The Happy Day Project

It Is 6.40am and talking about the Happy Day Project , Alicia is challenging us fellow readers with, does not come easy at this time of the day. But the more I wake up (and the increase of the caffeine level in my blood stream does wonders too) the happier I am about playing race cars with my early riser in the weee hours of the day, thinking about how to put this challenge in words.

Sarge crashed really bad and needed a band aid

Remember yesterdays coffee and that 2 page to-do-list I was talking about???? Well naturally this list was designed to fail: No way I could get it all done . The laundry pile is still a masterpiece on the couch and the only ironing that happened to it, was was done by the kiddos sitting/jumping on top of it.

Nevertheless, I knew I could not do it all; instead I opted to add a little more to the grand mess by making a quiche( which was in the end not very appreciated by my little people(Had to make mac and cheese at 5.45am this morning for Stella to send to school for lunch; SAD isn't it?!) and baked a giant sheet of almond cake( not for us!!!!!)

Now I am finally getting to the point( Yes I like to use a lot of words, I guess):

I have the sweetest neighbor. She is always happy, seems never stressed and, oh I forgot to mention, she has 6 kids. Oh and she homeschools them!!!!!! I love my kiddos and all but I would go stir crazy if I would be in her shoes..... Even though she always seems to have the most positive view of things, I know she is a mama just like me and would appreciate a little sweet surprise!
So off I went to bring a huge plate of cake to her house. Was she surprised?YES .Was she happy? DOUBLE YES. Did she like it? She send me a text late last night, telling me that she had three pieces and that she is pretending it is low calories ;) So I would say it is safe to call the success a TRIPLE YES
It felt so good to do something nice for this sweet lady!

Hot and bubbly

Since this cake is really delicious and special to me( a good friend made it for me for our farewell party, when we left Germany over 2 years ago), I thought I would share it here:
It is a German recipe,which means it measures in the metric system and you need a scale( or go online and convert it).
Give it a try, it does not take long at all and is an absolute crowd pleaser and your house will smell heavenly!

Almond sheet cake:
Preheat oven to 350*F

Ingredients:
200g sugar
200g flour
200ml whipping cream
1tsp baking soda
1tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs

mix and spread on a square cookie sheet( see pic above)
bake for ten minutes

Ingredients for topping:
175g( 1 1/2 sticks) butter
200g sugar
2 tbs milk
200g sliced almonds

melt butter, add the other ingredients mix and heat for 3-4 minutes on stove

spread evenly on the previously baked base and bake for 10 more minutes.
That's all the magic

Virtual coffee-animal edition

Happy Tuesday everyone!
This is a very busy Tuesday and I know this because my to-do list just hit the second page. Checked off a couple things this morning even before I dropped off Lucien at preschool, but still it is looooong.
Anyway, I am here to ask how your weekend was, to sip on my coffee and to chat with my friends while things like dishwasher, vacuum, paperwork, shopping,dinner and so on, have to wait on the back burner
What an eventful week and weekend it was over here!

Spring started like this around here: we had a tornado touchdown just 3 miles away from our house ! Several houses were destroyed and trees uprooted but nobody got physically injured. It was pretty scary and I was ready to grab my little man and hop in the tub for shelter!
That very same day marked our first lost tooth and a little girl was over the moon about it.

Also that day, Rosie, our wild puppy, got spayed!Wow what kind of news, you are thinking. Ha, I am only mentioning this because the vet requested for her to be inside for a couple of days to recover! Well, ever since then, she thinks she has turned into an inside dog, owns the couch and will eventually make her way into our bed. Last night was her first attempt as I was reading the Hunger Games( almost finished!!!) I found myself smashed under a sixty pound hairy something, happily licking my face( gross).... I don't mind cuddling with her on the couch but the bed is a no go !

The rain from earlier this week dried quickly and turned into sunshine and a beautiful blue sky, perfect for all our weekend adventures

I am drinking my coffee out of this lovely mug ,

which is the 2010 edition of the Angel Sale mug.
Just finished painting the mugs for 2012 and they turned out lovely( love the color of the new mugs)
What a perfect fit as I am bout to tell you what Saturday held for us.

LOPA hosts a Donor Memorial Picnic every year for families with a hero in heaven. I wrote about it last year and it is always so wonderful and encouraging to see how the families and friends celebrate the lives of loved ones, that left them way too early.
It was the second year that the picnic was held at the Global Wildlife Center and the kids were so excited to go! Stella had been on a fieldtrip just the day before to the exact same place and she was invited to a birthday party on that Saturday! So I gave her the option to choose. She replied to me in her smarty pants voice: Mama, what do you think is more important???? To celebrate with the families of the dead people or to go to a birthday party ????( Consider me speechless at this point) Off course I am going to the picnic! All I could do is giving her a big hug! I was so proud of her, even though we have to work on our wording at certain occasions;)

Here is a wagon full of pink people,celebrating Alexis' life, on our tour through the wildlife center

Ready to feed the animals

Clear blue skies....

and the beauty of nature!

We even got to take a family pic, yay!!!
On our way home, me and Ricky were talking and we both agreed , there must have been close to 1000 people there, if not more. LOPA did a wonderful job.

They had excellent food, tons of activities for young and old,the animal tours and lots and lots of information about organ donation! We always enjoy coming to the picnic!
Wow this post is getting long and I am only on Saturday.

Beautiful Saturday afternoons

What about boat riding in the swamp, a playdate with friends Sunday, a field trip Monday????Well I guess a couple of pretty pics will do for all that.

Yep it is this warm around here!!!

Remember that long list I was talking about? I have to go and scratch some things off of it.

This beauty grows in my back yard, this makes me happy


Happy Tuesday
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