Cat in the Hat

 Friday morning we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday with green eggs and ham for breakfast, part of PBS' "Cat in the Hat-a-thon," and a dramatic reading of the Cat in the Hat by Kelsey Grammar.  It was nice to show the Cat some love again...  he's been patiently waiting in the crib for a resurgence of love for some weeks now.  :)

*and yes, Cat and Bunny joined us on our adventure to the river for pictures too.  

Graham Cracker as Gingerbread Housing!



Today, yes, today!!!  Zoey and I finally made our gingerbread house!  (Our first ever.)  We had a blast!!  

With an egg...  waiting for the eggs to reach "room temp" was the hardest part.  ;)

Loading up Grandma Joyce's sa-weet mixer!

My girl with the sensative ears.  This time she not only stayed in the room with the mixer but right there next to it! (small steps)  :)

Piping the walls.  Zoey really did a lot of the work!  She's quite the little baker/maker!

Our base house (and little snowmen that turned into trees!)

Concentration.  She really did work!  :)

Our stash of candy and things (all "found" items in the pantry)!

Candy on the roof.  (Yes, I piped it.)

Making our bushes and trees.  (Marshmallows covered in icing - pretty cool, IMHO.)

Presenting our very first Miller Manor Gingerbread House!!!



Our chimney is an out-of-date Kashi bar that I found in the back of the pantry.  ;)  Really, it is on straight - it just looks crooked. 

A close up.  One icing/marshmallow tree and a window.  She decorated the windows all by herself and then put the icing on the backs for me to put them on the wall.  :)

This is my first time making royal icing.  I learned quite a bit.  For one, it doesn't take a doubled recipe to ice a tiny house.  2) add vanilla for a better taste... As in, it IS really edible at all!!  and C) I'm interested to find out what happens with the massive amount left over in the fridge....  still usable/tasty?  And this recipe is easy!!  (Would it work on the upcoming wedding cookies?!?  Hmmmm.....) 

Hope you enjoy a timely look!  xo

Catch up CUTENESS!! Halloween edition

One of my sweet hubby's favorite holidays is Halloween.  I like it too - but not nearly as much as he does.  That is, until this year!!  (Ok, so I have always liked dressing up - putting on fun makeup and hanging out with my friends...)  But THIS year, Zoey understood Halloween and we took her Trick-or-Treating!

Truthfully, I wasn't too cracked up about it at first.  I mean, would she get it?  Would it be worth it?  We don't even let her eat a bunch of candy...  hmmm...

OH SO WORTH IT!!!  She was SOOO excited!  She was SOO cute!  And yes, taking her TorTing was my favorite part of the WHOLE holiday!!!  I'd rather go walk the cold streets in search of candy happiness with her and John than go to any stinkin' "adult" party ever!

Zoey was a cat.  She even had her kitty scratch dance down to an adorable - melt-your-heart science!

I was having a wee bit of focus trouble the whole night - but this one I love anyway.  I think it should be a card or something.

Knocking on the first candy-filled house.  She was not shy at all!!

Our neighbor and the first candy hitting the bottom of her bag!

Daddy and Z leaving the first house - seeing the MOON!!

Me as a witch - leaving another neighbor's house.  We took those neighbors some coffin brownies! 

Another house down the street.  It's blurry, yes, but I was so amazed that she didn't have an ounce of shyness in her that night!!  (Except for one house that had a man answer the door and his porch had scary decorations... but that's just her good sense.)  ;)

A girl and her bounty.

"Now, this is my candy...."

 And here are some pictures from earlier that day....

Breakfast.

Zoey "helping" me.  She decorated her own brownie pieces.  :)

Coffin brownies.  (Ok, yes, it's fun to go to parties too!) 

Cooker.

Tonight while cooking dinner:

Zoey: "You're not a chef."
Me: "I'm not?!  What am I?"
Zoey:  "You're not a chef.  You're a good cooker."

I'll take that any day!  :) 

Quotable Zoey.

My kid is brillant.  (Isn't everyone's?!)  HA!  No really, she is.  Sometimes she says things to me that blow me away.  Sometimes she's just plain funny.

I've been trying to write things down...  but I often end up losing the paper or forgetting.  I have put little things on FB because I think it's faster or easier.  Truthfully, I think FB might reach more people...but then again, I hope this blog lasts.  I don't think I'll be able to look back at FB status remarks in 5 or 10 years, but hopefully this blog will still be here.

I'm going to try to tell YOU, my loyal readers, those funny and remarkable little things sweet Zoey says.  And sometimes the thoughts themselves aren't fancy - but I get caught up in the fact that this little human - this little person - this person that John and I MADE...  well, that she's not even three yet and she is a perfectly thinking individual.

Starting with Friday, May 13, 2011, the last time I made hummus...  She says to me minutes after tasting the batch (without any provocation):

"You're a great hummus maker, Mommy!" 

It fills my heart with joy! 

Making cookies

Cookies in FIESTA!

I was in the mood to make cookies this week...  the day I finally decided to just do it was Wednesday.  Zoey doesn't like the mixer.  It's too loud for her, I think.  So I thought my dreams of making cookies might be over until...  Zoey said she's help me after we made brownies...Yep.  That's what I said...  Brownies first, then cookies. Hmmm...  OK!

 After the brownies were successfully delivered into the oven...  we started on the choco chip love.  I set Z up on the other side of the kitchen with her own bowl of batter/dough.  (Flour, water, salt, some baking soda - cuz that's what on the recipe, yo!)  HA!  ...It's "batter" to her most of the time because that's how we got started with pancake batter... she's learning the small details to what we call which.  :)

 The first set of cookies was sans chips, but plus red sugar sprinkles for Valentine's day (at least that was the plan).  *Note Fiesta ramekin!  :) 

Brownie batter face!!  YUM!

"Show me the spoon."  :)

Waiting for the cookies to bake.

More waiting...  see our smiling faces in the oven door?!?  :)

*Oh and yes, Zoey did well with the mixer on.  She made the noise like the mixer pretty much anytime it was on.  But she didn't cry or run into the other room.  When I was done she asked me to "put the mixer away?"  All in all a very very good experience!!  :)

Cee-gars and friendly faces

My sweet husband has a birthday coming up.  He's turning 32.  To some, this isn't a "special" birthday..  or at least special enough...  It's not 21 or 30 or 40 or 50...  But, to me, any and every birthday is special.  :)  So, when said dear sweet husband requested a party (which he hasn't ever before)...  I said...  "um, do we really know enough people to warrant a party?!"  HA!  And then I said... "If you want it, YOU GOT IT!"  :) 

His birthday isn't until the 30th (shared with Uncle Jim, Joey, Ben, Cameron, and a host of others I'm sure)... but we have close friends hosting a big shin-dig that weekend (um, this weekend)...  so we decided to party early!!

Here's the photographic evidence!

Here are the cigars!  I made them!  Yep, I did!

More cigars.  Have you noticed yet that they are made of chocolate?!  Even the bartender couldn't tell.  He was trying to find a place for people to smoke them.  He told John that people might be able to go out on the roof?!  HA! 

The happy couple.  **A couple of people used my camera.  So there were more than 300 picctures...most out of focus!  :)

Holly acting as Jackie Chan!  Hilarious!! (Chan DVDs were part of a bday gift.)

Some friends!!  (When I put this up on FB, I said it would have been even a better picture had I realized my camera was smarter than me... it picked super cool focus on Holly's face and everyone else is blurry!  Oh well...  I'm learning.   AND, how good does Holly look!?!)  :)

One of my favorites!  This is my friend, Cat.  Her New Year's Resolution was to get me out more.  I'm ok with that!  :)

The birthday boy!!  Isn't he cute!?!  :)

This is Scott.  I'm not sure if he'd like this picture, but I think it looks pretty cool.  (John wants to see it in black and white...  I'll do that when I get my fancy dancy photo software...  oh, yeah, and that new computer!  someday...) ;)

Cat and her hubby, Joe.  I just love this picture.  It captures a moment.  So fresh and real.  So cute!!



This isn't any great photo, but it has some great people in it!! 



The dessert table!!  I made the chocolate covered pretzels into "cigars."  I made my first ever from-scratch cupcakes.  The brownies were for fun.  The candles (not lit yet) are a MUST for any Miller party.  The napkins...  (I never took a picture of the napkins!!) Well, I hand-stamped a cigar box on each one.  :)  The tables were decorated with candles and giant magazine ads featuring cigars, liquor, watches, and a few cars.  :)  -Thanks, Cigar Aficionado.

All in all we had such a wonderful time!!  It makes me want to have more parties!  Well, it makes me want to GO to more parties!!  And, it makes me think I should bring back the summer birthdays luau THIS summer...hmmm...?!?  :)

*Special thanks to my Mother in Law for missing the party and hanging out here with Zoey.  (Even though I did have a nice, responsible teenager that I truly trust available to sit...  she's even YMCA certified...  Next time, Joyce...  When you're ready.)  ;)  xoxo

Dad's 64th Birthday Celebration!

My Dad turned 64 on Monday.  Sunday afternoon we all gathered to celebrate our favorite guy!  My Dad loves white chocolate most anything...  my plan was to make white choco fudge.  I thought it would be sweet, but still easy to eat.  Tracy told me it probably wouldn't turn out very well if the chips I bought weren't made with real coco butter.  (She's the master baker. I'll take her word - without question.)  They weren't much more than sugar....  so rather than making a mess of it, I simply made a GIANT white choco chip cookie.  Delia helped me decorate it.  It was uber super sweet, but still tasty.  :) 

Delia, Grandpa, Zoey and Grandma

Delia blowing snow!

 In the afternoon, Zoey and Delia went out to play in the snow!  They are so cute.  Delia is such a wonderful big cousin.  I was a bit worried a year ago or so...  Zoey just wanted to be with her every second and (at that time) Delia just wanted to read.  It was hard.  NOW...  Zoey still wants to be with her every second and Delia is very nice and plays with her.  They are the cutest things!! 

HUG!!

Getting ready to venture outside.  SO stinkin' cute!

Zoey has taken to giving the "thumbs up" lately.  She was all about it this weekend!!  Everyone played along!

Delia putting some finishing touches on the cookie.  (Baked on Fiestaware, of course!!)

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!  We love you so very much!! :)