bookmarks

Sometime, (I am really losing track lately) we made cool bookmarks using a technique of painting where you put a really thick coat of paint on something and then run a "comb" made of cut cardboard through it to add texture.

 When will they dry?

Stenciling... Here you can sort of see what I said about 

"combing" with cardboard if you look at the green part.

all the bookmarks (for sure almost all)

I made this one using a "paint marker"

One of Evan's, Mom also got out some 

stickers which he used here. 

Another bookmark I made. Yes, the 

red swirls are hand painted by me.

And my RANDOM BOOKMARK! oh yeah!

Evan's yellow& green Angry Birds!

Bye for now, Ben.

Chocolate cake

SOMETIME (the exact day we did it doesn't really matter, right?) we made chocolate "whoopie pie" cake (recipe from here). It was REALLY good!

Frosting... it may seem unlikely, but I don't think

the frosting is the best part of it...

The center "whoopie pie" layer is!!

YUM! Bye for now from the person 

in the above picture. 

From Mom:  hmmmm.... did you notice how there aren't really any photos of the whole cake?  That would be because the top layer fell apart entirely when Grandma Pete & I tried to place it on top fo the filling!  It still tasted delicious, though!  We also made half vanilla filling & half peanut butter, by mixing the leftover pb cream from our sandwich cookies into the regular filling.  Both halves were delish!  Here are a couple more photos:

 

Penny Hike with Grandma Pete

Unfortunately, this post is actually over a week late since the actual penny hike was on the 21st
(or the friday of that week, i'm not exactly sure) anyway, we went on a "penny hike" (where you flip a penny to decide whether to go left or right at all junctions) We started out in our driveway, and flipped to decide where to go from there. pics:

we brought the camera but didn't realize 

the battery was in the charger at home, 

so we recreated it at home.

that's all for now. Bye, Ben

From Mom:  Unfortunately, Evan started complaining about tired feet before they actually got anywhere, so they turned around & came home.... I think Grandma would have sprung for a treat if they had made it to a gas station or Mickey D's! 

DELICIOUS peanut butter cookies

For W.C.W. earlier this week, we made really great cookies that have chocolatey and peanut butter parts (recipe from here). Grandma Pete had arrived on Tuesday, so she got to join the deliciosity.

Me and Grandma Pete (enjoy the cookies)

wow, that is a weird smile I have.

close-up. Remember, you can not pull an object out of

 you computer screen, so don't. (attempts would probably 

break the screen. Then you couldn't find this recipe on pinterest)

Bye for now from Ben!

 

From Mom:  These were quite delicious & RICH.  They looked NOTHING like the photos on the blog we got them from, maybe because it was hot the day we made them?  We would absolutely make them again, with the added step of chilling the dough before baking.

Late Orby Planety Make Something Monday

Wow, that title is a mouthful. On M.S.M. earlier this week, we made planety orby things (Orbey? orbie? How do you spell that?) pictures:

 Mom's amazing star ball thingy

Evan's duck and donut hybrid (with hair)

My crazy random ball thing

MAKING my crazy random ball thing

Bye for now from Ben! (tomorrow... it gets delicious! )

Return of the Brownie Pops!

Today we made brownie pops! if you are wondering why "return" is in the title of this post, click
The OTHER time we made brownie pops
They were extremely delicious!

Chomp, Chomp, Chomp!

CAW from the Cakey Birds!

Cup stacking, sprinkle style!

Some of Evan's brownie pops well... popped. 

They are still delicious, though.

Bye for now, Ben

finally, start of summer!!!

Hello from Ben on the first blog post of the summer!
Today we painted and used my oil pastel set.

Art is fun!!!

I made this painting! It is actually sideways in this picture...

Evan made this by making pictures in my oil pastels 

and painting black over it.

A rainbow building, also by Evan.

Come on, computer, why can't I put Evan next to me? (Fixed it! -Mom)

Bye for now, more coming soon. HAPPY SUMMER!

-Ben




From Mom:  It was fun to kick off our summer "schedule!"  It will be interesting to see how it all goes, since I am working way more hours than I have since before Ben was born - so far, so good!  The oil pastels belong to Ben & he shared very graciously with no stress... kind of a new development around here.  I love the look of concentration on Evan's face; he spends a lot of time running around like a giant goofball, so it is fun to see him like this.