Our Staycation - Part Two

The first day of our vacation was a big success. Now on to day two. Unfortunately although Josh was off work I still had a couple hours to put into my job. I have the wonderful privilege of working approx. 3 hours a week for a Christian preschool that is literally within ball throwing distance from my house. So Monday had me heading off to work for an hour in the morning, coming home for lunch and a little break and then heading back for another hour in the afternoon. We decided to lay low for that day and ended up teaching the children how to play 'Pit' a favourite childhood card game of both mine and Josh's. Actually his mom had unearthed it from a closet in her house the previous night when we were there for dinner in an effort to finally get rid of the overabundance of board games they have.

If you've never played Pit here are a couple links to check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Moves-Pit-Card-Game/dp/B001Y9CXK6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_%28game%29

Josh teaching Bray

McKayla caught on right away and while Braelyn understood the concept she found it really difficult to hold all nine cards in her hand so she started off the game by placing whatever stock/commodity she had the most of face down in front of her and her 'trading cards' in her hand. This was hilarious because we could never get her to trade them even if she ended up accumulating more of another stock/commodity than what she had down on the table in front of her!! Ah well by the end of the week we were eventually able to explain it all to her.

Mick hiding from the camera

Figuring out the cards so there are enough commodities for the number of people playing

Nothing super important here, just love his dimples!!

Yay! Mick won a hand!!

Emerson grating

After playing the game for what seemed like hours we decided to bake a carrot cake. Now I've made carrot cake in the past and it hasn't been all that fabulous so I decided to go in search of a new and improved recipe. I scoured the internet and found one, copied it all onto a piece of paper for the girls and I to follow and now I can't remember where I found it!! Oh well at least I still have the piece of paper so that I can make it again but I really wanted to give credit to whoever came up with this recipe because it is FANTASTIC!! I will post the recipe at the bottom of the post.

Grating some more

After about 5 minutes of grating!!

that Braelyn is always tasting something

Emmy loves helping out

the finished product

Now I apologize for some of the blurry photos, being as old as I am and really having never used a camera doesn't make for the best pictures. And while the finished carrot cake doesn't look like much.... boy was it ever good, especially after adding the homemade cream cheese icing McKayla and I whipped up.

We also had a really yummy dinner of bacon wrapped chicken stuffed with asparagus and roasted red peppers served with wild mushroom couscous. Stay tuned for.....Vacation Day 3 - in which Alia (and the whole fam) go to the batting cages.

before

after

 Carrot Cake Recipe
3 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tsps vanilla extract
2 tsps cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
2 tsps baking soda
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 can crushed pineapple with juice
1 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In medium bowl sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside
3. In a large bowl combine eggs, buttermilk, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix well.
4. Add flour mixture to liquid mixture and mix well.
5. In medium bowl combine shredded carrots, coconut, walnuts, pineapple and raisins.
6. Using a large wooden spoon or heavy whisk add carrot mixture to batter and fold in well.
7. Pour batter into prepared (grease then dust with flour) 8x12" pan and bake for 1 hour. Cool 20 minutes.

Cream Cheese Icing
16oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, soft
2 cups sifted icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Cream butter and cream cheese together with electric beater (or KitchenAid mixer:)
2. Mix in vanilla and gradually add in icing sugar until well blended.
3. Spread on cake and lick the beaters, spoon and spatula.