and finally got the fire going. The marshmallows Justin took were unusable so luckily Ryan shared with J and Rhett and J shared chocolate and graham crackers with them. It worked out great. And the boys had so much fun camping with their Dads. And they were very lucky cause it was supposed to pour down rain that night, but it held off till the next night. So while the men are away.....


Their camping "village"

Rhett and Zachary playing

The evening fireside

Wakey, Wakey

Serving breakfast



...the girls will play. So I called Melissa and her first response, "No, I have my niece over." But second response, "well yeah, Alison wants to play with Ry." So Melissa and Alison came over and made us a healthy dinner, wanton salad (sooo yummy) and fruit with yogurt dip. After dinner Melissa painted the girls nails. While the girls played and watched "Tangled" we sat around and talked. Till it hit about 930pm, and we got cravings for some not-so-healthy food! I found the recipe for the cheese sticks (thanks Liz) www.thepioneerwoman.com Just type in fried mozzarella sticks in the search area and pull it up for yourself. You will not be disappointed, they are sooo good. The secrets in the panko crumbs. But of course I needed some sugar with the salt. So we made snickerdoodle and triple chocolate cookies. I know it was like 11pm, and we were indulging in bad snacks, but what a fun girls night full of everything girls love doing...eating, talking, and pampering.

Cooking the cheese sticks

Our Snickerdoodle and Triple Chocolate cookies

Alison is not shy at all :)

I didn't know this pic was being taken but I find it funny everytime I am with Melissa there is always a random pic of me doing silly things

Ry, Alison, and Melissa

Showing off our skills at making cheese sticks

Burial At Sea

I didn't take any pics for this post cause I thought it'd be too morbid and sadly I didn't have any from before.
So, we have had Froggy for about 4 years I think it was. He was always a good frog...an african-dwarf frog. The kiddos loved him. And of course I loved him cause he was the easiest pet we've had; no hair, no cleaning up poop, no training, an easy container/home to clean, only ate once a day, super quiet. Whenever we'd go on a vacay, it was easy to get someone to watch him cause he's easy to care for.
I woke up to his aquarium being on the loveseat. I asked Ry why it was there and not on the counter where he usually is. She said she was babysitting. Well I didn't think anything of it and put him back on the counter. Later when J got home from work, he came to look at Froggy. He noticed him just floating on the top of the water-which isn't too weird because it was one of his fave things. But this time, it meant the worst. He wasn't moving, and when we tapped him (usually he'd swim to the bottom) he just continued floating. So J rounded up the kiddos and gave him a proper burial at sea. It was a good run for a frog, guess they usually last only a year or two (so I've been told). So looks as though it's time to get a new one...