Soccer



Asia had her first practice ever. She's signed up for upward soccer this year and is beside herself with joy! She absolutely loved it. Her first day was on Tuesday. Her pratice went about an hour and there were about 30 kids around her age on the field.



She did all kinds of drills and got to pass the ball around a bit with some little girls. And then once practice was over with Sean went out and played goalie and let her kick a bit. So cute.



Her regular shedule starts next week with her coach. We haven't recieved her game schedule yet but I bet they'll be within the next few weeks couple of weeks.



And there's been so much of Asia lately I had to post a picture of Sean too. He's been so busy with friends doing other activities and hadn't been with me for a bit to record and pictures.

Oatmeal Raisin Cake

I did figure out a recipe for my oatmeal raisin cake. I used my neighbors as my tasters and they gave me some great feedback. So I listened to their comments and this was the end result.


I ended up using more oats to give it that oatmeal cookie quality and lots of plumped raisins. I baked each layer separately and then crusted a pecan topping on each. Once they were cooled, I stacked it, piped and drizzled a butter rum glaze on it. Overall, I got good feedback today at work. So I think I'll put this cake on my repertoire.

"Samoas"

Asia got a craving for some Girl Scout cookies. So I thought I'd try to make some. I had no idea that she like coconut. So I was a bit surprised when she told me the kind of cookie she was wanting. But we got all of our supplies ready to tackle our project.





The cookie is a bit time consuming. But I think they're definitely worth the final product. I started out with my basic sugar cookie recipe. Then once they were cut out, baked and cooled, we put a mixture of toasted coconut and melted caramel mixture on top of each cookie. Then we dipped and drizzled chocolate on each one.



Yummy!

I'm about to make an "oatmeal raisin cookie" type cake. Will put the pic up when I'm done.

Just the Girls

This afternoon we met up with the Tuckers. Sean is spending the night with them and going to see Nascar racing. He has some earplugs to help with the noise. So we'll see tomorrow what he thought about the whole thing.

Well Asia was a bit sad that she couldn't go this time to the Tuckers. Usually she goes as well. But with the race, there was no way. But we came up with some funt things to do on our own. Scott was at a track meet so it was just the two of us.

She got hungry right after we dropped off Sean. So we headed to McDonalds, the only place with a playground at the exit. She ate a happy meal and played for a time and ended up seeing an old classmate from preschool. But then we had to go to our next activity for the moment.





Brusters Ice Cream was having a special give away day. If you showed up in your pj's you were given a free single scoop waffle cone. Well, the cone was ginormous! It was nearly as big as her head. And it was such a pretty day today. So it was was perfect ending for our short outing.





We headed back to the house because I was wanting to experiment with a cake for Monday. So Asia rode her bike, played club penguine, helped me in the kitchen. And now Scott is home. I think we're going to make pizza for dinner. We'll see.

My Secret Garden

Well actually it's not a secret and it's in plain view, but it is my attempt at one. I've been dabbling in horticulture for the past few years now and I think I'm getting the hang of it. Parsley is pretty much a diva in my opinion. It's quite particular about temperature and wants it just right, not too hot and would prefer cool weather.



Basil is super fun, easy going, goes with the flow. But like Kim, if it gets too cold, it calls it a day. Warm sunny days are its friend. I have some other fun things growing on my deck too. And Scott would love for me to move my "garden" near the edge of our wooded area. But it's so handy just being able to go out the kitchen door, grab and snip what I need and be right back in my kitchen. Don't think I'll be making the move any time soon.



I am going to try my hand at strawberries this year. Last year my seedlings died. I drowned them. And it was unintentional too I might add. I planted the seeds and then we had a torrential down pour the very next day. We weren't home at the time so I wasn't able to move them to a protected spot. Anyway, we'll see how they do this year. But so far they look pretty good.

SNOW!

I didn't believe it when I heard it on the news but my eyes sure did. The forecast called for a lot of snow to come our way but being that it's Georgia, I wasn't going to put money on it.

Well, we went to church this morning and during the 11 o'clock service it started snowing. It came down lightly at first and would melt as it hit the ground. But before we left the church parking lot after the service it had already started to stick some. That was about 12:30 this afternoon.




So when we got home, the kids got bundled up and headed outside. Sean pretty much stayed out all day. Asia was outside for about 20 minutes, got cold and called it a day. She really didn't have gloves to wear, and the gloves she had on were mismatched because we couldn't find her good ones.







But the whole neighborhood was outside. The kids made snowballs, a small fort, and caught snowflakes on their tongues.





Sean got wet, would get changed, go back outside, get wet and do it all over again. He froze and loved every minute of it.





Once I got back from running some errands, Asia got bundled up again, and ventured outside again. We put some sandwich baggies on her hands over her fleece gloves and she was happy as a lark.