ABC is for Alphabet Book Craft (Yes, I'm a nerd)

Recently, Motherhood for Dummies wrote a great post about making Alphabet books for children. It reminded me of the alphabet books I made a few years ago for ScienceBoy and SpiderMan. I decided to pass the idea along.

I found a couple of photo albums that have hard vinyl coverings that zip closed. Inside is a two ring binder with 4x6 page protectors. I just cut out cream cardstock to fit in the protector and then went to town gathering die-cuts, stickers and pictures for every letter of the alphabet. I had to get creative - but that's the fun part. For example: for the letter Q - I used pictures of the boys laying on baby quilts people had made for them. For X - I used pictures of people in our family hugging and kissing and wrote "XOXO." For Z - I had pictures of the boys sleeping. Both of my boys loved vacuums - so I had plenty of pictures for V. It was fun coming up with creative pictures of our family for each letter. Here are some pages. B and H are from ScienceBoy's book and P and S are from SpiderMan's book.

These books are still favorites at our house!

LSOC's Favorite Meatloaf

1 slightly beaten egg
1 1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry ground mustard
dash pepper
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped

Glaze:
2 TBS ketchup
1 TBS light corn syrup

In mixing bowl, combine milk, egg, Worchestershire sauce, seasonings and bread crumbs. Let stand about 5 minutes. Stir in beef and onions. Mix lightly, but thoroughly. Shape into loaf in a 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Combine ketchup and corn syrup, brush on meatloaf. Bake 15 minutes more.

Best Rice Krispie Treats Ever!

I grew up having these every Memorial Day at our picnic in Logan. After visiting the Logan cemetery, our clan would head over to the park for a picnic and playing. One of my cousin's husbands is allergic to eggs, so he'd always be sure to sit by us during the picnic so he had first dibs on the egg-free dessert! When I started school, this was my favorite thing to bring for my birthday treat (back in the day when you could bring home-made treats to hand out at school!) My birthday is the end of May and we only had a swamp cooler when I was in elementary school so I think Mom appreciated not having to turn on the oven to make these! The peanut butter (and milk to wash it down with!) help offset the sugar - so hopefully, you won't fall into a sugar coma!

1 cup sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (we prefer creamy)
6 cups rice krispies
1 package chocolate chips
1 package butterscotch chips

Combine sugar and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and heat to rolling boil; stir in peanut butter. In a large bowl combine rice krispies and syrup and fold together until well blended. Press evenly into large shallow pan, about 10x15" (careful, it's hot!).

Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips (the original recipe says over hot water - but I just put them in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time, stirring between. Once they start to melt, just stirring them usually melts it completely.) Spread chocolate mixture over bars and cool. Cut into squares and enjoy with an ice-cold glass of milk!!

Love

My Mom has been cleaning out her room and she found a box full of keepsakes. In it, she found a scrap of paper wrapped around 3 pennies. It has, in a child's scrawl, "I love you" on one side. On the other is my Mom's handwriting "To Grandpa, From Julie 6/18/82." I was six. And apparently my Grandpa, a gruff WWII veteran, kept my present for many years and at some point my Mom found it and saved it as well.

June 18th is my Grandpa's birthday and it's been almost 5 years since he passed away. I always knew that my Grandpa loved me, but he was never as demonstrative of his love as my Grandma was. I get the feeling that he knew she'd take of spoiling us, and as long as she did a good enough job, he'd let her do it. When he was in the hospice and we were pretty much there round the clock those last days, we spent the time watching old home movies. There was one taken at another of his birthdays. I was older - mid-teen years. I was very into saving things, especially fun scraps of paper - notes, cards, wrapping paper. I watched this video of my Grandpa very carefully unwrapping a gift, careful not to rip the paper, and then hand it to me. Again, the image doesn't fit with my memory of a gruff, very non-sentimental Grandpa. I'm starting to think that it was only his exterior - all for show. In little, very un-noticable ways, he was just a softy who loved to spoil his grandchildren. I miss you, Grandpa. I love you.

New and Improved Me!

Not to break my arm patting my own back...but...

Look what I did!!! I'm excited to have a new and improved look to my blog! (courtesy of Leelou blogs) I even customized some of the font colors - all by myself! Are you impressed?? I sure am!