My first afghan

I finished Briana's afghan!! I LOVE the way it turned out. She requested purple and black yarn with sparkles in it. The whole time I was crocheting that afghan, I kept thinking, these aren't the right colors for Briana. This should be pink and green or at least pink and black. But, she kept insisting that she liked the purple and black, so I carried on. Once the whole thing was done, I realized how much I liked it and how cute it was. I added a ruffle to the top and bottom, and I think that made it look extra cute.

My hard work was deposited on the floor for a short time during dinner, and guess who else likes it?

Smothered Enchiladas

I made the yummiest dinner tonight! It's smothered enchiladas and I highly recommend them. Here's the recipe:

1 pound ground beef

1 package taco seasoning

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 16 oz. container sour cream(I used about half of it)

8 flour tortillas

2 C. shredded cheddar

chopped fresh cilantro

Cook ground beef as directed on taco seasoning package.

Stir together soup and sour cream. Pour half of sour cream mixture ( I just used enough to cover the bottom of the pan) into a lightly greased 13 x 9 baking dish. Spoon beef mixture evenly down center of each tortilla; roll up. Place seam sides down over sour cream mixture in baking dish; top with remaining sour cream mixture ( I just used some of it-there was a ton of the sour cream mixture!) and cheese.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 25 minutes.

Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.

For our side dish, we had corn, served on a beautifully crafted trivet!

Snuggle Up With A Good Book

This week is the Read A Thon week at the girls school. It's always a super fun week for the kids and Monday night started things off with Snuggle Up With A Good Book night. We barely stepped foot inside the school when Briana saw a friend of hers and ran off.

Sydney stayed with Mike and I and read us all of the books from her browsing box in her classroom.

And she showed us her scroll, which she has been working very hard on for a long time.

They have to count as high as they can. Guess what number Sydney is on? 2530. She is the highest counter in her whole class!

Briana spent most of the night in her classroom with a bunch of her friends.

She told me they didn't read at all. Stinkers!

After the fun of Snuggle up with a good book night, we made our own snuggle up with a good book in our living room.

They are both hoping to read more than anyone else in their classes this week. They are quite motivated, and they have been reading nonstop!

Runner up picture

Briana got to bring home her runner up drawing from school yesterday. It's going up in her room for display next.

Here's what she has to say to the girl who's picture is hanging up at the zoo.

Just kidding.

It's cookie time!!!

Guess what we picked up after school today!! Girl Scout cookies!! Briana immediately brought all of the boxes of cookies in the house and got to work.

These are the supplies she gathered together for cookie organization.

Only certain people were allowed to touch the cookies. The rest of us were only allowed to watch. Can you guess who was allowed to help and who wasn't? I'll give you a hint. It was a one person operation. Someone even tried to help and was FIRED from her duties. Luckily, she was a good sport about it.

Ellie tried to help. She couldn't keep her little nose out of all those delicious cookies!

Who can blame her?

As Briana was filling cookie orders, she remembered that someone from Mike's work had ordered THIRTEEN boxes of cookies!

It was truly amazing.

Briana may have to get a job at the cookie distribution center. She's definitely found her calling.

Also, it is snowing outside.

And I have nothing to make for dinner. Solution? Girl Scout cookies for dinner! Guess how we are feeling about that?

Camera Case

It took me two days and three cuts of fabric, but I finished my camera case today! I love how it turned out.

I got the pattern from this blog and then I just added the fleece flower to the front.

And, as an added bonus, my ipod fits in there too!

Happy President's Day!

In honor of President's Day, the girls got the day off of school today. We enjoyed the luxury of being able to stay up late on a Sunday night, and the girls were getting along fabulously.

Ellie relaxed all night too.

I woke up this morning to the sound of giggling. I came down and the girls were playing on the computers (no surprise there!). I came into the kitchen to find this:

"What is going on with the barbies?" I asked the girls.

"They're laying out, Mom." they replied. I should have known.

After the barbies finished laying out and we had lunch, Briana whipped this masterpiece together.

Her very first pillowcase! She did all the sewing on her own, and it turned out fantastic! She's already planning on sleeping on it tonight.

This afternoon, the girls and I got creative and made some houses out of toothpicks and marshmallows.

I made a giant hotel that is currently on the verge of collapse. Briana made her dream house, complete with a pool. Sydney was true to character, and made a minature house for herself.

She had to break all the toothpicks in half to make hers smaller than everyone elses. I wonder if it's the perfect size for a smurf?