Karnival of Kidz

Blogsis VW starts this week's Karnival of Kidz with Tot's ability to improvise. So many legos, not enough hands!

PrimoDonna got to spend some quality time with the grandkids at the fair. She left out what her favorite ride was!

Sally at Whimsy Capricious may have been slightly embarassed by Tara's theater skills, though great blog fodder! What Sally doesn't realize is that Tara's theater skills may be what decides her future retirement home! ;-) Ham it up Tara!

AWTM's adorable son Dash is putting his sister up for sale. And I'm sure there are some takers with a face like that!

And then Ponytailed Conservative shares a picture of his son at 6 months old. What a cutie.

There you have it! Check out next week's Karnival of Kidz at Iowa Geek.

Interesting in hosting? Good! Karnival of Kidz needs hosts! Go HERE for more details!

New Blog Showcase

There was only one entry this week for the Showcase Carnival. So I perused the blogosphere for some fresh meat new bloggers!

We have David Porter who provides Mid-Michigan--East Lansing, Okemos and Greater Lansing-- with advice on mortgages and saving money.

My wonderful blogson Spurs makes me laugh with Women's English. Napster, his wife, my dear friend and I guess blogdaughter-in-law (weird!) tells it like it is in Napster Speaks!

Virtue, at The Rantings of an Indentured Servans is the spawn of my blog bruncle Contagion. She got pierced! Go check it out!

Tuck of Thought Drizzle, blogson of Johnny-Oh, has a message to SUV Pilots.

Primo Donna, the real life mom of Prochein Amy, has great stories about her past to pass on to her family. Here, she tells us about what it's like to be the prettier twin sister.

Are you hitting yourself for not submitting an entry into this week's New Blog Showcase? Stop! Calm down, take a pill! The next chance is at Steal the Blinds (you have to check out his blog theme, I love it!).

Need to know how to submit an entry? GO HERE!

You don't have enough to read? Check out the following carnivals:

The Karnival of Kidz is over at The Grass Isn't Greener.

The Carnival of Recipes is over at One Happy Dog Speaks.

The Carnival of Music is over at Bumper Music.

Birthday Bones

Kiki and I will have a late birthday celebration as she will be staying at my mom's on my birthday. I think when I bring her home, I'll make these!

"These cookies are great for your favorite furry friend. Every dog I have given these to loves them. It is nice to use doggie type cookie cutters, like bones or fire hydrants." Original recipe yield: 18 treats.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup unsalted natural peanut butter
1 cup skim milk

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Stir together the flour and baking powder; set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together the peanut butter and milk. Stir in the flour mixture until well blended.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into shapes using cookie cutters.

Place 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly brown. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

Bravery

I used to be brave. Not scared of bumps and bruises. Standing up on the seat of my bike, hanging upside down on monkey bars, jumping ramps on skateboards.

I miss those days when you were invincible!

A Tequila Sunset

Ingredients:

0.5 oz Grenadine
6.0 oz each cubes of ice
4.0 oz Orange Juice
1.5 oz Tequila

Directions:

Fill a highball glass with ice. Add tequila and fill with orange juice; stir. Slowly pour in tequila and let it settle. Before serving, stir very gently once, to create the "sunset" effect.

Hmmm...this may be my birthday drink! Yum!

Carnival of Music #5

It's time again for the 5th Carnival of Music.

We had only a couple submit (3 to be exact). So, I found a couple of music related posts that I thought you music lovers would like.

Owlish is asking what you think the saddest song is. So far, we are looking at Billy Joel's Downeaster Alexa, Michael W. Smith's Friends and Rick Springfield's My Father's Chair. Do you have a favorite sad song...go share it.

Go on over to Fredösphere to see many many posts on music. One of my favorites being a post on The Kingston Trio. Do ya remember Tom Dooley?

I went on some crazy rant on what made me a dork in high school!

Blog Mom Bou is on vacation at her family's for their annual ceilidh. What an event!!

CD at Semi-Intelligent Thoughts has some samples of some great songs recorded in his basement.

Tammi pays tribute to the late Luther Vandross.

That's it for this week. Those of you who didn't submit but I linked to you anyway...hope you don't mind. I thought you were worthy enough for honorary mention in the carnival

Apple Cake

What You Need:

2 cups of sugar
2 eggs
1 cup of oil
3 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Baking soda
4-5 Granny Smith or Macintosh Apples (chopped in small cubes - should make about 4 cups chopped)
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts are optional (and not allowed in Sissy's kitchen - but I hear Tammi likes nuts. ;-)

Directions:

Put all ingredients in large mixing bowl with wooden spoon mix until all are blended. Batter will be stiff. Divide in 2 round foil cake pans or 1 regular cake pan.

Sprinkle 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tblsp sugar on top. Bake on 350 for 45-50 minutes until browned.

Sis #2 on TV

My dad goes to the movies EVERY WEEKEND practically. They have the refillable cups and the shirt that get's them free popcorn. My stepmom brings a little chocolate in her purse and my dad is a happy man!

Sis #2 loves to see movies too, but can't always see the ones daddy wants to see. But she loves the theater's day care.

They go to this theater so much, that the day care called my stepmom to see if Sis #2 wanted to be in a news clip about it.

Watch this video about the theaters day care. My sister is the first kid that speaks in the light green sleeveless sweater, and she is also at the very end of the clip. She's such a ham!

Watch the Clip

*You will need Real Audio to view the clip

Day of Carnivals

Today, the Karnival of Kids turns a big 10 over at Prochein Amy's. She tells us what boys and girls are made of!

And we have a fairly new carnival; the Carnival of Music!! How could I not get involved with this one? This week, Owlish Mutterings is hosting.

So grab your cotton candy and go perusing through the carnivals.

Karnival of Kidz - Karaoke

While on vacation to see Sis #1 graduate high school, we celebrated afterward at my mom's house.

Sis #2 (7) loves to sing Karaoke! In this picture, she was singing "I Wanna Talk About Me" by Toby Keith! (Yes, she knew ALL the words)

Later, my stepdad is singing "Redneck Woman", and he get's to the part where everyone screams "Hell Yeah!" and he says "Heck Yeah!" instead.

Sis #2's response?

It's not "heck yeah" it's HELL yeah"

Taco Rice

There are only a few meals I can make. Blogmeet Burritos were submitted last week. This week is Taco Rice. After this, I'm going to have to learn something new!

Ingredients:

1 lb lean hamburger meat
1 packet of prefered taco seasoning
2 cups of uncooked white rice
Slices of American Cheese (or shredded cheese of your choice)

Optional:

Shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, diced onions, sour cream
Tortilla Chips

Prepare the Taco Meat and cook your rice as you would normally do.

Spread about a cup of cooked rice on a plate. Place a slice of american cheese or some shredded cheese of choice on top of the rice. Then pour 1/2 - 3/4 cup of taco meet on top of the cheese. This should start to melt the cheese, however the plate can be microwaved for about 15 sec to melt the cheese more if necessary.

Add toppings of choice. Great served with tortilla chips. Even better with a margarita!

Karnival of Kidz is UP

The Karnival of Kidz is up over at Science and Politics.

Go check out all the great stories and pictures HERE!

Carnival of Recipes!

I'm hungry, so very hungry after checking out this week's Carnival of Recipes at Meanderings.

There's a buffet of recipes, go check it out!

Karnival of Kidz #6

All I can say is Wow! I better not host this Karnival anymore. Talk about wanting to love on some babies after seeing these pictures and reading these stories! My little sister doesn't even know what's coming next week when I visit her. She's getting extra smooches!!

Suzie at Practical Penumbra has an adorable picture of her youngest niece. Is she a magician? Is she singing show tunes? Go on over and caption the picture.

My Blog Mom Bou, at Boudicca's Voice has a picture of her best friend's little boy - possibly the most smoochable baby ever! He's about to have a smoochfest from Bou's clan of smoochable kids!

Amy at Prochein Amy captured the excitement of her youngest when she got her first bike for her birthday. Happy Birthday!!

Blog Grandpa Harvey, at Bad Example gives us a small history lesson in the Age of Shoe-Shaped Toys Made From Wood. I bet he caused some damage with these!

With seven children, Headmistress at The Common Room should write a book of the things her kids have said.

ArmyWifeToddlerMom has another smoochable baby picture of her little Pink Ninja learning to crawl. ArmyWife hasn't sat down since!

Iowa Geeks treat their daughter like a Princess. Even going to the extent of buying her a castle!

And so that Iowa Geeks are not to be the only 'geeks', here is VW Bug's boys at the computer.

Don't forget to check out the new Karnival of the Kidz page for past Karnival of Kidz entries and more information on hosting!

Black Eyes - Karnival of Kidz

Yesterday, we went outside to play softball. I was pitching and my mom hit one - a line drive into my knee. Nice little bump there. This reminded me of my last black eye...and then my other black eyes. So I believe it's time to share...

When we first moved to Okinawa, I was playing in the playroom of the hotel and a kid threw a big plastic block at me! Jerk!

Dad was pushing me up in the air with his feet, and I fell and hit the head of the bed. Which resulted in....

Black Eye #2 while in the hotel. And yes, that is old school Jiffy Pop!

And then my last and final black eye was when I was 14, getting ready to go out on on a date with my at the time boyfriend. We were outside playing baseball, waiting for him. My stepdad pitched the ball, it was inside but I hit at it anyway and it bounced off the bat and hit me in the eye. My date showed up about 15 minutes later...right in time for it to be a nice shiner!!