I love being an Aunt…

When you are an aunt and you babysit once a week for free you get certain liberties…
They aren’t great and huge but they are things like
“I hear the ice cream man let’s go get something before dinner”
OR
“Ohhhh Alicia you want taquitos, and Stefy you want BBQ chicken, and Danielle you want meataballs and Tyler you want cheese? Okay! We can do that!”
OR
“If we don’t look at the clock it’s not 8:00 yet girlies and we can paint our nails”
Or any # of other silly little things that moms can’t do because they need to grow up good responsible humans – I only have to be the cool aunt, and that is a great thing.

Ummm yes all of things happened last night as I watched the kids, ummm yes I really did let Tyler eat a Sponge Bob ice cream before “dinner” and then let him eat a bowl full of shredded cheese for dinner.
Ummmm yeah I did try to get Stefy out of trouble for getting another detention (one away from either being kept back or put in summer school for behavior)
Well yeah I did let a 7 year old stay up until 9:00 on a school night (but she was being good…)

BUT on a side note (and only because I am super excited about this) Today is Corey’s 31st birthday and the girls and I wanted to make him cupcakes and AGAIN there were no eggs (what does Christy have against eggs) so I did a quick websearch and came up with this (after looking up “cake mix low fat recipe”) http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/1832.html
BUT we didn’t have any diet coke so I thought of the MOST brilliant idea I have ever come up with… They had Sunkist and we had our choice chocolate or vanilla cake mix… Isn’t the “in” flavor right now chocolate and orange (bet you can see where this is going)
I followed the directions then let each girl pour batter into 4 cupcakes and let me tell you they rose beautifully and the girls (who ate one) said it was AMAZINGLY delicious and per the birthday boy (who had one for breakfast today) they are wonderful… So here is a great in a pinch low fat recipe.

Chocolate orange cake
1 Betty Crocker Devil’s Food cake
1 ½ cups Sunkist
½ cup chocolate chips
Vanilla and Chocolate frosting

Mix cake and Sunkist until combined. Add in chocolate chips and stir briefly. Portion into 12 cupcake tins lined with pretty cupcake liners bake @ 350 for 20 minutes (probably would have been less if I had pre-heated the oven) allow to cool and frost. ENJOY.

And lastly a picture of Tyler AFTER I let his sisters use him as a dolly…


Okay I lied and lastly check out my watermelon


Yup I love the new Centro - best phone ever!

A weekend away

A weekend with TYler (who now says I am T Y because he knows that is the beginning of his name)

The cold air and rain required lots of indoor activities...

We came up with a 2 hour train ride in first class (more comfy seats and more importantly for me heat)



Tyler spent the entire ride in awwwww he couldn't get over the fact that HE was actually on the train and he sang the soul train song most of the way



The view



Another view shot



Tyler and Daddy on the phone calling Mommy (who was standing next to me)



Tyler and Uncle in the pool... Jim was in his little heaven after Tyler and I left and he got in a good hour of laps! (I think I am not supposed to add the part where he can't lift his arms today)

Flowers flowers everywhere

Here's a few pictures
2 of the baby plants I have grown from seed - forget me nots and tomatoes!
And my Lani turned 50 last weekend and gave me her flowers (how sweet) I haven't finished her gift yet though because I am working on making the beads from polymer clay... I'll get there! And of course I can't help but put in a couple pictures of mom. Look at the cute little stuffie she was sent by one of my swapping friends :-)
And Tyler loved (not) being read to on Easter
And I thought you all mike like to see Punkin again