See You in A Year...

It's official...Birthday Season in the Skaug house has come to an end for 2010. We began with A's in April, followed by mine at the beginning of May and this past Memorial weekend we wrapped up with Had's on Friday and Jas' on Sunday.
Oh!! How I love birthdays...I love making that special person feel like that day is ALL THEIRS!

On Friday, I loaded up my girls, and our neighbor, Zoey, and headed to Starbucks to enjoy a few kiddos cocoas (AND a grande nonfat stirred caramel macchiato) in our jamma's.

The girls love this...but secretly, I think that I love it more.

Here we are ALL SUGARED up and in search of a few garage sales. Be sure and notice the rain drops ALL over the back window; this was an underlying theme of our weekend...

...RAIN RAIN RAIN!!

Here is a look into our vegatable garden from our dining room window on Saturday...again, if you look close you will notice all of rain smears on the window. Our peas sure do love this weather, as they are almost as tall as our hedge...however, our tomatoes and basil do not. I am afraid our tomatoes may rot and my basil...well, let's just say, our basil is in a better place now. I'll have to try again if the sun decides to stay and play awhile in the near future.

Sunday, which was supposed to be the only non-rainy day of the weekend, is the day we decided to celebrate Had's birthday and have a few neighbors and family. Instead of the sunny and 70 that we were supposed to have, we ended up with drizzle and probably 55-60. Not cold, but a far cry from the sunny and 70 that I was counting on. Nonetheless, cupcakes were in order.

Jas and I have many favorite snacks that we enjoy, but the one splurge that we make occasionally are: 'Rolo'd Pretzels.' Recipe, you ask?' All right, I'll share...get your pen and paper ready....go ahead, I'll wait!

Here it goes...follow close! You take a handful of small pretzels and lay them out of a baking sheet. Here's the tricky part...carefully place a single Rolo onto each pretzel. It takes a steady hand, but with practice, you'll get it. Ok, now place them in the oven at 325 for a few minutes...depending on your individual desired level of messiness (3-5 minutes should do the trick).
A friend of mine shared with me today, that she enjoys a pecan on top of the Rolo post baking, but prior to consumption.

OK...back to the cupcakes...I told that above story to get you to my inspiration of these delicious little creations.

P.S. the links for all of the different recipes are included...You're Welcome!

Chocolate cupcakes, with a pretzel crust, a caramel shoved into the middle, baked and then a caramel cream cheese frosting. OH MY HEAVENS!!

Here, A is helping me to roll over and shmoosh up the pretzels. A job that she was great excelled and loved.

Here the batter is scooped in and nestled into their cozy new homes and eagerly await baking. ...and as cold as it was here, I was debating crawling in as well.

Had decided that she wanted to participate as well...so here are my two lovelies so generously helping to reduce my full sink-o-dishes. I wish that I could explain the 'ear muffs,' but I'm not a hundred percent sure as to the story behind them, so I'll just go with, it's her dad's sense of style making an appearance vicariously through A.

***Have I ever mentioned before how much this girl makes me laugh?***

TA-DA!! Here they are...in all their glory! Just awaiting someone to swoop them up and give them a nibble...Oh and I am talking about the cupcakes...not Jas and his dad.

About 5 minutes after this picture of Jas and Oobie Doobie (what A calls him) was taken, Eric (Oobie) discovered the joy of vintage chairs and had the one he was sitting in fold in half like a taco and he fell over backwards in the chair. While re-telling the story, I thought Jas was going to explode...he was laughing so hard. My advice...if you ever come over for a backyard visit....stick to the strong and sturdy wooden bench.

Actually, it's the one is this picture that the girls are 'performing' on.
Im thinking, the Dixie Chicks, in about 25 years; minus all of the controversary.


Alright...I give up, I suppose if I can't change the rain, we'll just have to look for the beauty in it. On Saturday, Jas and I were picking up pieces of sod and watching the girls go bananas over all of the the worms and trails to be discovered underneath. Had was hysterical...she would stand and point with her finger so close to her mouth and shout, "There's one!! Mom! Mom! A 'woom, a woom.' All the while, A was creating familys out of them...'The big one's the dad, that one's the mom and those are the sisters.' Oh my girls...they do love their worm friends.

And finally, my most favorite picture of the weekend. This is a picture of a dew drop on our broccoli that A pointed out to me. Isn't it incredible? I had a lot of fun playing around with our new camera and all of it's features. New camera, you ask? Yeah, that's what you end up with when you accidentally submerge your other one into a bucket of left over flowers and forget it for 2 hours...I wouldn't reccommend it...unless of course, you really want a new camera.

We had such a great weekend! Family, friends, cupcakes, etc.

My thoughts did wander frequently towards those serving our country in the military and their families. I would imagine there are a lot of missed birthday celebrations due to deployments, training and relocations....so from the core of my heart....

THANK YOU FOR SERVING OUR COUNTRY

SO DUTIFULLY AND WHOLE HEARTEDLY

so that my girls may enjoy worms in their garden and celebrations with family.

Here's to a short week!