HELLOOOOO! I'm coming to you from a house that is empty save little old me. I am fortunate to have a husband who knows that I need extended periods of time to myself once or twice a year, and that his parents, 2 hours away, are happy to receive their little boy and 3 grandkids with open arms! And I'm thankful that Hannah can handle a 2 hour trip with no grown-up in the back with her; it's just about her limit. While I've definitely been enjoying lazy tv watching (and maybe, just maybe, one morning I woke up at 11 am), I've mostly been hard at work doing projects around the house that I can't easily tackle with everyone home.
Backing up a bit, I wanted to share a recipe for hot fudge chocolate cake in the crockpot. We like having sweet treats around here (aka bribe food) and chocolate cake sounded good. In the summer our kitchen gets the afternoon heat so I avoid the oven as much as possible. How does a cake get baked? Crockpot, baby. The recipe came out of my crockpot cookbook. It was very rich so you have to have a blob of vanilla ice cream to go with it (shucks). It's very ooey gooey and we all loved it. The leftovers kept very well in a storage container too.
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 boiling water
1. Mix together 1 cup brown sugar, flour, 3 tbasp cocoa, baking powder, and salt
2. Stir in milk, butter, and vanilla. Spread over bottom of crockpot
3. Mix together 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa. Sprinkle over mixture in crockpot.
4. Pour in boiling water. Do not stir.
5. Cover and cook on high 2-3 hours, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
6. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
And then there was the 4th of July! We celebrated in festive colors and by attending the St. Charles parade. We miraculously found a spot in the shade and enjoyed it. We were also entertained by the parade participants quickly side stepping what the mounted police's horse left behind. Eeeeew.
And later in the evening, we went up to our church for its 2nd annual fireworks extravaganza! At Bogey Hills we love being neighborly to the surrounding community and what better way to do that than give a professional caliber show and they don't even have to drive to get to it?!! Festivities started around dinner time and we brought our water equipment to give the kiddos something to do until the show at 9:00. The littles enjoyed the water table, and the medium sized kids were in the pool at call-the-fire-marshal occupancy! They had fun and we grown ups did too.
And back to my working mom-cation. The bulk of the time was spent in our master bathroom, repainting. It was redecorated in 2008 right before Joey was born. We pulled down a wall covering and just repainted (but not before we had a brief lead paint scare in which I was sure Joey would be born with 3 heads and cried). Turns out we should have primed too because within weeks the painted started flaking off. Other projects (and a baby) came along and repainting it was out of the question. Since I had leftover paint from doing our room in December (and it is a paint/primer in one), I extended the gray into the bathroom. It looks SLEEK people!!
First, this master bathroom is tiny. If you wanted to, you can have your one hand in the sink and the other in the shower at the same time! But I'm very very very grateful to even have a toilet in my bedroom (especially when I was pregnant!) so I don't complain one bit!!! Here's the flaky green You can see the blue popping out from under it.
Finished! It's hard to get a good idea of the gray, but I love it. I brought in a yellow bath mat and hand towels for a pop of color.
And these cute (free) printables from Over The Big Moon, paired with frames from Dollar Tree.
Since that room's all fancy, I've turned my attention to organizing school supplies and books, picking up around the house and cleaning, and grocery shopping. And I get the rest of my sweet family back tomorrow!
I chatted with my dear dear friend Hayli (who is the best thing in Atlanta, btw) the other day. Her three kids are very close in age to my three (#1s were born a month and a day apart, #2s born less than 24 hours apart, and her #3 is about 6 months older than mine), so we're in the same boat with 2 bigs and a little. We commiserated over toddler-dom and that going through this stage seems harder than it did the first and second times. We've both felt isolated and tied to baby naps, pre-school shuttling, and feeling like we can't get a step ahead of the tornadic toddler. We've both been moms for 7 years now and it's not as easy as it was when we were fresher to the motherhood race. But we know flexibility comes little by little as they get older, and one day much too soon, we'll be crying that our babes are kindergarteners. Paradoxical. But nevertheless, here I am at home, working on projects that I'd never be able to get done in a million years with my little shadow underfoot. More on that in a bit!
Backing up a bit, I wanted to share a recipe for hot fudge chocolate cake in the crockpot. We like having sweet treats around here (aka bribe food) and chocolate cake sounded good. In the summer our kitchen gets the afternoon heat so I avoid the oven as much as possible. How does a cake get baked? Crockpot, baby. The recipe came out of my crockpot cookbook. It was very rich so you have to have a blob of vanilla ice cream to go with it (shucks). It's very ooey gooey and we all loved it. The leftovers kept very well in a storage container too.
1 cup flour
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 boiling water
1. Mix together 1 cup brown sugar, flour, 3 tbasp cocoa, baking powder, and salt
2. Stir in milk, butter, and vanilla. Spread over bottom of crockpot
3. Mix together 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa. Sprinkle over mixture in crockpot.
4. Pour in boiling water. Do not stir.
5. Cover and cook on high 2-3 hours, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
6. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
And then there was the 4th of July! We celebrated in festive colors and by attending the St. Charles parade. We miraculously found a spot in the shade and enjoyed it. We were also entertained by the parade participants quickly side stepping what the mounted police's horse left behind. Eeeeew.
BREAKING NEWS... HANNAH LETS ME PUT A PIGGIE TAIL IN HER HAIR ONCE AGAIN!
And later in the evening, we went up to our church for its 2nd annual fireworks extravaganza! At Bogey Hills we love being neighborly to the surrounding community and what better way to do that than give a professional caliber show and they don't even have to drive to get to it?!! Festivities started around dinner time and we brought our water equipment to give the kiddos something to do until the show at 9:00. The littles enjoyed the water table, and the medium sized kids were in the pool at call-the-fire-marshal occupancy! They had fun and we grown ups did too.
And back to my working mom-cation. The bulk of the time was spent in our master bathroom, repainting. It was redecorated in 2008 right before Joey was born. We pulled down a wall covering and just repainted (but not before we had a brief lead paint scare in which I was sure Joey would be born with 3 heads and cried). Turns out we should have primed too because within weeks the painted started flaking off. Other projects (and a baby) came along and repainting it was out of the question. Since I had leftover paint from doing our room in December (and it is a paint/primer in one), I extended the gray into the bathroom. It looks SLEEK people!!
First, this master bathroom is tiny. If you wanted to, you can have your one hand in the sink and the other in the shower at the same time! But I'm very very very grateful to even have a toilet in my bedroom (especially when I was pregnant!) so I don't complain one bit!!! Here's the flaky green You can see the blue popping out from under it.
Finished! It's hard to get a good idea of the gray, but I love it. I brought in a yellow bath mat and hand towels for a pop of color.
And these cute (free) printables from Over The Big Moon, paired with frames from Dollar Tree.
Since that room's all fancy, I've turned my attention to organizing school supplies and books, picking up around the house and cleaning, and grocery shopping. And I get the rest of my sweet family back tomorrow!
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