I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy (Playdough)

The other day, Goldilocks decided to get out the playdough. It had been awhile since she had played with it and we discovered most of it was dry and needed to be thrown out. This gave me a chance to make my super duper playdough with Goldilocks for the first time. I used to make this recipe all the time for my kids at church, and it would last the whole year, and we would send it home with the kids.

First we stirred together our dry ingredients - 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, and 2 tsp. cream of tarter
Next, we mixed 1 cup of water, 1 TBsp of veg. oil, and food coloring. Goldi wanted violet playdough. This took about 20 drops of food coloring. It is easiest to mix the food coloring with the water. Next, pour the wet stuff into the pot with the dry stuff.
I use a double boiler method because I have ruined a few pots trying to do this directly on the stove. Cook the soupy, runny mixture on medium heat for 5-10 minutes. Don't stir it! It will get cooked on the sides and bottom and be runny in the middle. Continue letting it sit and cook until only the middle is still runny, then run a spatula around the outside to loosen it, then carefully flip it over in the pan. It will only need a few more minutes to cook at this point.
When its ready to come out, flip it out onto the counter. It should not be sticky at all. After letting it cool for a minute, knead lightly. This wad of super duper playdough fits nicely in a recycled butter container, and fits perfectly in an empty icing container.
Goldilocks has had a great time playing with this playdough. It is easier to roll out than the commercial stuff. Let me know if you try this recipe!

Throw it down, Moses

This past weekend, I was able to return to my hometown for a youth choir/youth group reunion of sorts with our old youth minister, music minister, and our old pastor was there too. Above you will see the Victory Valley bobsled team making a final? appearance. They were able to get their revenge on Tonya Harding this year. We had a choir rehearsal in the afternoon and then sang 4 songs at the Saturday evening gathering. I think we sounded pretty good, maybe a little rusty, but these songs were ingrained in our heads in high school and still are 15 & 20 years later.
It was really fun to see the old friends from the youth group, and there were many youth parents there as well. I should have taken many more pictures, but got too caught up in hugging people to remember to take very many pictures.
I was expecting to visit Samantha with a baby this weekend, but baby Linley didn't cooperate...
My friends did a great job putting the reunion event together and Matt made some videos and slideshows from the "old" days. I don't know how to put them here, but the youtube channel name is bobsledunited

Daddy Hugs on a Snow Day!

Curly Bear loves her Da-Da!

It snowed!!! It starting snowing when Curly Bear went to sleep and by the time she woke up there were several inches on the ground. She was so confused :) We went out to play right before Papa Bear came home from work and had a great time. We finished up the day with pancakes and bacon, hot chocolate, and snow cream.
Curly was bundled up in the ol' 1970's era snowsuit worn by my brother and I back in the day. She couldn't move, just stood in the spot I set her down, just smiling and trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue. She fell face first into the snow but didn't care...

Papa and Goldilocks built a big snowman while Curly and I made dinner. Goldilocks lent the snowman her hat, scarf, and chalk.

pizza, pizza!

We like to make our own pizza around here (if we can't make it to Cangelosi's, YUM!) and its super easy. Papa Bear makes the dough in the bread machine, then spreads it in a 9x13 glass pan, throws on sauce, cheese and toppings, and voila! homemade pizza. Sometimes we wrap our pampered chef pizza stone up in foil and grill the pizzas. YUMMY!