Spooktacular All Day Giveaway!

My sister is hosting an all day live giveaway and twitter party at Bloggy Blog Designz


 
I will be giving away one of my hand-stamped necklaces, so be sure to check out the details

Happy Birthday Kai

Today is Kailer's birthday, he is 12!  Lots of responsiblity comes to a 12 year old boy.  I am so proud of all he has become and what a helper he is to me.  Yesterday we had parent teacher conf. and I was in sweats because I had been painting all afternoon.  I asked him if he would be embarressed if I didn't change before we went to school, he told me "Wear what you want,  nothing you do embarrases me."  I couldn't believe he said that.  Paige always tells me how embarrasing I am.  But Kailer is just proud to have me as a mom. 
 Out of all my babies Kailer was the worst.  He cried from the time he emerged till about 10 months.  I swear my but was glued to the rocker from morning through the night.  By 2 months he was 18 pounds-I know sumo wrestler!~! He had the chubbiest  cheeks you ever saw and we called him BUBBA.  Today he is by far my biggest helper around the house and does a great job babysitting he siblings. I love you Bubba.

Here are just couple of my favorite pictures. I haven't dug through all of his old baby pics(pre digital). One of these days I will gat a cute one of when he was so fat!

Day 4-Yes I know there is MORE!!

Day 4 was a wet day.  But we were on vacation, nothing was bringing us down!  We hoped on our lovely tour bus and headed to the upper part of NY.  Lots of buildings more of central park and Grants Tomb.(pictured below).  Ulysses S Grant is my 5th or 6th great Grandfather.  Can't remember which one exactly.

I love this building-I mean I just can't wrap my brain around how architects think of this kinds stuff.

We had breakfast at Carnegie Deli-super yummy and it was fun to see all the celebs hanging on the wall.  Restaruants in NY or so tiny.  And they cram a lot of people into a small place.  I am sure they are violating some sort of code.  When we came out of breakfast it was raining and we stopped and bought ourselver some handy $2 umbrellas.  They leaked by the end of the day but they served there purpose.

Here is Carrie sitting on the bus sporting the ever fashionable trash bag cover up.  Felt like we were going to Niagra Falls!!

Nikki had a tradition that whenever she had visited NY in the past she would visit St Catherines Cathedral and light a candle.  The arcitecture was AMAZING!!  So beautiful. Notice the shopping bags in the above pic, yep we hit Century 21 AND Canal Street!

 We stood in line in the middle of Time Square to get the 1/2 Broadway tickets.  Yes it was pouring but we really wanted to sneak in one more show before heading home the next day.  We chose to see Billy Elliot.  Despite hearing a lot of the fbomb said by the kids on stage the show was FABULOUS!!  I LOVED it-I think more than Wicked, or maybe it was just different...more real life stuff but sooooo gooood.  Before the show we got a bite to eat from Juniors-Carrie took a pick of this because she called it NY's chips and salsa.  Yep thats beets and pickles my friends.

Following Billy Elliot(which was about a boy who learned to dance) I did a special private dance back in our hotel room in memory of Billy Elliot.

Tantalizing Tuesday

Want a chocolate cake that is super moist and spectacular, try my Momma's Chocolate Buttermilk Cake.

Momma's Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Dry ingredients:
2 C sugar
2 C flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
(set aside)

Melt:
2 sticks butter
add 4 T cocoa
add 1 C hot water
(bring to a boil)

Pour boiled mixture over your dry mixture and while hot add
1 C buttermilk
2 eggs
 1 t vanilla
(beat till smooth)

Pour onto a greased cookie sheet pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  5 minutes before your cake is done make icing.

Icing:
4 T cocoa
6 T buttermilk
1 stick of butter

Heat till boiling, and then remove from stove.  Quickly beat in 1 lb powdered sugar, and add nuts if you wish.  Pour over cake while it is still hot.  This is sooo good with icecream.

NYC Day 3

We had big plans on day 3 to get up early and hit Central Park for a run.  I think the goal was for 6:30???  Can't remeber exactly but we didn't set an alarm and we all woke up around 9.  So much for an early run.  We did however get our butts outta bed and headed down for a 7 mile run through the park.  It was a beautiful day and I felt pretty awesome running in a place I had only seen in movies.

We stopped for a parfait on the way back to our hotel and saw this dude who must have had a little too much to drink tfrom the night before.    I don't know how he could sleep in broad daylight with all those people around.  We wanted to hurry back cause we were meeting an Erie friend who moved to Jersey in May.

Nicole showed up as her fashionable self an d we headed over to grab a bus.  Yeah-we were total tourists, but it got us around to see all the places we probably would not of been able to see.  It was so good to see Nicole she is so sweet and always has a smile on her face.  My Kaden played with her Evan last year in kindergarten.  We were sad to see them move! 

On the bus we saw Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building and we drove through Hells Kitchen and made a stop at Little Italy.  I bought a scarf for my momma and we headed for a walk through China Town.

Carrie and I were so excited to see Zarin Fabrics(Real Housewives of NY) sitting right there in front of our eyes!

          After rushing to catch the bus back to Time Square we decided to have a nice italian dinner and talk a stroll through the scary part of NYC.  Hello-we had to get Nicole back to her train so she could get back to New Jersey.  During our scary walk we stopped and got some Garretts popcorn.  We all got the Oprah mix which is half cheddar and half caramel.  It was really yummy and then we bid farwell to Nicole.